Mr. Speaker, this past weekend a great Niagara regiment with a lineage reaching back to the War of 1812, the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, held a parade and memorial service in honour of the battle of Bergen-op-Zoom, fought in October of 1944. As this date falls near Remembrance Day, members of the Lincoln and Welland annually commemorate this battle as part of their active remembrance and regimental reunion.
The battle was one of the defining events in the history of this great regiment, and the valour displayed by the soldiers during the fight that took place marked it as one of the best battalions in the Canadian line. The operations in and around Bergen-op-Zoom were part of the campaign by the Canadian army to clear the Scheldt estuary in order to open the Port of Antwerp. These operations were crucial to the Allied cause. The port facilities of Antwerp were captured intact and the Scheldt estuary cleared for the Allied operations to continue.
The regiment's motto is “Non Nobis Sed Patriae”, meaning “Not for ourselves but for our country”. God bless the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.