The Battle of the Scheldt

The British 11th Armoured Division entered Antwerp on 4 September and found the main docks, locks, cranes and quays largely intact. Belgian resistance groups had helped secure key installations and interfere with German demolition preparations as the occupation authorities withdrew.

The German Fifteenth Army was withdrawing from the Channel coast toward the West Scheldt, Walcheren and South Beveland. The narrow South Beveland isthmus remained open east of Antwerp, giving the withdrawing formations a route toward the Netherlands.

German naval and army staffs began the organised ferrying of Fifteenth Army troops and equipment across the West Scheldt from the Breskens area toward Flushing and South Beveland. Barges, ferries and small craft worked largely at night under Allied air pressure.

At Brussels on 10 September Eisenhower approved Montgomery's proposal for the airborne and ground operation that became Market Garden. Air transport and logistical priority shifted toward the attempt to seize crossings through the Netherlands and establish a bridgehead beyond the Lower Rhine.

Crerar left for medical treatment on 27 September and Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds assumed temporary command of First Canadian Army. He inherited responsibility for the Channel coast, the Scheldt approaches and formations already weakened by the summer campaign.

The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division began the drive north from Antwerp toward Hoogerheide and Woensdrecht on 2 October. The objective was the narrow land connection to South Beveland, whose capture would isolate the islands from German reinforcement by road.

Bomber Command attacked the sea dyke at Westkapelle on 3 October and opened a major breach through which the North Sea flooded the low interior of Walcheren. The operation aimed to restrict German movement and make the coastal defences easier to isolate before an assault on the island.

The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division opened Operation Switchback across the Leopold Canal on 6 October. Wasp flamethrower carriers fired across the water while infantry crossed in assault boats and established small bridgeheads on the northern bank.

Bomber Command breached the sea defences near Flushing on 7 October as part of the plan to inundate Walcheren. A further breach near Veere followed on 11 October, increasing the area under tidal water.

Ramsay warned in early October that the Allied advance would eventually be halted by supply shortages unless Antwerp was opened. His naval staff also expected the estuary to require a prolonged minesweeping effort after the coastal guns had been eliminated.

During the night of 8–9 October, the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade crossed the Braakman inlet in Buffalo and Terrapin amphibious vehicles and landed near Hoofdplaat behind the German positions facing the Leopold Canal bridgeheads.

The Black Watch of Canada attacked near Woensdrecht on 13 October across exposed ground covered by German fire. The battalion suffered about 145 casualties, including 56 killed, in an attack that failed to secure the objective.

On 13 October Eisenhower again pressed Montgomery over Antwerp, making clear that the port had become essential to the Allied logistical position and that operations to open it required priority.

Canadian troops secured Woensdrecht on 16 October after two weeks of fighting around the ridge and the approaches to the South Beveland isthmus. German movement by road between the islands and the mainland was now severely constrained.

The 4th Canadian Armoured Division and British 49th Division attacked north of the Scheldt sector on 20 October to widen the corridor and force the Germans away from the eastern flank of the Beveland approach.

The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division began Operation Vitality on 24 October, advancing west along the narrow South Beveland isthmus. Mines, demolitions and the confined road network slowed the attack.

On 26 October troops of the 52nd (Lowland) Division crossed from the Terneuzen area and landed near Baarland on South Beveland, using amphibious vehicles and landing craft to turn the German positions facing the isthmus.

With South Beveland almost clear, the 2nd Canadian Division attacked along the Walcheren Causeway on 31 October. The exposed embankment was roughly 1.2 kilometres long, with tidal flats on both sides and prepared German positions at the western end.

No. 4 Commando crossed from Breskens before dawn on 1 November and landed at Flushing, followed by the 155th Infantry Brigade of the 52nd Division. The assault established a foothold inside a defended port town at the south-eastern edge of Walcheren.

Royal Marine commandos of 4 Special Service Brigade landed at Westkapelle on 1 November through and beside the breach in the sea dyke. German batteries W13 and W15 covered the approaches and opened fire on the assault and support craft.

The Support Squadron Eastern Flank closed the Westkapelle batteries with gun-, rocket- and mortar-armed landing craft in order to suppress them during the assault. German coastal fire struck the small vessels at short range.

Warspite and the monitors Roberts and Erebus opened heavy naval fire against the Walcheren batteries on the morning of 1 November. Warspite's 15-inch guns engaged the coastal positions while landing and support craft moved toward Westkapelle.

British commandos and troops of the 52nd Division completed the capture of Flushing after close fighting through the town. The force then turned west and north along Walcheren's higher coastal ground.

Commandos advancing along Walcheren's western dunes reduced the coastal batteries in sequence while the Flushing force moved toward them from the south-east. The flooded interior limited lateral movement and made each battery position a separate local objective.

Operation Switchback ended on 3 November after the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division cleared the remaining German positions in the Breskens Pocket and reached the coastal area toward Knokke and Zeebrugge.

Troops of the 7th/9th Royal Scots crossed flooded Walcheren in amphibious vehicles and entered Middelburg on 6 November. Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser, commander of the 70th Infantry Division, surrendered the garrison headquarters and roughly 2,000 troops.

The remaining German positions on Walcheren surrendered by 8 November. With the Breskens Pocket, South Beveland and Walcheren cleared, both banks of the navigable Scheldt approach were in Allied hands.

Royal Navy minesweepers began the systematic clearance of the Scheldt after the coastal guns had been silenced. Minefields, wrecks and navigational hazards still barred merchant shipping from the eighty-kilometre channel to Antwerp.

By 26 November the principal swept channel through the Scheldt had been declared ready for shipping. Royal Navy minesweepers had worked through minefields laid over several years while buoyage and navigation marks were restored.

On 28 November the first ocean convoy passed through the cleared Scheldt and reached Antwerp. The arrival converted the port captured on 4 September into a functioning Allied supply base close to the front.