Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944

Canadian Battle #6

by Mark Zuehlke

BOOK SIX in the Canadian Battle Series


Terrible Victory isa gripping account of Canada's bloody liberation of western Holland, one of our finest, and most costly, military victories.


On September 4, 1944, Antwerp, Europe's largest port, fell to the Second British Army and it seemed the war would soon be won. But Antwerp was of little value unless the West Scheldt Estuary linking it to the North Sea was also in Allied hands. In his greatest blunder of the war, Field Marshal Montgomery turned his back on the port, leaving the First Canadian Army to fight its way up the long coastal flank.


By the time the Canadians and others serving with them reached the area, it had been transformed into a fortress manned by troops ordered to fight to the death. Crushing the Nazi defenders required all of the Canadians' courage, endurance and skill. The battle that raged until November was Canada's bloodiest of World War II, costing more than 6,000 casualties.

Genres: History, World War II, Canada, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, War, Military History

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2007

About the author

On January 1, 1981, Mark Zuehlke walked away from a journalism career to pursue magazine and book writing fulltime. He has never looked back. In 1992, Mark published his first book—Magazine Writing From the Boonies (co-authored with Louise Donnelly)—and now concentrates almost exclusively on writing of books.

Fascinated by Canada’s military heritage, Mark first set to writing about the role Canadians played in World War II after discussing the Battle of Ortona with several veterans in a Royal Canadian Legion following a Remembrance Day Ceremony in Kelowna, B.C. Discovering no book had been written on this pivotal battle, Mark decided to fill that gap. Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle was the result. The book’s success encouraged him to develop The Canadian Battle Series, which documents the Canadian World War II experience and has resulted in his being declared by Jack Granatstein as the nation’s leading popular military historian.

Mark is also an award winning mystery writer, whose popular Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise. Set in storm-swept west coast Vancouver Island village of Tofino, the series follows the investigations of reluctant community coroner Elias McCann. Hands Like Clouds, the debut title in this series, won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best First Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel.

When not writing, this Victoria, British Columbia resident can often be found tinkering around the Fernwood heritage house he shares with partner and fellow writer Frances Backhouse. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, travelling, and cooking.

Reviews

[Davina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've liked all his books so far. He is, of a sort, the Canadian Stephen Ambrose, where he tries to weave the story of the battle with the stories of the individual soldier to get a better sense of the experience of combat. I do think he succeeds. The Scheldt Estuary Campaign was brutal, so the book is, at times, difficult. It's not that the author is trying to be shocking, it's just hard to picture those young men taking on such difficult tasks.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brave Canadians

This Battle is often overlooked because it happened right after Operation Market Garden and before the Battle of the Bulge. As the author indicated, it was also nearly unnecessary but for Field Marshal Montgomery's ego and single mindedness. That said, the author describes the heroic acts by the Canadian Army despite some of its own shortcomings.

It is a slower read because of the prose and fewer pictures and maps.

[Dave Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed history of the grindingly vital battle to clear the Scheldt, made necessary by Montgomery's great strategic error earlier. Grand tactical consideration that often dips into the tactical, bringing individual engagements and individual soldiers to the fore. Highly recommended, especially for those not familiar with the Canadians' great sacrifices

[Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrow.

An essential piece for every Canadian's and WWII historian's bookshelf.

Like Zuehlke's other books, this goes into unit level detail and it can be easy to lose track of the greater narrative. I found this occasionally difficult as the geography is more obscure and unknown to me as compared to say Normandy. If you read this, read it with a map in one hand

[Hilmi Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini memfokuskan kepada aktiviti ketenteraan First Canadian Army (Ketumbukan Pertama Tentera Darat Kanada) di kempen ketenteraan yang dipanggil Scheldt Estuary Campaign (Kempen Muara Scheldt) dari 13 September sehingga 6 November 1944.

Menariknya,kempen ketenteraan ini agak kurang dikenali umum (malah kepada orang Kanada sendiri) menurut penulis buku ini. Walhal,kempen ini merupakan kempen paling berdarah tentera Kanada pada Perang Dunia Kedua. Pada 13 Oktober 1944,menjadi hari bersejarah yang cukup berdarah kepada Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada),sebuah rejimen di dalam First Canadian Army. Pada hari tersebut,yang turut dipanggil sebagai Black Friday,menyaksikan rejimen tersebut mengalami 56 orang kematian,62 cedera dan 27 orang lagi menjadi tawanan perang.

Sebuah buku yang amat menarik dibaca, terutamanya dari sudut perspektif Tentera Kanada pada Perang Dunia Kedua. Namun,buku ini perlu dibaca sambil sekali sekala perlu merujuk peta yang disediakan di dalam buku ini.

[Rick B.H. Ghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark's whole series is a must read, this book follows Canadian troops and their battles to open Antwerp.I got so interested I followed their routes through towns and villages using google earth.

[Tim Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark is the best writer I have read in a long time that captures our Canadian WW2 experience in amazing detail, right down to unit actions. His whole series is a must read for all Canadians.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and documented tip of the spear account of a crucial, bloody but unfortunately largely forgotten battle. Highly recommended.

[Tim Willard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible

If you have any interest in the battle against Hitler and just how awful humanity can be, you should read this book.

[Quinn M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for the historian interested in the granular details of this specific conflict.

[Alex Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Zuehlke, as always, excels at telling an overarching narrative through the eyes of individuals on the ground. Informative yet evocative, I'd recommend his work to anyone.

[Ben GS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

[Michael Shea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book certainly covers a part of WWII that is not much talked about, that is the opening of the Scheldt Estuary. I became interested in the topic after vacationing in the area. I do not want to say that this was a bad book. But I cannot say it was a great book. The author made great effort to create a narrative, but constantly fell short. Names were often no more than what felt like cameo or name-dropping of people who lived through the conflict. They became further lost in the designation of units: 14 troop, D company? This despite the colorful regimental names: Fort Garry Horse. Men were captured, but you almost never found out whether they were heard from again.

There were occaisional terms that would have benefitted explanation at first mention. There were also aspects of the Canadian military that could have been explained for those more familiar with American unit designations. I wished for more maps, but I do that with every book of military history.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book on a largely neglected, major Canadian Army campaign to open the port of Antwerp, on the northern Allied flank, in 1944. It was a needlessly costly battle for our soldiers, as Montgomery bypassed this essential objective in his obsession with getting to the Ruhr, then tossed the job to an overstretched Canadian Army as a minor priority. This gave the Germans, who did appreciate Antwerp's importance, time to dig in and augment their defences (the objective of the later Ardennes offensive a bit later was to retake Antwerp), while also starving the forward allied armies of supplies that could have sped up the advance into Germany.
As always, Zuehlke's research is deep, full of veterans' recollections and, as always, it is difficult to follow his maps (I have taken to printing them off so I don't have to constantly flip to the front of the book).

[Robert Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. The Author writes a very thorough history of the Scheld Campaign primarily from the ordinary soldier's view. Attacking entrenched positions against a formidable enemy in cold, wet, and mud is no easy task. Understrength and with many green replacements the Canadians again prevailed and one is left with nothing but respect for those soldiers and the Americans and British who were there too.

[Kristi-Anna]

I love to read about the WWII era. THis caught my eye in the library, and while the first few pages didn't do much for me, too technical in it's terminology... it's turning around!!

[Thomas Shears · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good description of the events of the Scheldt campaign experienced by the First Canadian Army. Well worth my time.