Osprey's study of the Walcheren campaign of World War II (1939-1945).
Walcheren is a saucer-shaped island in the estuary of the river Scheldt,
commanding maritime access to Antwerp, the largest port in Western
Europe. The Allies captured Antwerp intact on September 4, 1944, but
their eyes were on the Rhine crossings at Arnhem, not the lower Scheldt.
The failure of Operation Market-Garden later that month brought home the
Allies' logistical weakness. As autumn gales drew near, every shell and
petrol tin had still to be landed at Cherbourg or across the Normandy
beaches. Complete US Army divisions were immobilized for lack of
transport. It was vital to re-open Antwerp. The continued German
presence on Walcheren, however, prevented Allied shipping from entering
the Scheldt.
In the fall of 1944, Walcheren had the most heavily fortified coastline
in the world. Its seaward defences consisted of 30 coastal and field
batteries, mounting 50-60 guns from 75mm to 220mm in caliber, manned by
high quality naval personnel behind massive concrete emplacements.
Supporting strongpoints had anti-aircraft guns, flame-throwers
rocket-launchers and Goliath remote controlled demolition vehicles. The
sand dunes protecting the low-lying island from the North Sea were laced
with barbed wire, mines and dragon's teeth. Defending infantry came from
Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser's 70.Infanterie-Division, a 'white bread
division' consisting of men with gastric problems. Allied intelligence
estimated the total garrison at 4,000, but 8,000 eventually surrendered.
On November 1, 1944, in a double-pronged attack, the men of 52nd
(Lowland) Division plus No. 4 Army Commando seized Flushing (Infatuate
I) while in the west 4th Special Service Brigade with three Royal Marine
Commandos and No. 10 Inter-Allied Commando would take Westkapelle, and
fight their way north and south along the dunes, taking the coastal
batteries as they went (Infatuate II). All this was to be supported with
HMS Warspite and two 15-inch gun monitors; the Support Squadron Eastern
Flank (SSEF) with 25 specialized Landing Craft with guns and rockets;
350 Army guns south of the Scheldt, most of them heavier than
25-pounders; and the Typhoon and Spitfire fighter bombers of 84 Group
RAF.
In fighting described by one survivor as 'worse than Dieppe and D-Day
put together' the Army and Royal Marines forced their way ashore,
supported by specialized armour and tracked vehicles, and over the next
eight days cleared the positions of their German defenders in bitter
street fighting.
The first Liberty ships unloaded at Antwerp on December 1, just over a
fortnight before the Ardennes offensive began. If Walcheren had not
fallen when it did, opening Antwerp just in time, the Allies would have
been hard pressed to withstand the German attack, or replace the fuel
stocks lost in its opening days, let alone cross the Rhine in the
following spring, and meet the Russians on the Elbe. The Walcheren
campaign was not merely a dramatic combined operation pulled off against
the odds; it helped determine the course of the war and the shape of the
post-war world.
