8 November 1944: The Battle of the Scheldt: The Forgotten Fight for Antwerp Ends
In the autumn of 1944, with Paris liberated and Allied forces advancing across France and Belgium, a sense of optimism permeated the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). The rapid pursuit of a seemingly defeated German army, however, created a severe logistical crisis. Supply lines, stretching precariously from the beaches of Normandy, could not sustain the momentum. The solution lay in the Belgian port of Antwerp, one of Europe's largest deep-water ports, captured intact by the British 11th Armoured Division on 4 September 1944. Yet, possessing the port was not enough; it was unusable as long as German forces controlled the Scheldt Estuary, the 50-mile waterway connecting Antwerp to the North Sea. Right: 'Buffalo' amphibious vehicles taking troops of the Canadian First Army across the Scheldt in Holland, September, 1944. Source: Wikimedia. The failure to immediately secure the approaches to Antwerp is considered one of the significant strategic errors of the…
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