George Hope, the last known Redcliff Second World War veteran, at his home. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Sharing his story

Last known Redcliff Second World War vet recalls hard-fought liberation of Holland

Nov 10, 2020 | 4:29 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The number of remaining Second World War veterans living in southeastern Alberta continues to dwindle with George Hope being the last known Redcliff soldier from that conflict still residing in the region.

And while his Canadian Scottish Regiment cap still fits, the mental toughness he required while fighting pitched battles during the liberation of Holland in 1944 and 1945 stands in stark contrast to Hope’s now peaceful life living on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River in Medicine Hat.

“I tell you, you get calloused,” the now 95-year-old Hope said of seeing the consequences of war. “If you don’t get calloused, I don’t think you can manage it. Scared? Yes but you had to put up with it and you got calloused.”

As a 17-year-old, Hope left Redcliff for Vancouver and enlisted in the air force.

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But eager to get into the fight and with his likelihood of doing so as an airman dwindling, Hope says he transferred to be an infantryman with the then Vancouver-based Scottish Regiment.

But that vigour was tempered by the reality of war soon after he landed in Holland, where Canadian soldiers shouldered much of the load in liberating the country occupied by Germany five years earlier.

“When I got over there and as we were moving along I see dead lying here and dead lying there,” said Hope. “That kind of changed things right there you know. And then we got into the actual fighting of it. We hadn’t been in very long and then I see a couple of our boys blown up by a mine and just pieces. That really scared me.”

Hope says it was common to be mobbed by residents of Dutch towns and villages as Canadians liberated them – people with very little but desperate to show their appreciation to the soldiers who freed them.

But it was the memory of seeing the Dutch children that stuck with Hope.

“The hard part was watching the little children hungry. And, of course, the grown-ups were too. The children caught your eye more you know,” said Hope.

Hope said as tough as the fighting was in Holland, when his regiment entered Germany, things got tougher with Nazi Youth and SS Stormtroopers fighting furiously in a way that reflected their indoctrination by Adolf Hitler and his call to defend the Fatherland.

But those experiences were often only shared among veterans themselves for years after the war.

“And then the legion, they said this isn’t right. We should speak to the people,” said Hope, who dedicated decades to supporting the organization. “We should speak to the children. Let them know why Canada is free.”

That’s something Hope did at many schools in the region over the last few years.

And on Remembrance Day, Hope says that freedom is what he’ll be thinking about. That and his time in the military along with the friends who are no longer here.