The Battle of the Scheldt in World War II was a series of military operations to open up the Scheldt river between Antwerp and the North Sea for shipping, so that Antwerp's port could be used to supply the Allies in north-west Europe. The operations were carried out by the First Canadian Army, with assistance from Polish and British units which had been attached. The action was under the acting command of the First Canadian's Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds. The battle took place in the vicinity of the Scheldt river in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands from 2 October to 8 November 1944.
The Canadians had been delayed for more than a month, and the need to clear the Scheldt had not yet been addressed, due to Allied decisions to spend September focusing on Arnhem (Operation Market Garden), Boulogne (Operation Wellhit), Calais (Operation Undergo) and the opening weeks of the Siege of Dunkirk. By the time the Canadians were sent into the Battle of the Scheldt, the Wehrmacht defenders had been reinforced. The Germans staged an effective delaying action during which they flooded land areas in the Scheldt estuary and slowed the Allied advance. After five weeks of difficult fighting, the Canadian First Army, at a cost of 20,873 Allied casualties (6,367 of them Canadian), was successful in clearing the Scheldt after numerous amphibious assaults, obstacle crossings and costly assaults over open ground.
Once the German defenders were no longer a threat, it took another three weeks to de-mine the harbours; the first convoy carrying Allied supplies could not unload in Antwerp until 28 November 1944. Once Antwerp was opened, it allowed 2.5 million tons of supplies to arrive at that port between November 1944 and April 1945, which were critical to the successful Allied advance into Germany in 1945.
Background Following the Allied breakout after success in the battle of Normandy, they began a series of rapid advances into the Low Countries, far from their initial avenues of supply along the northern coast of France. By the autumn of 1944, captured ports like Cherbourg were far away from the front line, stretching Allied supply lines and causing great logistical problems.
Antwerp is a deep-water inland port close to Germany. It is connected to the North Sea via the river Scheldt, which allows the passage of ocean-going ships.Copp & Vogel, 1984, p. 129. Following the destruction of Rotterdam in 1940, Antwerp was the largest surviving port in Western Europe, and the obvious choice to support an invasion of Germany. This had been recognized as early as December 1941, when the Anglo-US armies made their first plans for a European offensive.Weinberg, Gerhard. A World at Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 761–762.Weinberg, Gerhard. A World at Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 700.
The White Brigade of the Belgian resistance seized the port of Antwerp before the Germans could destroy it as they were planning to do. On 4 September, Antwerp was taken by the 11th Armoured Division with its harbour 90% intact. However, the Germans had heavily fortified Walcheren peninsula at the mouth of the Western Scheldt, establishing well dug-in artillery impervious to air attack and controlling access to the river. This made it impossible for Allied minesweepers to clear the river and open the port at Antwerp.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 120. As part of the Atlantic Wall, Walcheren peninsula was described as the "strongest concentration of defences the Nazis had ever constructed.
Allied preparations On 5 September, SHAEF's naval commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, advised the Commander of 21st Army Group, General Bernard Montgomery, to make the Scheldt his main priority. He had previously said that as long as the mouth of the river was in German hands, the Port of Antwerp would be as useful as Timbuktoo.Copp & Vogel, 1985, pp. 16 & 42–43. That same day, thanks to Ultra intelligence, Montgomery became aware of Hitler's intention to hold the Scheldt at all costs.Copp, 1981, p. 148. However, Montgomery was focused on preparations for the ill-fated Operation Market Garden later that month.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 12. Among the Allied senior leaders, only Ramsay saw opening Antwerp as crucial to sustaining the advance into Germany.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 16.
Montgomery had an additional incentive not to prioritize Antwerp: his apparent desire for the 21st Army Group to spearhead the invasion of Germany and capture Berlin. On 9 September Montgomery wrote to Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke (the Chief of the Imperial General Staff) that "one good Pas de Calais port" would be able to meet the logistical needs of the 21st Army Group, though not the US armies in France. Three days earlier, on 6 September, Montgomery ordered Canadian General Harry Crerar to prioritize the capture of just such a port, Boulogne-sur-Mer.Copp, 1981, p. 150. Montgomery's views obliged Eisenhower to support a plan for the 21st to invade Germany, whereas the use of Antwerp would allow all of the armies to be supplied for such an invasion.
Due to these factors, little was done about Antwerp during September. On 12–13 September, Montgomery ordered the First Canadian Army to clear the Scheldt after taking Boulogne, Calais (Operation Undergo), and Dunkirk (Siege); General Crerar stated that this was impossible because he did not have sufficient manpower. Montgomery refused Crerar's request to have British XII Corps under General Neil Ritchie assigned to help clear the Scheldt, because he needed XII Corps for Operation Market Garden.
Had Montgomery secured the Scheldt Estuary, as Ramsay had advised, Antwerp would have been opened to Allied shipping far earlier than it was, and the escape of the German 15th Army from France could have been stopped. Instead, the delay allowed the German 15th Army to deploy defensively and prepare for the expected advance.
German positions Walcheren peninsula was held by a mixture of Kriegsmarine (German navy) and Heer (army) personnel, commanded by General Wilhelm Daser. Its garrison consisted of the 202nd Naval Coastal Artillery Battalion, 810th Naval Anti-Aircraft Battalion, 89th Fortress Regiment, and 70th Infantry Division.Copp & Vogel, 1985, pp. 120–122.
Additionally, as part of Operation Fortitude (the deception plan for the Normandy invasion), the Allies had tricked the Germans into believing they would land in the Pas-de-Calais region of France instead of Normandy. As such, the Wehrmacht had reinforced the 15th Army in the Pas-de-Calais, providing a critical mass of troops and materiel close to the mouth of the Scheldt.
Adolf Hitler ordered planning for what became the Ardennes Offensive in September 1944, the objective of which was retaking Antwerp. Hitler ordered the 15th Army to hold the mouth of the river Scheldt at all costs, calling the island "Fortress Walcheren."
The Germans at Walcheren were on the far right of the German line, and were deprived of supplies as the Wehrmacht focused its strength on the planned Ardennes offensive and replacing losses elsewhere. However, the flat polder ground of the Dutch countryside favoured the defensive, and was felt to compensate for the 15th Army's reduced numbers.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 10. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt told General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen: "Enemy supplies, and therefore, his ability to fight, is limited by the stubborn defence of the Harbour, as intelligence reports prove. The attempt of the enemy to occupy the Western Scheldt in order to obtain the free use of the harbour of Antwerp must be resisted to the utmost.(emphasis in the original). Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 11. In his orders to his men, Von Zangen declared:
Plan of attack
From September, Ramsay was deeply involved in planning the assault on Walcheren peninsula. He appointed Captain Tony Pugsley of the Royal Navy, who landed the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division on D-Day, to the First Canadian Army headquarters to start preparations.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 120
After previously ordering the Channel ports to be cleared first, Montgomery decided the importance of Antwerp was such that the capture of Dunkirk could be delayed.Stacey & Bond, 1960, pp. 331, 336 The First Canadian Army, under temporary command of Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, was supplemented by the British I Corps, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, and II Canadian Corps, with the Polish 1st Armoured Division, British 49th and 52nd Divisions attached. Additionally the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was to give up its transport to enable the movement of forces into battle positions. Montgomery promised the support of RAF Bomber Command in attacking the German fortifications and that of the USAAF 8th Air Force "on the day concerned".Stacey & Bond, 1960, p. 358
The plan for opening the Scheldt Estuary involved four main operations, conducted over daunting geography: Clearing the area north of Antwerp and securing access to the South Beveland peninsula. Operation Switchback, clearing the Breskens Pocket north of the Leopold canal and south of the Western Scheldt. Operation Vitality, the capture of the South Beveland peninsula, north of the Scheldt and east of Walcheren peninsula. Operation Infatuate, the capture of Walcheren.
The first attacks occurred on 13 September. After an attempt by the 4th Canadian Armoured Division to storm the Leopold Canal on its own had ended in bloody repulse, Simonds, commanding the II Canadian Corps, ordered a halt to operations in the Scheldt until the French channel ports had been taken, reporting the Scheldt would need more than one division to clear.Copp & Vogel, 1984, p. 124. The halt allowed the German 15th Army ample time to dig in to its new home by the banks of the Scheldt.
Operation Switchback commenced on 21 September when the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division moved north roughly along the line of the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal, given the task of clearing an area on the south shore of the Scheldt around the Dutch town of Breskens, called the "Breskens pocket". The Polish 1st Armoured Division simultaneously pushed for the Dutch-Belgian border further east and the crucial area north of Antwerp.
The Canadian 4th Armoured Division advanced from a hard-won bridgehead over the Ghent-Bruges Canal at Moerbrugge to find themselves the first Allied troops facing the formidable obstacle of the double line of the Leopold and Schipdonk Canals. An attack was mounted in the vicinity of Moerkerke, crossing the canals and establishing a bridgehead before counter-attacks forced a withdrawal with heavy casualties.
The 1st Polish Armoured Division enjoyed greater success to the east as it advanced northeast from Ghent. In country unsuitable for armour, and against stiffening resistance, the division advanced to the coast by 20 September, occupying Terneuzen and clearing the south bank of the Scheldt east toward Antwerp.
It became apparent to Simonds that any further gains in the Scheldt would come at heavy cost, as the Breskens pocket, extending from Zeebrugge to the Braakman Inlet and inland to the Leopold Canal, was strongly held by the enemy.
In October, Montgomery detached the British 51st Highland Division, 1st Polish Division, British 49th (West Riding) Division and 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade from the First Canadian Army so they could help the 2nd British Army to take part in Operation Pheasant, an offensive to liberate North Brabant and expand the Arnhem salient.Copp & Vogel, 1985, p. 18. Simonds saw the Scheldt campaign as a test of his ability, a challenge to be overcome, and he felt he could clear the Scheldt with only three divisions of the 2nd Corps despite having to take on the entire 15th Army, which held strongly fortified positions in a landscape that favoured the defensive.Copp & Vogel, 1985, pp. 19–20. Simonds never registered complaints about his lack of manpower, ammunition, and air support.
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