By 16 April, the major part of Friesland had been liberated. But some important targets of the Canadians had not yet been achieved. They wanted to win the Frisian ports and the Head of the Afsluitdijk from the Germans as quickly as possible. But they would be hard fought. Both the ports and the Afsluitdijk were used by German soldiers to escape to North Holland.
As elsewhere in Friesland, the Canadians were helped by resistance fighters from the Dutch Domestic Armed Forces (N.B.S.) They suffered several casualties near Makkum. On 16 April, Schelte Bruinsma and Simon Sipma were killed in an attack on a farm in which the Germans had entrenched themselves. The next day, another group tried to occupy a bridge under Makkum. However, the Germans caught sight of them and in the ensuing gunfight, Rinnert Anema, Roelof van der Meer and Hendrik Postma were killed. Makkum was liberated on 18 April, as one of the last villages in Friesland.
The monument at the Buren in Makkum was unveiled in 1952 in commemoration of the members of the Dutch Domestic Armed Forces who were killed around the village during the struggle for liberation.
IISBAAN YN ‘E MAAITIID de besiele stilte fan it ferlitten hillichdom it is maaitiid mar bûten de tiid briedt it fersûpte gers mei nij grien de tút fan bestimming deryn yn it sin bringer fan it streekjen it frij fielen ûnierdsk njonken it knoffeljen it minsklik mislearjen ah jasses hakkekruk dreamt fan iisprinsesse yn in nije winter tute as by in âlde hit de wrâld in dûnsflier dy kâldreade blommewangen ûnder har mûtse fan suvere ingelewol wei te plôkjen de tút de dream oer de tút de tút fan de dream oer de tút hakkekruk knoffelet troch de hope op de tút fan de dream oer de tút waard in wynwak drûget op, lit de feiten sprekke: ferlitten timpel, dea iis gjin prinsesse by machte