In the fall of 1944, Canadian troops led bitter fighting to secure access to the critical port of Antwerp, freeing the Scheldt estuary and the approaches to a key supply hub as Allied forces prepared to enter Germany and bring the Second World War to an end. It was but a sliver of the occupied Netherlands. More epic combat lay ahead. Ultimately, the year 1945 will prove a happy one, as the sufferings of the Dutch populace, ravaged by almost five years of hardship and a bitterly cold winter of starvation, are brought to a bloody end.