On that day, a convoy from the Duke of Wellington Regiment of the British 49th Infantry Division set out on a reconnaissance mission from Lunteren. This unit, nicknamed the ‘Polar Bears’, had been attached to the First Canadian Army Corps, which was under the command of General C. Foulkes.

At the Havenafweg, near what was then the Hof van Gelderland hotel, a Bren carrier struck a mine. The driver, Corporal Walter B. Dewe, was killed in the incident. The other four occupants were injured. Dewe, aged 26, is buried at the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek.

Establishment

The memorial was established on the initiative of volunteers from the Casteelse Poort museum, following an article in De Gelderlander on 17 April 2007. This article, entitled ‘City of Liberation forgets the Polar Bears’, highlighted the contribution of this British regiment to the liberation of Wageningen.