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Founding of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands ("Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland" NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later Nazi political organisation that eventually became a political party. Under German occupation, it remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War.
It was founded in Utrecht by Anton Mussert, who became the party's leader, and Cornelis van Geelkerken. Before 1936 the party was not antisemitic and even had Jewish members. -
Mobilization of the Dutch army
When World War II erupted in September 1939, most in the Netherlands believed that the country could remain neutral, as it had in World War I. The months of "Phoney War" following the German invasion of Poland seemed to justify this attitude. The Royal Netherlands Army did immediately mobilize in 1939, but was not in full strength until April 1940. -
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World War II
Main used links and sites:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederland_in_de_Tweede_Wereldoorlog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_Netherlands_during_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Netherlands_during_World_War_II https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&switch=1&view=horizontal&sort=random%7B1704357770136%7D%20asc https://www.tweedewereldoorlog.nl/ https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlands_verzet_in_de_Tweede_Wereldoorlog#Knokploegen -
Mechelen incident (BE)
A German aircraft with an officer on board carrying the plans for Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), the German attack on the Low Countries, crash-landed in neutral Belgium near Vucht in the modern-day municipality of Maasmechelen in the Province of Limburg. This prompted an immediate crisis in the Low Countries and amidst the French and British authorities, whom the Belgians notified of their discovery; The crisis abated relatively quickly once the dates mentioned in the plans passed without incident. -
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German invasion of the Netherlands
The German invasion of the Netherlands was a military campaign part of Case Yellow (German: Fall Gelb), the Nazi German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and France during World War II. The battle lasted from 10 May 1940 until the surrender of the main Dutch forces on 14 May. Dutch troops in the province of Zealand continued to resist the Wehrmacht until 17 May, when Germany completed its occupation of the whole country. -
German bombing of Rotterdam
Rotterdam was subjected to heavy aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe during the German invasion of the Netherlands during the Second World War. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch army to surrender. Bombing began at the outset of hostilities on 10 May and culminated with the destruction of the entire historic city centre on 14 May, an event sometimes referred to as the Rotterdam Blitz. At least 1,150 people were killed. -
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RAF raid on Den Helder
Resulted in 38 deaths. During the German occupation of the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945, during the Second World War, Allied air forces carried out a number of operations over Dutch cities, mainly Rotterdam and the surrounding region. They included bombing strategic installations; leaflet-dropping; and during, the last week of the war, dropping emergency food supplies. -
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RAF raid on Rotterdam
Resulted in 106-130 deaths. -
RAF raids on Rotterdam, Schiedam, Geleen, and Eindhoven.
Raids by the RAF, among which Operation Oyster on 6 December 1942: a bombing raid upon the Philips works at Eindhoven. The Philips company was a major producer of electronics equipment, including vacuum tubes for radio communication. Prior to the Battle of the Netherlands in 1940, Philips was known to be a leading research firm in infrared and radar technology. To ensure accuracy and minimise casualties among the Dutch citizens, the raid had to be undertaken during the day. -
Allied air raids on Rotterdam, Tussendijken, Haarlem, Amsterdam-Noord, and Enschede.
Among which the "Forgotten Bombardment" on Rotterdam on March 31 1943. -
Allied bombing of Rotterdam 'The Forgotten Bombardment'
During a raid on the shipyards and dock area, the United States Army Air Forces accidentally bombed a residential area and killed hundreds. Until the 1990s, the raid that took place on 31 March 1943 was not mentioned in local school history lessons. In the runup to the 50th anniversary of the raid, newspaper articles and a television documentary by Mr. van der Wel broke the taboo, and the raid is now acknowledged with a memorial in a local park to the "Forgotten Bombardment". -
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The Hunger Winter
The Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 or "Hongerwinter" took place especially in the densely populated western provinces north of the great rivers, during the relatively harsh winter of 1944–1945. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm towns. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to soup kitchens. There is an estimated death toll between 28,000 and 22,000. -
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Allied aid for the Dutch Famine
The famine was alleviated first flour shipped in from Sweden to Dutch harbours, and subsequently by the airlift of food by the Allied air forces, after an agreement with the occupying Germans that if they did not shoot at the mercy flights, the Allies would not bomb the German positions. These were Operations Manna and Chowhound. Although the missions mitigated the emergency, the famine persisted and ended only with the liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945. -
Normandy landings (FR)
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Anton Mussert reveals that he has become a volunteer for the Wehrmacht
Anton Adriaan Mussert was a Dutch politician who co-founded the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1931 and served as its leader. He was the most prominent Dutch fascist before and during World War II and collaborated with the German occupation government, but was granted little actual power and held the nominal title of Leider van het Nederlandsche Volk from 1942 onwards. In May 1945 he was captured and arrested by Allied forces, convicted of treason, and executed in 1946. -
Start of the Deppner executions
The Deppner executions were large-scale executions of resistance fighters in "Kamp Vught" between the end of Juli and the beginning of September 1944. At least 450 people were killed.
Image: Nazi Persecution Vught Concentration Camp. The crematorium oven at Vught concentration camp. In the foreground is a pile of the ashes of human bodies. -
Establishment of the College of Trusted Men
"Het College van Vertrouwensmannen" was established by the First Gerbrandy cabinet, the executive branch of the Dutch government-in-exile in the UK, during WWII. It was a council which had the task to act as a representative of the Dutch government from the start of the liberation until the return of the government, to avoid a period without authority.
Picture: mr.dr. P.S. (Pieter) Gerbrandy -
First meeting of the College of Trusted Men
The appointed members of the "College van Vertrouwensmannen" from the occupied territory were mainly former politicians and representatives of the resistance. Close involved with the creation and formation of the council was Minister of Justice G.J. Van Heuven Goedhart, who fled the occupied Netherlands in 1944 via Spain to London. The chairman of the council was Lodewijk Hendrik Nicolaas Bosch van Rosenthal (in the picture): Nobleman, former Mayor and resistance representative. -
J.A. van Bijnen becomes the National Sabotage Commander of the "Knokploegen"
Johannes Arnoldus van Bijnen alias Frank van Bijnen was the "Landelijke sabotagecommandant" of the "Nederlandse Landelijke Knokploegen (LKP)". "Knokploegen" were Dutch resistance fighting squads with no organisation among them. In actions a form of 'natural' leadership was chosen. in August 1943, coordination became necessary. From the separate operating groups, a central organisation formed. Johannes fell with the preparations of an attack on the "Willem-III- Base" in Apeldoorn. -
First new airdrop of weapons and sabotage materials for Dutch underground groups
In the picture: Resistance group operating near Dalfsen, Ommen and Lemelerveld -
Hitler orders the improvement and extension of the Siegfried Line
The Siegfried Line, known in German as the Westwall (= western bulwark), was a German defensive line built during the 1930s (started 1936) opposite the French Maginot Line. It stretched more than 630 km (390 mi) from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands, along the western border of Nazi Germany, to the town of Weil am Rhein on the border with Switzerland. With the D-Day landings in Normandy, war in the west broke out once more. Hitler gave a directive for renewed construction on the Line. -
The mass exodus of NSB members from South Limburg begins
At first, party members from South Limburg fled to Germany, eventually, others will follow in an organized way on what will be known as "Dolle Dinsdag" (Mad Tuesday). -
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Liberation of Belgium
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Prince Bernhard appointed Commander of the Dutch Armed Forces
During the War, the Prince lived in England, separated from his wife, the Crown Princess, and his children who stayed in Canada. In September 1944, Queen Wilhelmina named him Commander of the Domestic Armed Forces: all the armed resistance forces in the occupied Netherlands. Hence there wasn't any formal structure of command or a coherent organisation for armed resistance, the Prince's role and task in practice wasn't very clear. The resistance groups also didn't authorize the Prince's authority -
Queen Wilhelmina, via Radio Oranje, informs the population in occupied territory that 'liberation is imminent'
When the Germans invaded the Netherlands, the entire Dutch Royal Family fled a few days later to London. Also Queen Wilhelmina left on advise of General Henri Winkelman.
In London, she stayed together with the Dutch government-in-exile and broadcasted radio messages to her people via "Radio Oranje" (Radio Orange). She proclaimed Adolf Hitler as 'the arch nemesis to humanity'.
During the last years of occupation, she and the colour orange became symbols of liberation. -
Commencement of the organized departure of German citizens from the Netherlands
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Liberation of Brussels (BE)
Image: Cheering crowds greet British and American troops entering Brussels on 4 September 1944.
People in the Belgian capital had not expected to be liberated that soon, and huge crowds greeted and slowed the liberators. -
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Start of systematic railway sabotage by the Landelijke Knokploegen
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Liberation of Antwerp (BE)
On 4 September 1944, the Allied forces conquered Antwerp and the NSB expected the 'fall' of the Netherlands to come soon. A lot of the party's member (if not already) fled to Germany.
Picture: German prisoners of war are taken away near Central Station in Antwerp. -
Rauter orders everyone to be indoors by 8 pm
Johann Baptist Albin Rauter was Austrian-born and the highest SS and Police Leader in the occupied Netherlands and therefore the leading security and police officer there. He set a system for assaults on Nazi officials and their Dutch collaborators: one killed Nazi equalled ten Dutch victims, one killed Dutch collaborator equalled three Dutch victims. During 1944 these numbers sharply increased with the rise of resistance violence and the Allied forces closeby. He set the evening clock to 8 pm. -
The Queen agrees to General Kruls being appointed Chief of Staff of Military Authority
Hendrik Johan Kruls was appointed Chief of Staff of Military Authority. As soon as Belgium was liberated, he operated from Brussels and later from the liberated part of The Netherlands. He acted with broad authorities: military but also judicial (appointing mayors, arresting collaborators, etc.). He could count on the 20.000 people from the Dutch Domestic Armed Forces, an organization of volunteers that originated from the resistance groups, now lead by Prince Bernhard. -
The Government Information Service disseminates the incorrect information that Breda has been liberated
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Mussert decides to evacuate NSB members from the western and central regions to the east
After a lot of the party members already fled the South Limburg region, a formal evacuation was organized by party leader Anton Mussert. -
Seyss-Inquart declares the state of exception
Arthur Seyß-Inquart was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the Anschluss. Following the fall of the Low Countries in 1940, he was appointed Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands.
A state of exception or "Ausnahmezustand" is a concept introduced in the 1920s by the German philosopher and jurist Carl Schmitt, similar to a state of emergency but based in the sovereign's ability to transcend the rule of law in the name of the public good -
Hitler orders the stubborn defense of West Zealand-Flanders and Walcheren
Hitler ordered the 15th Army to hold the mouth of the river Scheldt at all costs, calling the island 'Fortress Walcheren'.
The Germans at Walcheren were on the far right of the German line, and were deprived of supplies as the Wehrmacht focused its strength on the planned Ardennes offensive and replacing losses elsewhere. However, the flat polder ground of the Dutch countryside favoured the defensive, and was felt to compensate for the 15th Army's reduced numbers. -
The Dutch Labor Service empties
The "Nederlandsche Arbeidsdienst" (NAD) was, originally, a voluntary and later obligated work deployment service ("Arbeitseinsatz") for men and women and a form of slavery. People left the labour camps on "Dolle Dinsdag", September 5 1944. At the end of that day nearly all workers had left, in total only 25 percent was still present. On September 10, the NAD was dissolved. -
The mass exodus of NSB members begins
As decided by party leader Anton Mussert the day before. After the Liberations in Belgium in September, most of the NSB's leadership and many members fled to Germany and the party's organization fell apart, on what is known as "Dolle Dinsdag" (Mad Tuesday). Mussert himself spent the winter of 1944–45 at the estate of Bellinckhof, near Almelo. -
The population behaves as if the occupier has already been expelled
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First major transport of prisoners from the concentration camp Vught to Germany
"Herzogenbusch" (Dutch "Kamp Vught") was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. The camp was opened in 1943 and held 31,000 prisoners. 749 prisoners died in the camp, and the others were transferred to other camps shortly before Herzogenbusch was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1944. After the war, the camp was used as a prison for Germans and for Dutch collaborators. -
Prince Bernhard establishes himself on the continent
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Second major transport of prisoners from Vught
As Allied forces approached Herzogenbusch, the camp was evacuated and the prisoners were transferred to concentration camps further east. By 4–5 September 1944, the women inmates had been sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, and the men to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. -
First two V-2 rockets launched at London
Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 V-2s were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London, later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while a further 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.
Picture: Captured V-2 on public display in Antwerp, 1945. -
Commencement of the evacuation of the German Fifteenth Army across the Western Scheldt
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The British Second Army crosses the Bocholt–Herentals Canal at Beeringen (BE)
The Bocholt–Herentals Canal is a canal in Belgium that links the Zuid-Willemsvaart at Bocholt with the Albert Canal in Herentals. It was an important launch point for Operation Market Garden. British troops managed to capture bridge number 9 in Lommel intact. This cut off the retreat of the Germans, who were heavily fighting a bit to the South, in Hechtel. In spite of fervent fighting the Germans could not recapture the bridge. For one week the front line was on the canal from Neerpelt to Lommel -
Schöngarth, Commander of the Security Police and SD, issues the Niedermachungsbefehl
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth was a German SS General, lawyer, national socialist and commander of the "Sicherheitspolizei" and the "Sicherheitsdienst" (SD) in occupied Poland and later the Netherlands, who was convicted and executed for war crimes. He reported to Rauter. The so-called "Niedermachungsbefehl" (orders to shoot resistance members on sight) was established by Hitler and carried out by Schöngarth in the Netherlands. -
Major General Kruls issues a First General Directive with guidelines for the arrest of 'wrongful' elements
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Allied troops cross the Belgium-Netherlands border
In June 1944, the allies landed in Normandy and re-opened the western front, and in the ensuing months gradually advanced to the Siegfried Line. On 12 September 1944, the allies crossed the Belgium–Netherlands border and Mesch became the first Dutch village to be liberated. -
Montgomery issues his directive for Operation Market Garden
Montgomery's plan for Operation Market Garden was to outflank the Siegfried Line and cross the Rhine, setting the stage for later offensives into the Ruhr region. The 21st Army Group would attack north from Belgium 97 km through the Netherlands across the Rhine and consolidate north of Arnhem on the far side of the Rhine. The plan required three Airborne Divisions to capture numerous intact bridges along a single-lane road, on which an entire Corps had to attack and use as its main supply route -
Liberation of Maastricht
This meant the end of German occupation of the Dutch city of Maastricht. It was after 4 years, 4 months and 4 days after the German invasion on the 10th of May 1940, the first Dutch city to be liberated. The city was after that for several months the command center of the American 9th army for the campaigns in the Hürtgenwald, the Ardennes and the Ruhr. Image: German soldiers are taken prisoner during the liberation of Maastricht by American soldiers. -
The first attempt by the Canadians to enter West Zeelandic Flanders is repelled
The first attacks occurred on 13/09. After an attempt by the 4th Canadian Armoured Division to storm the Leopold Canal on its own had ended in bloody repulse, Simonds, commanding the II Canadian Corps, ordered a halt to operations in the Scheldt until the French channel ports had been taken, reporting the Scheldt would need more than one division to clear. The halt allowed the German 15th Army ample time to dig in to its new home by the banks of the Scheldt. Image: Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds -
Establishment of the Militair Gezag (Military authority)
14th September, Maastricht was liberated. That same day the "Militair Gezag" was established in the Netherlands, with Maastricht as its capital and Kruls at its head, marking the return of the Dutch government to its own country, albeit under a military administration rather than an elected one. After the end of the war, the Militair Gezag was dissolved on 4 March 1946. Image: An armed vehicle of the US Army arrives in Maastricht, 14 or 15 September 1944. -
Hitler orders the utmost fanaticism in the defense of German territory
Either on this day or on the 16th of September -
Operation Market Garden: The British Second Army launches the offensive
Image: Infantry of 50th (Northumbrian) Division moving up past a knocked-out German 88mm gun near 'Joe's Bridge' (the earlier captured bridge number 9 in Lommel) over the Meuse-Escaut Canal in Belgium, 16 September 1944, the day before the launch of the offensive -
Large Allied airborne landings in North Brabant, in the Reich of Nijmegen, and near Arnhem
Image: The 82nd Airborne Division drops near Grave (National Archives) -
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Operation Market Garden
The objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine River), creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This by two sub-operations: seizing nine bridges with airborne forces (Market) followed by land forces following over the bridges (Garden). The Operation failed to achieve it's objectives: the Allied failed to capture the bridge across the Nederrijn at Arnhem, but did capture the cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen -
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Battle of Nijmegen
The Battle of Nijmegen, also known as the Liberation of Nijmegen was a part of Operation Market Garden during World War II. The Allies' primary goal was to capture the two bridges over the Waal River at Nijmegen – the road route over the Waalbrug (Waal Bridge) and Nijmegen railway bridge – and relieve the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade at Arnhem, 10 miles (16 km) north of Nijmegen. -
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Battle of Arnhem
Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to capture bridges across the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine), supported by the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade. The British XXX Corps were expected to reach the British airborne forces in two to three days. Although the earlier battles of Operation Market Garden were successful for the Allied troops, Arnhem and the Bridge over the Lower Rhine remained in German hands, nicknamed later as 'a bridge too far' -
Liberation of Eindhoven
Although liberated on the 18th, the Germans bombed the city on the 19th in which 227 people were killed. This for the support of a German tank unit that tried to reach the city from Nuenen, but was afraid to cross the Willem Hik railway bridge. After Maastricht, Eindhoven was the temporary capital of the (liberated) Netherlands, until the "Randstad" (= term for Amsterdam, Rotterdam The Hague and Utrecht together) was liberated.
Image: people celebrating in Eindhoven 20 September 1944 -
Entire East Zeelandic Flanders liberated
With Hulst and Terneuzen as major cities, East Zeelandic Flanders was liberated from German occupation. Hulst was liberated by the 1st Polish armored division in which the Saint Willibrordus Basilica lost its spire. Also Terneuzen was liberated by the Polish on the 20th. Image: a Polish armed vehicle in Terneuzen. -
Conquest of the Waal bridges near Nijmegen
By the late afternoon, Allied troops had taken the northern end of the railway bridge, and began preparations for a German counterattack. Instead, however, at dusk about 200 to 300 German soldiers approached the Americans to surrender. Around the same time, the Waal Bridge's northern end was seized by another group after heavy fighting. Time was ticking away for the British tanks and artillery on the south bank of the Waal, as their munitions were running low. -
The British Airborne forces have to abandon the Rhine bridge at Arnhem
The Allied were unable to advance north from Nijmegen in the Battle of Nijmegen as quickly as planned and the British airborne troops were not relieved according to schedule. After four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed and the rest of the division trapped in a small pocket north of the river. Image: British prisoners at Arnhem Bridge. They are unshaven after four days of fighting – water was scarce during the battle -
Beginning of the German destruction of the port facilities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam
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Operation Switchback
Operation Switchback commenced on 21 September when the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division moved north roughly along the line of the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal, given the task of clearing an area on the south shore of the Scheldt around the Dutch town of Breskens, called the "Breskens pocket". The Polish 1st Armoured Division simultaneously pushed for the Dutch-Belgian border further east and the crucial area north of Antwerp. -
The Airborne forces leave the 'perimeter' at Oosterbeek in the night to the 26th
This was Operation Berlin: a night-time evacuation of the remnants of the beleaguered British 1st Airborne Division, trapped in German-occupied territory north of the Lower Rhine during Operation Market Garden. The aim was to withdraw safely the remnants of the division while covered by the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and surrounded on three sides by German forces. Image: A group of surviving Allied soldiers from Arnhem arriving at Nijmegen after the evacuation -
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Battle of the Scheldt
The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations led by the First Canadian Army, with Polish and British units attached, to open up the shipping route to Antwerp so that its port could be used to supply the Allies in north-west Europe. Under acting command of the First Canadian's Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, the battle took place in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands. -
Inundation of Walcheren
The Inundation of Walcheren was the intentional, but uncontrolled military inundation, by bombing the sea dikes of the former island of Walcheren in Zeeland by the Allies on and after 3 October 1944 in the context of Operation Infatuate during the Battle of the Scheldt. The RAF breached the Westkappelse Zeedijk. Though justified by military necessity, it is controversial whether it was proportional in view of the predictable devastating effects for the civilians, and the ecology of the island. -
Important note from the queen: the second Gerbrandy cabinet must disappear.
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The Canadian First Army launches a major offensive against the Germans in West Zeelandic Flanders.
The assault was supported by extensive artillery and Canadian-built Wasp Universal Carriers, equipped with flamethrowers. The Germans used everything they had to try the stop the Canadians from crossing the Leopold canal. Simonds had planned to take the Wehrmacht by surprise by having the Wasps incinerate the German defenders with a 'barrage of flame' across the Leopold Canal, allowing the 7th Brigade troops to scramble up over the steep banks and launch their assault boats. -
Start of the Canadian attack on the Kreekrak Dam
The Kreekrakdam is a 3.5 km long dam, constructed as a necessary part of the Roosendaal-Vlissingen Railway, the Zeeuwse Lijn (Zealandic Line). This dam connected the island of Zuid-Beveland with the mainland across the Kreekrak waterway.
Previously, on 2/10, the Canadians began their advance north from Antwerp. Fighting ensued on 6/10 at Woensdrecht, the objective of the first phase. The Germans saw the priority in holding there, controlling direct access to South Beveland and Walcheren. -
Liberation of Camp Vught
On 26 October 1944, Scottish troops of the 7th Black Watch liberated the camp during Operation Pheasant after fighting a rear guard of SS personnel left to defend the nearly evacuated facility. There were around 500-600 prisoners left alive, who were due to be executed that afternoon, and whose lives were saved by the arrival of the liberating forces.About 500 inmates were also discovered dead in piles near the gates, having been executed the very morning of the day the camp was liberated.