EvanL
06-05-2004, 03:10 PM
Europeans re-enact Normandy landing
By DOUG SAUNDERS
UPDATED AT 3:07 PM EDT Saturday, Jun 5, 2004
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COURSEULLES-SUR-MER, FRANCE -- Around here, the van Dijens are a more or less typical family on vacation.
Each summer, the three of them dress up as Canadian soldiers from an Eastern Ontario regiment, climb into an antique Jeep, and make the slow, noisy, bumpy trip from their home in central Holland to the north of France for a couple of weeks to be with other make-believe Canadians.
The family sets down on the Normandy coast in a campsite that yesterday contained 300 families, most of them Dutch, wearing Canadian military garb. Each made the journey here in the family vehicle -- many in 1940s-vintage Jeeps, troop carriers, tanks or transport trucks, and a few in amphibious vehicles or field ambulances.
They were joined by thousands of other Europeans who spend their spare time dressing as soldiers from other countries. This weekend, their presence also marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landing in Normandy.
For Jacqueline van Dijen, 22, the trip recalls a comforting childhood ritual. The sharp smell of diesel fuel and the sound of grinding gears fills the campsite, but for most of her life this has been her main summer recreation.
"This is a really nice way to spend the summer," she said yesterday, sporting the regalia of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment on her olive sweater. "The trip down here is pretty uncomfortable, since I'm stuck in the back of this very bumpy Jeep at low speed for two days. But I really look forward to getting down here."
For the van Dijens, the experience is a matter of pride as well as a relaxing pastime. In 1945, their family's village was liberated by the Canadian army -- actually, by a lone Canadian soldier.
"One day it was under Nazi control, and then a single soldier from the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment came in driving a Jeep and told us that we had been liberated," said Jacqueline's father, 60-year-old Bert van Dijen. "And from then on we were free.
"We will always be grateful for that, so when we got the Jeep we knew it had to be the Hasty P's," he added, using the regiment's nickname.
The family is particularly proud of its pre-Maple Leaf Canadian flag, which cost the equivalent of $300, and a 1943 gas can "borrowed" by Mr. van Dijen's uncle from Canadian troops stationed in the Netherlands in the late 1940s. ("They would have wanted us to have it," says Mr. van Dijen's wife, Annette, 53.)
The subculture gathered here is divided into strictly regimented camps. Battle re-enactors dress as specific soldiers and try to re-stage historic battles. There are also war-equipment restorers such as the van Dijens, who have spent decades working on their 1943 Willys Jeep with its four-cylinder, Canadian-made Ford engine.
"We're not as interested in battle simulation," Mr. van Dijen said. "We do dress ourselves as soldiers from the appropriate regiment, but accuracy is not as important for us."
A maintenance engineer, he spends his weekends working on the Jeep and on his friends' even heavier equipment, as well as perfecting his battle dress.
While Canadian soldiers tend to be portrayed by Dutch and occasionally Belgian families, Americans are usually played by Germans. Simulated Nazi soldiers, who are far fewer in number, almost always turn out to be Swiss.
Some re-enactors carefully research their parts. "I am a private from the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, and I landed on Juno Beach late in the morning of June 6, 1944," says Arno Strauss, 44, from Austria, who shows off his historically accurate knife, uniform, insignia and boots, purchased for large sums of money. Asked if he knows the name of Canada's capital, he hesitates. "It is not Toronto, is it? No it is not," he says, and then correctly names Ottawa.
The van Dijens are on firmer ground here, since they have actually visited Canada. Two years ago, they travelled to Belleville, Ont., to visit the home of the Hasty P's.
"The regiment welcomed us there, and we showed them photos of the Jeep, and they were extremely generous and courteous," Mr. van Dijen said. "It was our way of thanking them for what they did for us."
By DOUG SAUNDERS
UPDATED AT 3:07 PM EDT Saturday, Jun 5, 2004
Advertisement
COURSEULLES-SUR-MER, FRANCE -- Around here, the van Dijens are a more or less typical family on vacation.
Each summer, the three of them dress up as Canadian soldiers from an Eastern Ontario regiment, climb into an antique Jeep, and make the slow, noisy, bumpy trip from their home in central Holland to the north of France for a couple of weeks to be with other make-believe Canadians.
The family sets down on the Normandy coast in a campsite that yesterday contained 300 families, most of them Dutch, wearing Canadian military garb. Each made the journey here in the family vehicle -- many in 1940s-vintage Jeeps, troop carriers, tanks or transport trucks, and a few in amphibious vehicles or field ambulances.
They were joined by thousands of other Europeans who spend their spare time dressing as soldiers from other countries. This weekend, their presence also marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landing in Normandy.
For Jacqueline van Dijen, 22, the trip recalls a comforting childhood ritual. The sharp smell of diesel fuel and the sound of grinding gears fills the campsite, but for most of her life this has been her main summer recreation.
"This is a really nice way to spend the summer," she said yesterday, sporting the regalia of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment on her olive sweater. "The trip down here is pretty uncomfortable, since I'm stuck in the back of this very bumpy Jeep at low speed for two days. But I really look forward to getting down here."
For the van Dijens, the experience is a matter of pride as well as a relaxing pastime. In 1945, their family's village was liberated by the Canadian army -- actually, by a lone Canadian soldier.
"One day it was under Nazi control, and then a single soldier from the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment came in driving a Jeep and told us that we had been liberated," said Jacqueline's father, 60-year-old Bert van Dijen. "And from then on we were free.
"We will always be grateful for that, so when we got the Jeep we knew it had to be the Hasty P's," he added, using the regiment's nickname.
The family is particularly proud of its pre-Maple Leaf Canadian flag, which cost the equivalent of $300, and a 1943 gas can "borrowed" by Mr. van Dijen's uncle from Canadian troops stationed in the Netherlands in the late 1940s. ("They would have wanted us to have it," says Mr. van Dijen's wife, Annette, 53.)
The subculture gathered here is divided into strictly regimented camps. Battle re-enactors dress as specific soldiers and try to re-stage historic battles. There are also war-equipment restorers such as the van Dijens, who have spent decades working on their 1943 Willys Jeep with its four-cylinder, Canadian-made Ford engine.
"We're not as interested in battle simulation," Mr. van Dijen said. "We do dress ourselves as soldiers from the appropriate regiment, but accuracy is not as important for us."
A maintenance engineer, he spends his weekends working on the Jeep and on his friends' even heavier equipment, as well as perfecting his battle dress.
While Canadian soldiers tend to be portrayed by Dutch and occasionally Belgian families, Americans are usually played by Germans. Simulated Nazi soldiers, who are far fewer in number, almost always turn out to be Swiss.
Some re-enactors carefully research their parts. "I am a private from the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, and I landed on Juno Beach late in the morning of June 6, 1944," says Arno Strauss, 44, from Austria, who shows off his historically accurate knife, uniform, insignia and boots, purchased for large sums of money. Asked if he knows the name of Canada's capital, he hesitates. "It is not Toronto, is it? No it is not," he says, and then correctly names Ottawa.
The van Dijens are on firmer ground here, since they have actually visited Canada. Two years ago, they travelled to Belleville, Ont., to visit the home of the Hasty P's.
"The regiment welcomed us there, and we showed them photos of the Jeep, and they were extremely generous and courteous," Mr. van Dijen said. "It was our way of thanking them for what they did for us."