Immediately following the German surrender negotiated at Wageningen, advance reconnaissance columns and troops entered the heavily populated western cities, including The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, to secure the area, disarm remaining German troops, and uncover stockpiled food supplies to relieve the starving civilian population.
Before their physical entry into the western urban centers, the 1st Canadian Corps had been clearing the territory north of the Maas River.
The arrival of the Canadian columns brought an immediate end to the brutal German occupation and the devastating "Hunger Winter" period, during which thousands of Dutch civilians in the western cities had faced catastrophic starvation.
