The Liberation

 This is the uniform and equipment of a paratrooper of the 1st Canadian Parachute Batallion.

The medal set belonged to one of their number, Private Cliff Douglas, who jumped into Normandy on D-Day, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, but missed the battalion's jump into the Rhineland while recovering from injuries.

Dropped behind enemy lines, they went deeper into Germany than any other Canadian unit, ending the war by meeting up with Soviet soldiers.

The medal set and beret of one of their number, Corporal Frederick Topham, who won the Victoria Cross for extraordinary courage under fire during that last stage of the war.

While much of Canada's war efforts were directed at the European theatre and the Battle of the Atlantic, the country had also sent assets into the Pacific theatre. Lieutenant Hampton Gray led Corsair fighters against Japanese ships on August 9th, 1945- the same day the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki- and sank a warship at the cost of his own life. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

This piece of wreckage was from a Canadian transport flight, lost for half a century when it crashed in what was then Burma.

The Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forced the Japanese to capitulate.

For Canadians in the Netherlands, the war ended with VE Day and the liberation of the country from German occupation. The Dutch people have never forgotten it.

The war had been hard on the country, particularly the last winter.

They welcomed Canadian soldiers with open arms.

This is the fountain pen used by Canadian General Charles Foulkes, who accepted the surrender of all German forces in the Netherlands on the 5th of May, 1945.

Books of thanks are displayed nearby.