BY THE BEGINNING of the last week in April the end of the war in Europe was in sight. To the east Soviet Armies were approaching Berlin; Leipzig and Nuremberg had fallen to the Americans; the British had reached the Elbe and were closing in on Hamburg and Bremen. Germany was being torn apart but still its armies fought on. There were rumours of them retreating to a great redoubt in the Alps for a last stand which would cost the Allies dear.
Although they did not know it at the time, the two divisions of 1st Canadian Corps halted in front of the Grebbe Line had fought their last offensive battle of the war.
For the rest of the Army there was more fighting ahead. 2nd Corps was advancing on a front which ranged from north-east Holland to the left bank of the Weser near Bremen when, on 22 April, General Crerar returned to England for a week of consultations and medical check-ups. Lt-General Simonds took command of the Army but remained at his own headquarters to control operations.
With its task in the west completed, the 5th Armoured Division was now ordered to clear the Germans from the remaining corner of north-east Holland, centred on the port of Delfzijl. The remainder of the Corps, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and Polish Divisions, were to capture the great Emden-Wilhelmshaven promontory.
On the Army’s eastern flank the 2nd Division, operating on the left of the 43rd Wessex, drove north-eastward toward Vegesack on the Weser some 15 kilometres downstream from Bremen. At first, apart from mines and trees felled across the roads, they met little opposition, but on the 23rd, the leading brigades discovered that the enemy still could fight.
On the left of the Division, the 6th Brigade were obliged to mount a full scale attack supported by tanks, artillery and aircraft to deal with a battle group formed from a German NCO’s school near Hanover. They were well dug-in and when the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada drove them from their positions, they promptly counterattacked in traditional Wehrmacht style.1
On the right, the 4th Brigade — Royals and RHLI — were slowed by a mixed collection of infantry, engineers, marines and paratroops in their advance to the Oldenburg-Delmenhorst highway.
On 26 April the 5th Brigade took up the advance. Its actions that day were typical of the final stages of the war.
Moving north-west from Delmenhorst the Black Watch met no opposition during the morning. Le Régiment de Maisonneuve then passed through them to occupy a succession of objectives. Key crossroads, farms, hamlets, all had to be checked. Again there was no opposition. In front lay the village of Grüppenbühren and it was defended.2
At 6 p.m. A and B Companies of the Calgary Highlanders, led by Majors Nobby Clarke and Sandy Pearson, attacked across open ploughed fields toward it. Despite heavy shelling and the fire of 20mm anti-aircraft guns, their advance, covered by smoke, went well. Then about halfway across the fields, the wind changed and they lost their smoke cover. Immediately men began to fall; in Clarke’s company, a platoon commander and two sergeants were hit. Knowing that it would be fatal to stop in the open, the Highlanders raced to their objectives where they captured an ‘88’, three 20mm guns and several machine guns, killing or capturing their crews.
From his new position Clarke could see that the enemy was totally disorganized and that a further immediate attack would result in taking the battalion’s final objectives with, ultimately, fewer casualties.
Obtaining permission from the commanding officer by radio, Clarke and Pearson urged their weary companies forward and seized the main road junction in Grüppenbühren. Both companies lost heavily, not knowing that they had overcome the last serious opposition which the battalion would encounter in the war.3
Far to the west, on the Corps’ other flank, the 11th Brigade of the 5th Armoured Division was attacking the German defenders of Delfzijl.
The problem of taking the busy little Dutch port was similar to capturing one on the Scheldt estuary. The low-lying ground around it, much of it flooded, was criss-crossed by ditches and canals, and vehicle movement was confined to the roads. A continuous belt of trenches and barbed wire surrounded the town, backed by batteries in concrete emplacements. The garrison of some 1,500 fighting troops was supported by heavy guns of the German navy at Emden.
The outer perimeter of the enemy’s defences was anchored on villages lying some six to ten kilometres from the centre of the port. Brigadier Ian Johnston’s plan was to drive them in simultaneously, until a break came, giving the opportunity for a direct assault on the town.
From the north and west the Perth Regiment and the British Columbia Dragoons, partly dismounted, met heavy shelling and stubborn resistance. Moving in from the south, the going was somewhat easier for the Irish Regiment of Canada and the Westminsters, but mines and road demolitions slowed their advance. Using artillery, close air support and the fire of tank guns and mortars wherever possible to save the lives of his infantry, Johnston’s advance was like the deliberate closing of a fist around the port.
On the 30th the Cape Breton Highlanders launched the assault on Delfzijl itself. Progress was slow through wire and mine fields overlooked by enemy positions dug in on the dykes. Bunkers the size of bungalows, constructed of four-foot thick reinforced concrete, barred the path of one company, but another, supported by tanks of the New Brunswick Hussars, broke through to seize the railway station on the northern outskirts of the town.
Immediately the enemy’s resistance faltered and boats filled with German soldiers were seen heading out across the estuary. Next day, 2 May, the last of the enemy in north-east Holland were killed or captured. In its final operations of the war, the 5th Armoured Division had captured 4,143 prisoners and liberated one of the last areas occupied by the Nazis beyond the borders of the Reich.4
Over the border in Germany the 3rd Division was preparing to capture the port of Leer preparatory to advancing northward, east of the Ems. On 22 April the Poles, whom they had relieved, were directed north-eastward in the hope of weakening the strong opposition facing Vokes’ 4th Armoured Division on the Kusten Canal.
The small port of Leer could only be taken by a water assault. Lying on the Leda River, near its junction with the Ems, it was a key centre of the road system of north-west Germany. General Keefler’s plan was for the 9th Brigade to storm across the two rivers into the town, whereupon the 7th would clear the north bank of the Leda as far as Loga, some two miles to the east. A base would thus be established for the division’s drive northward toward Emden and Aurich.
There was little information about the enemy but it seemed unlikely that they were well supplied with supporting arms. John Rockingham of the 9th Brigade reckoned that a simultaneous attack by his three battalions would prevent the enemy from concentrating enough force to stop any one of them. He ordered the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Highland Light Infantry of Canada to attack from the south across the Leda, while the Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders crossed the estuary of the Ems in storm boats. Both rivers were formidable obstacles being 200 to 400 metres wide.5
The assault began at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of 28 April. The two battalions attacking from the south were supported by heavy and very accurate artillery fire and they crossed without loss, to find enemy troops cowering in their trenches, not having fired a shot. They were soon advancing into Leer.
The assault by the Glengarrians was a different matter. Accurate machine-gun fire swept the 400-metre-wide Ems from both flanks. Boats were sunk and several men drowned before the leading companies fought their way ashore. On the far bank was a much more stubborn enemy than faced the assault from the south. Indeed by now the Germans were fighting with renewed resolution and there was heavy street fighting before the 9th Brigade cleared the town.
In the last two days of April the 7th Brigade completed the capture of Leer and the town of Loga to the east. On 1 May Keefler directed the 8th Brigade toward Aurich, the 9th, on their left, to Emden.
North of the Küsten Canal and east of the Ems, 2nd Canadian Corps found themselves under fire from the heavy guns of naval ships in Emden and Wilhelmshaven, one of which, the cruiser Köln, was firing as she rested on the bottom of the harbour. A far greater hazard came from the air defences of the naval ports and of the cities of Bremen and Hamburg, which were concentrated in the area. A mass of 88s had been converted to the anti-tank role and covered every approach.
Fighting hard to contain the advance of the 4th Armoured Division, German Marines and remnants of the 7th Parachute Division inflicted 402 casualties on the 10th Brigade in the period 17-25 April.
On the 25th the 4th Armoured Brigade entered the action on the left of the 10th and, with the help of close support aircraft, began blasting their way toward Bad Zwischenahn. It was a grinding process. The condition of the roads was such that no more than two troops of tanks could bring their fire to bear at any time. Self-propelled guns, mortars and machine guns covered the mines and craters which had to be shifted before the armour could advance.
Two days later Simonds reinforced the left flank of the 4th Division (where only the armoured cars of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons were operating), with the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, another armoured car regiment, the Royal Canadian Dragoons, and the 1st and Belgian Special Air Service Regiments. He ordered them to fan out to the north and west to make contact with the Poles.
At this stage of the war it was not only the infantry who were weary and under strain. Reconnaissance regiments of the infantry divisions and the corps armoured car regiments began losing an increasing number of men and vehicles. When an armoured car ran over an anti-tank mine there were casualties, but usually some men escaped uninjured or with minor wounds. But as the advance neared the air and naval bases of the North Sea coast, Germany marines and Luftwaffe personnel brought the resources of their own services into the fight. Sea mines or 1,000-pound aerial bombs were linked to conventional anti-tank mines. When one of these exploded an armoured car and its occupants were obliterated. The nervous strain was increased by the knowledge that some were fired by a ratchet device set to allow up to thirty vehicles to pass over it before it detonated the mine or bomb.
On 30 April infantry operating under the command of the 4th Armoured Brigade practically surrounded Bad Zwischenahn and next day the enemy withdrew.
By now the 2nd Division on the right was making such good progress that Simonds directed them to take Oldenburg and ordered Vokes to swing north toward Varel. By 4 May the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the Lake Superior Regiment (Motor) were nearly 20 kilometres north of Oldenburg. At the same time, 50 kilometres to the west, Brigadier Jim Roberts, commanding the 8th Infantry Brigade, was having an interesting day.
At nightfall on the 3rd his leading troops were close to the Ems-Jede Canal south of Aurich. At midnight Roberts had just gone to sleep when Lt-Colonel Gus Taschereau of Le Régiment de la Chaudière arrived with a German colonel, the Burgomaster of Aurich and another civilian. They had come through his lines under a white flag and wanted to discuss the conditions under which Aurich could be surrendered undamaged.
It soon evolved that none of the party had the authority even to discuss the surrender of the German forces defending the town. Roberts sent them away saying that they should return by noon next day with the authority to agree to a military surrender. In the meantime his brigade would withhold their fire. If they did not appear by 12 o’clock, Aurich would be attacked and heavily shelled and bombed. The Germans agreed and he reported to General Keefler, who approved his initiative.
Shortly before the deadline the German colonel returned with the news that the garrison commander in Aurich, a naval officer, was ready to discuss the Allied surrender terms pending contact with the overall military commander of East Friesland, General Erich von Straube. They had not yet been in touch because of a complete breakdown of communications.
Roberts and Keefler moved out of earshot, where they agreed that now was the time to seize the initiative and force the German commander to agree to the unconditional surrender of his forces and to an immediate takeover of Aurich by Canadian troops. Shortly before 1 p.m. Roberts, with a staff officer, an interpreter and a motorcycle dispatch rider, set out on foot with the German colonel for Aurich.
Picking their way past booby traps, they moved into the enemy lines under a white flag. German soldiers, heavily armed, stood silent as they passed.
About 500 metres further along the road, a young German lieutenant with several infantrymen behind him stood in front of a shed. ‘He was,’ Roberts said:
… very alert, very nervous, and obviously very upset by the white flag under which we were marching into Aurich…. The German Colonel spoke a few words to the young lieutenant which seemed to defuse the atmosphere a bit, but suddenly some distance to our left the familiar rhythm of a Bren gun broke out. The German lieutenant began to shout at me angrily and I was unable to understand him or to reply. Keeping my voice as steady and as calm as I could I asked Captain Pootmans (Roberts’ interpreter) to explain that I had issued orders for the withholding of fire but that it was possible that it had not yet reached the forward Canadian posts…. I asked the young German to be calm and patient, that the firing was a mistake.6
Beyond the bridge over the Ems-Jede Canal a German jeep awaited them, in which they drove through the deserted streets of Aurich. In a conference room in Blucher Barracks they were met by the garrison commander, Captain Jahnke of the German navy, the Burgomaster of Aurich and the Gauleiter of the East Friesland peninsula. In Roberts’ words: ‘The atmosphere was highly charged and very formal and correct.’ Jahnke stated that he had heard that negotiations were now taking place between Grand Admiral Doenitz, who had taken the place of the Führer after his suicide, and General Eisenhower. No formal decision could be made until the result of these negotiations was known and orders were received through von Straube to stop fighting.
Roberts said that he knew of no negotiations and was there on the understanding that Jahnke was prepared to discuss the surrender of Aurich. If that was not the case he would return to his lines and inform himself of the negotiations. If these were not taking place, the temporary ceasefire would be cancelled and the Canadians would attack.
This blunt statement caused consternation among the civilians. They said they were prepared to declare Aurich, Emden and Wilhelmshaven open cities and do all possible to influence a surrender. Jahnke shouted that he could do nothing without orders and that it was his duty as a naval officer to hold his position. Roberts interrupted the argument between the Germans to say that he would remain in the barracks long enough for one of his officers to discover whether or not surrender negotiations were taking place.
Some three hours later his staff officer, Major Arthur McKibbin, returned from Brigade Headquarters with the news that negotiations were indeed in progress at Lübeck between Montgomery and Doenitz’s representatives. The meeting with Jahnke was reconvened and Roberts announced the arrangements which would apply for separating the opposing troops if a German surrender was confirmed. If the negotiations at Lübeck were satisfactorily completed, he would come back to Aurich the following morning.
At his headquarters he learned that the Germans had been negotiating with Montgomery since early on 3 May and that hostilities would cease at 8 o’clock next morning, the 5th. The first official news that First Canadian Army received of the negotiations was at 12:55 p.m. on 4 May, more than 28 hours after they had begun, when Brigadier Belchem of Montgomery’s staff telephoned General Crerar. That evening the news of the unconditional surrender reached the Army Commander at 8:35 p.m. through a news broadcast on the BBC, followed shortly afterwards by an official signal from 21 Army Group.
The news was received with little emotion by the soldiers of First Canadian Army. ‘We were near Oldenburg when the war ended,’ wrote Sandy Pearson. ‘I remember calling the Company together to tell them and it was a quiet affair. There were no cheers or celebration, just great relief.’7
Next day, in a near-derelict hotel at Wageningen in the Netherlands, General Johannes Blaskowitz surrendered the German forces in the Netherlands to General Foulkes. There was a noticeable difference in the atmosphere from the conferences of the previous week to arrange for food for the Dutch, when the arrogance and hostility of the Germans was so marked.
The terms of surrender were read over by General Foulkes, and Blaskowitz hardly answered a word. Occasionally he would interpose with a demand for more time to carry out the orders given to him, otherwise nothing was said from the German side. They looked like men in a dream, dazed, stupefied and unable to realize that for them their world was utterly finished.8
On that same day Brigadier Roberts returned to Aurich with a military police motorcycle escort to fetch von Straube to Bad Zwischenahn where he would surrender the German forces facing 2nd Corps to General Simonds. While waiting for von Straube to arrive,
… standing near the big iron gate at the barracks entrance I heard marching feet approaching and saw that it was the young German lieutenant of yesterday’s near unpleasantness leading his even younger soldiers into the barracks to concentrate and to disarm, as ordered. The approaching German unit, which had fought us well, was marching proudly toward the entrance, heads high and in good order. Almost every man (or boy) was carrying either a panzerfaust or a Schmeisser as they marched in to end their war. They looked neither defeated nor dispirited.9
Von Straube and his adjutant rode with Roberts in his jeep to meet Simonds. There was no conversation. At Bad Zwischenahn they entered a conference room and took their seats. Then Simonds entered. He read the document of surrender. Von Straube agreed and signed it. After some photographs, the return journey to Aurich began.
After driving for perhaps 20 minutes in silence, the German staff officer tapped Roberts on the shoulder and said that the General wished to know what he had done before the war.
The Brigadier found the question strangely unsettling. It suddenly opened a door in his mind, not to the past but to the new life which soon would begin. As for many soldiers, the war had been his world — existence beyond it an improbable dream. To think of a future which so many would never see was to tempt fate.
The German spoke again: ‘Were you a professional soldier?’
In the welter of thoughts which flooded his mind, Jim Roberts looked only at the surface of the question. It did not occur to him until later that von Straube was desperately seeking a shred of solace to bind his shattered professional pride.
Remembering his last impermanent job, he answered, ‘No, I wasn’t a regular soldier. Very few Canadians were. In civilian life I made ice cream.’