Dutch nationals joined the 7th Armored Division in two very different ways.

1. Volunteers: October 1944
   7th Armored Division arrived in the Netherlands in late September 1944, immediatly going into combat to take Overloon -- a mission profoundly undercut by British forces stopping their attack several days earlier and allowing German forces to establish significant defenses AND undercut by the last-minute US Army decision to send one armored division into an attack planned for an infantry division and an armored division. The Division then moved south to the Deurne-Weert-Meijel-Liesel area in mid October. During this time, Dutch resistance members came out of hiding from the Germans and volunteered to join 7th Armored Division as combat troops who could also serve as interpreters. These October 1944 Dutch nationals were assigned to different combat elements of the Division, going into combat immediately.

2. Dutch Army "Corps of Interpreters": January 1945
   • As in January 1945 a part of the Netherlands was still under German occupation, it was SHAEF Brussels who organized with a minimum of resources this newly created Dutch Army Corps of Interpreters. Young men volunteered, were engaged and assigned to allied units who needed them asap, after a very quick background check (no NSB (The Dutch National Socialist party), SS, or Nazi member in the close family), a medical check-up and a language level test. These men were given training by the Dutch Army and then assigned to Allied units, usually in the headquarters, as interpreters.
   • Frank Vogels (son of Harry Vogels who was a trained Dutch Army interpreter assigned to U.S. 7th Armored Division) found and translated this valuable document "The Dutch Interpreters Serving the Allied forces from 1944 until 1948" from the Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie.