The Guns Of Delfzijl - The Matrix Games version of West Front

(Version 1.1, 04-12-2004) In April 1945 Montgomery was determined to take the seaports of northern Germany: Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen and Hamburg. Denmark would have to wait. The background of this decision has never been fully explored but its consequences for 30th British Corps, assigned to assault Bremen, and 2nd Cdn. Corps, tasked with the capture of Emden, in the last days of the war were enormous. Operations against Bremen began on April 18 and the battle quickly turned into a bitter contest of wills. German resistance was skilful and resolute and casualties to both sides were heavy. Medium and heavy bombers reduced the city to rubble and for the final assault two heavy and four medium regiments supported the field artillery of four divisions. The city finally fell on April 25. Meanwhile the Canadian 2nd Canadian Corps was to prepare for the capture of the German seaport of Emden and the capture of the Dutch port of Delfzijl and the Flak guns that dominated the Ems estuary and the flat countryside. The 3rd Canadian division was tasked to take Leer and Emden while the 5th Armored should take Delzijl and the guns. Commander Johnston decided to squeeze the perimeter from two directions. The Perths and Cape Breton Highlanders from the west and the Irish Regt from the east. The Westminster Regt. (Motor) was dismounted and ordered to take the Termunten battery directly across from Emden. Initially the armoured regiments were used as supporting artillery but 11th Bde. was so thin on the ground that both the British Columbia Dragoons and the New Brunswick Hussars were required to supply troops to fight as foot soldiers. Johnston was trying to compress a 25,000-yard perimeter "in flat country with little cover and a complicated system of ditches and canals that made cross-country movement impossible." His solution was to advance only at night in carefully controlled bounds. The companies were to be dug-in and under cover at first light. The town of Delfzijl fell on the night of May 1 and the next day the last battery position west of the estuary surrendered. [keywords: Canadian, Netherlands, Holland, estuary, Dollard]