Civilians at the Sharp End: First Canadian Army Civil Affairs in Northwest Europe by David A. Borys

Author:David A. Borys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Published: 2021-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

To Free or Feed the Netherlands

“There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

– Benjamin Franklin

The liberation of the Netherlands was the most complex and prolonged Canadian Civil Affairs effort of the entire war and can be considered the pinnacle of achievement by Canadian CA in northwest Europe. What was predicted to be a speedy liberation, like that in Belgium, turned into a drawn-out affair which created serious administrative problems for both the new Dutch government and Civil Affairs. In particular, coal distribution, refugee movement and control, as well as the supply of food all became serious challenges. Most alarming was that by the autumn of 1944 malnutrition was rampant throughout the country and the average daily caloric intake continued to plummet. Acute mass starvation became a serious possibility. First Canadian Army would marshal all of its Civil Affairs expertise and experience to bring relief to the Dutch and prevent a catastrophic humanitarian disaster.1

THE STRATEGIC PICTURE

First Canadian Army faced a stagnant front in the autumn of 1944. Operation Market Garden, launched in September, had failed to secure a crossing into Germany but had created a narrow salient whose tip centred on Nijmegen. Over the course of the next two months the Canadians expanded this salient, eventually occupying a large portion of the country south of the Waal River. First Canadian Army then began operations to open Antwerp and liberate the area of the Scheldt Estuary, including the Breskens Pocket south of the river, the Islands of Walcheren and South Beveland, and the landward approaches to the latter. By November 1944, the provinces of Zeeland and portions of Brabant were free, but the vast remainder of the Netherlands north of the river remained in German hands. This territory included major Dutch administrative and population centres, approximately three times as many civilians as in the liberated south.

The Allies then turned their attention to securing logistical support for the final thrust of the war. In March of 1945, after the Canadians had fought a series of gruelling battles to free up the western bank of the Rhine, the Allies crossed the border into Germany. On 22 March, 12th US Army Group crossed at Remagen, and a day later, during Operation Plunder, 21st British Army Group crossed at Rees, Xanten, and Rheinberg.2

With Allied forces across the Rhine, Field Marshall Montgomery, commanding 21st Army Group, sought to liberate the remainder of the Netherlands. He planned to push on towards the Elbe River to gain possession of the plains of northern Germany and to attempt a rapid advance on Berlin. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower vetoed this advance; Montgomery would have to be content with the plains of northern Germany and the Elbe River. While one British and two American armies pushed into the German fatherland north of the Ruhr, First Canadian Army was given the relatively inglorious task of driving north and west into the Netherlands. Although this directive lacked the media-grabbing headlines that the advance into Germany held, it was a crucial element of 21st Army Group’s northern advance.

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