Canadian general who accepted Nazi surrender in Netherlands to receive royal tribute & More News Here

When Princess Margriet of the Netherlands lifts the veil on a bronze plaque at Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery on Friday, she might be honouring a Canadian army determine who’s arguably higher remembered in her nation than he’s right here.

The plaque pays tribute to Lt.-Gen. Charles Foulkes, who died in Ottawa in 1969 and is buried at Beechwood. His grave is marked by a easy granite gravestone, in accordance to army custom. 

Foulkes is most well-known for the central position he performed in Germany’s surrender in the Netherlands throughout the closing days of the Second World War, however his accomplishments earlier than, throughout and after that occasion had been no much less pivotal.

“You could write a whole book on him, but no one ever has,” mentioned Tim Cook, chief historian on the Canadian War Museum and the writer of a dozen books about Canada’s army historical past.

You may write a complete ebook on him, however nobody ever has.- Tim Cook, Canadian War Museum– Tim Cook, Canadian War Museum

“If Foulkes was an American general or a British general, he would certainly be much better known in those countries.”

Foulkes was born in Stockton-on-Tees, England, in 1903, one among eight youngsters. His household immigrated to Canada, settling in London, Ont., the place Foulkes enrolled on the University of Western Ontario earlier than becoming a member of the Canadian army in 1926.

He returned to England in 1937 to endure officer coaching at workers faculty, the place he was deemed “sound and competent, and possessed of drive and determination.”

German surrender

When the conflict broke out a few years later, Foulkes was serving as a significant. By the conflict’s finish, he’d risen to the rank of lieutenant-general, main the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division via the Normandy marketing campaign earlier than taking cost of the first Canadian Corps in Italy.

In early 1945, the corps was transferred to northwestern Europe, setting the stage for Foulkes’s huge second: On May 5, at a desk in the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen, he dictated the phrases of surrender to Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz, ending the Nazis’ merciless five-year occupation of the Netherlands. 

Also current on the German surrender was Prince Bernhard, supreme commander of the Dutch armed forces and father of Princess Margriet.

(The surrender wasn’t signed till the next day as a result of, in accordance to some variations of the story, nobody may find a typewriter).

According to Cook, the Germans initially balked at Foulkes’s demand that the they instantly make approach for emergency meals support to attain ravenous Dutch civilians.

“Foulkes growled at them … and said, ‘That would be a war crime,’” Cook recounted. “It really was a dire situation.”

The Germans relented, and two days after Blaskowitz signed the surrender, the conflict in Europe was over.

A Cold War general

Foulkes’s appointment as chief of the general workers following the conflict shocked some, mentioned Cook, who famous his considerably spotty efficiency on the battlefield. But the upper his rank, the extra Foulkes appeared to excel.

“Foulkes was one of those generals that got better at each level of command,” Cook mentioned.

That was fortuitous, as a result of in his new position as head of Canadian Armed Forces, and later as the primary Canadian to chair the chiefs of workers committee, Foulkes helped steer Canada’s army coverage via a number of the most momentous occasions of the post-war interval: rearmament, the formation of NATO, the Korean War and the nuclear arms race.

“So he really is an important figure, both for the Second World War and 15 years of the Cold War, although I think he’s largely forgotten today,” Cook mentioned.

Foulkes was a continentalist who believed Canada’s army insurance policies ought to be extra carefully aligned with these of its neighbour to the south than with these of his native Great Britain. He was additionally at odds with prime minister John Diefenbaker’s non-nuclear strategy. He resigned in 1960.

Don Foulkes remembers his uncle as “absolutely a stern military man who had a great degree of formality with him.”

Foulkes, who lives in Calgary and can attend Friday’s occasion in Ottawa along with his spouse, mentioned like many army males, his uncle did not like to speak about his conflict years. But Foulkes recalled one revealing anecdote about what his uncle had discovered in the Germans’ headquarters following the surrender in Wageningen.

“He was appalled at what they had accumulated and squirrelled away in terms of paintings and French wine and chocolates, when the entire nation of the Netherlands was starving to death,” Foulkes recalled.

Charles Foulkes would go on to train strategic research at Carleton University in the late Nineteen Sixties. He was made a companion of the Order of Canada in 1968, the yr earlier than his demise. 

‘They always remember’

Nick McCarthy, Beechwood’s director of promoting, communications and neighborhood outreach, was the driving drive behind the plaque devoted to Foulkes, which is already put in — the pandemic postponed each the royal go to and the official unveiling by a pair years.

McCarthy observed most official accounts of Canada’s position in the Second World War give Foulkes brief shrift, and felt that was a improper that wanted righting.

“I’m a huge believer in bringing back not just some of the glory, but some of those accolades that we Canadians tend to stay away from,” McCarthy mentioned. “We’re so humble that we tend not to celebrate our military heroes.”

McCarthy, who will host Friday’s occasion at Beechwood, famous that in the nation Foulkes helped liberate 77 years in the past, individuals nonetheless know his title.

“The Dutch are very appreciative of his involvement in World War II, very appreciative of Canada’s involvement in World War II, and they never forget. And I think that’s where we Canadians need to start looking at our [own history] and never forget what these people have done.”

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