Page 210: Balfour, Melville Earl

1945
Thrilling Experience
  One of Pte. Balfour’s biggest thrills occurred when the Canadians were chasing the Huns and ousting them backwards at Bergen Op. Bergen in Holland. The regiment was pushing forward into the village but met with stiff resistance and 13 young Canadians found themselves cut off from their regiment. They took refuge in an old stove factory and there they held off the on-rushing Huns, who attempted to storm the Canadians out into the open, or kill them as they rushed forward. The 13 Canadian boys found themselves in one room, with two outlets and then they held their stand and killed off many a Hun who rashly rushed forward, some of them being allowed to run right into the factory never to return. Later on in the day the brave little company of Canadians were rescued by the main section of the Canadian advancing army. They were trapped for 16 hours, most of the time under deadly fire. "That wos [was] some fighting and some experience" remarked Pte. Balfour. "It was a case of fighting it out or being taken and killed by the Germans."

War Not Over—Yet
  Pte. Balfour would not be put on the spot and make and declaration or guess as to when the war would end. "I can’t see how it will come too soon," he remarked, "There is going to be a lot of slugging over there yet. We ran into some of the German storm troopers and they are fanatical and will fight until they are killed. I have no idea, naturally, when the war will be over, but I hope it will be soon. This I believe, that there will be more Victory Bond campaigns . . . and we should back every one of them – I know how much the money is needed to buy the equipment to keep the boys protected over there. We thought and believed that the more bonds we bought, the sooner the war would be over, and I believe that more so, since I have returned hom [home]. "The boys overseas buy bonds because they know the equipment is so necessary and because they want to get home – people here on the home front should buy Bonds if they want to bring their boys some [home] soon as they possibly can. The more bonds we buy, the sooner the war will be over."