In the AT community, we tend to think of the Dutch city of Groningen as the "The World's Cycling City https://vimeo.com/76207227" (video) and "the city where bikes rule the road".

But it turns out that Winnipeg has a very personal connection with Groningen. An interesting read for Remembrance Day.

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Lest We ForgetBrothers, and brothers in arms91-year-old veteran recounts 1944 battle that claimed sibling's life

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/lestweforget/brothers-and-brothers-...

STEINBACH -- Over lunch, Stan Butterworth, 91, pulled out a black-and-white photo -- smaller than a business card, the way photos once were -- of him and his older brother, Fred.

It was taken during a lighter moment while serving Canada in the Second World War. They had just finished latrine duty and were hamming it up for a photo outside the latrine they'd just cleaned. [image: Photo of brothers Fred (right) and Stan Butterworth during the Second World War.] http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/FRED_1943-1945__2__20237699.jpg

SUPPLIED PHOTO

Photo of brothers Fred (right) and Stan Butterworth during the Second World War.

It was one of the last photos of them together.

Fred Butterworth was gunner in the lead tank of the lead squadron entering the Dutch city of Groningen in fall 1944.

Brothers Fred, 22, and Stan, 20, from Winnipeg, had joined the military together, trained together, shipped overseas together and were both gunners in the Fort Garry Horse regiment. But when it came to being deployed, the Canadian military had a policy of splitting up family members so an entire family couldn't be killed in one assault. So Fred was in B Squadron, and Butterworth was in A Squadron. There were 60 tanks to a squadron.

Fred's tank rumbled through the occupied city of Groningen, with row houses on one side and a sports field on the other. It was a nervous time: no one knew where the enemy was hiding. Suddenly, a German soldier jumped from between the buildings, raised a bazooka to his shoulder and shot straight into the tank's turret where the gunner, Fred, was stationed. "A Sherman tank is not a heavy tank and doesn't have the armoured protection a lot of other tanks have," Butterworth explained.

Fred was killed almost instantly. The tank veered towards the buildings and crashed. Fred's last act was to somehow fire the tank's cannon, shooting into the buildings and setting them ablaze.

Butterworth told the story while in Steinbach last week to visit some collectors of military vehicles. Rob Fast and Harold Kihn both have an impressive array of restored military equipment. Butterworth was particularly interested in Kihn's Sherman tank, one of only three in Canada still running, a near-replica of the one he fought in.

The Free Press tagged along to plumb Butterworth's memories.

Of the three other men in that tank in Groningen, the crew commander was badly wounded and the tank operator was slightly wounded; the driver climbed out of the tank and into the burning buildings, only to be captured.

His capture lasted only a few days. It was a four-day battle. Canadian troops successfully liberated Groningen, but at a cost of 43 Canadian lives.

Groningen was part of the Battle of the Scheldt Estuary. Allied soldiers were advancing quickly into Europe but running out of supplies. A contingent of mostly Canadian troops was assigned to clear the German-controlled Scheldt Estuary, which blocked the port of Antwerp. The battle lasted two months, with Canadians making up half of the 12,873 Allied casualties, but the Allies prevailed.

Butterworth wrote his parents shortly after his brother's death. "It was a difficult letter to write," he said. "I told them just what happened, the fact that he didn't suffer and he was buried, and the Dutch people had placed a lot of flowers on his grave."

This is where the term "soldiering on" comes from, because that's what Butterworth did. "Just carry on," he said, when asked how he managed. "I was a member of a crew. The war was not over. We had to go on from there."

Butterworth was part of the final push that ended the war. From February to May 1945, he lived out of a Sherman tank like the one stored in Harold Kihn's garage in Steinbach. The quarters were so cramped they always bumped into each other. At night, they slept outside beneath the tank.

One of Butterworth's two sons is named after Fred, and Butterworth has been back to the Bergen op Zoom Cemetery in the Netherlands four times to visit his brother's grave.

Groningen, a city of about 200,000, hasn't forgotten. In 2012, a film crew arrived in Winnipeg to shoot a documentary about Butterworth's brother. It's part of an exhaustive record of those who sacrificed, compiled by a government agency called the War and Resistance Centre of Groningen. The crew spent five days in Winnipeg, then flew Butterworth to Groningen for a week. The cover of the DVD, of which Butterworth has a copy, is embossed with a photo of the brothers when they were two and four years old.

Butterworth most recently visited Groningen last summer, again as the city's guest, for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation. He may be 91, but he doesn't look, act or move like someone his age. Seven members of his family, including grandchildren, accompanied him. Butterworth stayed for more than a month in Groningen, with his meals and accommodations paid for.

He greatly appreciates how the Dutch people remember and honour the sacrifice of Canadian troops. Some cities have named streets after the hometowns of soldiers, including Winnipegstraat in Doetinchem, and Torontostraat in Rotterdam.

Butterworth will be part of the Remembrance Day ceremonies of the Fort Garry Horse at the McGregor Armoury Wednesday.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

*Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 10, 2015 A6*