Battle of Walcheren Causeway

Geschiedenis

The Battle of Walcheren Causeway was an engagement of the Battle of the Scheldt between the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade, elements of the British 52nd Infantry Division, notably the Glasgow Highlanders, and troops of the German 15th Army in 1944. It was the first of many conflicts on and around Walcheren Island that constitute Operation Infatuate during the Scheldt battles.Strategic importanceAfter the breakout from Normandy by the Allied armies, beginning August 13, 1944, the German forces held on stubbornly to the French and Belgian English Channel ports. This forced the Allies to bring all supplies for their rapidly advancing armies from the artificial harbor they had constructed off the beaches of Normandy, and from Cherbourg. Because of its port capacity Antwerp became the immediate objective of the British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. While Antwerp fell to Montgomery on September 4 no supplies could be landed there until the German forces holding the lower reaches of the Scheldt, between Antwerp and the North Sea, were removed. Because the Allies had to secure a port of the capacity of Antwerp before they could contemplate the invasion of Germany itself, the Battle of the Scheldt involved some of the most bitter fighting of the war.