Terrible Victory
Page 52
But was the inundation necessary? Touring the island with a mind to its defence by the Germans, I am struck by the many bunkers and fortifications that still stand in farm fields well inland from the coast—constructed and positioned so that the Allies would be forced to overwhelm one position after another. It seems clear that without the flooding the battle for Walcheren would have been far more protracted, and likely to have required commitment of additional troops—drawn either from the badly worn-out 2nd Canadian Infantry Division or the equally weary “Water Rats” of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. More than two thousand Germans surrendered at Middelburg, which had been reduced to a walled island encircled by the sea. Had the surrounding ground not been flooded, these same troops would have been able to offer stiff resistance across a wide front instead of being trapped within the city. Such an extended battle would have delayed Antwerp’s opening even longer, seriously hampering Allied operations and, in particular, the ability to meet the Germans’ December offensive aimed at Antwerp, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Flooding Walcheren was not embarked upon lightly by First Canadian Army’s Lieutenant General Guy Simonds or his planning staff—they well understood the civilian suffering that would result. Even in hindsight, though, it seems a decision rightly made.
For those who fought it, the Scheldt is usually considered the worst of what were always bad experiences. In the face of that, many responded by carefully secreting their memories into parts of the mind that need never be visited. “Think I just blacked it out of my mind ever since because it was one of the worst encounters I’d ever seen,” one veteran said. Many others put the same thought only slightly less succinctly. “We were wet, always wet, always cold. The shelling never let up, the fighting just went on day after day without let up. I thought it’d never end,” remembered another. The wet, they all remember that. Days and nights spent in mud, uniforms perpetually soaked through. And more than one mentions the brutality of the fighting. How up close and personal the combat was. More men killed or wounded by gunshot and grenades thrown at close range than normal. A drenched battlefield that they came to think of as hell.
In researching this book, I had more veterans say that they could remember nothing useful than ever before. At first, I thought that it was a matter of age and fading memory, but discussing other battles with these veterans, it soon became apparent that it was a result of how deeply buried were their memories of the Scheldt. Even more than sixty years later, many still preferred not to remember.
Little wonder then that the Scheldt is not well known in Canada. Dieppe, and more recently Juno Beach and Ortona, are names many Canadians recognize. But the Scheldt has no such resonance.
This is not, however, the case in Belgian Flanders and Dutch Zee-land. In addition to visiting the battle sites and the two Canadian military cemeteries where most of those who died during the campaign lie, Johan and I tracked down each and every memorial that has been erected to commemorate Canada’s role in liberating this land. There are many, some created in cooperation with Canadian regiments, but an equal number the result entirely of work by dedicated Dutch or Belgian citizens. And while few Canadian books have documented this battle, Dutch and Belgian works abound. Most, however, examine the campaign with a tight focus on the towns close to them—giving largely equal attention to the experiences of Canadian and other soldiers of First Canadian Army, the Germans, and the civilians whose homelands provided the field of battle.
Johan is such a writer, his Slag om Woensdrecht covering 2nd Canadian Infantry Division and 4th Canadian Armoured Division operations near this town. Together, we meet other writers and amateur historians who spend countless hours studying the battle that raged near their homes. They vary greatly in age. The youngest I meet is Wally Schoofs, who is in his twenties. Wally spends much of his free time armed with a metal detector scouring the woods near Brecht, unearthing bits and pieces of weaponry and other equipment and scraps of military kit. Twice he has discovered the remains of lost German soldiers and participated in exhumations that have led to their identification and removal to military cemeteries.
There is also Francis Huijbrechts and Luc Cox. They bundle Johan and I into the tight confines of Luc’s car for a daylong tour of the battlefield that begins in Antwerp and follows the fighting around the Antwerp–Turnhout Canal. It is in their company that we visit what for me proved the most powerful memorial. At Wijnegem, where Calgary Highlander Sergeant Ken Crockett led a section of ‘C’ Company across the canal, a single cement marker, shaped like a headstone, lies inside a tiny triangular patch of grass. The memorial is bordered by the road running along the canal on one side and a lane fronting the row of houses that the Calgarians fought fiercely for on the night of September 21–22. The stone is badly worn now, the Flemish inscription hard to make out. Francis translates: “Here died and is buried here”—the name is obscured and looks possibly like Langwell, R.W.—“A Canadian soldier. Moved from here June 1947.” It is unclear who created the monument, but it was soon after the soldier’s body was removed. Positioned in front of it is an equally weathered concrete planter filled with good soil that, when the weather improves, will be brightened with flowers— the little plot maintained by villagers. Later, I search the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, and discover that the soldier was Private Raymond Wesley Dingwell, from Humbermouth, Newfoundland. He was thirty-two when he died on September 22. In 1947, his body was moved to Schoonselhof Cemetery in a suburb of Antwerp. His is one of only three Commonwealth soldiers buried here, but the Commonwealth Graves Commission maintains these plots as well as any of their own meticulously cared-for cemeteries.
I am struck by the stark simplicity of this small act of remembrance that is today maintained as anonymously as it was created. Obviously, some resident or residents of Wijnegem, a village much battered by war, carefully interned Private Dingwell, and when his body was later moved, decided that its first resting place warranted tribute.
Remembrance, I realize, need not be complicated or dressed in pomp and ceremony. It can be as simple as the Wijnegem monument to Private Dingwell. As simple as taking a few minutes to join other Canadians at memorial services on November 11. Or even pausing for a full minute’s silence on that eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour while thinking of those Canadians, like Private Dingwell, who died in a foreign land far from home in the service of this country.
APPENDIX A:
CANADIANS IN THE SCHELDT
SEPTEMBER 13 – NOVEMBER 6, 1944
(NOT ALL UNITS LISTED)
FIRST CANADIAN ARMY TROOPS
Royal Montreal Regiment
1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment
1st Army Group, Royal Canadian Artillery:
11th Field Regiment
1st Medium Regiment
2nd Medium Regiment
5th Medium Regiment
2nd Army Group, Royal Canadian Artillery:
19th Field Regiment
3rd Medium Regiment
4th Medium Regiment
7th Medium Regiment
2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment (Mobile)
Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:
10th Field Park Company
5th Field Company
20th Field Company
23rd Field Company
II CANADIAN CORPS TROOPS
18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons)
6th Anti-Tank Regiment
2nd Survey Regiment
6th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:
8th Field Park Company
29th Field Company
30th Field Company
31st Field Company
2ND CANADIAN INFANTRY DIVISION
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars)
Toronto Scottish Regiment (MG)
The Royal Canadian Artillery:
4th Field Regiment
5th Field Regiment
6th Field Regiment
2nd Anti-Tank Regiment
3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:
1st Field Park Company
2nd Field Company
7th Field Company
11th Field Company
4th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
Royal Regiment of Canada
Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
Essex Scottish Regiment
5th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
The Black Watch (Royal High-land Regiment) of Canada
Le Régiment de Maisonneuve
The Calgary Highlanders
6th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal
Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders
South Saskatchewan Regiment
3RD CANADIAN INFANTRY DIVISION
7th Reconnaissance Regiment
(17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars)
The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (MG Battalion)
The Royal Canadian Artillery:
12th Field Regiment
13th Field Regiment
14th Field Regiment
3rd Anti-Tank Regiment
4th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers:
3rd Field Park Company
6th Field Company
16th Field Company
18th Field Company
7th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
The Royal Winnipeg Rifles
The Regina Rifle Regiment
1st Battalion, Canadian Scottish Regiment
8th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada
Le Régiment de la Chaudière
The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment
9th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
The Highland Light Infantry of Canada
The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders
The North Nova Scotia Highlanders
4TH CANADIAN ARMOURED DIVISION
29th Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment
(South Alberta Regiment)
10th Canadian Independent MG Company
(New Brunswick Rangers)
Lake Superior Regiment (Motor)
Royal Canadian Artillery:
15th Field Regiment
23rd Field Regiment (Self-Propelled)
5th Anti-Tank Regiment
8th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Royal Canadian Corps of Engineers:
6th Field Park Squadron
8th Field Squadron
9th Field Squadron
4th Canadian Armoured Brigade:
21st Armoured Regiment (Governor General’s Foot Guards)
22nd Armoured Regiment (Canadian Grenadier Guards)
23rd Armoured Regiment (British Columbia Regiment)
10th Canadian Infantry Brigade:
Lincoln and Welland Regiment
Algonquin Regiment
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada
2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade:
6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars)
10th Armoured Regiment (The Fort Garry Horse)
27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment)
APPENDIX B
CANADIAN INFANTRY BATTALION
(TYPICAL ORGANIZATION)
HQ COMPANY:
No. 1: Signals Platoon
No. 2: Administrative Platoon
SUPPORT COMPANY:
No. 3: Mortar Platoon (3-inch)
No. 4: Bren Carrier Platoon
No. 5: Assault Pioneer Platoon
No. 6: Antitank Platoon (6-pounder)
A COMPANY:
No. 7 Platoon
No. 8 Platoon
No. 9 Platoon
B COMPANY:
No. 10 Platoon
No. 11 Platoon
No. 12 Platoon
C COMPANY:
No. 13 Platoon
No. 14 Platoon
No. 15 Platoon
D COMPANY:
No. 16 Platoon
No. 17 Platoon
No. 18 Platoon
APPENDIX C
CANADIAN AND GERMAN ARMY
ORDER OF RANKS
(LOWEST TO HIGHEST)
Like most Commonwealth nations, the Canadian army used the British ranking system. Except for the lower ranks, this system little differed from one service arm to another. The German army system, however, tended to identify service and rank throughout most of its command chain. The translations are roughly based on the Canadian ranking system, although there is no Canadian equivalent for many German ranks and some differentiation in responsibility each rank bestowed on its holder.
APPENDIX D
THE DECORATIONS
Canadian military personnel won many military decorations during the Scheldt campaign. The decoration system that Canada used in World War II, like most other aspects of its military organization and tradition, derived from Britain. A class-based system, most military decorations can be awarded either to officers or to “other ranks,” but not both. The Canadian army, navy, and air force also have distinct decorations. Only the Victoria Cross—the nation’s highest award— can be won by personnel from any arm of the service or rank.
The decorations and qualifying ranks are:
VICTORIA CROSS (VC): Awarded for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. Instituted in 1856. Open to all ranks. The only award that can be granted for action in which the recipient was killed, other than Mentioned in Despatches—a less formal honour whereby an act of bravery was given specific credit in a formal report.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER (DSO): Army officers of all ranks, but more commonly awarded to officers with ranks of major or higher.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS (DSC): Navy officers ranging in rank from commander down to lieutenant.
MILITARY CROSS (MC): Army officers with a rank normally below major and, rarely, warrant officers.
DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS (DFC): Air Force officers and warrant officers for acts of valour while flying in active operations against the enemy.
AIR FORCE CROSS (AFC): Air Force officers and warrant officers for valour while flying, but not while in active operations against the enemy.
DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL (DCM): Army warrant officers and all lower ranks.
CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY MEDAL (CGM): Navy chief petty officers, petty officers, and men.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL (DSM): Navy chief petty officers, petty officers, and men.
MILITARY MEDAL (MM): Army warrant officers and all lower ranks.
DISTINGUISHED FLYING MEDAL: Air Force non-commissioned officers and men for valour while flying in active operations against the enemy.
AIR FORCE MEDAL: Air Force non-commissioned officers and men for valour while flying, but not in active operations against the enemy.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION: A SIMPLE PLAN
1 Col. C.P. Stacey, The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944–1945, vol. 3 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1960), 361.
2 “Memorandum on Operations of 4 Cdn. Armd. Div. on Leopold Canal, 13–14 Sep.44,” vol. 10936, RG 24, Library and Archives Canada, 1.
3 Terry Copp, “The Liberation of Belgium,” Legion Magazine, November/December 2000.
4 G.L. Cassidy, Warpath: The Story of the Algonquin Regiment, 1939–1945 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1948), 138.
5 Ibid., 138–39.
6 Karel Aernoudts, Waar de rode klaproos bloeit (Osstburg: Uitgeverij W. J. Pieters, 1972), n.p.
7 Cassidy, 139.
8 “Memorandum on Operations of 4 Cdn. Armd. Div. on Leopold Canal, 13–14 Sep. 44,” 1.
9 Cassidy, 140.
10 R.L. Rogers, History of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment (n.p., 1954), 175.
11 Cassidy, 140.
12 A.B.J. Goossens, West-Zeeuws-Vlanderen 1939–1946, Deel 2: Vlucht en bevrijding (Apeldoorn: n
.p., 1997), 101.
13 Cassidy, 140–45.
14 Report No. 69 Historical Section Army Headquarters: “The Campaign in North-West Europe, Information from German Sources—Part III: German Defence Operations in the Sphere of First Canadian Army (23 Aug.–8 Nov. 44),” Directorate of Heritage and History, Department of National Defence, 30 July, 1954, para.76.
15 Stacey, 362.
16 Algonquin Regiment War Diary, September 1944, rg24, Library and Archives Canada, n.p.
17 Cassidy, 145–46.
18 Roger Morre, De slag om ‘t Molentje: Moerkerke 1944 (Eeklo, Belgium: n.p., 1981), n.p.
19 Cassidy, 145.
20 Stacey, 362.
21 Cassidy, 146–47.
22 Stacey, 363.
23 Cassidy, 147–49.
24 Ibid., 149–52.
25 Stacey, 363
26 “Memorandum on Operations of 4 Cdn. Armd. Div. on Leopold Canal, 13–14 Sep. 44,” 3.
27 Johan van Doorn, correspondence with author, Sommelsdijk, Holland, June 6, 2006.
28 Cassidy, 149–51.
29 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade War Diary, September 1944, RG24, Library and Archives Canada, p. 5.
30 Stacey, 362.
31 Ibid., 363.
1: BEGINNING OF THE END
1 Forrest C. Pogue, Supreme Command (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954), 244–45.
2 Chester Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe (London: Collins, 1952), 434–35.
3 Hubert Meyer, The History of the 12. ss-Panzerdivision “Hitlerjugend” (Winnipeg: J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, 1994), 204.