Don Drissel at home in Ladysmith, B.C., on Feb. 7.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
Growing up, Don Drissell learned of his father’s time in the Second World War in bits and pieces.
He knew Sergeant William Richard Drissell was one of the approximately 14,000 Canadian soldiers who had fought in the Battle of Normandy. And he understood that at some point his father had been sent home because he was wounded – only to return to the war.
But “it was a hard topic to discuss, so I didn’t want to push him for specifics,” Mr. Drissell said.
Open this photo in gallery:Don Drissell is photographed with his father’s medals, beret, newspaper clippings and telegrams from his service in the Second World War on Feb. 7.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
story from his home in Ladysmith, B.C. The 71-year-old has also been preserving wartime mementos – his father’s beret, medals and ribbons – along with newspaper clippings from the 1940s (passed down by his late aunt) that mention his father.
He plans to bring the heirlooms to the Netherlands this spring, where he will travel alongside an expected 140 other descendants of Canadian veterans. The trip is to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Holland’s liberation from the Nazis on May 5, 1945, in which Canadian forces played a major role.
Taking place over two weeks, from late April to early May, the tour will include visits to cities and villages in the Netherlands and Germany where Canadian soldiers fought in offensives such as the Battle of the Scheldt and Operation Veritable – one of the heaviest battles in the war – which saw Allied troops seize part of the left bank of the Rhine River.
In Our Fathers’ Footsteps. The group is still recruiting participants.
The itinerary was designed to enable descendants of Second World War veterans gain a deeper understanding of their relatives’ war experience. Participants will walk in “platoons” through the same fields, woods and towns as their fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers, and also engage in local festivities and meet with Princess Margriet of the Netherlands.
It will be the second In Our Fathers’ Footsteps trip. In 2022, Ms. Hunter – whose own father fought in Holland – led a group of nearly 100 Canadians to the Netherlands to commemorate Liberation Day’s 75th anniversary (the trip was postponed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Her father, Casey Corbett, was part of the 48th Highlanders, a regiment that landed on the shores of Sicily, fought its way up the Italian peninsula and eventually liberated the Dutch city of Apeldoorn on April 17, 1945.
Open this photo in gallery:Cathi Corbett, a resident of Kingston, Ont., was one of the descendents that joined IOFF in 2022. Her father, Casey Corbett, was part of the 48th Highlanders, a Regiment that landed on the shores of Sicily and fought its way up the Italian peninsula to Holland. The Regiment played a key role in liberating the country during the war and captured Apeldoorn, Netherlands, on April 17, 1945.James Paddle-Grant/The Globe and Mail
At the front of the procession was the Canadian Remembrance Torch, designed by engineering students from McMaster University in Hamilton to be a “national symbol of gratitude for peace and freedom.”
Ms. Hunter said one of the most striking parts of the pilgrimage was learning how grateful the Dutch are for Canada’s contributions to liberation. Every Christmas Eve, for example, children place candles at the graves of the Holten Canadian War Cemetery a little north Almen, the final resting place of 1,355 Canadian soldiers, including the ones originally buried at Het Elger.
When Dutch locals meet Canadian tour participants, “they’re so touched to know that they’ve met someone whose parent helped liberate their country,” she said.
with exciting news: Another piece of his father’s story had been uncovered. Renovators working at the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damianus in the Dutch village of Groesbeek had discovered a pencil inscription on a ceiling beam that read: “Sergeant W.R. Drissell, Corporal A. Langford, The Toronto Scottish Regiment M.G. (Machine Gun), December 14, 1944.″
Mr. Drissell was blown away. “I don’t know what he was doing there,” he said. “I can only surmise that he was hiding there or using it as a lookout to watch German activity in the town.”
Through further correspondence, he was able to learn that his father had been wounded three times during the war: in the Dieppe raid (1942), in Normandy (1944) and in Holland (1945).
When he travels to the Netherlands in May, Mr. Drissell plans to visit the church in Groesbeek. And his father’s beret, medals and ribbons will be with him as he looks up at the decades-old signature.
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