03x06 - Savage Spring

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: April 1945

when a Canadian private

enters a German occupied city

in the Netherlands alone

he tries to convince n*zi forces

they are surrounded by creating mayhem.

(explosions)

If he can locate the Dutch Resistance,

he hopes to protect civilian lives

in the final days of the w*r.

On June 6th, 1944,

Allied forces

finally land troops in Normandy

to open the Western Front.

SOLDIER: Ten-hut. Fire!

NARRATOR: But n*zi fanatics and die-hards

continue to fight ferociously

for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

They still need to win the w*r.

June 24th, 1944.

Normandy, France.

Canadian private Léo Major

and three other soldiers

of Le Régiment de la Chaudière

move silently

through the French countryside.

Their patrol scouts the enemy lines

near an airfield

close to the city of Caen.

As Major and fellow private Larry Caissy

survey the approach to Carpiquet

they encounter a group of German soldiers.

The Canadians draw first.

Major shoots

three of the soldiers in succession

while Caissy hits the remaining two.

(Jean Belzil speaking French)

JEAN BELZIL (translation):

One of the Germans is not dead.

Despite his injuries,

he takes a grenade

and throws it towards Léo Major.

NARRATOR: The Chaudière Regiment

fought its way ashore

on D-Day at Juno Beach

in the British army sector.

It is one of four

main French language regiments

in the Canadian army.

DAVID BORYS:

Generally, French Canadian soldiers

are very well accepted

within the English-speaking Canadian Army.

They are brave soldiers,

their officers are excellent,

the regiments fight bravely

in every action.

NARRATOR: For day-to-day operations,

the regiments function

internally in French.

BORYS: The issue comes down to the fact

that the Canadian Army

is an English-speaking institution,

and so are its allies.

So beyond the four regiments,

these soldiers need to speak English

if they're gonna be promoted

to any high rank.

So if you're just a French speaker,

there's a cap on how far up the ranks

you can possibly rise.

NARRATOR: In the weeks since D-Day,

the Canadians and the British struggle

to capture the stoutly held city of Caen,

a key transportation hub

that is critical to the Allied advance

and thwarting German reinforcements.

BORYS: Just short of its main objectives

at the Carpiquet airfield,

they're told to dig in

and prepare for

a massive German counterattack

that the Allied leadership

knew was coming.

NARRATOR: Private Léo Major

emerges as an expert scout and sn*per

during their advance.

He and the other Chaudières

reconnoiter the airfield near Carpiquet

on June 24th

when the German grenade explodes.

The blast knocks

over two of the Canadians

and throws burning debris

into Major's face.

- (screaming)

- (indistinct chatter)

(speaking French)

BELZIL: The military trains

for these types of incidents.

The first instinct they have

is to tell their comrades to take cover,

to be careful,

because an exploding grenade is like

getting a sledgehammer to the head.

(screams)

PRIVATE LÉO MAJOR: Okay.

On y vas. On y vas.

(speaking French)

NARRATOR: The other scouts lead Major

back to an aid post for medical care.

(Private Major groaning sharply)

At the hospital,

the doctors work to save Major's vision,

but the damage is extensive.

BELZIL: The doctors do what they can.

They clean his wounds,

put compresses on his eyes,

and after an examination,

they determine that he's lost

about 80% of the sight in his left eye,

but, thankfully, his right eye is saved.

NARRATOR: The doctor's assessment

is unequivocal,

Léo Major's w*r is over.

They will send him back to England,

so he can return home to Canada.

BELZIL: Doctors are officers,

he doesn't have a choice.

He has to listen to them.

NARRATOR: But around two months later,

Major suddenly reappears

with his regiment,

which has advanced further into France.

(inaudible dialogue)

DIRK STAAT: Léo Major was a soldier,

first and foremost.

I don't know that he was

very bothered by it

because he still had

the use of his good eye.

And he said, he was a sn*per

at that time, he said,

"I only need one good eye

to perform my business, to do my job."

NARRATOR: Despite his disability,

his officers decide he can stay.

BELZIL: There is no hiding it.

They have lost a lot of soldiers.

They need men like him.

(inaudible dialogue)

We shouldn't forget that Léo

is one of the best sn*pers

of the Canadian Army.

They need him.

NARRATOR: By the end of October,

the Chaudière Regiment

has advanced from France,

through Belgium,

and into the southern edge of Holland.

They prepare to capture Oostburg,

a Dutch town still occupied

by German forces,

which must be cleared

to secure access to the port of Antwerp.

Private Léo Major meets

with his commanding officer,

Major Gustave Taschereau.

BELZIL: Léo Major once said

that the only officer in the Canadian Army

who respected him was Taschereau.

It should be said that Léo

had a small problem with authority.

A relationship of trust

developed between the two men,

which allowed him to stay

in the Régiment de la Chaudière.

NARRATOR: In the fighting near Oostburg,

they have lost contact

with a platoon of soldiers.

According to the account,

Taschereau tells Major

to find the 50 zombies."

STAAT: At first, I doubted the story

because as we cannot find anything

in the, in the w*r diaries.

But then, when we dug deeper,

we found that it might have been

a patrol on 22nd of October.

Because everything he describes,

being near a destroyed bridge,

being near a body of water,

that all fits in that patrol

on the 22nd of October.

NARRATOR: Major moves silently

through the streets,

in search of the lost men.

He climbs

to the second floor of a building,

hoping the height will help him

locate his fellow Canadians.

From this vantage point,

he sees a group of Germans

sleeping in slit trenches below,

guarded only by sentries.

In a flash, Léo Major makes a decision.

BORYS: If a scout was to see

a large body of enemy troops,

generally speaking, that scout

needs to return to headquarters

and inform their commanding officer.

In this case,

it seems like Major was willing

to take matters into his own hands.

NARRATOR: Major inches toward

one of the Germans on guard duty.

Before the sentry can make a sound,

the Canadian private makes him a prisoner.

Major then uses his c*ptive to lure in,

and then capture the second sentry.

With both guards disarmed,

Major demands they take him

to their commander.

The small troop moves in

on the German officer,

who surrenders under the barrel

of Major's Sten g*n.

BELZIL: It should be said

that they were soldiers

from the regular German Army,

and not the SS.

NARRATOR: It is at this point

that Major moves to capture the lot.

He figures if he controls the head,

the rest of the body will follow.

So he has the officer rouse his men

and order them to surrender.

(speaking German)

It seems to work.

The German soldiers remain motionless,

until one ignores the order

and goes for his g*n.

GERMAN COMMANDER: Nein!

NARRATOR: October 1944,

near Oostburg in the Netherlands.

Canadian Private Léo Major

uses a captured German officer

to force his men to surrender.

Major's plan appears to work

until one enemy soldier

reaches for his g*n.

GERMAN COMMANDER: Nein!

BELZIL: Major has the qualities

to be one of the best shooters

in the Canadian Army.

He kills the German without hesitation.

PRIVATE MAJOR: Hände hoch!

BELZIL: It sends a clear message

to the others.

NARRATOR: When he shouts

and gestures at the rest,

they raise their hands

over their heads and move out.

PRIVATE MAJOR: Go!

STAAT: When you check out

very specifically

the circumstances of this action,

it all falls into place.

He was there, he made prisoners,

uh, but not on his own,

because it was a patrol together

with the Queen's Own r*fles

and-and his other buddies

from the Regiment de la Chaudière,

but he made

a couple of prisoners that day,

and he behaved himself

quite well, I think.

NARRATOR: With the bitter fighting,

the German line collapses,

and the Canadians push further

into the Netherlands.

The Dutch people are grateful,

but many are suffering.

STAAT: The Netherlands are occupied

from May 1940,

but from 1942 onwards

when the Germans start losing,

life became bad,

and especially in the latter part,

like '44 and '45,

life was really bad

in the western part of the Netherlands.

There was no food.

There was a lot of terror

from the German occupation.

People lived in fear and in hunger.

NARRATOR: As Allied soldiers,

the Canadians are joyously welcomed

by the local population.

STAAT: The Canadian soldiers

are liberators.

So as a rule, I think,

the Dutch are elated to see them,

quite happy, because they bring freedom.

They chase away the Germans

and they bring liberation with them.

NARRATOR: In November,

Private Léo Major walks point

as he and his regiment march toward

the Dutch city of Nijmegen,

liberated during Operation Market Garden

by American forces.

STAAT: Canadian boys were very popular

because they fought for our freedom,

but also they brought riches with them.

They had nylon stockings,

they had chocolate, they had cigarettes.

So, I think they would be

popular guys to billet in your house.

NARRATOR: It is at this time

that Léo Major meets a Dutch nurse

called Antoinette Sliepenbeek.

STAAT: She was from a Catholic family,

and her father was

a retired Dutch army officer.

So these two things combined, maybe,

being in a military family,

and also a Catholic family,

as Léo also came from

a Catholic background,

maybe that's how they met.

But we're not sure.

NARRATOR: The Canadians spend the winter

in the Netherlands holding the line,

but to end the w*r, the Allies

must keep moving towards Berlin.

On February 26th, 1945

all four companies

of the Chaudière Regiment

commence a classic set piece action

towards a village called Hollen.

The Canadians and the British

are now east of the Maas, or Meuse River,

and now fight within

the old German border.

It is a region known as the Rhineland.

PETER LIEB: The Germans consider

the Rhineland as a kind of buffer zone.

The Rhine is a big natural barrier

but they want to slow down

the Allied advance as much as possible

already to the west side of the Rhine,

and so that the Germans

can evacuate as many divisions as possible

to the east bank of the Rhine.

NARRATOR: This changes

the nature of the battle.

(g*nf*re)

LIEB: For years, the Germans

have fought on foreign soil,

now, they are fighting on German soil.

They understand they are

fighting now for their families

and for their home.

NARRATOR: As D Company

of the Chaudière Regiment

passes through B Company,

they advance to within 100 yards

of another German village.

When the heavy

Allied a*tillery barrage lifts,

enemy soldiers emerge

from behind a building

with what appear to be white flags.

As D Company moves

to accept their surrender

a German machine g*n nest opens up,

then enemy tanks appear

from behind a building and also attack.

D Company falls back

and tries to dig in

but they become pinned down

by German mortar fire.

The enemy counterattack

forces D Company to retreat.

B Company returns

to action later that evening

to secure the same German village

which thwarted D Company

earlier in the day.

(expl*si*n)

SOLDIER: Hände hoch! Hände hoch!

NARRATOR: With the use of grenades

and their Sten g*ns,

the Chaudières inch ahead

and clear the remaining objectives

to capture the village of Hollen.

In the final action,

twenty-five more German prisoners

of w*r are rounded up.

SOLDIER: Hands up! Schnell.

NARRATOR: The Chaudières' success

allows other regiments

to continue their attack.

By the end of Operation Blockbuster,

the Canadians and other Allied forces

will move nearly 20 miles into Germany

but February 26th alone,

proves costly all along the Allied line.

BORYS: The first day

of Operation Blockbuster

is one of the deadliest days

of the entire w*r for the Canadian Army.

(expl*si*n)

This is as deadly as any of

the fighting back in Normandy,

and this is remarkable

considering how little people know

about this important battle.

NARRATOR: The next day, Private Léo Major

and members

of the Régiment de la Chaudière

work with the regimental padre,

Joseph Archibald Dalcourt.

BORYS: One of the most important roles

for chaplains is dealing with death,

performing the last rites,

ensuring that bodies

are treated with dignity.

This is really important

for soldiers' morale,

knowing that they're gonna be

treated well if they die.

NARRATOR: Major and the others

collect the bodies

of Canadian and German soldiers

k*lled in the battle

and load them for transport.

BELZIL: Léo gets in the back

of the carrier among the corpses.

He grabs a cigarette and lights it.

He tries to mask the stench of the bodies.

NARRATOR: But as the vehicle pulls away,

there is a massive expl*si*n.

February 27th, 1945.

After fighting inside the German border

near the village of Hollen,

Canadian Private Léo Major

of the Régiment de la Chaudière

is thrown from his vehicle

after it hits a mine.

He lands on the road unconscious.

When he comes to,

a doctor treats his injuries.

He has fractured both ankles,

several ribs

and three vertebrae in his back.

Major asks about the others.

BELZIL: The Bren carrier

hits a German anti-tank mine.

The expl*si*n's so powerful

that it instantly kills the driver

and the regimental padre, Father Dalcourt.

NARRATOR: Major is lucky to be alive.

BELZIL: Once again, the doctor tells him

that his w*r is over,

that he's going to go home.

Léo refuses.

He wants to continue fighting.

(groans weakly)

NARRATOR: About a week later,

Major discovers that the doctors believe

he is strong enough

for transport to England.

Determined to return to his regiment,

he steals an overcoat

to conceal his bulky casts

and sneaks away.

Léo Major hitches a ride to Nijmegen.

BORYS: Leaving the hospital

without permission

is the same as deserting your unit.

You're AWOL, away without leave,

and this means that you can

be found guilty of desertion

in front of a courts martial.

NARRATOR: But Major is committed

to staying in Europe

and continuing the fight.

He does not want to be sent home.

He approaches the door

of a Dutch house and knocks.

Major finds his way back

to the Dutch nurse,

Antoinette Sliepenbeek,

he had met earlier.

Her family permits him to stay,

and Major recovers from his injuries

under Antoinette's care.

STAAT: I think that Léo gets

tuned into Dutch society

much more than

a soldier or military person

that has never been billeted

with any civilians ever.

So, he stays there

for a longer period of time,

and I think that's, this-this forms him.

(inaudible dialogue)

BELZIL: Shortly after arriving

at Antoinette's,

he asks her father for a saw.

He takes it and cuts off his casts.

Léo really is a tough guy.

(inaudible dialogue)

NARRATOR: Within a month, Léo Major

recovers enough to rejoin his regiment.

(inaudible dialogue)

STAAT: The legend says that when he, uh,

says goodbye to Antoinette,

he says, "I'm gonna liberate

a city for you, especially for you."

So, uh, I think they had

really warm bonds.

NARRATOR: Once again, the private manages

to talk himself out of big trouble.

(inaudible dialogue)

STAAT: I think he went

to his commander and said,

"Well, I know this family, I stayed

with them before. Can I recuperate there?"

I think that's plausible.

NARRATOR: Nijmegen, the base

where the Canadians

had spent much of the winter,

had fallen to the Allies in September 1944

during Operation Market Garden.

Supply routes from the south

remain open to move munitions,

and to provide food and medical supplies

to Allied soldiers

and the liberated population

of the Netherlands.

But for the parts of Holland

that remain under n*zi occupation,

the situation is dire.

STAAT: There was a railway strike

that the Germans had,

a kind of vengeance feeling

since Market Garden,

so they wouldn't let through too much fuel

and food into the west,

which is the most populated area

of the Netherlands.

And it was a harsh winter, '44, '45,

so there was road transport,

and especially river transport

was very difficult.

So, this all combined

led to, well, this situation,

that there were no foodstuffs

coming into the large cities,

like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the Hague,

and people started starving.

So, they call it the "Hunger Winter,"

the Hungerwinter in Dutch.

NARRATOR: Experts estimate

that many survived

on fewer than 500 calories per day.

About 20,000 people died

during the Hunger Winter.

Part of the plan to restore

secure supply lines

includes liberating the city of Zutphen.

Allied planners hope that the Germans,

sensing defeat, will withdraw.

(rapid g*nf*re)

However, it becomes immediately clear

to the Canadian forces

that the Germans

have not abandoned Zutphen.

(g*nf*re continues)

As they move in,

they encounter resistance

from machine g*n nests

anti-tank weapons

and sn*pers.

(g*nsh*t)

They have to clear the city

block by block, house by house.

Private Léo Major decides

he needs a better vantage point

and enters a nearby structure.

BELZIL: Once inside the building,

Léo Major finds four German soldiers

on whom he opens fire.

Then he goes upstairs

where two other German soldiers are.

He kills them immediately.

NARRATOR: With the house secure,

Major moves to the attic

to pinpoint the enemy shooters

who target the Canadian soldiers

in the streets.

Careful not to attract enemy attention,

he watches for any sign of movement

in nearby windows.

When he spots a muzzle flash,

he takes aim and fires.

(g*nsh*t)

April 1945.

In the Dutch city of Zutphen,

n*zi sn*pers keep Canadian troops

pinned down in the streets

while German forces

continue to occupy the city.

The Canadians report

that these soldiers are very young,

but also, unyielding.

LIEB: That late in the w*r,

some of the most fanatical fighters

are Hitler Youth boys.

Boys that don't know anything

else than the Third Reich,

boys that had been indoctrinated

for years with n*zi ideology.

For them, the only reason to live

is for the Führer and the Reich.

NARRATOR: Canadian sn*pers

like Private Léo Major

attempt to locate and eliminate

the German sharpshooters.

BORYS: The battle for Zutphen

becomes surprisingly long,

it takes about four days

of grueling street fighting

where the Canadians

have to commit an entire division

to clear the town of their enemy.

NARRATOR: The Canadians finally complete

the liberation of Zutphen

on the 8th of April,

and the casualties are high.

BORYS: The Canadians are moving quickly

to liberate the Netherlands

because the Dutch people are starving.

The Canadians are trying to bring them

desperately needed food,

but at the same time they have to balance

the lives of Canadian soldiers.

NARRATOR: Especially now that everyone

senses the w*r is coming to an end.

STAAT: But I think it's good to remember

that the Canadian Forces

and the Allied Forces were not there

to relieve the suffering

of the Dutch people,

they were there to k*ll Germans.

They were there to occupy

Germany and k*ll Nazism.

NARRATOR: On April 13th,

the Régiment de la Chaudière

approaches the German-held city of Zwolle,

a key transportation center

in the north of the Netherlands.

Gustave Taschereau must strike a balance,

liberate the city, but minimize

losses to the regiment.

STAAT: Taschereau said to himself,

remember this is also a young guy,

very responsible job,

he was a lieutenant colonel,

commander of the regiment, he said,

"We won't have another Zutphen again.

I will have an a*tillery barrage

in the morning."

NARRATOR: The downside is that Zwolle is

the capital of the province of Overijssel

and home to 50,000 civilians.

An a*tillery attack will cost

Dutch lives and leave the city in ruins.

Taschereau wants to find a way to reduce

the humanitarian cost of this plan.

He decides to send in two scouts.

STAAT: That's a very humane thing to do,

I think, because Gustave said,

"Check out how many Germans

there are still, where they are.

"Are they dug in? Are they retreating?

"Make contact with the Dutch Resistance,

ask them what's happening,

and come back and report to me."

(inaudible dialogue)

NARRATOR: Taschereau asks for volunteers

to sneak into Zwolle,

but adds there might be little chance

of returning from the assignment.

Not surprisingly, no one volunteers.

Everyone knows

the w*r is coming to an end.

No one wants to die now,

but the possibility

to save Dutch lives remains.

BELZIL: Léo Major volunteers and his

great friend Willy Arseneault as well,

who has been a partner in his work

as a sn*per since the landings.

(inaudible dialogue)

NARRATOR: That night, Major and Arseneault

set out under the cover of darkness.

As the men approach the city,

they locate a German outpost.

They decide to sneak around behind it

to surprise the defenders.

After they open fire with Sten g*ns,

the friends overwhelm the position,

but two Germans escape

and run toward town.

NARRATOR: After the action,

Léo Major notices

that Willy Arseneault's hands

are visibly trembling.

(inaudible dialogue)

BELZIL: For a while, Léo has noticed

that Willy seems to be suffering

from battle fatigue.

He asks him to stay put but Willy refuses.

(inaudible dialogue)

So they both set out for Zwolle.

NARRATOR: The Canadians know

they will now need to move quickly,

because the fleeing Germans

will surely sound the alarm.

At a crossing,

Major moves ahead of Arseneault,

and crawls into a ditch

to monitor the road.

(grenade pack clangs)

But as Arseneault moves to join him,

he gives away his position.

(clangs)

BELZIL: Silence is obviously essential

during reconnaissance.

Unfortunately for Willy,

as he was crossing the road,

he snags his grenade pack

and it makes a little bit of noise.

(g*nf*re)

NARRATOR: Then g*nf*re

shatters the silence.

April 1945.

Canadian Private Léo Major

and Corporal Wilfrid Arseneault

approach the Dutch city of Zwolle

in the spring darkness

but a small noise alerts

the German defenders to their presence.

German g*nf*re erupts

and strikes Corporal Arseneault.

BELZIL: Major sees him fall.

He knows right away

that his best friend is dead.

He feels guilty about

not telling him to remain to the rear.

NARRATOR: Major pinpoints

the source of the attack

(rapid g*nf*re)

and kills two.

The others retreat quickly.

Major returns to Arseneault's body.

He retrieves Arseneault's g*n,

ammunition and grenades.

BELZIL: Léo is furious and sad

at the same time.

In spite of this,

he decides to go free Zwolle.

He gets up and heads toward the city

with determination.

NARRATOR: As Major

edges into town alone

he launches an attack

on another German outpost.

After he kills the occupants,

he gathers their weapons.

He hopes to have g*ns

to give to the Dutch Resistance,

if he can find them.

BORYS: In the middle of the night,

Léo Major is likely

only to encounter enemy troops.

Most of the 50,000 civilians in the city

are inside because of curfew,

so it's gonna be very difficult for him

to find Resistance members

out in the open streets.

NARRATOR: As he moves,

Major comes up with a strategy.

BELZIL: His plan is quite simple.

He wants to create chaos inside the city

so the Germans and the local population

think that the Canadian troops

are at the city's gates.

(explosions)

NARRATOR: As Major runs

by a row of deserted houses,

he throws grenades through the windows.

(expl*si*n)

(glass shatters)

(expl*si*n)

The explosions flush out German defenders,

whom he is able to surprise and disarm.

Then Major sends them, arms raised,

out of the city

back toward Canadian lines.

He believes his commander has positioned

Canadian soldiers on the outskirts of town

in case he needs assistance

with prisoners.

BELZIL: There is no way for Léo to know

if the German soldiers

will surrender to the Canadians.

But if he wants to create chaos

and free the city,

he has to relieve himself of these troops.

NARRATOR: The regimental w*r diary

does not record any POWs captured,

so the enemy soldiers

likely melted away into the darkness.

Through the night,

Léo Major needs safe places

to consult his map and regroup.

(knock on door)

He would later recall

knocking at the doors of Dutch houses.

STAAT: During occupation,

to get a knock on your door

in the middle of the night

was a thing to be dreaded.

I think the Germans did this.

The Sicherheitsdienst and the Gestapo

came to your place and dragged you out.

(knock on door)

(knocking continues)

NARRATOR: When there is no answer,

he forces his way in.

While the residents may have been alarmed

by a heavily armed soldier

wearing an eye patch,

he quickly puts them at ease.

STAAT: People would have instantly

recognized this as a Canadian soldier.

So that was a very smart thing of him,

because nowadays,

people speak many languages,

but in the 1940s,

most Dutch people

would speak only Dutch, maybe German,

but not many people

who spoke French or English.

So, just communicating

with a badge that says "Canada"

would have been hugely effective.

PRIVATE MAJOR: I'm sorry to startle you.

(inaudible dialogue)

NARRATOR: After staying

just a few minutes,

Major returns

to his patrol of the streets.

He has managed

to make his way through the city

without being caught for hours,

but at any moment,

any movement in the dark

could prove lethal.

April 14th, 1945

in the central Netherlands.

Canadian Private Léo Major

of the Régiment de la Chaudière,

prowls the streets of Zwolle.

He must make contact

with the Dutch Resistance

to inform them of an a*tillery barrage

scheduled for the morning.

His patrol started badly,

his best friend was k*lled

as they entered the city.

Now, alone in the darkness,

Major spots figures approaching.

BELZIL: Léo Major knows

that there's a curfew in the city.

He knows that the German troops

are normally the only ones to roam around,

but you never know.

When he encounters somebody,

he has to react quickly,

is it a friend or an enemy?

WOMAN (off screen): Hello? Bonjour.

NARRATOR: From the dark,

he hears a woman's voice

speak in English and in French.

PRIVATE MAJOR: Hello.

(speaking French)

NARRATOR: He has located

members of the Dutch Resistance.

PRIVATE MAJOR: Avec la Résistance?

NARRATOR: This is what he really needs.

As an outsider, he does not know the city.

He's been running around sh**ting,

and blowing things up

to create random chaos.

(indistinct chatter)

Maybe now he can get information

about the location of German troops

to target them more effectively.

Major coordinates

with the Resistance members

and arms them with the g*ns

he has collected.

(inaudible dialogue)

One of the targets

is the Gestapo Headquarters,

the center of n*zi control

in the city of Zwolle.

STAAT: The whole suppressive

and repressive character of the Nazis

was enforced by the Gestapo

and the Sicherheitsdienst,

but the Gestapo you could say

was more the enforcement agency,

and the Sicherheitsdienst more of

the information gathering part of it.

But the Gestapo was not

a very huge organization,

but very feared, with lots of informants,

and those were the people

who would knock on your door

in the middle of the night

and people would never see you again.

So they were very feared

and loathed in the Netherlands,

and I think rightly so.

(inaudible dialogue)

NARRATOR: During the night

- (glass shatters)

- (expl*si*n)

the building which houses

the security forces goes up in flames.

It is not clear who is responsible.

Some accounts have

Major setting the blaze,

or Dutch Resistance members

at his insistence.

It also fits another pattern.

STAAT: What is the best way

to destroy the evidence

of all the things you've done,

all the wrongdoings of your organization?

The best way is to burn it all down.

k*ll the prisoners, burn your office,

and that's what they did,

not only in Zwolle,

but in other cities

in the Netherlands as well.

NARRATOR: It is a clear sign

that the Germans

have lost control of Zwolle.

Léo Major must bring this news

to the commander

of the Chaudière Regiment,

Lieutenant Colonel Gustave Taschereau.

BELZIL: Léo Major is exhausted

but he knows he has to report

to Taschereau as soon as possible

before the Canadian Army attacks the city.

But he does not want to leave

without the body of his friend

Willy Arseneault.

He then asks

the Dutch Resistance for help.

NARRATOR:

Back at the regimental headquarters,

Taschereau prepares to launch

the a*tillery attack.

He does not know

the city is in Dutch hands.

(inaudible dialogue)

Arseneault and Major have not returned,

and he expects

that they were k*lled or captured.

Like any military leader

with an objective,

Taschereau will take it by force.

Then in the distance,

a vehicle approaches.

(vehicle approaching)

(inaudible dialogue)

Léo Major returns

with news of the German withdrawal

and Corporal Arseneault's body.

BORYS: The fact that the city

is now in Dutch hands,

not only means

that Canadian lives are spared

but so are Dutch civilians.

Fighting in an urban space

is deadly for both sides,

but it's also deadly for civilians.

NARRATOR: With this information,

the barrage is called off.

The Chaudières move into the city,

to root out any remaining Germans.

Zwolle is cleared without a shot fired.

Later that day, the residents join

the Canadians in the streets

for an impromptu parade.

Léo Major survives the w*r

and returns to Canada.

For his bravery in Zwolle, he is awarded

the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

The citation reads,

"His personal initiative,

his dauntless courage

"and entire disregard

for his personal safety

was an inspiration to all."

BORYS: The DCM is the second highest award

for gallantry in the Canadian Army,

and it is seldom awarded.

NARRATOR: Corporal Wilfrid Arseneault

would be posthumously awarded

the Dutch Bronze Lion

to honor his role in the capture of Zwolle

without a civilian casualty.

In 1950, when the Korean w*r breaks out,

Léo Major reenlists.

He earns a second

Distinguished Conduct Medal

for bravery in the face of death.

BORYS: The fact

that Léo Major was presented

with the DCM twice in his life

means that he was one hell of a soldier.

He was brave

almost to the point of reckless,

and he proves this time and again.

STAAT: I think Léo Major is a total hero.

I think he's a boss.

I think we, as Dutch,

owe him a great deal of gratitude

for liberating our country,

not alone, not only Zwolle,

but participating in this huge effort

to get rid of the fascists,

the Nazis that occupied our country.

NARRATOR: But Germany

has not yet surrendered,

and the Chaudière Regiment

returns to combat

to continue the liberation

of the Netherlands.

The w*r in Europe

will continue for another 24 days.