Queen Wilhelmina visits liberatedHolland.

Queen Wilhelmina visits liberatedHolland. In her first visit to het country after five years of exile, Queen Wilhelmina visited every town, every village and every hamlet that she could fit into a 10-day tour of liberated areas in Holland. The 65-year-old Queen did not spare herself. She saw the vast stretches of inundated countrside, which will remain barren for years to come even after the bombed dikes of The Netherlands are repaired. She saw the debris of towns where fighting took place only a few days before her visit, gave sympathy and solace to men, woman and children who were wounded or bereaved. She met the valiant miners of Hoerlan and Venlo, Wherever she stopped, she talked with the men and women who fought stubbornly and silently in the Dutch Resistance Movement. It was announced March 22, 1945, that the unofficial, unplanned tour had ended with Queen Wilhelmina's return to England. The Queen was born in the Hague in 1880 and was reigned on the Dutch throne since 1890. When the Germans invaded Holland in May, 1940, Queen Wilhelmina was forced to flee to England THIS PHOTO SHOWS: The flag of the house of Orange and the Dutch National Flag fly from the Town Hall in s'Hertogenbosch during the Queen's visit.