Securing access to South Beveland On 2 October, the Canadian 2nd Division began its advance north from Antwerp. Stiff fighting ensued on 6 October at
Woensdrecht, the objective of the first phase. The Germans, reinforced by
Battle Group Chill, saw the priority in holding there, controlling direct access to South Beveland and Walcheren island. passing
Terrapin amphibious vehicles on the Scheldt river, October 1944 There were heavy casualties as the Canadians attacked over open, flooded land. Canadian historians
Terry Copp and Robert Vogel wrote: "the very name Woensdrecht sends shivers down the spines of veterans of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division". Driving rain, booby traps and land mines made advance very difficult. Attacking on 7 October in heavy mist, the
Calgary Highlanders came under heavy fire from German positions. As described in its war diary, "the battle thickened...the Germans forces...hit back with a pugnacity which had not been encountered in the enemy for a long time". After Ramsay raised the issue with Eisenhower, the latter informed Montgomery on or about 9 October "the supreme importance of Antwerp. It is reported to me this morning by the Navy that the Canadian Army will not repeat not be able to attack until 1 November unless immediately supplied with ammunition." Model sent the 256th
Volksgrenadier division and assault gun companies to allow the release of Battle Group Chill, the "fire brigade" consisting of
6th Parachute Regiment and assault gun companies. The German forces at Woensdrecht greatly outnumbered the Canadians and had Model known of this, he might have launched a counter-offensive. Instead he used
attrition tactics by making piecemeal counterattacks. During this time, war diaries of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry noted "many snipers in the houses and hedges" had been encountered while the weather was "cold and wet with high winds. Floods rising again". Simonds had planned to commit the 4th Division to assist the 3rd Division with clearing the Breskens Pocket, but problems faced by the 2nd Division forced Simonds to start peeling off units from the 4th Division. The next day, Simonds ordered Major general
Harry Foster of the 4th Division "to send 4 Cnd Armd Bde to the Antwerp area at the rate of one get a day, beginning 11 Oct". The Black Watch had already taken very heavy losses at the
Battle of Verrières Ridge in July 1944 and its heavy losses on "Black Friday" almost finished the regiment's overseas battalion. The Calgary Highlanders followed up with a more successful action, and their Carrier Platoon succeeded in taking the railway station at Korteven, north of Woensdrecht. Fighting at
Hoogerheide also ensued. On 16 October, the
Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, known as the "Rileys", under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Denis Whitaker, attacked Woensdrecht at night, taking much of the village. However, they were unable to pass beyond the ridge to the west of Woensdrecht. The next day, Eisenhower replied that the issue was not the command arrangement, but rather the ability and willingness of Montgomery to obey orders, saying he had ordered him to clear the Scheldt and warned if he was unable to obey orders, he would be fired. The 52nd division, recruited in the Lowlands of Scotland, was a mountain division, requiring men with unusual strength and stamina in order to fight in the mountains, making it into something of an elite division within the British Army. The
Sherman tanks of the
Governor General's Foot Guards and the
Lake Superior Regiment were decimated by the German SP guns. The fighting at Wouwsche Plantage was considered so important that Montgomery arrived at the headquarters of the 4th Canadian Division to press Foster for speed, but Foster protested that the flat country made speed impossible. One company of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment lost 50% of its men in a single day's fighting, while an advance company of the Algonquin Regiment was cut off and surrounded by the Wehrmacht, requiring desperate fighting to break out. The Canadians now advanced towards
Bergen op Zoom and would take part in Operation Pheasant in an effort to take the city. The advance would force Rundstedt to redeploy the elite 6th Parachute Regiment, which until then had been blocking the 2nd Canadian Division on the Beveland isthmus to the defence of Bergen op Zoom. An earlier failed attempt by the Canadian 4th Armoured Division at
Moerbrugge had demonstrated the challenge they faced. In addition to the formidable German defences on both the Leopold and Schipdonk Canals, much of the approach area was flooded. The Breskens pocket was held by the 64th Division commanded by General Knut Eberding, an infantryman with extensive experience on the
Eastern Front who was regarded as an expert in defensive warfare. When the 15th Army had retreated from the Pas-de-Calais region of France across the Low Countries in September 1944, an enormous number of guns and ammunition ended up in the Breskens Pocket, including one hundred
20 mm anti-aircraft guns. They were used by the Wehrmacht as a sort of "super-heavy
machine gun" and were much dreaded by the Canadian infantry. 20-mm guns could shred a man to pieces within seconds. However, Simonds appreciated the problems imposed by the polder country and the Germans concentrating their forces at the few "land bridges". He planned to use
amphibious vehicles known as "
Buffaloes" to travel across the flooded countryside to outflank the German forces. The 9th Highland Brigade, however, was unable to land at the same time as expected, owing to their unfamiliarity with amphibious vehicles. The assault began on 6 October, supported by extensive artillery and Canadian-built Wasp
Universal Carriers, equipped with
flamethrowers. The 7th Brigade was supposed to be on their own for 40 hours, but instead faced 68 hours of the Germans using everything they had to try the stop the Canadians from crossing the Leopold canal. Simonds had planned to take the Wehrmacht by surprise by avoiding a preliminary bombardment and instead having the Wasps incinerate the German defenders with a "barrage of flame". The Royal Montreal Regiment company held their precious "bridgehead" for several hours before being joined by the "Johns" three hours later when D Company of the Regina Rifles crossed the canal. They were joined by C and A companies in the evening. within the first hour of crossing the canal. By 9 October, the gap between the bridgeheads was closed, and by early morning on 12 October a position had been gained across the Aardenburg road. The days of 10–12 October were ones of intense struggle while the men of the 7th Brigade with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles took, lost and then retook a group of houses known as Graaf Jan and the Regina Rifles found themselves pinned down by a group of well dug-in pillboxes that seemed to be resilient to artillery. The Germans had ample artillery, together with an immense number of artillery shells, and brought down heavy fire on any Canadian advance. Making the fighting even more difficult was the heavy rain that started the day after the crossing of the Leopold canal, with a post-operation report on Operation Switchback stating: "In places the bridgehead was little bigger than the northern canal bank. Even protection was slight: slit trenches rapidly filled with water and had to be dug out many times a day". The Canadian 9th Brigade conducted an amphibious operation with the aid of
Terrapin (the first use of the vehicle in Europe) and Buffalo amphibious vehicles, crewed by the British 5th Assault Regiment of the
Royal Engineers. The brigade planned to cross the mouth of the Braakman Inlet in these vehicles and to land in the vicinity of
Hoofdplaat, a tiny hamlet in the rear or coastal side of the pocket, thus exerting pressure from two directions at once. An "after action" report described the scene on the Terneuzen Canal: "As darkness fell only tail lights showed. The locks at Sas Van Gent proved difficult to negotiate, for the Buffaloes were not easily steered when moving slowly. Their aeroplane engines created a sound so like the roar of aircraft that over Flushing the anti-aircraft guns fired sporadically...Because of the damage to the locks near the ferry (at Neuzen) it was necessary to cut ramps in the bank and by-pass the obstacle. Not only was this a slow progress, but many craft were damaged. The decision was therefore taken to postpone the operation for 24 hours". Living up to his reputation as the "Führer's Fireman", Model ordered Eberding to immediately "annihilate" the Highland Brigade. The
Canadian 10th Brigade of the 4th Armoured Division crossed the Leopold Canal and advanced at Isabella Polder. Then the 3rd Division's
8th Brigade was called to move south from the coastal side of the pocket. This opened up a land-based supply route into the pocket. Eberding used his reserves in his counter-attacks and reported to the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht that some units of the 64th Division had "been reduced to one third". The German officers explained away their retreat by claiming they were being overwhelmed by tanks, but in fact there were only four, belonging to the
British Columbia Regiment, operating north of the Leopold canal. The presumed tanks were actually the
M10 self-propelled anti-tank guns of the 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment which provided fire support to the Canadian infantry. In planning the final push, Spry favoured a cautious, methodical approach, emphasizing firepower that was designed to save as many of the lives of his men as possible. The 3rd Division fought additional actions to clear German troops from the towns of Breskens,
Oostburg,
Zuidzande and
Cadzand, as well as the coastal fortress Fort Frederik Hendrik. When advancing, the Canadians proceeded very slowly and used massive firepower via air strikes and artillery bombardments when faced with opposition. Despite the fact that the Canadians could not afford heavy losses, the 3rd Division began a period of "intense combat" to clear out the Breskens Pocket. The
Régiment de la Chaudière attacked the town of Oostburg on 24 October, losing an entire company, but since they had been ordered to take Oostburg at "any price", the "Chads" dug in to hold their ground while the Queen's Own Rifles came to their aid. In the last days of the battle, German morale declined and the number of executions of "deserters" increased as many German soldiers wished to surrender rather than die in what was clearly a lost battle. After being taken prisoner, Eberding met Spry and accused him of not being aggressive enough in taking advantage of "opportunities", saying any German general would have moved far more swiftly. Spry responded that having lost about 700 men killed in two "aggressive" operations within five days, he preferred a methodical advance that preserved the lives of his men. Eberding replied that this showed "weakness" on the side of the Canadians, noting that Wehrmacht generals were only concerned with winning and never let concern with casualties interfere with the pursuit of victory. Operation Switchback ended on 3 November, when the Canadian 1st Army liberated the Belgian towns of
Knokke and Zeebrugge, officially closing the Breskens Pocket and eliminating all German forces south of the Scheldt.
Operation Vitality move towards South Beveland during the Battle of the Scheldt On the afternoon of 22 October, Major-General Foulkes, as acting commander of the II Canadian Corps told the 2nd Canadian Division that the start of Operation Vitality, the operation to take the South Beveland peninsula, had been pushed forward by two days by the "express orders from Field Marshal Montgomery who had placed this operation at first priority for the British and Canadian forces in this area". Major Ross Ellis of the
Calgary Highlanders told Foulkes that the men were tired after the hard fighting earlier in October, only to be informed that the operation would go through. Morale in the 2nd Division was poor, with only the Royal Regiment of Canada, the
Essex Scottish Regiment, the Cameron Highlanders and the Calgary Highlanders being able to assemble anything close to four rifle companies. On 25 October, the Essex Scottish Regiment reported that 120 Germans had surrendered and that the "tough shell of defences at the narrowest point of the peninsula was broken". On 26 October, the 70th Infantry Division's commander General Wilhelm Daser reported to Rundstedt that the situation was untenable, and that retreat was unavoidable. Colonel
C.P. Stacey wrote about the "race" in the official history of the Canadian Army, a charge that was vehemently disputed by Copp and Vogel in the
Maple Leaf Route. The Royal Regiment took the eastern end of the causeway in a night attack. As there seemed an actual chance of taking the entire causeway, orders were sent to the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division to launch an attack, to be led by the "jinxed" Black Watch who were to advance down the causeway while the Calgary Highlanders and Le Régiment de Maisonneuve were to advance by boat. Foulkes ordered Major-General Hakewill-Smith to launch the 52nd Division into a frontal attack on Walcheren, which Hakewill-Smith protested strongly. The "Maisies" withdrew onto the Causeway on 2 November, to be relieved by the 1st Battalion,
Glasgow Highlanders of the 52nd Division. Instead of launching a frontal attack as ordered by Foulkes, Hakewill-Smith outflanked the Germans by landing the Cameronian regiment at the village of
Nieuwdorp, south of the causeway, and linked up with the Glasgow Highlanders the next day. In conjunction with the waterborne attacks, the 52nd continued the advance. The battle for the causeway had caused the 2nd Division 135 dead in what has become one of the most controversial operations of the 2nd Division, with much criticism centering on the decisions of Foulkes. Despite the refusal of Bomber Command to strike various German fortifications on Walcheren, opening up the Scheldt was regarded as so important that during a meeting on 31 October between Simonds, Foulkes, and Admiral Ramsay, it was decided that the landings on Walcheren were to go ahead.
Operation Infatuate II Operation Infatuate II was the amphibious landing at Westkapelle, also conducted on the morning of 1 November. To cross the shallow water required a daylight assault with fire support provided by the Support Squadron Eastern Flank (SSEF) commanded by Commander K.A Sellar, with additional support from the
battleship and two
monitors, and . Air support was limited due to weather conditions. With no air support, no spotter aircraft to guide the guns of his ships, and the Germans fully alerted with their coastal artillery already firing at the British ships, Pugsley was faced with the difficult decision to cancel or proceed, and after some deliberation, sent out the message reading "Nelson", which was the code name to land. Anticipating the fall of "Fortress Walcheren", on November 4, Admiral Ramsay ordered that mine-sweepers start the work of removing the German mines from the river Scheldt, a task that was not completed until 28 November. Heavy fighting ensued in Domburg as well before the ruins of the town were captured. On 3 November, the Royal Marines had linked with the 52nd Division. ==Aftermath==