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CHAPTER 6 Turning Point 1943
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Normandy and Northwest Europe ( 7 pages )
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Lieutenant-General H.D.G. Crerar (1888-1965).
(Click image to enlarge)
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In February 1945 the Allies launched the big western offensive that was to push the enemy back to the far bank of the Rhine and undermine his will to resist. In the east the Russians had reached Budapest. Massed on the banks of the Oder, they were preparing to march on Berlin while General Eisenhower continued his methodical advance on a wide front. He had victories, but the Russians were the first to get to Berlin, creating a difficult situation in Europe that would last nearly half a century.
The Canadians got into the game on 8 February when their 1st Army attacked the German positions in the Reichswald. General Crerar's troops included the 30th British Corps and three independent armoured brigades: In other words, at this stage most of the 1st Canadian Army was made up of foreign, mainly British, troops.
The Germans had expected the main offensive to fall on Venlo and to coincide with an American attack on the Ruhr. They were anticipating a mere diversionary attack in the Reichswald, so that the Canadians, as predicted, found a surprised and demoralized enemy. As the fighting continued, however, German resistance hardened, abetted by the spring thaw and torrential rains that churned the countryside into mud. Meanwhile the Americans had been prevented from beginning their attack because the Germans had flooded the ground in front of them. This left the British and Canadian soldiers alone for more than a week, cutting a path through pine forest and waterlogged countryside. When they reached Goch on 21 February after fighting both the mud and the Germans, they had broken through the much-vaunted Siegfried Line. The Canadian infantry had suffered immensely, however, and the worst was yet to come.
It was laborious going for the 7th Brigade in the Moyland forest, and the 4th Brigade had as much trouble along the GochCalcar road. Next came the big fight for the ridge that commanded two forests: The Hochwald was earmarked for the 2nd Division, the Balbergerwald for the 3rd, while the 4th Armoured Division drove through the narrow gap separating the two to come out in open country. The combat was bitter, dogged and merciless. In many respects it resembled some of the battles of the Great War: The rain, mud, desperate resistance, slow progress, fatigue and exhaustion were the same. Casualties were high. The men of the Lake Superior and Algonquin regiments finally reached the end of the breach.
Some tough fighting still lay ahead before they would set foot on the banks of the Rhine. The 3rd Division seized Sonsbeck, and with this as a base the armoured regiments, supported by their motorized battalion and infantry, could head for Veen, which surrendered on 9 March. After a violent fight at Winnenthal, the Canadians could see the town of Wesel on the far bank of the Rhine. Here their battles ended for the moment. The Germans had entrenched what remained of the divisions of their 1st Parachute Army on the right bank. The big Allied offensive was over, but between 8 February and 10 March the Canadians had suffered 5,304 dead and wounded. General Eisenhower was not exaggerating when he wrote to Crerar: "Probably no attack in the course of this war has taken place in such difficult field conditions. That you have marched to victory says much about your talent and the determination and courage of your men." 80
The road was now open for the final phase of the northwest European campaign. Some troops from the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade under British command took part in the Rhine crossing at Rees. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, part of the 6th Airborne Division since its arrival in Normandy, was dropped at the edge of the Diersfordt forest near Wesel. Several days later the 3rd Division crossed to the right bank of the Rhine, and the Allied forces were now able to make use of the big advantage conferred by numbers. During this phase the 1st Canadian Army was assigned the mission of opening the northern supply route passing through Arnhem, then liberating the northeastern Netherlands and seizing the coastal strip eastwards to the Elbe as well as western Netherlands.
Strategically the war was now over. Running out of men, technical resources and defensive lines, the Germans in the west fell back before the victorious Canadian, British and American troops just as in the east they fell back before the Russians. The Canadians crossed the northern Dutch border. On their right flank, the 4th Armoured Division crossed the Twente Canal and took Almelo on 5 April; the 2nd Infantry Division crossed the Schipbeek Canal and advanced northward to Groningen, arriving on 16 April; the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the Ijssel to occupy Zutphen after several days of tough fighting, then moved through Deventer, Zwolle and Leeuwarden to reach the sea on 18 April. On the extreme left flank the 5th Canadian Armoured Division and the British 49th Division commanded by General Foulkes attacked and took Arnhem. Then the 5th Armoured Division hurried north to Hardewijk on the Zuider Zee, cutting off the lines of retreat of the Germans defending Apeldoorn against the 1st Infantry Division. On 28 April in western Netherlands, the Germans had control over a line extending more or less from Wageningen to the sea via Amersfoort. That day marked the beginning of a truce in the sector, followed shortly by the arrival of food supplies for the starving civilian population.
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