It seemed like the rain would never end in the
seclusive enclaves of the Scheldt Estuary during the Fall of 1944,
but despite the thick mud, impenetrable fog, and heavy fire, the Allies had one clear goal:
to secure a supply line to Antwerp for the incoming forces advancing into continental Europe.
The excruciatingly challenging circumstances played against the liberators,
as almost 86,000 Wehrmacht soldiers steadily defended the position
and had no mercy against the Allied forces, most of which belonged to the Canadian Army.
Still, the Canadians and several sympathizers continued advancing
to liberate the Scheldt river between Belgium and the Netherlands. And with it,
the most fortified German strongpoint of the Atlantic Wall: the Island of Walcheren.
As the amphibious vehicles approached the island,
the soldiers could spot the Orange Mill against the glow of fires
and realized that the brutal last phase of one of the longest battles in the war had just begun.
Like Bill Davis of the Royal Highland Regiment said: (QUOTE)
“That was the dirtiest job that we ever had.”
Beginning of the End
The Allies landed on Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
Among the joint forces landing on the beach were the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division
and the 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade of the First Canadian Army.
As the British and American armies advanced towards the heart of Germany
in the inaccurately called “main fight,” the First Canadian Army was given one vital task:
to clear the coastal areas to open channel ports and allow the inflow of supplies
to the hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers in Europe.
Consequently, the First Canadian Army pushed eastward towards Belgium, fighting on the left
flank of the bulk of the Allied forces. The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division then reached Dieppe and
fortified the cleared ports, leaving some units behind while the rest advanced into Belgium. By
early October, critical port cities like Boulogne and Dunkirk were already under Allied power.
Moreover, the 2nd Canadian Corps also freed Southern England from rocket attacks,
as they captured the German launching sites on the continent.
At the same time, the Second British Army reached the Southern Netherlands,
and the British and American airborne divisions then attempted an operation alongside Polish
allies to land behind the German lines and seize a bridge over the Rhine River at Arnhem.
Operation Market Garden would go down in history as a failed mission,
with 1,400 lives lost and 6,000 captured, suppressing any hopes of a speedy end to the war.
Then, as the winter approached, securing a major port became a top priority.
Eyes on the Scheldt
The British had seized Europe’s second-largest port at Antwerp, Belgium, in early September,
which had a full 45 kilometers of docks. However, the Germans still controlled the
Scheldt River, a critical path that connected the port to the North Sea.
As long as the sea approaches and the estuary remained under German control,
the port could not be used as a shipping route to supply the Allies.
The first phase would require the liberation of the surroundings of the Scheldt and, therefore,
the liberation of Antwerp, which would clear the supply routes into the Netherlands.
As such, the First Canadian Army was ordered to open up the supply lines
so that the Allied front could advance.
Under the Command of General Henry Duncan Graham Crear,
the First Canadian Army was the largest ever under the control of a Canadian general.
It was mainly composed of 105,000 to 175,000 Canadian soldiers, but the total number of
troops could rise up to 450,000 when they were assisted by British or American sympathizers,
as well as many Polish, Belgian, Norwegian, French, and Dutch units.
When General Crear had to return to England due to poor health,
the mission was entrusted to fellow compatriot Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds.
The joint forces under Canadian leadership would first strive to liberate Zuid Beveland,
or South Beveland, an island-turned-peninsula north of Antwerp, as well as the island of
Walcheren to the northwest. Both enclaves belonged to the province of Zeeland,
midway between Western and Eastern Scheldt at the river’s mouth into the North Sea.
Many historians consider this battlefield area
as the most difficult terrain that any soldier faced during World War 2.
Below Sea Level
Zeeland is a province in Southwest Netherlands encompassing a multitude
of islands and peninsulas. Its two main seaports are Terneuzen and Vlissingen,
but its capital, Middelburg, lies in the middle of the island of Walcheren.
The island, located in the North Sea, is bordered by the Eastern Scheldt to the north
and the Western Scheldt to the south, and has served as a strategic point for ships
going back and forth to Britain since the age of the Roman Empire.
Given its preeminent importance, the Germans had fortified their positions on both estuary banks
and entrenched themselves in bunkers defended by semi-buried heavy guns
to make them impermeable to aerial attacks.
In total, Walcheren was defended by about 86,000 men, 600 guns,
and 6,000 vehicles mobilized after the Normandy landing in anticipation of an Allied advance.
The new priority for the Germans was to fend off any invasion attempt along the Scheldt
and halt the Allied advance into the rest of Europe.
Furthermore, the island was not only part of the Atlantic Wall but arguably the strongest
concentration of defenses that the Germans ever erected as part of their system of
coastal fortifications between 1942 and 1944. The infamous wall extended along the entire
shores of Europe and Scandinavia, and many of the buildings still stand to this day.
To make matters worse, the river was densely mined, effectively impeding Allied minesweepers
from clearing the waterway. And the south bank consisted of flat flood-lands enclosed by dykes,
while the so-called polder country was below sea level, further supporting the area’s defenses.
Still, plans continued for the 2nd Infantry Division to head north from Antwerp on October 2,
while the 3rd Infantry Division and 4th Armored Division would execute a second phase,
clearing the Breskens pocket behind the Leopold Canal during what was dubbed Operation Switchback.
As the mission launched, the Canadians and Allies attacked from the south
to secure the area between Belgium and the Dutch town of Breskens.
Then, while advancing through soaking wet ground that flooded recently excavated trenches,
the Allies met fierce resistance from the well-entrenched Germans.
Corporal William “Bill” Davis, who fought with the Black Watch Battalion, later recalled in an
interview: (QUOTE) “You may find this hard to believe, but it wasn’t the fighting that
bothered you. You would give your right arm to have a decent night’s sleep in a nice warm,
dry place. That became the objective. The Germans were in the way of keeping you from having that.
It wasn’t the fighting really that bothered most people. It was the conditions.
It was a terrible, terrible fall and winter in Holland, the worst… in 50 years.”
Against all odds, the brave Canadians eventually broke the enemy’s hold of the canal,
and their troops and tanks crossed the bridge into the pocket. They had gained
a small footing in German territory, and more importantly, they had distracted the enemy.
Then, in mid-October, the Canadian troops assaulted the historic Frederick Hendriks Fort
while using tank fire and flame throwers against the mighty German coastal and
anti-aircraft guns aiming at the waterway. The fort then fell after three days of harassment.
The Canadian Army broke the resistance within a month
and removed German forces from the Breskens pocket. However, the fighting was not over.
Having cleared the area north of Antwerp and secured access to Zuid Beveland,
as well as dislodging the enemy behind the Leopold Canal,
it was now time for the third phase: the capture of Zuid Beveland.
Black Friday
The situation called for an amphibious assault on the port of Vlissingen on the
opposite side of the inlet. For the Germans, it was vital to keep hold of the direct access
to the province and Walcheren Island if they were to thwart the Allied advance;
beyond the shipping lanes and ports, the site was also near a crucial military airfield.
Meanwhile, the Allies, under the overall command of Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery,
struggled to secure the entire area.
Montgomery would later write in his memoirs: (QUOTE) “I must admit a bad mistake on my part.
I underestimated the difficulties of opening up the approaches to Antwerp
so that we could get free use of that port. I reckoned that the Canadian Army could do it
while we were going for the Ruhr. I was wrong.”
The region was an obvious place for an invasion and thus densely
defended. Walcheren’s seaward-facing defenses
were stronger than anything the Allies had encountered back in Normandy.
After the engagement at Leopold Canal, the 4th Armored Division drove into the town
of Bergen-op-Zoom, and the onslaught began on the infamous Black Friday of October 13.
Despite the flooded land and the driving rain,
not to mention the numerous booby traps and landmines that hampered their advance, the
Canadians fiercely captured and defended the dike along the railway track leading to Vlissingen.
The effort took a significant toll on the Allied side, with the 5th Infantry Brigade’s Black Watch
battalion nearly wiped out. There were 145 casualties in total, including 58 losses,
while no ground was gained that day. Moreover, the Germans captured 27 men.
Marching On
A grueling battle against the relentless Germans and the rough surroundings ensued.
Through waterlogged, thick mud, and dense fog, the Canadians kept fighting until the end of October
when the region was secured, and the land link of the German forces
between Zuid-Beveland and Walcheren was cut off. The next target was now the latter.
An Allied coordinated assault of bombers and ground troops
then engaged the 10,000 Germans defending the island in what was known as Operation Infatuate.
Before the invasion, Royal Air Force Lancasters and Mosquitoes had targeted dykes around
Westkapelle, Vlissingen, and Veere, hampering the German movement and flooding Walcheren,
which facilitated the current invasion.
The water levels allowed the Allies to execute amphibian operations,
and on November 1, commando troops boarded their landing crafts and headed for Vlissingen
while sustaining relentless artillery bombardment.
Still under the dark of the early morning, the task force approached the port
under the codename “Uncle Beach.” While getting closer, the commandos could see the Oranjemolen,
or Orange Mill, against the flames encircling the island from the aerial bombardment.
The Canadians and Allies then reached the shore and liberated the city
after several instances of brutal street fighting.
Vlissingen was liberated on November 3, and the capital, Middelburg,
soon after. The whole island was secured within two days
as the Germans retreated through the last bridges available to them along the Scheldt Estuary.
Sacrifice
The operation’s four phases were successfully completed,
and with the enemy now gone, mine-clearing operations commenced. The task lasted for three
weeks and finished before the first Allied convoy entered the port of Antwerp on November 29.
The crucial operation paved the way for the Allied advance into Western Europe.
And for the Nazis, the Battle of the Scheldt proved a major defeat.
They suffered roughly 12,000 casualties, and 41,000 men were taken as prisoners.
The Allies had triumphed in great part due to the sacrifice of the brave Canadian troops, who
endured half of the 12,873 casualties the Canadian Army suffered in total. Most of them are buried
at two Commonwealth War Cemeteries in the area, where they are still honored for their service.
Still, those who survived continued the struggle and focused on the liberation
of the rest of the Netherlands and Amsterdam the following spring.
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