CANADIANS TAKE BRESKENS

Southland Times, Issue 25502, 24 October 1944, Page 5

CANADIANS TAKE BRESKENS

Advance North-East Of Antwerp

LONDON, October 22.

The Canadians today captured Breskens, the chief port of the Scheldt pocket, and entered Fort Frederik Hendrik, from which the German coastal batteries dominated the gateway of Antwerp, says Reuter’s correspondent with the Canadian Ist Army. They found the fort heavily mined. The Canadians have thus almost completed the first stage of the operation designed to render Antwerp usable as a port, but the German guns on Walcheren and South Beveland islands still deny passage to shipping. The Germans in the Scheldt pocket are now hemmed in in the north-west-ern corner where they are strongly resisting behind good natural defences. The Canadians north-east of Antwerp today captured Esschen, while British troops on their right flank beat off several German armoured counterattacks.

The British and Canadian push to the Belgian and Dutch border is already influencing the battle for the control of the South Beveland causeway. German counter-attacks against Woensdrecht have diminished and a number of crack German troops in the Hergenopzoom area are believed to have been moved eastward in an effort to halt the Allied thrust to Rozendaal. The fighting is expected to become heavy as the British and Canadians approach the main German line across south-western Holland, where the Germans have well-equipped infantry.