Original subtitles

November 1944.

Southwestern Holland.

Canadian troops must distract Nazi forces

to allow British Commandos to land an amphibious assault

against a German fortress.

When German counter attacks threaten the mission,

one soldier defies the odds.

He kind of goes crazy.

I mean, I don't know how else you can put it.

He'll fire at anything.

He'll take on larger numbers of enemy troops.

It's almost like he has lost his sense of mortality.

But will it be enough?

On June 6th, 1944, Allied forces finally land troops

in Normandy to open the western front.

But Nazi fanatics and diehards continue to fight ruthlessly

for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need to win the war.

October 1944.

Holland.

Major Ross Ellis, and his rifle company

of the Calgary Highlanders from Canada,

trudge warily through the waterlogged countryside.

There was very little hard ground in the fall of 1944

because it was a very rainy period of time,

and the Germans were using the polder land to stop

the movement of our vehicles.

Retreating German forces have blown dykes

to flood the Dutch fields, called polders,

to slow the Allied advance.

DAVID Sometimes you had to go down into these polders

without the armored vehicles and the trucks and you had

to immerse yourself in water, you had to fight in water for days

and sometimes even weeks at a time.

The dykes provide some protection from enemy fire,

but it comes at a cost.

The reality is that you can't get at the enemy

by sitting behind a dyke.

Knowing how much faster

they could advance up on the dykes,

the Canadians use a risky strategy

to target the enemy.

MAN Get up there soldier.

They position one man as bait to draw German fire,

while others advance below as spotters.

DAVID When he hears enemy fire,

whether it's sniper fire, machine gun fire,

then they basically know which polder the enemy is in,

how far away he is and then they begin to lay plans

to try to eliminate him.

30 yards.

The Canadians call in the German positions,

and order artillery or an infantry assault against them.

It is a suicidal tactic which relies on quick reflexes,

and a lot of luck.

DAVID Took me a long time to understand that.

Uh, you're just going to pretend that the next ten or 12 meters

are going to be okay and you're going to survive that.

And I guess if you don't survive it,

you're never going to know it.

The Canadians repeat it over and over

as they make their way through Holland.

Ellis, and the men of the Calgary Highlanders,

have been fighting in this terrain for weeks,

to clear access to the Port of Antwerp,

captured in early September.

The Allies manage to capture Antwerp intact

to the astonishment, in fact, of the British

but also to the horror of Hitler and Wehrmacht Headquarters.

Uh, they did not imagine that the British were advancing so quickly.

So when the 11th Armor Division actually sees the port intact

with the help of the Belgian resistance,

uh, it was an extraordinary coup.

Antwerp can solve a major problem for the Allies.

ANTHONY Antwerp was absolutely vital

because it was the only deep-water port, which was close to the German border

and for the advance into Germany.

Because the distance all the way from Normandy bringing

supplies, fuel, ammunition by lorry with the Red Wall Express

was simply not feasible or not viable

for much longer.

But before the navy can open the port,

the army needs to clear the surrounding Scheldt Estuary,

which remains firmly under Nazi control.

But clearing and securing ports,

is not considered a glamorous objective,

when there is a war to be won.

ANTHONY The trouble was that Montgomery was so excited

about the possibility of getting across the Rhine

before the Americans that he felt that in the case of Antwerp,

uh, that could be sorted out later.

British General Bernard Montgomery convinces

Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower

to back his plan to cross the Rhine.

He assigns the British Thirty Corps to pursue

Operation Market Garden, leaving a meager force

to deal with clearing access to Antwerp.

It will be considered among Montgomery's greatest mistakes as a general.

He fails to allocate the resources to solve

the Allies critical supply problem, and.

Montgomery's decision to divert XXX Corps to the Arnhem,

means that the Germans have got time to bring 82,000 men,

4,000 lorries, and over 500 artillery pieces

to the north bank of the river Scheldt.

So, it's perhaps a bit an exaggeration

but it is a kind of mini Dunkirk.

Now after much delay,

and fighting through water for weeks,

the Calgary Highlanders must complete the clearance of the Scheldt Peninsula

Walcheren Island, which controls access to the Port of Antwerp.

Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser controls the defenses of

Walcheren from a raised city in the center of the island

called Middelburg.

Hitler has instructed Daser to hold Walcheren to the last man.

The Allies plan a coordinated, air, sea and land assault

against Walcheren.

Two amphibious commando attacks will happen simultaneously

on the southern and western shores.

The Canadians will target the eastern side of Walcheren

where a causeway connects the island to the peninsula.

The idea is that the Canadians will launch

an assault across the causeway, which will draw the attention

of the Germans away and therefore, hopefully,

make it easier for the amphibious landings

that are scheduled to take place.

The causeway is less than mile long

and only 100 feet wide.

On either side of the land bridge is a tidal zone,

with quicksand like mud at low tide,

and heavy currents as the tide rushes in.

The causeway is heavily defended.

DAVID The Germans had all kinds of mortars

and machine guns aimed at the causeway.

They had an 88 millimeter anti-tank gun.

They had just about every square millimeter of that causeway covered.

So they clearly, clearly were worried about

an Allied advance over that causeway.

Late on October 31st,

the Calgary Highlanders assemble.

At midnight, they will cross the causeway.

Ellis chooses B Company, led by captain Frank Clarke,

to initiate the assault.

Clarke, flanked by his radioman,

Private Frank Holm and the rest of his men,

arrive at the east end of the causeway.

They wait in the quiet for the signal to advance.

The men joke amongst themselves that it is

Halloween and whether there would be fireworks.

They had plenty of fireworks.

Fire!

To capture the Nazi stronghold of Walcheren Island,

they must survive the causeway.

As Halloween turns into All Saints Day,

the Canadians start a march into hell.

October 31st, 1944.

Midnight.

Southwest Holland.

Captain Frank Clarke and B Company of the Canadian Calgary Highlanders,

begin to cross a causeway under heavy artillery.

The Canadians occupy the east side.

They now fight to cross and capture Walcheren Island,

a heavily fortified position within the Nazi Atlantic Wall.

German defenses here had driven back another Canadian unit,

the Black Watch, the day before.

The Highlanders hope their barrage will make a difference.

Like a curtain of fire that is moving along

the causeway towards the Germans.

Now the Germans of course know what's going on

and they are firing onto the causeway to stop the Canadian infantry.

So, the causeway's being hit by artillery from two sides.

It's an alleyway of absolute steel coming from shells

and bullets and mortars and so on.

Clarke and his men advance as far as possible,

before being forced into trenches,

by the German barrage of artillery and small arms fire.

Although the causeway looks flat and bare,

they discover German slit trenches dug in and sometimes occupied.

DAVID They root the Germans out.

They kill them.

The Germans run away, whatever it is,

and the Canadians are going down into these slit trenches.

Clarke and his radio man, Frank Holm,

dive into a trench to avoid bouncing, armor-piercing shells.

Ready, go!

Ahead in the dark, the rest of B Company

scrambles for shelter, amid the German onslaught.

Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser, directs the defense

of Walcheren from his command post in Middelburg.

The Germans defending Walcheren Island are primarily

from the 70th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Ulcer,

or White Bread, Division.

PETER 70th Division is a very new division

formed only a couple of months earlier.

It consists mostly of Mogen battalions,

so this means stomach battalions.

Soldiers that had wounds from the Eastern front and have got

now problems or diseases with the stomach.

They are called up, and grouped together,

to accommodate their dietary needs.

PETER The soldiers they cannot eat the typical

German rye bread.

They only can eat noodles and white bread.

So that's why this division was also nicknamed

the Weiss Brot division, so the White Bread Division.

Their health concerns limit their combat capacity.

PETER You couldn't expect from 70th Division

to make large movements.

They're mostly capable of only fighting in fortified positions

and with almost no capabilities to maneuver.

Prior to the attack, Allied bombing had flooded

nine German gun emplacements on the island.

But Daser still controls heavy gun batteries to disrupt

Allied assaults before they reach shore.

He doesn't think they will be crazy enough to attack

the well defended coastline.

PETER Daser expects the Allies to come from the land side.

So he stations the majority of his troops on the east side

of Walcheren Island.

7,000 men defend the causeway,

a little over two miles from his headquarters at Middelburg.

This focus is exactly what the Allies want.

They plan two amphibious attacks on the outer sides

of the island.

But the concentration of German soldiers and artillery

on the land approach also means it will be difficult for

the Calgary Highlanders to survive long enough,

to be a worthwhile distraction.

Pinned down in the slit trenches on the causeway,

Clarke must act.

Despite the heavy fire that has taken out several of his men already,

Clarke jumps out of his trench and presses forward.

He sees his men are not advancing.

He needs to investigate and do something about it.

His radio man, Holm, remains behind in the trench.

DAVID You wouldn't want to be Frank Holm because the enemy,

they're going to try to destroy the radio set.

They're going to try to kill you.

They're going to try to cut off communications between you

and your battalion headquarters.

But even Holm's trench is not safe.

An artillery barrage hits near his foxhole,

drops a wheelbarrow out of the darkness,

but he is unharmed.

Meanwhile, Clarke continues to move forward and finds that

a giant crater blocks B Company's progress.

The Germans blew the crater before the battle,

to prevent Allied vehicles from crossing the causeway.

It now provides safety for Clarke's men,

who are reluctant to leave its protection.

Clarke peaks over to assess enemy positions.

When he determines where the German guns are located,

he makes his way back to his radioman, Holm,

to notify headquarters.

Despite the earlier blast, Holm and the radio

remain in working order.

The Calgary Highlanders carry a Number 18 wireless set as a backpack.

One man carries the radio and another man operates.

The radios transmit up to 15 miles,

but battle noise severely limits the range.

As Clarke starts calling in coordinates,

the radio starts screeching.

The Germans have jammed their signal.

A lot of effort goes into jamming the enemy's radio communications.

One of the most effective is essentially to find out what

frequencies they're operating on and then broadcast enough

noise to make it essentially impossible for anyone

to understand the messages being sent.

The best way to counter this,

is to change frequencies.

You figure out in advance if the first frequency's jammed,

you fall back to a second frequency

and then perhaps to a third frequency.

It can take time to get everyone on the same frequency.

After some effort, they find a clear channel,

and reconnect with Commanding Officer, Major Ross Ellis.

Artillery opens up on the German positions Clarke identifies.

The Canadian artillery allows B Company to creep forward again,

toward the German end of the causeway.

But soon the Germans attack with renewed vigor.

Snipers in the mudflats open up.

And Allied artillery has failed to take out

a German 88-millimeter gun.

Normally a weapon used against tanks,

the 88 targets its armor-piercing rounds,

down the road.

JEFF The 88 has a fearsome reputation.

It is a multipurpose weapon.

It's used against tanks.

It's used against aircraft.

It's used against soldiers in the open.

And the Germans have adapted its use to the causeway.

DAVID They would just fire and the shell

would just skip down the roadway.

I guess like a bowling ball and if you were caught by it

then you were just shredded.

MAN Take cover!

The heavy German fire proves devastating.

With his company unable to move forward,

Clarke radios asking for permission to retreat.

I think he was smart enough to see that despite

noble efforts of his men that they could just not continue.

They had to try to pull back and regroup.

Pull out! Retreat!

The Canadians cede the causeway once again

to Daser's men.

They will have to find another way to take and hold it,

if they hope to force the Nazis defending Walcheren to surrender.

Pull out! Retreat!

November 1st, 1944.

Western Holland.

A Canadian battalion, the Calgary Highlanders attacks

the eastern side of Walcheren Island,

to distract German forces from Allied commando raids,

later that day.

Forced to retreat off the Walcheren causeway,

in the middle of the night,

at 6 am, they have a new plan of attack.

Major Bruce Mackenzie and D Company arrive at the east end of the causeway,

ready to jump off.

The Canadian artillery barrage begins again.

Firing!

The concentration of artillery fire on the causeway

is planned to lift forward 50 yards roughly every two minutes.

The idea is that the attacking soldiers behind will follow the barrage in,

and the artillery fire will help

suppress the German defenses.

The barrage is also widened,

to take out the German snipers firing from the mudflats,

to the side.

Mackenzie's men are not all veterans,

and the chaos of the causeway shakes them.

Canadian losses since D-Day have been staggering.

Rifle companies, such as those of the Calgary Highlanders,

make up three quarters of all casualties incurred,

50% higher than projected.

While all armies struggle to find reinforcements,

the Canadian situation is slightly different.

JEFF At this point in the Second World War the Canadian army

is unique among the major armies fighting in Western Europe

because it's all volunteer.

Every soldier who's there has volunteered to serve in the army

and has volunteered for overseas service.

There are, are attempts to provide reinforcements

by taking soldiers who are performing other duties

and putting them into front line duties.

Sometimes with minimal or very little training.

The combat strength of D Company is around 125 men.

But as they fight through Holland,

the Highlanders are undermanned by about 17%.

Major Mackenzie needs to inspire these green troops.

But he has a challenge.

He must time their advance with the creeping barrage from

behind them, while avoiding incoming German fire.

Bruce Mackenzie recognized that they were in

a pretty tough situation.

He knows that it takes maybe 20 seconds to load a shell

into one of these into one of these guns,

but you know 20 seconds is 20 seconds, so the shell lands,

you get up and then you hit the ground and you wait for

the next shell to land.

Fire!

Move forward!

D Company charges onto the causeway

behind the first barrage of friendly fire.

Forward, men, forward!

The Highlanders advance as their artillery targets

snipers in the channel,

and quiets some of the German guns.

Mackenzie's forward platoon, led by Sergeant Emile Lola

finally gets past the crater.

Incoming!

But as the barrage ends, enemy fire forces them into a trench

about 25 yards from the end of the causeway.

A fortified roadblock obstructs access to Walcheren Island.

gun fire and explosion)

Lola identifies the source of German machine gun fire,

then sends his runner back to Mackenzie

to call in artillery.

The man does not make it back.

The German defense of the causeway is proving formidable.

PETER But it all again shows you the importance of good leadership.

You couldn't expect from 70th Division to make large

movements and fighting like an elite force.

But if you assign them to the job,

they are capable of doing, then the results were quite satisfactory.

By this time British Commandos are positioned

and beginning to land on Walcheren Island.

I think the Allied operation plan is extremely clever,

to use the Calgary Highlanders as a distraction force

on the land side, on the east.

And the main attack comes from the south and from the west

with an amphibious assault.

Because it confuses the Germans and distracts

their main forces for the defense.

When he sees his man go down, Lola knows,

D Company cannot advance with the German machine gun fire

spraying the causeway.

So, he leaves his forward position,

and sprints back to Mackenzie, himself.

Mackenzie orders artillery support,

this time just ahead of his position.

He asks for an exactly two-minute barrage,

and checks his watch.

As shells fall around him, Mackenzie watches the clock intently.

He wants his men over the top as the last shells explode.

The barrage is what we sometimes call, danger close.

The rough arithmetic of war, when you gotta balance,

I know there's going to be damage,

people are going to be wounded,

people are going to be killed, how do I minimize that?

As the final shells land, D Company, led by Lola.

Charge, go, go, go!

Rushes the German roadblock.

Charge!

November 1st, 1944.

South west Holland.

Major Bruce Mackenzie and his fellow Calgary Highlanders,

charge a roadblock at the end of a causeway which obstructs

access to Walcheren Island.

Despite the initial barrage, the Canadians still meet

intense small arms fire from the German defenders.

D Company fights it way forward.

Then overruns the roadblock.

The surviving Germans surrender.

The rush has worked.

For the first time, the Canadians have reached

the edge of Walcheren Island.

They have been assigned a thankless task.

Their job is to distract Nazi forces as Allied Commandos

land amphibious assaults on other parts of the island.

DAVID Whether they realized that they were doing it

to keep the Germans nailed in position or not, I don't know,

but they were given the orders,

you've got to take the Causeway.

D Company pushes past the roadblock

and takes up defensive positions.

Mackenzie sends German prisoners back,

and gives commanding officer, Major Ross Ellis

the green light to send up the other companies,

to secure their toehold on the island.

But advancing up the causeway will still not be easy.

The other two companies that are coming up behind

are still subject to German shellfire, German mortar fire.

The 88 is still there.

They're still very heavily being fired upon

and they're losing men.

MAN Keep moving! Keep moving!

Ellis sends Captain Frank Clarke and B Company

across again this time with A Company.

Together, the Highlanders must locate and clear

the 88 millimeter and other German strong points past the causeway,

before they can capture Walcheren Island.

During their advance, the radioman,

Frank Holm becomes separated from B Company and Clarke.

Incoming artillery strikes nearby.

Lucky for Holm, the equipment protects him.

But the radio is beyond repair.

Holm retreats across the causeway to find a replacement.

When A and B companies arrive at the end of the causeway,

A Company fans out on the right.

B Company pushes past D Company's left flank.

Sloped dykes hold back the water from the canal.

Captain Frank Clarke leads B Company along the edge of the dyke,

using the slope to protect against German gunfire.

50 yards inland, a cluster of buildings would offer some cover.

But he needs to clear a pocket of Germans before advancing his men.

But Clarke has lost his radio man

and cannot call in artillery support.

He sends runners to find a radio to communicate with battalion headquarters.

They are stopped short.

Clarke is frustrated.

He can see a kilometer away Ellis standing there

with his headquarters, but he can't get his attention.

There's no way because the radio is out.

So what is he going to do wave his arms

and you know, get shot?

Ellis watches B Company from the opposite shore.

He has set his command post close to the causeway

to better direct the battle.

But as Ellis looks across the channel,

he has no way of knowing why Clarke is pinned down.

Without communication, Ellis looks on helplessly.

But decides to take action.

He will advance up the causeway himself

to figure out what's going on.

DAVID He's wearing his Balmoral.

He's not wearing a helmet.

Whether he implied it, or he wrote it in the letter,

and he said, look if I'm going to get a bullet in the head

I'm going to be no more dead with a helmet than I'm going

to be with a Balmoral.

Ellis, flanked by his scout,

and a brigade major, walks calmly across the causeway.

How we doing?

When suddenly, a burst of artillery strikes nearby,

Ellis' bravado may prove too costly.

Midday.

November 1st, 1944.

Walcheren Causeway, Holland.

Canadian Major Ross Ellis, of the Calgary Highlanders

has lost radio communication with the company leading their attack.

Ellis sets out across the battlefield

to consult with his officers and gather information.

Alright, keep it up, keep it up, boys, move out.

DAVID He's going from slit trench to slit trench.

From hole to hole and he's got guys down there who are hiding

away from rifle fire and he's checking on them.

Alright, good, here we go.

With a blast of artillery,

the scout dives for cover.

When he looks up, he sees Ellis chatting with his men, unfazed.

Let's go, bud.

Ellis continues slowly along the causeway,

stopping at each trench to check in.

When he reaches the crater, Ellis sizes it up and orders

in an armored bulldozer.

To bring tank support across the causeway later,

the crater must be filled.

While he works, a runner arrives with news

that A Company is leaderless.

Their officers have been wounded or killed.

The brigade major, George Hees, crossing with Ellis,

volunteers to take over A Company.

George Hees, up till that point in time had never seen combat

but they gave him a rifle and they sort of sent

him out on the causeway and he did the best he could.

Hees and an Artillery Captain with STEN guns,

head to a company as the Germans continue their barrage.

The 88 millimeter still bounces armor piercing rounds

down the causeway.

The idea was that you were going to stop the troops

coming up the causeway.

That shell is moving so fast that they're just going to make

mincemeat out of you if you get caught by that shell.

As Ellis finally returns to his headquarters,

he calls in a more targeted strike to deal with the 88,

this time using air power.

The Hawker Typhoon was originally designed as an interceptor,

but soon found a sweet spot in low altitude missions.

With speeds over 400 miles per hour,

it was used to attack U-boats and to soften up

German positions on the coast before D-Day.

Capable of firing eight, RP3 rockets,

at low altitudes and high speeds,

the typhoon has a debilitating effect on enemy morale.

The typhoons fly dozens of missions on November 1st,

in support of the Canadians and the Allied Commandos,

attacking the south and west parts of Walcheren Island.

Get back, switch over!

Ellis remains in triage mode.

He handles critical problems

the 88. replacement officers for A Company,

but he never gets far enough to find out

what is holding up B Company.

Keep firing boys! Keep firing!

Meanwhile on the edge of Walcheren Island,

B Company has been forced to dig in against the dyke

to hold the left flank.

They're down to about 25 men.

As dusk falls, the Germans launch a heavy counter-attack against them.

The platoon holding to their far left,

is wiped out by flame throwers and small arms fire.

It is a first for the Calgary Highlanders.

They have never encountered enemy flame throwers before.

It's a psychological weapon in many ways

as much as it's a physical weapon.

It terrifies through this primal fear of fire.

In response, Clarke uses mortars to hold off

the Germans advancing to the left.

Back at headquarters, learning of the heavy German counter attacks,

Ellis orders his commanders

to retreat to the causeway roadblock.

DAVID The hardest thing to do in battle is a fighting retreat.

To move back in such a way that you're able to continue

to keep fire on the enemy while you're moving back.

But only Companies A and D receive the order.

Clarke and Company B have no radio,

and do not receive the message to retreat.

As Companies A and D withdraw, B Company's position is now

incredibly exposed.

And is moments away from being cut off and overrun.

November 1st, 1944.

Three companies of the Calgary Highlanders

are under heavy counter-attack from the Nazi stronghold

of Walcheren Island, off the Dutch coast.

Seeing a gap open between his company and neighboring D Company,

Captain Frank Clarke must act quickly,

or they will be wiped out.

Lance Corporal, Richard Wolfe volunteers to stay

and hold off the Germans.

DAVID What he did was to provide covering fire

with his mortar to try to stop the Germans from following

the Canadian troops back.

It was a heroic move and he was taken prisoner

as a result of delaying his own withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Major Bruce Mackenzie and D Company

are also under heavy attack.

Mackenzie realizes too late that B Company has not followed,

and the gap leaves his company exposed, too.

One of Mackenzie's newest platoon leaders,

Emile Lola, steps in.

Lola is an experienced soldier.

He joined the army in 1939 and saw action in North Africa

with the Lancashire Regiment.

He trained newly arrived recruits in England,

until being shipped out on June 7th, just after D-Day.

Lola was assigned to the Calgary Highlanders,

just nine days before the battle at Walcheren.

As German grenades rain down on D Company,

Sergeant Lola begins picking them up

and throwing the grenades back.

Our grenades were a little different,

but you know the idea was the same,

you pulled the charge, and you waited, you counted

and when it got to about seven

you threw the grenade and you hoped that in three seconds

it was going to explode at the other guy.

You throw the grenade, I'm here and I see that grenade

land there and what's my choice?

I guess I could jump on the grenade,

definitely kill myself.

Or I can try to pick up that grenade

and throw it back at you and hope that I get away with it.

There's no science to it.

It's just a matter of instinct, I think.

While out of his trench,

Lola also sees the gap opening up

between D and B Company.

The company Bren gun has been knocked out

and the Germans press in.

Lola takes matters into his own hands.

DAVID You've got a gun there.

If it fires you could save your life.

You don't have any tools.

The enemy's coming at you.

What're you going to do?

You're going to kick it.

You're going to bang it on the ground.

It works.

With the Bren gun fire, Clarke and B Company close in with D Company.

But suddenly a German counterattack begins

and halts the Canadian retreat.

Lola hands off the Bren gun and picks up a PIAT.

JEFF The PIAT is the primary infantry carried anti-tank weapon

used by British and other commonwealth forces

in the Second World War.

It has idiosyncrasies.

Because of the way it works there's a very large powerful spring

that has to be cocked before it's fired for the first time

and it's difficult to do this especially while

you're under fire.

Lola does not hesitate.

He grabs the gun, cocks,

and fires the PIAT into the German gunners,

opening up another chance for B Company

to make it back to the causeway.

Lola fights with singular purpose.

Using anything at hand, to defend his men and kill the enemy.

Lola kind of goes crazy.

I mean I don't know how else you can put it.

I think it's one of these situations that you encounter

occasionally where he just begins to shoot.

He'll fire at anything.

He'll fire at the enemy.

He'll take on larger numbers of enemy troops.

It's almost like he has lost his sense of mortality.

With covering fire from Lola,

Clarke and B Company break through the gap

and fall in with their fellow Highlanders.

Shrapnel from one of the German grenades

wounds a man near to Clarke.

Clarke fashions a splint from a rifle, to stabilize his leg.

It is too dangerous for everyone,

to try and evacuate him.

They lower the man into a trench,

high enough that he won't drown when the tide comes in,

to keep him as safe as possible.

Clarke and Mackenzie pull their companies back,

past the German roadblock, and onto the causeway.

Go, go, go!

A and C Company, dig in at the crater,

to repel the German counterattack together.

The Calgary Highlanders hold the causeway all night,

amid pounding artillery and German counterattacks.

Their position allows more Canadians to launch

another offensive the next day.

The Maisonneuves use the Highlanders' position

to leapfrog and continue the attack on Walcheren,

keeping pressure on the Germans from the east.

DAVID Highlanders and the other battalions of Five Brigade

kept those Germans busy for about 36 to 48 hours,

which was what was needed to allow the Commandos to land

on the other side of the island.

The amphibious assaults prove successful

and give the Allies a hold on Walcheren.

After a week of bitter fighting,

Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser surrenders the 70th division.

PETER When Hitler learned about the loss of Walcheren,

he was furious.

But at the same time, Hitler is also very much concerned about

Allied offensives into Germany.

You just had seen the battle of Aachen going on,

so the first German city is lost.

For his actions on the causeway,

Sergeant Emile Lola earns the distinguished conduct medal.

Captain Frank Clarke and Major Bruce Mackenzie

are both awarded the distinguished service order.

Major Ross Ellis is commended for his leadership on the causeway.

He also earns the DSO for his efforts in Holland,

before succumbing to battle exhaustion in December.

They all survive the war and live out their lives in Canada.

After the Royal Navy clears the mines,

from the channel leading to Antwerp,

the first Allied supply ships deliver cargo

on November 28th, 1944.

Hitler continues to order barrages of v1 and v2 rockets

against Antwerp.

PETER Hitler's also planning his new offensive.

And what is the objective of the new offensive?

Antwerp.

In a drive that will become known as

the Battle of the Bulge.

And the war in Europe would continue for many more months.

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Media Group.