Battle
"C" Company of the The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada took heavy casualties on the afternoon and evening of 31 October 1944 in an attempt to "bounce" the Causeway. During their attack, the existence of a deep crater on the causeway was discovered; this crater had been blown by German engineers as an anti-tank obstacle. It was later utilized by the Canadians as a company command post during the battle as it developed.
"B" Company of The Calgary Highlanders were ordered forward just before midnight and were similarly stopped halfway down the causeway.
A new fireplan was drawn up and Major Bruce McKenzie's "D" Company inched forward under intensive gunfire, reaching the west end, and securing it, at dawn on 1 November.
German counter-attacks were heavy and prolonged, and included the use of flame weapons on the Canadians. At one point, all Calgary Highlander officers in one company were wounded or killed, and the brigade major, George Hees took command of a company.
Company Sergeant Major "Blackie" Laloge of the Calgary Highlanders was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions at Walcheren Causeway, at one point throwing back German hand grenades before they could explode amongst his men.
Two platoons of Le Régiment de Maisonneuve took over the bridgehead on Walcheren Island on 2 November, but were forced back onto the Causeway. A battalion of Glasgow Highlanders were ordered to pass through, but they also were unable to expand the bridgehead on the island.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Walcheren Causeway
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
Love rules, Her gentler purpose runs.
A mighty mother turns in tears
The pages of her battle years,
Lamenting all her fallen sons!”
—Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)
“I know no East or West, North or South, when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers’ battle with the heavens that cover them. Snow, rain, and mist highlight, drench, or conceal the vast towers, but those towers, hostile to mystery and blind to any sort of play, shear off the rain’s tresses and shine their three thousand swords through the soft swan of the fog.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)