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The Battle of the Scheldt was one of the largest and most severe military operations on Dutch soil during the Second World War; a series of military operations that took place in the autumn of 1944 in the provinces of Zeeland and Noord-Brabant and in the north of Belgium.
Control of the 95-kilometre-long Western Scheldt, connecting Antwerp to the North Sea, had become crucial to be able to use the major ports again for the final Allied advance against Nazi Germany.
On 13 September 1944, began one of the largest and heaviest military operations in Western Europe, led by the First Canadian Army and with the assistance of an Allied force consisting of British, Polish, French, Norwegian, Belgian and American units.
The nearly five-week Battle of the Scheldt ultimately resulted in many thousands of dead, wounded and missing among the Allied armed forces. It then took over three weeks to clear the Western Scheldt of mines. On November 28 of that year, the first convoy finally arrived in Antwerp and the final act of the war in Western Europe could begin.
The Canadian losses were so great that in Canadian history a comparison is made with the losses on the Passendeale front during the First World War. The Battle of the Scheldt proved to be the bloodiest battle Canada had to fight in World War II.