Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign, September 13 — November 6, 1944

534 Pages·2007·3.97 MB·English

by  Mark Zuehlke

TERRIBLE VICTORY
TERRIBLE
VICTORY
FIRST CANADIAN ARMY AND THE
SCHELDT ESTUARY CAMPAIGN:
SEPTEMBER 13–NOVEMBER 6, 1944
MARK ZUEHLKE
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Zuehlke
First paperback edition 2008
08 09 10 11 12 5 4 3 2 1
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Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Zuehlke, Mark
Terrible victory : First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary campaign,
Sept. 13–Nov. 6, 1944 / by Mark Zuehlke.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55365-227-4 (cloth) · 978-1-55365-404-9 (paper)
1. Scheldt River Estuary, Battle of, 1944.
2. Canada. Canadian Army—History—World War, 1939-1945.
3. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Netherlands.
4. World War, 1939-1945—Campaigns—Belgium. I. Title
D756.5.S34Z84 2007 940.54’21 C2007-901955-2
Editing by Elizabeth McLean
Jacket design by Naomi MacDougall & Peter Cocking
Interior design by Peter Cocking
Jacket photographs: top: photographer unknown, LAC E004665470
bottom: Daniel Guravich, LAC PA-138284
Maps by C. Stuart Daniel/Starshell Maps
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Printed on forest-friendly paper
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada
Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province
of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit,
and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.
OTHER MILITARY HISTORY BY MARK ZUEHLKE
Holding Juno: Canada’s Heroic Defence of the
D-Day Beaches: June 7–12, 1944*
Juno Beach: Canada’s D-Day Victory: June 6, 1944*
The Gothic Line: Canada’s Month of Hell in World War II Italy*
The Liri Valley: Canada’s World War II Breakthrough to Rome*
Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle*
The Canadian Military Atlas: Four Centuries of Conflict from
New France to Kosovo (with C. Stuart Daniel)*
The Gallant Cause: Canadians in the
Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939
For Honour’s Sake: The War of 1812
and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace
* Available from Douglas & McIntyre
War is a crime. Ask the infantry, ask the dead.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
To most soldiers who fought from the beaches through to Germany,
the fighting in the Scheldt was the worst and most ferocious.
CAPTAIN E.C. LUXTON, REGINA RIFLES
That Scheldt was hell on earth.
LIEUTENANT BILL HAYWARD,
NORTH SHORE (NEW BRUNSW ICK) REGIMENT
[ CONTENTS ]
Preface
Acknowledgements
Maps
INTRODUCTION A Simple Plan
PART ONE THE FALL OF DREAMS
1 Beginning of the End
2 The Jewel
3 The Streetcar War
4 A Very Heavy Program
5 Illusion of Victory
6 Poor Devils
7 Simonds Takes Command
PART TWO THE CINDERELLA DAYS
8 Off Our Backsides
9 Close to the Danger Line
10 A Hard Fight
11 With Devastating Effect
12 Did Our Best
13 A Hell of a Way to Go
14 In the Back Door
PART THREE TIGHTENING THE RING
15 Of First Importance
16 The Toughest Yet
17 A Godsend
18 Black Friday
19 Dominate the Situation
20 To the Last Cartridge
21 Foot-Slogging Jobs
PART FOUR FIGHT TO THE FINISH
22 Troops on the Ground
23 The South Beveland Race
24 Let’s Take the Damned Place
25 The Damned Causeway
26 A Fine Performance
EPILOGUE The Scheldt in Memory
APPENDIX A Canadians in the Scheldt:
September 13 – November 6, 1944
APPENDIX B Canadian Infantry Battalion
APPENDIX C Canadian and German Army Order of Ranks
APPENDIX D The Decorations
Notes
Bibliography
General Index
Index of Formations, Units, and Corps
PREFACE
AFTER COMPLETING the two-volume series—Juno Beach and Holding Juno,
which detailed the opening seven days of the invasion of Normandy, I paused to
consider what part of Canada’s World War II military experience should come
next. Certainly, my resolve to continue this work was strong, and there remained
many significant battles fought by the Canadian Army to write about. During
conversations with Major Michael Boire and others who have helped me
immensely over the years since I embarked on a road that has now yielded six
books on the war, I broached the idea of a book on First Canadian Army’s battle
to open the Scheldt estuary in the late summer and early fall of 1944. “Little
glory in that one,” Michael opined. “And damned complicated and hard to tell,”
he cautioned.
Preliminary research confirmed his opinion, but it also left me determined to
tell the story. Initially, I worried that perhaps this battle had already been
extensively covered, but—as had been true with Canada’s role in D-Day, this
proved not the case. There was Denis and Shelagh Whitaker’s Tug of War, but,
as Denis Whitaker was the commander of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, it
concentrated mostly on operations of 2nd Canadian Infantry Division north of
Antwerp. Then there were several books about Canada’s role in Allied
operations in northwest Europe that hustled through the Scheldt in a chapter or
two. Even C.P. Stacey’s official history, The Victory Campaign, treated the
Scheldt campaign curiously—giving the events of September scant coverage,
and rushing through 4th Canadian Armoured Division’s operations from mid-
October to early November to the east of 2 CID in a few paragraphs.
Undoubtedly, the motivation here was conservation of pages in what was
necessarily a large volume.
But something else about Stacey’s treatment caught my eye. A “Cinderella
Operation,” he called it, meaning that the Canadians had to do much with the
leavings of supplies not allocated to other Allied armies. As the vital port of
Antwerp remained closed to Allied shipping until the campaign was concluded,
he seemed unduly apologetic about how long it took to finish the job. Stacey
tends to undervalue the contribution of the army he was detailed to write about
as its official historian, but regarding the Scheldt he seemed even more extreme.
Digging deep into the records, gathering veteran accounts, and conducting an
extensive, detailed tour of the battleground itself, I came away with the opinion