Eric Brewer in Brussels

On 6th September Eric Brewer's diary continued:  "Shifted at 7 o’clock to a place just outside Brussels. Went into town by train.  Had as much as we wanted of everything off the civvies.  Also met a girl named Yvonne.” 

The next day he “shifted to other side of Brussels. Went there again at night.  Still getting plenty to eat off the people, especially front ones.  Also have been asked into the houses.  Not much activity today.  Met girl named Laura.  Found out the Airborne* are being landed tonight.”

* German paratroopers arrived on 6^th and 7^th September, having been commissioned by Hitler on 4^th September ‘to build a new defence line along the Albert Canal and hold it indefinitely’.  There were a number of Allied plans drawn up for airborne landings prior to Market Garden. Operation Comet - which evolved into Market Garden - was planned by Montgomery to use the first Allied Airborne Army to seize the Rhine bridges between Arnhem in the Netherlands and Wesel, north of the Ruhr in West Germany, on 6^th or 7^th September but was postponed and then cancelled to be expanded to Market Garden.  (From ‘Arnhem’ by Anthony Beevor, Penguin Books 2018). 

He wrote home that day: "Things are still the same for me, plenty of shifting about to keep near where we can be at hand if needed.  I don’t think we shall ever be needed as Patton seems to be doing very well with his Corp  so God help Gerry when he feels the whole weight of the British Army…

These people out here are still treating us well; we are still being asked to dinner in the houses, for a drink and even being offered the houses to sleep in.  They can't get over it because we do not force our way into the houses as Gerry used to.  The most unusual thing they can't make out is that the officers don’t come to the houses and demand to sleep there but instead sleep in the fields with us which the German officers would never do…" (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

50^th Division re-assembled between Brussels and Antwerp on 7^th September to continue XXX Corps’ drive towards the Dutch border. The plan was for the Corps to force a crossing of the Albert Canal with the Division attacking towards Geel while the Guards Armoured Division advancing across the Canal to the south-east.  The Albert Canal is a broad waterway running from north of the port of Antwerp to Liège in eastern Belgium.

Between the Escaut and Albert Canals Trooper Harry Buxton and Max Murphy, an anti-tank gunner, waited a few hours in Nederzwalm (on the east side of the Escaut Canal/Scheldt)  for the rest of ‘B’ Squadron to catch up.  They were sitting on the steps of a pub next to a crossroads when one of the little girls in the village gave them a photo of herself and her sister.  He kept the photo as a souvenir and, visiting the pub many years, discovered the pub landlady was the same little girl.

 

On 6th September 1944 the 52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment disembarked at Arromanches.  The regiment had been formed in 1941 from the brigade reconnaissance group of 52nd (Lowland) Division - ironically the Scottish lowlanders then trained in mountain warfare for fighting in Norway but plans for a campaign there were abandonned.  52nd Recce crossed the Seine at Les Andelys, drove to Lens on the Belgian border and then to Alost joining XXX Corps.

 

7th September 1944: Romania, having left the Axis, declares war on Hungary in collaboration with the Allies.

On 6th September Eric Brewer's diary continued:  "Shifted at 7 o’clock to a place just outside Brussels. Went into town by train.  Had as much as we wanted of everything off the civvies.  Also met a girl named Yvonne.” 

The next day he “shifted to other side of Brussels. Went there again at night.  Still getting plenty to eat off the people, especially front ones.  Also have been asked into the houses.  Not much activity today.  Met girl named Laura.  Found out the Airborne* are being landed tonight.”

* German paratroopers arrived on 6^th and 7^th September, having been commissioned by Hitler on 4^th September ‘to build a new defence line along the Albert Canal and hold it indefinitely’.  There were a number of Allied plans drawn up for airborne landings prior to Market Garden. Operation Comet - which evolved into Market Garden - was planned by Montgomery to use the first Allied Airborne Army to seize the Rhine bridges between Arnhem in the Netherlands and Wesel, north of the Ruhr in West Germany, on 6^th or 7^th September but was postponed and then cancelled to be expanded to Market Garden.  (From ‘Arnhem’ by Anthony Beevor, Penguin Books 2018). 

He wrote home that day: "Things are still the same for me, plenty of shifting about to keep near where we can be at hand if needed.  I don’t think we shall ever be needed as Patton seems to be doing very well with his Corp  so God help Gerry when he feels the whole weight of the British Army…

These people out here are still treating us well; we are still being asked to dinner in the houses, for a drink and even being offered the houses to sleep in.  They can't get over it because we do not force our way into the houses as Gerry used to.  The most unusual thing they can't make out is that the officers don’t come to the houses and demand to sleep there but instead sleep in the fields with us which the German officers would never do…" (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

50^th Division re-assembled between Brussels and Antwerp on 7^th September to continue XXX Corps’ drive towards the Dutch border. The plan was for the Corps to force a crossing of the Albert Canal with the Division attacking towards Geel while the Guards Armoured Division advancing across the Canal to the south-east.  The Albert Canal is a broad waterway running from north of the port of Antwerp to Liège in eastern Belgium.

Between the Escaut and Albert Canals Trooper Harry Buxton and Max Murphy, an anti-tank gunner, waited a few hours in Nederzwalm (on the east side of the Escaut Canal/Scheldt)  for the rest of ‘B’ Squadron to catch up.  They were sitting on the steps of a pub next to a crossroads when one of the little girls in the village gave them a photo of herself and her sister.  He kept the photo as a souvenir and, visiting the pub many years, discovered the pub landlady was the same little girl.

 

On 6th September 1944 the 52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment disembarked at Arromanches.  The regiment had been formed in 1941 from the brigade reconnaissance group of 52nd (Lowland) Division - ironically the Scottish lowlanders then trained in mountain warfare for fighting in Norway but plans for a campaign there were abandonned.  52nd Recce crossed the Seine at Les Andelys, drove to Lens on the Belgian border and then to Alost joining XXX Corps.

 

7th September 1944: Romania, having left the Axis, declares war on Hungary in collaboration with the Allies.