On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Canadian national men’s soccer team marked the occasion with a couple of special touches.
Canada took on the Netherlands in an international friendly at Stadion Feijenoord in Rotterdam on Thursday, June 6 — 80 years to the day that Canadian troops were part of the Allied forces that stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II, which eventually led to the liberation of France, Belgium and the Netherlands from German rule.
To mark the occasion, each Canadian player wore a special black armband with an all-over design of red poppies. The poppy is a symbol of remembrance for Canadian military personnel killed in the line of duty, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written by Canadian Lt.-Col. John McCrae in World War I.
Teams traditionally trade pennants for international matches, emblazoned with the participating countries’ names, the date and the location of the match. The one given to the Dutch team by Canada on Thursday also featured a tonal poppy design in the background.
Both countries wore their away kits for Thursday’s match: Canada in white with red pinstripes and the Dutch in dark blue with orange and royal blue accents.
On June 6, 1944, 14,000 Canadians were among the 150,000 Allied troops that stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. Despite heavy machine gun fire and other obstacles, this operation was a success and laid the groundwork for the Allies’ victory in Europe.
This led to heavy fighting throughout the rest of 1944 and 1945. Allied forces, including Canadians, defeated German troops at the Scheldt Estuary in October and November 1944, which allowed southern parts of the Netherlands to be liberated and gave Allied ships access to the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Canadian troops then moved north in April 1945, liberating more of the country along the way and ending more than five years of German occupation that had resulted in medical aid and food being cut off.
In appreciation of the Canadian troops’ efforts, Dutch Crown Princess Juliana gifted Canada 100,000 tulips in 1945. That gift spawned the Canadian Tulip Festival, held each May in Commissioner’s Park in Ottawa. Today, the Netherlands government continues to send tulips to Canada every year.
More information on Canada’s role in liberating the Netherlands can be found at the Canadian War Museum’s website.
