William Leslie Hemming

Zie: WW2Memorial

Zie: Commonwealth War Graves

Zie: The Canadia Virtual War Memorial

Zie: Onthewarmemorialtrail.com

Zie: Monument Gesneuvelde Canadezen Almen - Almen - TracesOfWar.nl

“On the night of April 3, 1945 the Canadian infantry regiment Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders - Glens in short - arrived in Vierakker via Toldijk, Baak, Wichmond and Hackfort. They set up headquarters in Huize Vierakker and they divided the regiment into four companies.

Company B was taken by truck in the early hours of April 4 and dropped off at the corner of Leestenseweg and Hekklerdijk. Company C was dropped off a bit further eastwards at the driveway of the farm Het Hekkeler.

Company B set off towards the farms Bosman and Graffel via Holtmaatweg, where the enemy lay ensconced in trenches. But by nine o'clock on the same morning the enemy positions were in Canadian hands. The company lost a few lives. As soon as the artillery support arrived the patrols advanced across the fields and along Lansinkweg to the farms Uitkomst and Klein Have. An enemy position that lay close to the last farm took the lives of at least three Canadians on Klein Have land. The German emplacement was taken over at around five in the afternoon in a combined effort with an English regiment aided by massive flame-throwers.

Meanwhile C Company had arrived at the farm Het Loo via Blekdijk and Looër Enkweg. The patrol began the attack in Looër Enkweg with two armoured cars in the lead. Headquarters was set up in the school in Leesten. Most of the enemy machine gun fire came from Het Groot Graffel. Then help arrived when the artillery rode up via Dennendijk after which C was able to reach the garden of Het Groot Graffel in a tank. This is how Glens finally managed to silence the German machine guns.

A total of eleven soldiers from the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders fell in the hamlet of Leesten. They were temporarily