WALCHEREN ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 25324, 4 November 1944, Page 7

WALCHEREN ISLAND

MORE FORCES LANDED CLEARING ENTRANCE TO ANTWERP (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 3. . Another amphibious landing was made to-day on Walcheren Island, from which the Germans are trying to escape by sea in sailing boats, barges, or anything else that floats to other islands further north, .writes a correspondent in Holland. The landing was made under cover of darkness some distance south of the causeway which was crossed threeidays ago. It was over treacherous quicksands, where more than 100 Germans were trapped and drowned during their invasion of Walcheren in 1940. A 6afety line bad been mapped for the landing party by reconnaissance patrols, and surprise was achieved by the landing. The Germans put in a counter-attack during.the moruing; and also directed a considerable weight of machine-gun and mortar fire against the bridgehead established at the end of the causeway. Both counter-attacks, however, were driven off and the bridgeheads exploited to such an extent that to-night they were linked up and tho leading elements were less than 4,000 yards from Middleburg. There are now only a few scattered German guns which can fire against the entrance ,to the port of Antwerp, and the struggle to clear the Scheldt is just about over, although there is still hard fighting before all of Walcheren is captured and the German garrison destroyed, says the Canadian Press correspondent with the Canadian First Army. A few German snipers are still holding out at Flushing, but organised resistance has ended in the town. Aremuiden, between Middleburg and the causeway from South Beveland has been declare'd an open town. Berlin radio said: " The battle for the month of the Scheldt is fading away. Fresh British reinforcements have landed on Walcheren and Allied warships are keeping up a non-stop bombardment against the almost totally destroyed town -of Flushing, where fighting is raging in the northern outskirts.