Walcheren and the Scheldt

Canada Post Corporation's tribute to the Canadian war effort continues with four stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944 and the subsequent advance up the European coast. After the successful battle for Normandy, the next step was the advance towards the German frontier. A pressing need existed to capture the port of Antwerp, so as to allow the more than 20,000 tons of daily supplies to be unloaded at a point closer than the Normandy beaches. On September 4 the British entered Antwerp but due to Allied strategic errors, the Germans quickly denied use of the port by occupying the 80-km waterway known as the Scheldt, between the city and the sea. Hitler had ordered that this area be held as a "fortress". The area to the south, also heavily defended, would become known in history as the Breskens Pocket. Two Canadian divisions were assigned the task of clearing the Breskens Pocket. This was accomplished on November 2. Walcheren Island was the next objective. The only approach to Walcheren was a causeway from South Beveland. The German defenders had closed the causeway to tanks and wheeled vehicles by cutting a water-filled ditch across the roadbed. British troops under First Canadian Army command made landings which toppled German resistance on November 10. On November 18, a convoy of 18 supply ships entered the port of Antwerp. "The end of Nazism was in clear view", General Eisenhower said, "when the first ship moved unmolested up the Scheldt". Victory was in sight!