Canadian military history tours

He was certainly involved in the Battle of the Scheldt. I have no idea about tour companies, but the following museums can tell you much more and certainly will give you a warm welcome.

Near Bruges in Belgium:
https://www.forfreedommuseum.be/en
https://canadapolandmuseum.com/ (Dutch only)

Province of Zeeland / Scheldt estuary:
https://bevrijdingsmuseumzeeland.nl/en/
https://www.oorlogsmuseumgdynia.nl/bezoekersinformatie/ (Most about Polish involvement / Dutch only)

Near Nijmegen:
https://freedommuseum.com/

Olgaard? Mind the correct spelling.

I dont know of a tour company that does private custom tours such as you describe. However, Veterans Affairs Canada maintains a comprehensive list of War Cemeteries, Monuments, and Memorials for both World Wars. You might use their archives to form a rough draft of the sites you want to visit. In particular, you would likely want to include Nijmegan and the nearby Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. If you plan to visit in summer, you might want to coordinate your time with the Four Days Nijmegan March, and it's accompanying street festival. You might try asking your local Legion for recommendations about tour companies specializing in tours of Canadian battle sites in Western Europe.

Hi, I've shared the name of this Canadian company, DH Tour, elsewhere on the forum. They mention assistance with private tours in addition to the tours they list on their site. It may be worth calling to see if they have any Netherlands recommendations.

https://dhgrouptours.com/coach-tours-rail-tours/battlefield-tours/

This tour company works with guides living in the Netherlands and do organise private tours https://canadianbattlefieldtours.ca

In Belgium, you’ll find the following major sights and monuments honoring the Canadian regiment, the 12th Manitoba Dragoons

Veurne (Grote Markt)
The 'Vrijheidsmonument' (Freedom Monument) commemorates the liberation on September 8, 1944, by the Manitoba Dragoons

Oostende
On September 8 as well, reconnaissance units of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons were the first to enter the city to put an end to the occupation. The “Liberation Monument” here honors all Allied liberators.
The regiment’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Alan Roberts, was officially named an honorary citizen of the City of Ostend on May 3, 1970, in recognition of his leadership during the liberation.

Blankenberge
It was liberated by them on September 9, 1944, and thus the Monument to the 12th Manitoba Dragoons of Canada stands in the center of the aptly named Manitobaplein (Manitoba Square). This is a modest but historically significant memorial where commemorations are still held every September.

Brugge
On September 12, they entered Bruges via what was then known as the Scheepsdale Bridge, now called the Canadabrug (Canada Bridge). Two large bronze bison adorn either side of the bridge (the charging bison is the emblem of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons).
Near the bridge, on Canadaplein (Canada Square), stands the Monument of Liberation, erected in memory of the Canadian soldiers who gave their lives for the city’s freedom.

Zeebrugge
This was the very last Belgian municipality to be liberated, on November 3, 1944.
The Bevrijdingsmonument Zeebrugge (Zeebrugge Liberation Memorial) bears the explicit inscription “To the 12th Manitoba Dragoons.”

Adegem
Some fallen soldiers of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons in Belgium are buried at the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery.

https://commonwealth-adegem.com/12th-manitoba-dragoons

Great trip! I hope you find a fulfilling tour. I studied Canadian military history and have visited Juno Beach and the Canadian battlefields in Normandy, Vimy Ridge, and the Canadian sites around Bruges and the Breskens Pocket. Yet to make it to the Bevelen Peninsula / Walcheren or the Netherlands sites.

The towns you mention are in three different campaigns:

• Ostend was part of the Clearing of the Channel Ports campaign. I recommend The Cinderella Campaign by Mark Zuehlke;
• Nijmegen was a battlefield of Operation Market Garden, which the Canadians only tangentially participated in, however the Canadian Army was based there in the winter of 44/45 and Nijmegen was the jumping off point for Operation Veritable, the Canadian clearing of the west bank of the Rhine. See Forgotten Victory by Zuehlke;
• I'm not familiar with Olgaard and I don't see it on any maps of the areas in which Canadians operated. That is a Danish spelling so perhaps this was a place your father served during the post-war occupation?

The 12th Manitoba Dragoons were an armoured car regiment attached to II Corps (not any particular division) so it is harder to find mentions of their exploits. You should contact the regimental museum - I'm sure they would give you great information on visiting the regiment's sites: https://26xiimuseum.ca/

I hope you have a great trip!

We used Murk Dijkstra of HistoryTrips in 2018. Our specific interest was Operation Market Garden, but I notice the website shows a Canadian tour option. He picked 4 of us up at our hotel in Amsterdam and drove us to the various sites of importance. It was a very full day.

Since we did this tour in 2019, I would encourage reading recent reviews and as well as info on his website, but we were very happy with the way it worked out for us. I wish we’d had more time to recover from jet lag before doing the tour because he has a wealth of information to share.

I just googled: HistoryTrips.eu

You could contact Frank Gubbels. I know he is knowledgeable about the American experience in Holland. We didn't ask about the Canadian experience.

[email protected]

He was a substitute for Reg Jans on one of our Battle of the Bulge tours in 2019. Great guide.

I'm not familiar with Olgaard and I don't see it on any maps of the areas in which Canadians operated.

Olgaard might refer to the Oolgaardt House in Arnhem.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/31LerMrz74zccFX6A
The building, which at the time served as a liberal educational and reformatory institution for young people, was requisitioned by the German occupiers. During the war, various German military units were stationed there.
Due to its strategic location near the Rhine, the building found itself in the line of fire between German troops and the advancing Allies in 1944.

The Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 was unsuccessful. The Canadians played a crucial role during the Second Battle of Arnhem (Operation Anger) in April 1945. During this operation, Arnhem was definitively liberated by the 1st Canadian Corps.
The Klingelbeekseweg, where the Oolgaardt House is located, and the adjacent railroad bridge formed a direct route of attack from the west and Oosterbeek.
The Royal Canadian Engineers played a vital logistical and combat support role in clearing mines, repairing infrastructure, and supporting the infantry as they advanced through the heavily devastated streets in this part of Arnhem.

I have no idea whether the 12th Manitoba Dragoons were deployed here.

I can't recommend a tour guide and haven't ever used one in my multiple trips to WWII sites, but I did take a train from Amsterdam to Arnhem (where a different Canadian outfit fought, and where they helped rescue the trapped British Airborne soldiers). From Arnhem I drove to Njiemagen. I knew a man from the U.S. 82nd Airborne who helped liberate Njiemagen. The town itself is lovely and if you know the history of the battle, you can walk to many places where the fighting took place including Waalbrug—the large bridge over the Waal River. As I recommend to anyone visiting these areas, do your research. Tour guide or not, the more you know ahead of time, the more you will get out of your trip. A few hours spent reading a good book will pay off in spades and allow you to make more of your valuable vacation time.