EARLY IN OCTOBER, Rockingham’s 9th Brigade arrived in Ghent from Cap Gris Nez and began training for their next operation with Landing Vehicles, Tracked, of the 5th Assault Regiment, Royal Engineers. Each ‘LVT,’ as the soldiers called them before the War Office dubbed them ‘Buffaloes,’ carried 24 men or a Bren carrier. Neither the infantry nor the engineers had used them before. There were two days for training before the force set out in the late afternoon of 7 October, to swim 20 miles down the Terneuzen Canal to the Scheldt. There they were to enter the river, turn left across the mouth of the Braakman inlet and make a surprise landing on the north-east corner of the Breskens ‘island’ at 2 a.m. on the 8th.
At last light the column moved off, only the LVTs’ tail-lights showing in the dark. At Sas van Gent there was trouble getting through the locks for the amphibians were hard to manoeuvre at slow speed. Near the end of the Canal, at Terneuzen, a set of locks had been jammed shut by the enemy and ramps had to be cut for the vehicles to bypass the obstacle. It was a slow and laborious process and several craft were damaged as they were being winched from the water. With these unexpected delays disappeared the possibility of a surprise landing that night. To attack in daylight would be suicidal. Rockingham had no alternative but to delay the operation for 24 hours.
It was not an easy decision to take. The pressure on 7th Brigade in their tenuous bridgehead would continue unabated for yet another day and the enemy might discover the assault force lying in wait in the flat countryside around Terneuzen. Already the noise of the LVTs’ aeroplane engines had sounded so much like approaching bombers that German anti-aircraft guns on Walcheren Island had thrown up a curtain of fire.
With only a few hours of darkness remaining, the Brigade concealed both men and their vehicles in nearby farms, camouflaged the ramps with nets and confined the local population to their homes.
Shortly after midnight on 9 October the LVTs took to the water and formed into two assault groups, each carrying an infantry battalion. The North Nova Scotia Highlanders were bound for ‘Green Beach,’ three kilometres east of Hoofdplaat, while the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, on the left, headed for ‘Amber Beach,’ closer to the Braakman. Both flotillas were led by a motor boat, that on the right carrying the Naval Liaison Officer at Army Headquarters who had volunteered to navigate. As they neared the shores of the Breskens island, artillery fired coloured marker shells onto the landing beaches, scattering others widely to confuse the enemy. Both battalions landed with little difficulty. Apart from a few shots fired against the HLI, there was no enemy reaction until after dawn when the coastal guns near Flushing opened fire.
Within eight hours the LVTs had returned with The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, the heavy mortars and machine guns of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and Brigade Headquarters. Soon the whole brigade was advancing.
Eberding had been completely surprised, but he reacted swiftly, sending his divisional reserve to block Rockingham’s advance. Soon the heavy guns at Breskens and Flushing were inflicting casualties on the Canadians. From Walcheren, two companies of infantry and some engineers from the 70th Division sailed to reinforce the 64th, their passage screened by a low-hanging mist.
Faced with mounting opposition in the difficult polder country, the Canadian advance slowed. Hoofdplaat fell to the SDG on the 10th but the HLI were unable to take Biervliet until the following day. Yet the situation here was far more promising than in 7th Brigade’s bridgehead on the Leopold Canal. General Spry decided to cancel the 8th Brigade’s crossing by that route and land them instead behind 9th Brigade. The main thrust of the 3rd Division would now be from east to west instead of from south to north. First, though, the western shore of the Braakman would have to be cleared.
The first reinforcement to land was the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars, the divisional reconnaissance regiment, fighting as infantry. They struck out towards the southwest. By the 12th, the 8th Brigade had landed and the entire 3rd Division began to advance through the polders.
The dykes which bordered them intersected to form a gridiron pattern. Their junctions were defended by the veterans of the 64th Division who fought with skill and tenacity. As so disastrously demonstrated by the Black Watch near Woensdrecht, it was impossible to cross sodden fields in the face of the interlocking fire of machine guns sited at the corners. Yet anything which moved along the dykes themselves was a sitting target.
For the Canadians there was no alternative but to take out each enemy machine-gun position in turn, a series of platoon battles, helped where possible by artillery and Wasp flame throwers. Being restricted to the dykes meant advancing on a ‘one-man front.’ Usually this man was a junior officer or NCO and the casualty rate among leaders mounted alarmingly.
By 15 October the North Nova Scotia Highlanders had lost every lieutenant and most of their NCOs. ‘Almost every company commander that went into that Breskens battle became a casualty — not wounded, killed.’1
Captain Jock Anderson, the much-decorated padre of the HLI, commented that in other battles, mortar fire caused most of the casualties, about twenty percent of which were fatal. But on the Scheldt the majority were caused by machine-gun and rifle fire and the percentage of fatalities was much higher — close to fifty percent.2
During the first few days of the battle, the weather prevented air attacks, but, as the 8th Brigade joined the fight, the skies lifted. In four days the RAF flew 1,300 sorties against targets in the Breskens Pocket. Heavy bombers dropped 1,150 tons of bombs on the batteries at Breskens and Flushing which continued to fire in Eberding’s support.
On the 14th, south of the Braakman, the 4th Armoured Division attacked in the Isabella area and met the 8th Brigade advancing from the north. Swinging to the west, by the 18th, the 8th was only ten kilometres from Oostburg at the centre of ‘Scheldt Fortress South,’ while the 9th was about three from Breskens on the coast.
That day the weary 7th Brigade, which had fought its way out of the confines of its restricted bridgehead, was relieved by the 157th British Infantry Brigade which had come under command of the 3rd Division. (Its parent division, the 52nd Lowland, specially trained in mountain warfare, was about to fight its first battle — below sea level.) On the 19th, the 157th occupied Aardenburg without opposition and there were joined by the 17th Hussars advancing from the east. By now the enemy had withdrawn to a shorter defensive line from Breskens to Schoondijke thence south-west through Oostburg and Sluis and along the Sluis Canal to the Leopold.
On the right the 9th Brigade had the unenviable task of capturing three of the strongest positions on the Scheldt which Rockingham allotted to his three battalions in turn. First the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders would capture the port of Breskens, then the Highland Light Infantry of Canada would take Schoondijke, the key to the new German defence line, and the North Nova Scotia Highlanders would assault the formidable Fort Frederik Hendrik whose guns control the entrance to the Scheldt opposite Walcheren. The Glens would attack first whilst the remainder of the brigade attempted to hold the enemy’s attention with diversionary attacks. Ten regiments of artillery, heavy bombers and rocket- and cannon-firing aircraft would support them.
Breskens promised to be the most awkward objective of the lot. Surrounding it were a 20-foot anti-tank ditch full of water 12 feet deep, minefields and belts of wire. All were covered by anti-tank and machine guns. To cross them, the Glens had been allotted a squadron of special armoured vehicles of the 79th Armoured Division — flail tanks to clear paths through the mines and wire, AVREs to destroy concrete emplacements and flame-throwing Crocodiles to neutralize covering weapons and to help in clearing the town.
The afternoon before the operation, the AVREs and Flails were lining the edge of a field, loading ammunition and fuel, when disaster struck. A delayed action mine detonated under an ammunition truck, setting off a chain reaction which blew the squadron to pieces. Not a man in the field survived who was not deaf or blind.
Within an hour of learning of the tragedy, Roger Rowley, the Glens’ commanding officer, received a message that he would have no bomber support. The weather in England was so bad that they could not take off. As he contemplated the problem of taking Breskens without support, a message from Brigade Headquarters at 9 p.m. postponed the operation for 24 hours. For the moment it appeared that the battalion might relax. Then, at about 10.30 p.m., came the news that the proposed delay was unacceptable at the highest level. It was claimed that Churchill himself had intervened to insist that Breskens be taken next day. Rowley had fewer than 12 hours to plan and mount a completely new operation.
At 10 a.m. on 21 October two companies of the Glens left their forming-up positions and began moving toward the antitank ditch. Soon the enemy was firing on the left-hand company which was advancing up the main road to the town, their whole attention directed upon them. What they did not see was C Company on the right racing in single file along the sea wall. ‘It never occurred to them that we’d be so stupid,’ Rowley later claimed.3 Eight men of the company followed, carrying a light Kapok floating bridge. In little more than an hour they crossed the anti-tank ditch, cleared the enemy from their immediate area and began advancing into the town.
The enemy’s heavy guns, only five kilometres away on Walcheren, now opened fire at what was point-blank range on the Canadian infantry. They in turn were engaged by the 9-inch guns of the Army’s heavy artillery followed by rocket-firing Typhoons. By noon the harbour area had been cleared of the enemy and Rowley was using his considerable powers of persuasion and energy to encourage his men to open a route for Crocodiles to move into the town. By midnight Breskens was captured and Eberding had lost his last port of contact with Walcheren.4
Next day the HLI’s attack on Schoondijke met fierce opposition and the town was not finally cleared until the 25th. The North Novas met an equally hot reception when two companies attempted to take Fort Frederik Hendrik. Nothing short of a full-scale attack supported by bombers held much hope of success and one was planned for the 25th. But German morale was crumbling. A deserter was sent back to the garrison warning them of destruction if they failed to surrender. They soon emerged carrying a white flag.5
9th Brigade’s immediate task was done and Spry decided to withdraw them completely from action, not only to rest but to worry the enemy as to where they would be used next. Already the 7th Brigade had reentered the battle and were clearing the enemy defences westward along the coast. Further south, the Queen’s Own Rifles of 8th Brigade attacked Oostburg, the remaining bastion of the enemy line. In a brilliant manouevre, they outflanked the formidable defences of the town and broke into it from the south leaving the Germans with no choice but to withdraw.
An enemy attempt to form a new defensive perimeter around Cadzand and Zuidzande was disrupted by the speed of 7th Brigade’s advance along the coast. By the 30th the 8th Brigade had reached the enemy’s new position along the Uitwaterings Canal at Retranchement and Sluis.
The 9th Brigade now were given the task of finishing off the enemy, whose remnants were concentrated around Knocke, whilst the 8th protected their southern flank. On the 31st the SDG Highlanders, the HLI and Le Régiment de la Chaudière seized bridgeheads over the Canal. The Chaudières, typically, solved the problem of a bridge to replace one blown by the enemy by driving a Bren carrier into the narrow canal and piling earth, steel beams and wooden planks on top of the almost submerged vehicle. Next day the HLI fought their way into Knocke and the North Nova Scotia Highlanders captured General Eberding in a concrete bunker on a nearby golf course.
In the door of the operations van at Headquarters 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Dan Spry read the reports which had come in from his brigades, glanced up at his staff and said, ‘That’s over. Tell everyone to stand down.’ Captain Mac Reed bent over the operations log and wrote ‘0950 hrs Op Switchback now complete.’ Major Larry Dampier, the GS02 Operations, reached across and took the log sheets, interleaved with carbon from him. Beside the last entry he added, ‘Thank God!’6
‘Every day after the battle started, Crerar would fly over the front (a somewhat dangerous operation) in a small aircraft…’ (Gen. Horrocks) (Photo by Major L.A. Audrain/Public Archives of Canada/PA129048)
An infantry rifleman killed by mortar fire. His chances of surviving the North-West Europe campaign, uninjured, were less than his father’s in an equivalent period of the First World War.
Advance to the Seine: Headquarters of Le Régiment de Maisonneuve and an armoured car pass a knocked-out Panther. (Photo by M.M. Dean/Public Archives Canada/PA 132813)
The memorial service at Dieppe which caused a rift between Crerar and Montgomery — Lt-General H.D.G. Crerar, Major-General Charles Foulkes, Lt-General Guy Simmonds. (Photo by Lt. G.K. Bell/Public Archives Canada/PA 116584)
Lifebuoy manpack flamethrower. (Harold G. Aikman/Public Archives Canada/PA 143951)
Canadian armour blocked by mud and mines in ‘The Neck’ — South Beveland, October, 1944.
‘Water enough for drowning’. Flooded polder country. (Harold G. Aikman/Public Archives Canada/PA 143943)
The sea pouring into Walcheren Island through gap blown by RAF — Westkapelle village, lower right. (Imperial War Museum)
The assault at Westkepelle: ‘So long as the Germans made the mistake of concentrating their fire on the Support Squadron, close action was justified and losses acceptable.’ The crew of a ‘Landing Craft Gun’ abandons ship. (Imperial War Museum)
The Supreme Commander’s only visit to First Canadian Army. General Eisenhower and Major-General S. Maczek inspecting the 10th Polish Mounted Rifle Regiment near Breda, 29 November, 1944. (Photo by Lt. B.J. Gloster/Public Archives Canada/PA 12805)
Icy roads near Nijmegen, January, 1945.
A Canadian 25-pounder in action near Groesbeek, January 1945.
Canadian canoes flown to Holland to enable infantry to make silent approach to enemy positions. Men of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment rehearsing for the attack on Kapelsche Veer. (Photo by J.H. Smith/Public Archives Canada/PA 114067)
4.2-inch mortar of 2nd Princess Louise’s Kensington Regiment supporting 49th British Division on Arnhem Island, January 1945. (Photo by Michael Dean/Public Archives Canada/PA 143944)
2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 15th Scottish Division, advancing with Churchill tanks into the Reichswald, 8 February, 1945. (Imperial War Museum)
The German border at the village of Wyler, captured by The Calgary Highlanders, 8 February, 1945. (Photo by Michael Dean/Public Archives Canada/PA 143945)
