Two GREAT W W 2 Movies I never saw before, Part 4

Memorial Day 2026

As I have mentioned before, my father was in World War 2 in the U.S.Navy and he was an intelligent man; his passion was for WW 2 history, so my brother Joe (a marine and Vietnam Veteran) and I were raised on movies about the war and documentaries, and me being a book lover, every book we could find. The last book my father and I read the summer he died was The Battle for Tassaferonga. I read books as obscure as The Lodz Ghetto, and a memoir from a German woman who survived in Berlin after the war during the Russian occupation, A Woman in Berlin. Aside from being a gripping read, I have always been interested in survivor stories; how did they do it, what did it take?

I have been watching movies all weekend to honor and remember the suffering, the loss and the victory of these struggles against evil, which is, in my opinion, what they were. The Civil War was against the crime against humanity which was slavery, and World War 2 was against the crime of invasion and conquest of countries by an aggressor and the genocide of a people.

It came as a surprise to me to find two movies about battles about which I had heard, read, or watched NOTHING: The Battle for Zeeland and the Battle at the Danish border when the Germans invaded Denmark. (Dutch) The Forgotten Battle, (Danish) April 9.

The Dutch had drained the swamps in a massive and successful national land reclamation program using dykes. The Germans had fortifications all along the River Scheldt to hold the line against the capture of Antwerp which was a port the allies needed to supply our armies for the push into Germany. The Germans had bombed the dykes and flooded the land which made it exceptionaly difficult to get to their fortifications. Dutch resistance helped maps and geographical information into the hands of the Canadians who had suffered immense losses in a slaughter when they tried a frontal assault along a narrow dyke road. The maps and photographs smuggled to them made the assault possible. This movie, The Forgotten Battle, was the costliest film ever made by the Dutch and it was highly acclaimed internationally. I thought it was magnificent.

The Danish film, 9 April, was interesting to me for a few reasons. One was that it took place on the peninsula connecting Northern Germany to Denmark which had been occuplied back and forth by the Danes and Germans throughout history. My father's grandfather came from that peninsula, Jutland, and his wife had been Danish. Secondly, I have been to Denmark. Also the Scandinavian countries are rarely maneitoned in the World War 2 documentaries. What struck me as almost funny if it hadn't been so heartbreaking was how unprepared the Danish were for this assault. They haheir soldiers training on changing flat tires on their bicycles in preparation for the assault of the German army in armored behices. The Danish soldieres went obediently into what would have been another horrific slaughter if the Danish government hadn't wisely realized the hopelessness of sending young men on bikes with rifles and light machine guns against a mechanized army and surrendered. The occupation of Denmark is a topic not really explored in film or books, so I don't know how that went, but the border battle lasted only 4 hours and the Danes lost 16 soldiers. Also, I do know tht a concerted effort betwen the Danes and the Swedes managed to save most of the Jewish population citizens. The Danes shifted their ewish citiens to Sweden and they moved them around, but I forget the details. if I could still read, which I can't due to my cornea disease, I would get a book on that subject.

Well this is it, my last day immersed in War. I am having lunch with my friend Barb Solem at Maritsa's in Maple Shade - no memorial day ceremony for me today due to rain. I spoke to both brothers on the phone today and they were watching war movies too <

So grateful that we are in my small corner of the world at peace. Sad for those poor people suffering in other places from war and aggression.

Wishing you peace!

wrightj45@yahoo.com "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Winston Churchill