I'm part of the Prinses Irene Brigade reenactment group in the Netherlands and we were asked if we would join a small movie about Max Wolff. It's kind of a part of Dutch history that's forgotten.

Wonderful video, many thanks ! A lot of people in the comments section seem interested in what is being said in the historic footage @ 3:05 So I translated this part for you, to the best of my abilities ; 3:05 "...and they are allowed to. Because we are very aware of the experience and skills our navy accumulated in previous operations. With hearts pounding and full determination, they set out to complete the orders of military high command to the fullest. Our ship, a lady of respectable age, might have plenty of scars, but was still perfectly able to perform her duties." 3:33 "At early dawn we joined our allies at Arromanche. The sea being misty and with only a light breeze, it was paramount to be cautious. We could not have enough eyes on deck. Due to the vast amount of ships in action, the danger of collisions was great. They are raising the cannons ! It won't be long now... Get ready!...FIRE !!!" 4:12 "Hundreds of salvo's were fired. We were not distracted by hunger or thirst. For we were fully commited to the task set before us. And not us alone. There goes the unbroken chain of landing craft, small and large vessels, filled to the brim with the fearless troops of the liberation army. They keep an eye out on us. The allied navies promised to guard our men on their way to the beach. We only had two ships. The 'Soemba' and 'Flores'. Which was not much in the greater scheme of things, but that only meant we had to double our efforts. And in the end we succeeded. Because the royal dutch navy, is made out of dutch, for the dutch." - end As a dutch boy, the stories of my granny were etched into my memories. Even though I was still very young, I wanted to know what happened in WW2, so I asked her what it was like. She hesitated for a few seconds. She could not look me in the eyes, but eventually, slowly, she did start talking. She lived on a farm (near Arnhem) , a large family with many brothers and sisters. Weakened by hunger and cold, she told me they had to eat things you could not imagine. One day, a german artillery unit had suddenly occupied their barn to hide their cannons. Survival. Having to step over dead soldiers in the streets of Oosterbeek. The children spending most of their time trying to find wood to keep a fire going and scavenge for any food. Her uncle was killed at the battle of Grebbeberg. Hunger. Sickness. Despair. But in the end, of all her stories, one stuck with me the most. At early sunrise, she and her sister were send into the fields with a shovel. They had to check all the mole hills, bashing in their heads with the shovel if they surfaced and collect them, so their mother could make blankets out of their fur pelts. "...the winters in that war were very, very cold". Here in the netherlands, we teach our kids and they teach their kids, the only reason we still excist as a nation. The dutch will never forget, the sacrifices made by our allies, for our freedom.

Hello Hilbert, longtime fan here. My grandfather Rudolph Bolte was in the screaming eagles paratroopers 101st Airborne. He survived D-day but was killed in Market Garden, he is buried in The Netherlands

Hello Hilbert. My dad joined up a year after this, but served in RN with sailors who described having been shocked at going right in towards shore and blasting their guns at German land positions, rather than sea battles they expected.

My grandfather also played a part. He was a normal Dutch citizen at the time and got conscripted by the Germans in the civilian workforce to construct part of the Atlantic Wall. Now, the timeline is a little muddled (he died in 1973), but his story, the way my mother told me, is that after a while he figured he didn't want to "get stuck" between the "moffen" behind him and the "tommies" in front of him, so one day he decided to just walk back home.

My grandfather was in the resistance but never talked about be it ; but him on his bike cycled along the Dutch coast to get the V1/2 sites on mapped. Meer weet ik niet.

I was at Arromanche, on the beach in a DUKW and realised that a ceremony was being conducted in Dutch, now I know why ! It also sort of answeres the question as to why there were so many dutch there and many Dutch vehicles, including 2 DUKWs. Thank you !

Iirc the Terrible Twins got the name in the Mediterrinean, at D day they were assigned different zones, not working together.

Great video. My grandfather was a Dutch Marine, stationed in Suriname when the war broke out. He landed with the English, fought for a few more days before he got badly injured and had to recover and learn to walk again in England.

It's well known that British Canadian Commonwealth forces American forces land on D-Day and they get most of the attention I really hope you do more similar videos about the other Allied forces that fought on D-Day..

My father was based out of Dover on the Dutch torpedo boats, he stayed in the Netherlands Navy till he retired.

D-Day was a code for the date. The name of the landings was Operation Overlord. All beach landings happens on a D-day at H-hour. Which could be any day at any hour. Only the people involved at the particular operation knew. The D-Day landings of Normandy are only the most well know, that's why most (European) people call it that way.

The Dutch royal family spent the remainder of the war in Canada. To this day, Ottawa is a sea of tulips every spring thanks to the Dutch presence there.

As a Dutchman im proud what we did back then, we are a small country but when we unite our spirit is unbreakable. Countless stories of dutch resistance fighters prove that. Thank you for sharing this with the public.

What is often missed is that the follow-on landings in Provence involved multiple French divisions.

There are also quotes about the two gunboats on d-day, that they were coming so close to the beach to fire more effectively that they almost grounded themselves, and were very accurate.

Thanks for this video. As a Dutchman I didnt know all this. Also, your pronounciation of Dutch cities is excellent👌

Some left out info: No.2 Dutch troop (predecessor of the morden day KCT) was part of the British inter-allied commando, a special forces unit that conducted operations on the night of D-day and many more. The inter-allied commando was part of the 1st special service brigade which together with the SAS were the first special forces units in the world.

Very very nice! Thank you!

Being born in 1977 I am thankfull that I have met so many people of the greatest generation in history. As a kid I was always intrigued by their stories and as an adult the respect I have for these brave heroes only got stronger.🧡

Ik vroeg me dat vorige week af...dank je wel😁🙏🙏🙏👍👏

Great small piece if history that doesn't get talked about enough in dutch history classes. It's more or less the story of my grandfather, who fled the Netherlands as a Jewish refugee through Belgium and ending up in England. There joined the Dutch forces serving on one of the ships.

I myself live in Arnhem and didn't know about Max Wolff even thought I have been interested by WW2 since I was young (27years old now). I knew that Dutch ships took part in the D-Day landing operations but never knew to what extend. nice to see we took a great part in our own liberation. Really great video learned a lot, keep it up!!

nice video, not a question i ever though of before

How am I at 37 with a life long love of flags, maps, and history just now noticing that the diagonal red stripes on the union Jack don't like up with each other.

Cool video.

that story of those two ships is pretty epic.

Very interesting. Thx.

Thank you for your fascinating & informative video. I have been a WWII history buff since I was a teenager. I learned new knowledge from your video. It is interesting to learn about the Dutch at D-Day, also other contributions that The Netherlands made during the war.

A relative headed north to Winnepeg & joined the RCAF as a trained pilot. Eventually flying a Mosquito on intruder missions over the Netherlands.

Could you do a video on the the dutch Caribbean and Suriman during the second world war, I've always wondered what happened to the last of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

TY🙏🙏

It's interesting to see you used the new flags of Zimbabwe and South Africa and the old flag of Greece. I am guessing it's to avoid criticism over the negative symbolism but it's interesting that fears like this are effecting even historical discussions so much.

You should do a video on the Netherlands' role in the Pacific theatre of WW2, and the Indonesian revolution that followed it.

What a nice video. As far as I know (but I can't find a record and thus I'm not sure) my grandfather was stationed on the Soemba during D-Day. One of the stories he told was that they shot down an Allied aircraft because it flew in from the wrong side and they had to go full speed backwards in fear of frogmen. I have no idea of any of that is true, but it is what I remembered he told me.

I was told my grandfather was part of the Prinses Irene Brigade during the liberation. Unfortunately he died 1984 when I was 7 years old. I can remember he was a great granddad. I wish he’d have lived some more years. Would have loved talking about his years in the dutch Army, because I served a couple of years as well. Proud of him 💪🏼🙌🏻

I already knew most of this, because I red the books of K. Norel when I was young. The Flores plays a big roll in them and the Princess Irene Brigade is also mentioned. Afaik the boats were like little destroyers, but with a small number of (light) cruiser caliber guns.

How very brave these people were, rip and respect to them!

Last week I was at the D-Day remembrance at Gold beach. There was the current Irene brigade and they had a ceremony for a real Dutch Irene brigade veteran! Now I see it again in the video, very cool! I didn't know that they were still alive!

My great-uncle was a crewmember on a merchant ship which transported captured troops of the Desert Fox. He received multiple medals but refused to talk about it.

Toch wel apart om jezelf terug te zien.

On the one hand im thinking this guy is talking about something rly interesting, on the other hand im thinking this guys dutch accent is insane 😮

D-Day logistics would never have worked without a Beach-head harbour built for the large and continous supply of fuel and ammunition for this large Allied landing force. This harbour was built using concrete Caisons designed with the help of Dutch engineers. This caison design was later used by the Dutch Waterstaat to close seaways especially with the closing of the Veerse Gat in Zeeland part of the massive 'Deltawerken', . Dutch cargo ships participated in the Atlantic crossings with cargo ship convoys from the USA to Europe that were constantly attacked by German U-boats.

Hello Hilbert, great video 👍🏽, keep it up. Would you be interested in making a video about Dutch soldiers fighting under foreign flags? My (dutch) grandfather was drafted for the German Army when the Netherlands was occupied. But he didn't want to and fled with some friends to Vichi France (Marseille) before the Germans came to pick them up. After hiding, they worked at the Atlantic wall (French west coast). Directly after Paris was liberated, all of them (8 friends) joined the Allied Forces. Basic training in UK, 4 of them incl my grandfather ended up in a Dutch detachment in the Royal Canadian Army, the other 4 similar in the Royal British Army. If the stories of my grandmother were correct, they landed on the shores of Zeeland (Nld) after the bombardments of Zeeland. Pushed through the Netherlands, and had a combat pauze in Coevorden. There he met his 4 friends in the Royal British Army and my grandmother (who came on a bike from Vlaardingen near Rotterdam to collect potatoes). Unlike the Princess Irene Brigade who stayed in the Netherlands, my grandfather pushed further into Germany (Ruhr region) with the Canadians. This is where my info about my grandfather ends. I'm curious if there were actually Dutch soldiers serving under Canadian flag and which Canadian unit (with Dutch soldiers) pushed into Germany from the Netherlands to verify this story for a booklet I want to create about my grandfather.

I learned from the week by week serie of the second world war that the ultimatum for the bombardment was accepted by Dutch command but word reached the German air fleet just a few minutes too late. The planes took off, went radio silent and didn't react to any ground signals as per instruction. Which framing of events would you say is correct?

I am interested in this as my father was on the Hr Mrs Soemba on D day as a British army observation officer. Can you tell me if the clip is of the Soemba or the Flores? I do have some of his original paperwork relating to the Soemba on Day.

Thank you, says a doughter of one of the crewmembers of the Hr.Ms. Flores.

It’s amazing that people have forgotten that the first Allied Army’s to liberate Europe landed on Mainland European Soil was an army of 189,000 in September 1943 these liberators became known as ‘D Day Dodgers’

there was a 6th beach for Normandy, don't recall why it wasn't activated. I thought that i mentioned this to you before - Middelburg, ZL, bombed AFTER the surrender due to the commander down there not being certain if his area was included in the surrender and kept fighting. A Sealan (no accent marks on this keyboard) friend of mine lost many relatives in that bombing. There was one gem for the Dutch navy that i picked up somewhere - Dutch O-Boat sank a U-boat sending a U-Boat ace to his eternal reward.

My father was the youngest of 7 children and his 2 eldest brothers were in the Dutch army, after the invasion of Germany the eldest brother fled to England and served in the Princess Irene Brigade in Normandy, he survived the war but unfortunately the other brother died of tuberculosis he contracted in the German prison camp. My uncle never talked about the war.

My compliments on your Dutch pronunciation, that must have taken some effort 😊. Thanks ... 17e Painfbat Garde Fuseliers Prinses Irene ❤

Wow ik heb nooit geweten over Max Wolff. Mijn familienaam aan moeders kant is ook Wolff, een uitgemoorde Joodse familie uit Nederland. Ik weet niet of we ergens familiebanden hebben, maar het geeft alsnog een gevoel van trots.

What about the Dutch Commandos of No. 2 (Dutch) Troop, No. 10 Commando?

Goede video weer Hilbert, misschien een beetje lullig, maar je zou er over na kunnen denken het slikken en happen naar adem er uit te editen, het klinkt gewoon heel raar

my dutch grand was at d-day Respect to you!!!

Very interesting and informative. They don’t teach this at school. My grandfather fought in the Dutch military in 1940. He and my grandmother never talked about the war. My grandfather died in 1994 and my grandmother in 2004. My father then threw away all the medals and military items.

Fascinating, thank you for shedding light on this :). Is there any translation online of what is being said in the historical footage?

The image of the B-25s, allegedly of the Dutch 320 squadron, do not show the D-Day stripes on the wings, but that may be because they were not actually deployed over Normandy but further north...

I had an uncle who joined the troops after the liberation of Limburg, sadly he was killed doing that, I've never met him, I'm not that old.

Please look into the venlo incident 🙏

i love the old dutch radio guy

It's not a History With Hilbert video without Mandatory Wilhelmus ;)

My fathers grandfather said he was armed by the army with: A bike A dog A gun with 3 bullets. Best prepped soldier ever.

Of course Mr. Hilbert must inform us what the Dutch did during the battle of D-Day.

this is the first ever video of you that i saw. The way you pronounced Rotterdam gave it intstantly away you are a dutch speaking youtuber xD Btw. Den haag is pronounced as The Hague in english

Misschien wel even bronvermelding doen mbt de videobeelden van de ceremonie.

0.27 - Glad they clarified it was only the Free French and French Resistance and not the French Army, which had been fighting against the Allies for most of the war. The French Navy had to be sunk, as it would not commit to fighting the Nazis; and the French Resistance spent the first few years of the war fighting each other until the Allies managed to get them unified. The Free French numbered around 100,000 prior to D-Day compared toVichy France's forces of 94,000 soldiers in Metropolitan France, 60,000 armed Gendarmerie and 10,000 anti-aircraft crew (shooting down Allied planes). The overseas troops overseen by Vichy were 150,000 in Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon with more Indochina and other overseas departments. In short, 4-5 times as many armed forces. We tend to consider an Ally for most of WW2, but the majority of French troops were on the other side. There were perhaps valid reasons for acquiescence, but many other nations did not including the brave Dutch.

3:46 i am pretty sure that's just youtuber Squire in a black and white D-Day video.

Dude put Zim instead of Canada just to piss us Canucks off! Love the subtle trolling haha

D-day is my B-day and my mom´s B-day is May 5th (were also Dutch btw)

I love your prenounciation!

According to the former dog-trainer of Prince Bernhard, who was at the Hr.Ms. Soemba during the war, there was a gentlemen's agreement with the British on D-day that the Terrible Twins were to open fire on the German positions first. Two minutes before the main barrage would commence.

Dont forget that there were also dutch people fighting along side the germans in d day Not something i am praud to say but is should not be forgotten Sorry for the spelling mistakes 😅

respect for , de princes irene brigade. no 10 interallied commando, dutch commando's had a great tribute in the netherlands too, walcheren and vlissingen.

Get it, Dutch people! 🫡💪🏻🇺🇸🤝🇱🇺

ik was bij de herdenking in arromanches dit jaar

Dont forget NO2 Dutch troop!! Dutch commandos served in Birma with the royal marines. And in market garden.

Gaaf! Mooi dat ze het op deze manier toch levend houden.

To hear my Dutch language from 80 years ago, damn

My Dutch father was in the us navy as an armed guard member, Murmansk survived lucky basterd later military police MP in Guam, got his badge.

Arnhem anniversary on 17 September.

12:31, you made a small editing mistake :)

Can someone confirm if I'm right and the video says it wrong? Because this is how I remembered it: The dutch already surrendered when germany threatened to bomb Rotterdom, but they didn't cancel the attack.

For those looking for it : 10:46

You forgot to mention Suriname. a former Dutch colony in South America send thousands of soldiers to fight in world war II in one instance a 120 soldiers from Suriname were killed when a German submarine torpedoed the ship they were on.

They were gooning hard.

My kiwi grandfather flew mosquitos and bombed rail junctions and strafed road junctions in and around cherbourg on d day and said flying over the ships in the channel was like nothing he ever saw

Took part battle of Narva. Volunteer Legion🇳🇱🫡

1 remark: sq 320 was formed mostly from personnel of th dutch navy not the army

Ww2 had americans fighting for Germany and germans fighting for America . And every other country had a ex pat fighting for something

Mate this is the first time i heard a non dutchie say the words right

What the Dutch did on D-Day was real Gouda.

12:40 cool

Wrong flag! At the beginning you mention Greece, but show the flag of Finland

Why did you use the modern flags for South africa and Zimbabwe?

I think this needs English subtitles because the video title is also in English.

Hilbert you are fucking awesome

As a dane I understand less than half of what is said in dutch

I think it is misplaced of the current Garderegiment Fuseliers Prinses Irene to have their commemoration on June 6th in Arromanches. They are stepping into the spotlight of Allied units that actually did land on June 6th, which the PIB clearly did not. Nothing wrong to have their commemoration on the actual disembarkation date of August 8th right? And why presenting the invasion fourragère to current members of the regiment, which did not disembarked in WWII in Normandy?

The Dutch royal family stayed in Canada during WW2.