Montgomery and Eisenhower never gave The Scheldt, top
priority until it was almost too late. The
Scheldt was one
of the most important and bloody campaigns Canadian
soldiers ever fought in WWII. As high Ranking Officers
due to posturing ignorance and arrogance made horrendous
inexplicable decisions. This was a chapter of WWII that
had, by and large, been forgotten, with the exception of
the Dutch people who were
liberated, and never forgot their heroic honourable
gallant sacrifice of those brave souls and the Canadian
soldiers who fought and survived to tell the tail, of
their exploits to endeavour to perceiver against all
odds. Against a better equipped and season army that had
completely fortified all German occupied positions.
On August 25th 1944,
Paris was liberated. British and
US armies
advancing into German held territory which attracted
most of the news, and
press. The Canadians were assigned a less glamorous
task, of attacking and liberating French minor ports
along the northern coast. The Canadian Army was under
the command of General Crerar. They encountered very
serious German resistance, since the area that the
Canadians were attempting to liberate had been heavily
defended. Remember
this was the location Hitler assumed the Allied landings
of D-Day were to have taken place in.
On
4 September 1944, XXX Corps reached
Antwerp, and with the help of the
Belgian resistance the city was secured and the port
facilities were captured intact. The advance was halted
at
Antwerp. By not advancing past
Antwerp and liberating
Holland, which rendered the
port of
Antwerp useless.
The
Scheldt estuary, which connects the North Sea
with Antwerp,
was 80km long and in Dutch territory and the Germans
held both sides of the estuary. This was a blunder made
by
Montgomery, and Canadian soldiers
would now have to pay the highest price for his
incompetence. Due to his obsession with the idea of a
thrust deep into
Germany, that
would carry Montgomery
all the way to Berlin.
At this same time Operation Comet
had been revised and was now called Market-Garden or as
many know it as the movie
“A Bridge to Far”. British
units in Antwerp
were to be used for operation Market-Garden so Canadian
units replaced them in
Antwerp.
On
17 September 1944,
Market-Garden was launched, but it ultimately met with
failure disappointments and the lost
and sacrifice of so many Troops. By
now, the port had become the main priority for the
Allies. Eisenhower saw this, but
Montgomery
still wanted a push into
Germany. Around
the 26th of September 1944,
Eisenhower told Montgomery
to forget about
this thrust into
Germany, his
first priority was to clear the
harbour of
Antwerp.
Montgomery conceded after much
grumbling and assigned the
task to the First Canadian Army now under command of Lt.
Gen. Guy Simmonds of 2nd Division, who had
become very alarmed on
September 4th, by the build-up of German
strength on both sides of the Scheldt
estuary. German soldiers
who
had escaped the Falaise pocket (15th Army) and had now
set up Shop on one of the Scheldt estuary banks, which
was now a completely Fortified Fortress.
The
battle of the
Scheldt would start on October 1 and be the largest
infantry battle under Canadian command of WWII. British
and Polish units would join
the attack. This was a battle that could have been
easily won, due to Allied indecisiveness and
procrastination. It was
the delay that gave Hitler, all the time he needed to
turn the
Scheldt into a fortress. At the end of September 1944,
the Canadian Army was ready for its advance into the
Scheldt, and Lt. Gen. Simmonds’ plan was
approved. Utter sheer madness by today’s military
tactics.
For the Canadians, it was not an
inviting prospect to attack these positions with
six
under strength infantry battalions, a squadron of tanks
and artillery regiments that had to ration the
approaches to the
port
of
Antwerp,
insisted the advance continue.
The
Black-Watch had already suffered heavy casualties.
During the
Battle of Verrières
Ridge on
July 25,
1944, In
which 325 men
left the start line, astonisingly only 15 made it back
to friendly lines, the others being killed or wounded by
well entrenched
Waffen SS
soldiers, machine gun Nests and tanks.
And a month prior to the attack on Woensdrecht they had
received above
average casualties, in the
Battle for Spycker from September
12-14. In October the Regiment expected to be fully
manned and re-supplied, but
that was not to be, as the Regiment laid in shambles.
The Black Watch Royal Highland
Regiment of Canada, was about to meet it’s
Waterloo, open field battle with no
cover or
obstacles to
hide behind. The Brigade Commander knowing the Black
Watch situation in hand, gave the order for the Black
Watch, to attack
and take a small town called Woensdrecht which
the Germans had fully fortified. This town was vital for
communications.
When October 12 came along the
Black-Watch where undermanned, only rifles and smoke
Bombs, with no support to lay down
an attack on the German
positions on that Bloody Friday the 13th.
This
operation, code-named Angus, called for 5th Brigade
to employ one battalion to seize the railway embankment
with the other two battalions passing through to seal
off the route to
Walcheren
Island.
The first phase of the assault would have to be
undertaken by the Black Watch. The Maisonneuves were
still more than 200 riflemen short and the Calgaries had
borne the brunt of the fighting at Hoogerheide.
The
German’s held
the high ground, their positions had been reinforced
and had their guns, rifles
and machineguns zeroed in, on the Black-Watch.
Like
Lambs to the Slaughter house, not know the carnage that
was about to unfold in front of their very eyes.
As they
where
about to take heavy casualties, and a Proud
Regiment was about to be
desamated. On
October 13
1944 on a
raised railway embankment they layed, gasing in
astonisment and looking up the hill, across 1,200 yards
of open beet fields. The
orders
where given at 11.30 am to attack
in plain daylight across flat open hill’d fields with no
cover, flooded land, driving rain,
booby
traps and land mines that made the advance very
escruteatingly difficult.
As the battle waged and
the battle field lay
litterd with fallen men,
the Battle Commander
realising it was an impossible attack, the Black-Watch
had to withdraw.
When the
German rifles, Guns had
silence’d and the smoke and dust had seatled
they sufferd 145 casualties, including 56 dead,
among them all four company commaders,
and one
company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors.
Twenty-seven were
taken prisoner, which devestated the Regiment.
Known as
“Black Friday” by the Canadian Infantry and The Black
Watch – Royal Highland Regiment of Canada.
On
the 16th of October 1944, it was the turn of
the Royal Hamilton Light infantry, under Lt Col Denis
Whitaker, to attempt
to
capture Woensdrecht. The Canadians on this day were
supported by a squadron of tanks and artillery, and
attacked at night
around 3am in
the morning. The attack succeeded. The Germans had
reserves consisting of a Regiment of Paratroopers under
the command of Lt Colonel Von Der Heydte who were
excellent troops. Early the next morning, they commenced
counter attacking, the
Hamiltons. German troops managed to
overrun one of the defending companies. It would take
five more days before the battle for Woensdrecht was
over. The battlefield was a display of carnage, the
Canadians had suffered dearly and heavily. The battle of
the Scheldt
lasted till November 8 and caused 12,000 Allied
casualties killed, wounded or missing.
6,367 of them were Canadian.
The
Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of
Canada, received
two battle honours one for “The Scheldt” & for
“Woensdrecht”.
Personally they should of Received a Victoria Cross.
Against all odds, For above and beyond the
call of duty for
“Black Friday” the 13th!.
An update of this
article along with a list of those killed can be
downloaded here!
