History Article-The Breskens Pocket

As the winter of 1944 drew nearer, the largest port supplying the allied armies in Northwest Europe was Dieppe. Dieppe had been cleared, in a fitting irony, by the Canadian Army. Comrades, some visiting the town for the second time in the war, repaid the Germans for the humiliation inflicted on them during that August day in 1942 when the first seaborne invasion of its kind was attempted with a virtually all-Canadian force.

With only 7,000 tons a day at full capacity coming through Dieppe, though, a higher capacity source of supply was badly needed. Antwerp not only had to be captured, but the Scheldt Estuary needed to be cleared. Thanks to bickering between Generals Montgomery and Patton, 90,000 German veterans were given the opporuntity to move into the estuary, flood the approaches and set up fortresses on the highpoints. A delaying force was left behind in Breskens, at the approach to the estuary.

The job of clearing the pocket at Breskens and the estuary was given to the 1st Canadian Army. The Allied commander, Eisenhower, described the task as the top priority for the allies. "Unless we have Antwerp producing by the middle of November all operations along the front will come to a standstill ... consider it of first importance," he wrote to Montgomery.

Hitler had caused the 15th Army to be stripped to allow for garrisons in the ports along the north coast; some of these held out for the duration of the war, a fact masked by allied forces for security. The need to hold the Scheldt was as important to Hitler and his commanders as it was for the allies to clear it, as the commitment of 90,000 battlehardened veterans clearly demonstrates.

On September 27, the Canadians began the job. Five miles east of the docks of Antwerp, a Calgary Highlanders patrol crossed a bridge over the Albert Canal near Merxham. The wrecked bridge was crossed by members of the patrol swinging hand over hand from the twisted pieces of metal that remained. Once across they secured a small bridgehead, clearing the immediate area of the defending Germans who were caught by surprise. They then held against two strong counterattacks to allow for reinforcements to be brought over. The leader of the patrol, Sgt. G.R. Crockett, was presented the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery and leadership.

The whole area was crisscrossed with canals and the second to be crossed, the Turnhout, cost the Canadians much more dearly. The Fusiliers Mont Royal Regiment from Quebec and the South Sasketchewan Regiment tried to forge across the waterway about eight miles east of Antwerp, backed by a small force of Belgian White Brigade members. Both made it across the canal, but were soon forced back by tank-backed counterattacks. While the SSRs made a diversionary attack, the Le Regiment de Maisonneuve, another Quebec regiment, attacked across the canal and this time they managed to hold.

The Black Watch regiment of Canada passed through the bridgehead and captured the towns of St. Lenaart's and Brecht. The fighting was intense; in three days Black Watch casualties totalled 113. The German commander told his troops, "The German people are watching. In this hour, the fortifications along the Scheldt occupy a role decisive in the future of our people. Each day you deny the enemy the port of Antwerp will be vital." Prisoners taken in patrols indicate the aggressive opposition; members of the Belgium SS and 1018th Regiment -which was supposed to be headed to the eastern front -were among those dug in against the Canadians.

For the main push into Breskens, The Canadian 4th Field Arty was supporting the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (nicknamed the Rileys). The gunners and infantry attempted to coordinate their attack during a meeting at the Schoten Sports Platz stadiumm, but their 18-radio sets were severly hindered by built-up urban areas, making regular sit-reps impossible. A Canadian commander, briefing his men was clearly frustrated by the lack of information when the civilian phone in the sports stadium office begins ringing. D Company commander, Bob Suckling was on the other end of the line that Col. Lendrum picked up. Suckling, in hushed tones, informed the colonel that members of the Belgium White Brigade have made repairs to the phones to make communications easier. Lendrum asked Suckling why he was whispering. "The frigging Germans are just outside the door," said Suckling, sending Lendrum into gales of laughter. Apparently a German patrol was checking out the phone offices and Suckling and his men were hiding in an office. They didn't want to reveal that repairs have been made by attacking the patrol, so they waited for the Germans to leave.

The Germans had meanwhile entered the town with a light gun and were moving down the streets, shelling buildings. Finally they were held at bay by Rileys holed up in a second floor office too high for the German arty piece to hit. The Canadians rained down grenades, while the Germans returned fire, shooting shell after shell into the building structure hoping to weaken or set fire to it.

Meanwhile back at the stadium, again the phone rings. The patrol is requesting arty support. The 18 set is fired up and the FOO takes over. "Mike Target, Mike Target," followed by the map reference, then "Scale 5" (mike targets are local tactical arty targets; scale 5 sends five shells per 25 pounder gun, totalling 120 shells to the target). This fire mission is repeated three times and the German attack is snuffed.

By October 6, the Canadian push had made enough headway that General Kurt Student of the 1st German Parachute Army, 30,000 strong, was directed to break off his action against the 1st Polish Armoured Division and head north to defend against the Canadians. The same FOO, George Blackburn, was travelling with the Rileys the day Student heads north. Near Middle Straat, the sound of a German high velocity gun brought the column to a halt. It was shelling a row of nearby houses, and there was almost no time between the wham of the gun firing and the impact of the shell into the buildings.

A group of Daimlers with 8th Recce reversed full speed up the street, the last man through yelling out "TANK!" While the four companies took up defensive positions until they could determine the size of the force, the FOO returned to his post to make arrangements for a better position. Bob Suckling arrived at the FOO's bren gun carrier just as Blackburn and company were rolling up communications cable, preparing to move out of harm's way. "Come with me, I've located it. It's a self-propelled gun, not a tank."

Blackburn and Suckling moved forward along the street with two gunners, leaving the radio operator with the bren gun carrier. The German can be heard, firing shells nearby, but out of sight. The locked doors along the street are pounded until finally someone opens up. Suckling pushed past and found his way upstairs with the FOO and the two gunners. The bedroom window looking out of the rear of the home is opened, and Suckling calls back to Blackburn, "There it is." Blackburn looked out and saw the SPG just as it fires again from its position by a creek.

The gun had begun shelling the row of houses from which the Canadians are watching. The next shell goes through a home three doors down. Blackburn calculated the position and gave it to one of the gunners who called out to the fourth on the street to relay it to the bren gun carrier. The German gun fires at the next house. Blackburn thinks they should get out of the observation post they've established, but Suckling remains. "How long before they could put something up?" he asks. Blackburn considers the time it takes to move the guns around and fire. "Three to four minutes." Blackburn imagines the Tannoy loudspeakers in the gunpits spewing out the targeting information. The gunners picking the most suitable shell of the three charges available for the task. Loading the guns, aiming and firing. Soon the 25 pounder shells are raining down around the SPG. If the calculations are off at all, the closeness of the shot could take out the houses.

Finally the creek area erupts in flame and the rain of shells builds and builds another scale five bombardment. Then Suckling spots the supporting infantry and points them out to the FOO, who calls the adjustment out the window to the relaying gunner. The Germans had been making their way towards the line of houses and were only 200 yards away when the shells from the Canadian guns started landing. The Germans hit the ground, and as the shells shifted from the immobilized SPG towards them, they began to flee back the way they came.