The liberation of Drenthe was a joint effort by Polish and Belgian forces, occasionally assisted by French paratroopers. The terrain was swampy and unfavourable for tanks, so the Belgian troops took the lead and acted as forward scouts. After all, with their heavy equipment the Polish troops could only advance via the main roads.

On 10 April 1945, the route went first in the direction of Beilen. On the way, contact had to be made with a group of French paratroopers who had been dropped near the Oranje Canal north of the village of Westerbork. As contact was lost it was assumed they had perished, however early that afternoon some 60 paratroopers were nevertheless in contact, some of them having landed on the wrong side of a canal. A Polish battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Complak, with support from Polish scouts and a Belgian SAS unit, moved further north towards the village of Westerbork.

During the advance, Willem (Wim) van der Veer, a Dutch Sergeant dressed as a farmer, had mounted a bicycle to capture the Mayor and Aldermen as quickly as possible. Van der Veer had previously been dropped in the Netherlands to train the resistance and was well known in Westerbork, he had been in hiding there. He wanted to see the Dutch flag flying on the Town Hall when the tanks arrived.

Upon their arrival, Mayor Pijbes and the Councillors were already ready to surrender. They knew it was a lost cause. Not much later, the first vehicles carrying Polish liberators drove into the village.

When the Polish tanks rolled into the village, Camp Westerbork had not yet been liberated. With one phone call, Van der Veer managed to chase the staff away from the camp.

When the phone rang, Van der Veer picked up. On the other end of the line, he heard 'This is Gemmeker, am I speaking to the Mayor?' Van der Veer replied 'Yes, you are speaking to him.' Camp Commander Gemmeker then said (in Dutch): 'How is the situation in Westerbork, Mayor?' Van der Veer replied 'Just listen' and held the phone outside the window as a tank passed by. Gemmeker called out 'Are you the Mayor though?' to which Van der Veer said 'Herr Gemmeker, can you speak English? It's time you learn it, because we are knocking at your door.' Gemmeker responded with 'Nein, nein, nein' and fled from Camp Westerbork in a hurry. A day later, the camp was also liberated by Canadian troops.