Battle of the Scheldt - Southern Bank

Thanks to a teacher girls’ weekend in Milan, Rachel’s car and I got to spend some time exploring the Battle of the Scheldt, a major Canadian battle to free access to the crucial port of Antwerp. I followed the excellent guidebook, The Canadian Battlefields in Northwest Europe, by Terry Copp and Mike Bechthold.

As can be seen from the map from the Canadian Official History, this is a very complicated battle with a lot of moving parts, so the actions south and north of the Scheldt will be separated into separate posts.

Background

After the breakout at Normandy, the Germans were in retreat throughout Europe. Gen Eisenhower favoured a broad front strategy to push into Germany, but Gen Montgomery favoured a Narrow Front Strategy where the Brits would push into Europe through the Netherlands and take the German Industrial Heartland of the Ruhr Valley on their way to Berlin. Montgomery believed the German Army was near collapse, and his strategy would end the War by Christmas 1944.

As the Allies got further from Normandy, the resupply of the troops became a big issue as all equipment was still coming in from Normandy and had to be trucked to the front as the French Rail system was inoperable. It got to the point where it took 3 gallons of gas to deliver 1 gallon for the troops. The Broad front strategy could not be supported with the long supply lines, so Montgomery’s plan was approved with the proviso that the taking of the port of Antwerp be a top priority.

As the Canadians were the western flank, they were given responsibly for the clearance of the Channel ports in order to shorten the supply lines. Hitler realized that the ports were key to the Allied progress, so order each port be turned into a fortress and defended to the last man.

Dieppe was abandoned before the Fortress order was given, so the Canadians took it on 01 September, but it was 07 September before the ports were repaired and fuel began to be delivered. Le Havre was taken on 12 September but needed repairs before supplies started flowing. Boulonge was heavily defended and was only taken on 22 September after 5 days of intense fighting. The port was only open for shipping on 14 October. Finally, Calais was taken on 30 September, but the port was badly damaged and only opened for shipping in November.

Antwerp

The port of Antwerp was taken largely intact by the British second army on 04 September, but Antwerp was 50 miles inland and both sides of the Scheldt Estuary were strongly held by the Germans.

Monty was obsessed with Operation Market Garden, so instead of clearing the Estuary while the Germans were in disarray, the British XXX corps was diverted to the Eastern Netherlands to provide the Armoured strike for Market Garden. This decision cost the Canadians dearly as two months of brutal fighting were required to clear the Germans and another 4 weeks of mine clearance before the first ship arrived in Antwerp at the end of November, too late for the Allies to move forward before winter set in.

Battle of the Scheldt

The 1st Canadian army was assigned the responsibility of clearing the Scheldt Estuary. The troops included the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Armoured Division as well as the British 1st Army Corps and the 1st Polish Armoured Division.

After the fall of Antwerp, Hitler knew that the Allied use of the Port of Antwerp would be devastating for the Germans, so he strengthened troops on both sides of the Scheldt and declared again they fight to the last man.

The battle was very complicated, with the 3rd Canadian Division responsible for clearing south of the Scheldt (Breskens Pocket), the 2nd Canadian Division and Brits responsible for the north bank of the Scheldt, including Walcheren Island, and the 4th Armoured Division moving North of Antwerp to prevent any counterattacks from the East.

Breskens Pocket

The Polish Armoured Division headed north first and sealed off the eastern edge of the Breskens Pocket on 17 September to protect the back of the 3rd Division. The Poles had long since used up all their resources of Poles who had escaped to Britian, so their only method of reinforcement was from the front. A large number of Polish soldiers had been forced to join the German Army. They took every opportunity to surrender as quickly as possible and often an hour later they would have a new uniform and be fighting on the Allied side. The Poles fought tenaciously and often recklessly as they believed their strong performance would guarantee them freedom after the war. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass.

The first major obstacle for the Canadians was the Leopold Canal. The Germans had flooded much of the land north of the Canal to force the Canadians into crossing at very well defended locations.

The first attempt at crossing the Leopold Canal was made at Moerkerke by the Algonquin Regiment from North Bay at midnight 13 September. At this point the Leopold canal is separated from the Canal de la Lys are separated by a 50-foot-wide embankment. Attempts to build a bridge across the canals was stopped by heavy fire, so all 4 companies of the Algonquins were paddled across both Canals by the Lincolns in assault boats while under heavy fire.

The banks of the canal are about 20 ft high, so they had to drag the boats down one bank, paddle across the first canal, climb the bank cross the central dyke then repeat the action on the second canal.

The canals looked idyllic when I visited, but it was easy to imagine the difficulty of the crossings.

The shelling was so intense it was impossible to resupply the Algonquins and there was no air support to attack German Artillery. By noon the next day, the Algonquins withdrew under smoke and an artillery barrage. They suffered 28 killed, 40 wounded and 66 captured out of a total 240 men who crossed the canals.

The road that runs along the canal is now called Algonquinstraat and there is a memorial to the action near the current bridge.

The plaque reads:

After this action, LGen Simmonds, the acting 1st Canadian Commander rethought his strategy guided by Ultra Intercepts that indicated the importance the Germans placed on protecting the Scheldt. The Canadian Divisions were scattered and exhausted from the Channel Port Battles, so it wasn’t until 06 October that the next attempt at the canal was made.

The Royal Montreal Regiment was the first unit to cross at 0530. They used Wasp Flamethrowers to reach across the canal to provide a surprise for the early phase of the battle. The flamethrowers operated for 5 minutes and had the north shore of the canal ablaze. Unfortunately, the flames illuminated the boats crossings, and an entire company was lost to machine gun fire.

The Regina Rifles were held up by a pill box on the canal bank that provided devastating fire until it was neutralized by a PIAT (Projector Infantry, Anti Tank). The Canadian Scottish fared better as they were not in line with the bunker and the Royal WInnipegs followed on. The Canadian Artillery flattened the towns behind the lines and the crossing was held. The units suffered 533 men killed or wounded and 200 cases of battle exhaustion.

This is the bunker on the canal bank that caused so many problems for the Canadians.

The Canadians had a tenuous hold on the Canal crossing and were on their own for 24 hours.

A memorial to the 7th Brigade is located in Eedle, one of the first towns in the Netherlands to be liberated.

The monument is collocated to a celebration of Queen Wilhelmina’s return to the Netherlands.

A Bren Carrier in excellent condition.

A bailey bridge was eventually built across the Leopold Canal. The bridge was moved down the canal after the war, but is still in use today to provide access to an extensive walking and bike path network.

Operation Switchback

On 09 October, the 9th Brigade made landings in 100 Buffalo Amphibious vehicles just east of Hoofdplaat on the river’s edge.

The Buffalos were tracked amphibious vehicles that carried 30 troops and used their treads as paddles in the water to advance at 8 mph.

Buffalos landing on the Scheldt bank.

The southern bank of the Scheldt is sand based at low tide with a wide strip of marsh grass followed by a steep dike. The landing areas are shown below. A number of Buffalos got bogged down on the shoreline, but the troops got ashore with relatively few casualties.

The height of the dike is difficult to see in this picture, but the top of the dike is about 30 feet above the water level.

The opening of a second front led to the capture of Hoofdplaat 2 days later, and further squeezed the Germans. A memorial to the 9th Brigade crossing is located close to the landing points.

Battleground

The terrain was made up mainly of Polders (reclaimed land below sea level) separated by a series of dikes. A period map of the area shows the layout. This is a largely agricultural area with a collection of small villages.

A view from the Scheldt dike shows the field conditions. The field had been recently tilled, but there had been no rain in several days.

This was an infantry battle. The tanks could only operate on the dikes which were about 10 feet wide. The problem was if the first tank was taken out, there would be no way to pass it. The mud in the polders made it difficult for the soldiers to progress, so they also traveled on the dikes, silhouetting themselves and making easy targets. .The dikes were also great locations for the enemy to dig in.

The Germans had a month to prepare so they built multiple lines of defence. They also flooded many poldors to restrict Allied movement.

I happened on a pair of bunkers dug into the dike. Machine guns were placed on top of the bunkers and controlled the advance in all directions.  The lack of Armour meant the strong points could only be taken by artillery or a frontal assault similar to World War One tactics, with the corresponding high casualty rates. The rule of thumb for a successful assault is for the attackers to have a 3 to 1 numerical advantage. For most of the battle the ratio was 1 to 1 or lower for the Allies, so their success was due to dogged determination and sacrifice. A view from the top of the dike near the bunker.

A quote from the Canadian Scottish Regiment War Diary indicated the struggle of the troops:

Living conditions at the front are NOT cozy. Water and soil make MUD. MUD sticks to everything. Boots weigh pounds more. Rifles and Brens operate sluggishly. Ammunition becomes wet. Slit trenches allow one to get below the ground level but also contain several inches of THICK water. Matches and cigarettes are wet and unusable. So almost everyone looks for a house. A GOOD house is one which has only a few holes in the walls, and not more than half the roof dismantled. They are hard to find after our arty has lifted its range and after enemy arty has found its range. Carriers are the only vehicles which can use the muddy paths called roads. So, the soldier shakes his head, cleans his rifle, swears a good deal and dreams of what he'll do when he gets LEAVE (if).

On 19 October at Ijzendijke behind the front lines a major explosion occurred at a Royal Engineers encampment killing 41 and wounding 50 more. The Brits used a Conger Bren Carrier that launched a flexible hose across a mine field then pumped highly unstable Nitroglycerine through the hose and set off an explosion to destroy land mines. I hadn’t heard of this mine clearing technique and believe the explosion of 3 tons of Nitroglycerine probably lessened enthusiasm for this approach. A memorial was raised to commemorate the explosion.

The Canadians pushed forward and attacked Breskens on 18 October. The German strong point was Fort Frederik Hendrik. The Fort had been built in 1810 by Napoleon to guard the entrance into Antwerp. Despite constant shelling and bombing from the Air Force that leveled the town, the fort held out until 25 October when the remaining garrison of 3,000 troops surrendered. The fort was demolished in the assault and never rebuilt.

The land is now a water park and summer residence community, but the road maintains the distinctive Star formation. Breskens is now a resort town with many condos and apartment buildings, but no monuments possibly indicating their displeasure with the battle.

The Canadians continued their progress, finally clearing the Breskens Pocket on 02 November with the liberation of Knocke and Heyst, the last towns in Belgium to be freed.

There is now an annual walk from Hoofdplaat to Knocke Heyst to commemorate the Canadian actions in the area. Rachel participated in the walk last year, see the post and will be part of the Canadian Contingent again this year.

At the same point is the first marker that defines the liberation route.

Aftermath

The number of prisoners taken on First Canadian Army front during this phase of the operations from 1 Oct-8 Nov was 38,820.

 British and Allied casualties were reported by Lt-General Simonds as 703 officers and 12,170 other ranks, killed, wounded and missing. Of these, 355 officers and 6,012 Other ranks were Canadians,

After 4 weeks of mine clearing, the port of Antwerp was open for business. In a terrible slight, no Canadians were invited to the opening ceremony at Antwerp despite the valiant efforts and sacrifice of the 1st Canadian Army.

The next post will deal with action north of the Scheldt.