Yellowknife (May 16/05) - Five years ago Gordon Carter was in Holland for the celebration of V-E Day. It was his second time back since March of 1945.

"In Holland it's a big thing," said the 81-year-old veteran. "Every kid knows about it."

The Dutch have not forgotten the events of the Second World War, says Carter, and neither has he.

As a private in the Algonquin Regiment, Fourth Division he made one dollar and fifty cents a day - not good pay even for 1944, says Carter. "We weren't in it for the wages."

At 20 years old, he first arrived in Europe in September 1944 where his division was transporting vehicles from France to Belgium. After making the trip six times, his division was called upon to take part in the "big push ... on into Germany and across the Rhine River."

It was February 1945, a time when the Canadian forces were, "really short on troops," Carter said. His own company should have been composed of 125 men.

"If we had 75 we thought we were really loaded," Carter said.

The war was not as it is portrayed in movies, he says, but things did get hectic at times.

Carter's division was involved in the battle for Hochwald Forest as the Allies pushed on to the Rhine.

"We went in under a creeping barrage of anti-air guns," Carter said. The rapid fire weapons, normally used to down planes, were levelled off to shoot at ground troops, and fired shells which exploded after travelling a certain distance.

Humps in farmers fields were used for cover during the push, and ditches were dug on the spot for added security.

"You might throw away everything else you had, but you carried your shovel every place you went," Carter said.

One document in his possession recounts the tale of an Allied soldier who lost his shovel in the battle for Hochwald Forest. After being wounded and immobilized on the battlefield, the soldier used a tablespoon to dig himself a trench for cover. The battle lasted 12 days, and Carter was wounded before the end. He spent the next 17 days on a stretcher in a field dressing station near the front line before being flown to a hospital in England. It was there where Carter spent his first V-E Day.

After the war he met his wife, who had served her country as a messenger in the Navy, and moved to Yellowknife in 1971. But he has not forgotten the "intense time," he spent in Europe.