Operation Quick Anger Commemoration 2018
Following the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, when the British and U.S. forces failed to cross the Rhine, the north of the Netherlands remained under Nazi German occupation. In the spring of 1945, the Allies launched a series of military operations to liberate the rest of the country, including Operation Quick Anger and Operation Cannonshot, which were conducted in conjunction with each other. Operation Quick Anger was a military operation to seize Arnhem. To liberate this city, an enormous Allied military force was gathered at Westervoort on the east bank of the River IJssel. After the lost Battle of Arnhem in 1944, the residents of this small village had already been evacuated.
Operation Quick Anger began on 12 April 1945, when the Allies crossed the IJssel from the east. The first troops crossed the river in amphibious vehicles; within 11 hours the Allied forces had constructed a temporary bridge and thousands of military vehicles crossed the river. Arnhem was liberated on 14 April 1945 and the rest of the Netherlands within a month. On 5 May 1945, the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands had finally come to an end. The First Canadian Army played a crucial role in the liberation of the northern Netherlands. During the fighting for Arnhem in April 1945, British units recorded 62 soldiers killed and 134 wounded, although it remains unclear if these figures include Canadian casualties.
In April 2018, we took part in the commemoration of Operation Quick Anger. Second World War vehicles and their owners gathered at Huize Vredenburg in Westervoort for a memorial tour. In our own WWII Ford Jeep, alongside the other vehicles, we drove through the Liemers, a rural region east of the River IJssel. The tour ended at the Crossing to Liberation Monument on the east bank of the IJssel at Westervoort, where we attended the memorial and wreath-laying ceremony. Since 2011, the memorial ceremony has been held at the monument every year to commemorate Operation Quick Anger.
Every year, the Liberation Flame is also lit at the Crossing to Liberation Monument. Every year at midnight between 4 and 5 May, the Liberation Flame is lit in Wageningen, the city where the capitulation documents for all German forces in the Netherlands were signed in May 1945. This famous flame is a national symbol and is used to light torches which are taken by a team of relay runners from Wageningen, the City of Liberation, to more than 200 towns and villages in the Netherlands; Westervoort is one of them.
Operation Quick Anger Commemoration and Memorial Tour: In April 2018, we took part in the memorial tour and attended the memorial ceremony for this daring military operation. Several authentic WWII vehicles and their owners gathered at the converted 14th-century farmhouse Huize Vredenburg in the Dutch village of Westervoort, which served as the starting point of the memorial tour.
