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The Battles of the Scheldt Estuary

To free the port of Antwerp

In September 1944 the port of Antwerp was captured by the Allies intact as the Germans retreated north, approximately 30 kilometres, to the Dutch border. To the east of Antwerp the Germans continued to defend an encircled pocket of resistance around Breskens, on the south bank of the Scheldt.

The Allies were in desperate need of the use of the port of Antwerp to bring in reinforcements and supplies closer to the front line in readiness for the push into Germany. All reinforcements and supplies were still being brought in through the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, a distance of several hundred miles. However, before this was possible, it was necessary to clear the estuary by removing the Germans from the Breskens pocket on the south side, South Beveland and Walkeren Island on the north side, the estuary would then have to be cleared of mines by the Royal Navy.

In order to achieve this, a three phase operation was planned by the Allies, the details of which are described below:

My unit of the Assault Engineers had just completed operations attached to the 3rd Canadian Division in clearing the Channel ports of Le Havre, Boulogne, Calais and also the two German heavy gun batteries at Cap Gris Nez and Sangatte. We then moved to the small Dutch town of Axel which was just over the Belgium border in order to prepare for the Scheldt operations which, on completion, would enable the Allies to open the port of Antwerp.

Phase One - Operation ‘Switchback’:
My unit moved up from Axel to the town of Terneuzen on the south bank of the Scheldt estuary in preparation for the assault on the German pocket of resistance on the south bank. The commandos were ferried in Buffaloes of 5 Assault Regiment from Terneuzen to surprise the Germans by attacking their rear from the estuary instead of a frontal attack on the land’ward side. The attack went in on the night of the 8th October, the Germans were completely surprised by the unexpected direction of the attack and after defending the area for four days they surrendered to the superior Allied forces. On this occasion my unit was allocated the task of manning the embarkation area at Terneuzen.

Phase Two — Operation ‘Vitality’:
The second battle of this operation was a combined effort with the Canadian 5th Division attacking South Beveland across the causeway from the mainland. At the same time British infantry were to cross the Scheldt in Buffaloes from the embarkation area at Terneuzen to land on the south east bank of South Beveland. Again, both attacks were scheduled to commence simultaneously on the 26th October at 4am, the time the Buffaloes were due to touch down. The operation was successful and the Germans surrendered on the 30th October.

Phase Three — Operation ‘Infatuate’:
The third and final battle of the Scheldt Estuary was to be against Walkeren Island, the main attack was planned for a sea-borne landing at Westkapelle to be supported by the Assault Engineers and a Canadian attack across the causeway connecting the island to South Beveland. This operation was the only one of the three in which I personally was to play a part. During the early part of the previous operation I was instructed to load my armoured bulldozer onto the low loader and report to the 82nd Assault Squadron Royal Engineers currently located on the beach at Ostend. On arrival there I soon realised from the activities that were taking place that we were preparing for a sea-borne landing. Engineer tanks were being overhauled and waterproofed and there were a number of LCTs, (Landing Craft Tank) floating just offshore. Bridging equipment and other engineer devices were also being constructed in readiness to be mounted onto the tanks, my only involvement at this stage was to waterproof my bulldozer. These preparations went on for a few days and on the morning of the 31 October 1944 the landing craft came inshore and beached as the tide went out, this was to enable the tanks to embark at low tide. At this point we were also joined by a contingent of Royal Marine Commandos, so many were allocated to each LCT. Having got all the tanks on board, the craft were refloated at the next high tide and then moved out into the open sea.

During the course of the evening we formed up in convoy with many other craft including mine-sweepers, rocket ships and escorting warships. The convoy sailed from Ostend at about midnight for a scheduled landing at Westkapelle at 0945 hrs. on the morning of the 1st November. Apart from the weather, which was very cold and miserable, the first few hours of the journey were very quiet and in total darkness but shortly after dawn we were able to have some breakfast made up of dry composite rations. However, it was not very long before the silence was shattered when the big guns of the escorting warships commenced firing to soften up the German defences on the landing beaches, it was then only a few minutes before the Germans replied and shells started to fall amongst the convoy.

My experience of this operation was that the Germans were much more prepared than they were for D.Day, they also realised how desperate we were to free the port of Antwerp and were expected to put up a strong resistance. It soon became obvious that the convoy was taking fairly heavy casualties, my own LCT had by now taken two direct hits, one of which severed the steel cable that was securing the tank bridge in position and causing it to fall onto the tank in front. Another major disaster was when one of the rocket ships received direct hits that prematurely set off the rockets most of which landed amongst the convoy causing more casualties.

By this time we were closing on the beach when my craft received three more direct hits, one of which hit the tank immediately to my front and set fire the wooden fascine that was mounted on the front of the tank. I jumped out of my bulldozer with a fire extinguisher to help the crew, had the fire not been extinguished quickly the tank would have caught fire and with all the ammunition and explosives on board it could have been curtains for us all. By now we were heading directly for the beach and the Royal Navy winch man was already lowering the ramp to enable the tanks to disembark, but when the ramp was half lowered another shell went straight through the winch-house, killed the sailor and jammed the winch.

It was now totally impossible for the tanks to disembark so the ship’s captain reversed engines and withdrew from the beach. We had many casualties on board so the Captain turned the craft round and headed for a hospital ship that was located well to the rear of the convoy. We tied up at the side of the hospital ship and we all helped to transfer the dead and wounded, the majority of the dead were commando’s who unfortunately had very little shelter, at least the tank crews had some protection.

We had almost finished transferring the casualties when there was a terrific explosion on the far side of the hospital ship, apparently, another ship that was also transferring casualties had been hit by a floating mine and sank within minutes. At this point we were not sure whether we were in a minefield or whether it was just an isolated mine that was floating by. However, as a precaution, when we pulled away from the hospital ship, the ship’s captain placed a number of us on each side of the craft to watch out for any further mines. We then made our way slowly back to Ostend, slowly so as to avoid an influx of water because the ramp was still half down. We eventually arrived back in Ostend feeling only too pleased that we had survived the ordeal, I spent the night in a local transit camp before returning to my unit the following day. I learned later that the Germans surrendered on the 8th November, and the port of Antwerp was opened for shipping in the latter part of November.

Ralph Rayner, January 2006.

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