MOOSE JAW — Karen Hunter wanted to honour her father’s Second World War efforts by visiting the European battlefields where he fought, before realizing that other veterans’ descendants should also experience such a trip.
The woman’s father, Lt. Gilbert Hunter, enlisted when he was 22 and fought in Italy from 1943 to late 1944, before his unit — Conn Smyth’s 30th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, aka, “The Sportsmen’s Battery” — joined the First Canadian Division to liberate the Netherlands in early 1945.
The veteran never spoke about his experiences, with the only wartime memorabilia at home being a framed black-and-white photo of the AA Battery, a wooden clog with a handwritten thank-you note, Christmas cards from Dutch people, and war medals.
However, things changed after Hunter attended the 40th anniversary celebrations in 1985, while he and his wife began a nearly 40-year relationship with their Dutch host family. The couple returned for the 50th anniversary in 1995, which is when the soldier began discussing his wartime activities.
In 1999, on his 80th birthday, Gilbert presented Karen with his memoir, “The War Years,” which inspired her to plan a trip to the Netherlands — with help from that Dutch family — for the 75th anniversary in 2020.
“It was my dream,” the Guelph, Ont., woman told MooseJawToday.com, noting her father died in 2009 at age 89.
Hunter travelled to Holland to research her pilgrimage, before realizing other families also needed to experience the Dutch gratitude and their relatives’ sacrifices.
Returning home, Hunter emailed veterans’ families, wondering if they wanted to join her for the 75th anniversary commemoration. She didn’t think anyone would be interested, but hundreds of people responded saying they wanted to come.
This prompted her to start the not-for-profit In Our Fathers’ Footsteps (IOFF) to enable sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren of those who served — and perhaps died — in the Netherlands to understand their relatives’ wartime activities better.
This immersive event would see participants walking the paths that Canadian troops took through fields, forests and villages while experiencing ceremonies and festivities in communities and meeting Dutch people.
More than 150 Canadians registered for that May 2020 trip, but the coronavirus pandemic struck, forcing Hunter to postpone it to September 2022.
“It was meant to be a one and only event,” she said. “But the reaction and response of the Canadian participants and the army of Dutch volunteers was so overwhelmingly positive that the Dutch reached out in late 2023 and said we should do it again because it brings joy to Canadians.”
So, Hunter scheduled a second — and final — remembrance pilgrimage for this year’s 80th anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation and end of the Second World War. That trip takes place from April 27 to May 8, with 130 Canadians attending, making IOFF one of the largest Canadian contingents.
“We have lots of amazing events planned,” she said.
One Second World War veteran will travel with the group: retired Major-Gen. Richard Rohmer, 101. He will ride in the lead jeep during a “huge” United Pipers for Peace parade in Apeldoorn, featuring hundreds of pipers from around the world.
The group will visit “the big 3” Canadian war cemeteries — Holten, Groesbeek and Bergen op Zoom — and will walk the “White Ribbon Mile” to honour Canadian engineers who conducted “an incredible” nighttime rescue of Allied troops after a failed operation in September 1944.
“… we’ll be the first Canadian group to walk the White Ribbon Mile,” Hunter remarked.
The trip is “beyond” exciting for Hunter, since it gives her purpose and “a wonderful feeling” to enable veterans’ descendants to walk these hallowed locations. She has encouraged participants to research their relatives to make the trip more meaningful.
Her father’s memoir made her first trip special, since it allowed her to visit the grave of her father’s friend.
In his memoir, Gilbert recalled enlisting with Harry Bockner in Toronto, training together, and becoming like brothers. They were separated when they shipped overseas but reconnected in Italy.
The two were shipped to the Netherlands in early 1945. It was near the end of the war when Canadian HQ informed Gilbert that Harry had been killed in battle. So, the soldier raced to his friend’s location and helped bury him.
While visiting his grave, Karen learned that Bockner — which Veterans Affairs Canada misspelled online as Bochner — was born in Guelph, which she thought was quite the coincidence. She later convinced the city to add his name to the cenotaph, which occurred just before Remembrance Day.
Visit www.inourfathersfootsteps.com for more information.
