With the Commandos: The Drive into Hitler’s Reich, November 1944-June 1945

On 4 September 1944, Allied forces and local resistance fighters captured the Belgian port of Antwerp, the largest harbour in Europe.Once opened to Allied shipping, the port would revolutionise the Allies’ delivery of supplies into mainland Europe, stores which were still having to make the long overland journey from Normandy and places such as Cherbourg.But to enable this to happen, the Scheldt Estuary and, more importantly, the island of Walcheren also needed to cleared of Hitler’s forces. The task of storming and liberating the heavily defended island of Walcheren was handed to the men of the Commandos.Under Operation Infatuate, the plan was to land Commandos at Westkapelle and Flushing, and have the Canadians push across the Walcheren Causeway.Launched on 1 November 1944, Operation Infatuate was the last and one of costliest Combined Operations attacks of the Second World War in Europe.Such was the bitter nature of the fighting, in one sector alone, out of twenty-eight landing craf