[Barry Churcher]

Thanks Alex for the excellent thread. Then and now photos always amazed me. Thanks in particular for the photo with the C15TA. As Tony says we non Europeans can't really grasp what the war did. I think if more Canadian young people could visit some of these places they would have a better appreciation of history. As a young child in Canada the war touched us in small ways but it did not have the impact that it must of had on European youth. My uncle died in the war, another was an alcoholic because of the war, another uncle got shot in the stomach and had spinal injuries and consequently wore a leg brace, again because of the war. Anyway you get the picture. Children today only see things on TV which to them is the same as a video game or a movie. I know the effect that seeing some of the remnants of the conflict had on me. Seeing tank traps still in a field in Noord Holland and gun bunkers and submarine pens in Ijmuiden is kind of sobering. Brian took this photo of Albert, Dirk and I on the farm where Dirk stores his beach equipment in Camperdun.