On 9th November 1944 50 (Northumbrian) Division joined 2 Canadian Corps. This appears to have been a temporary arrangement since, in early November, Montgomery had announced that most of the Division would return to England as a training division. Many of the reinforcements assimilated to make up the Division's losses (488 officers and almost 7,000 ‘other ranks’ since D-Day) were to be posted to other formations on active service.
2 Canadian Corps, under the leadership of their Commander, Lieutenant General Guy Simmonds, had spearheaded the British-Canadian advance from Caen to Falaise (see Operation Totalize and the Big Push begins ) and then captured Dieppe, Boulogne, Calais and Ostend. Leading the First Canadian Army they had been heavily involved in the Battle of the Scheldt - attempting to open up access to the critical port of Antwerp, since the beginning of October. German resistance on the Scheldt finally ended on 8th November 1944 and the Corps were then tasked with expelling German forces from the eastern provinces of the Netherlands and then driving them out from the west bank of the Rhine – ‘the Island’.
Not everyone was pleased the Canadians had arrived:
“I remember a small place called Ewyk* by a canal. We were billeted in a house which was to us a little luxury after living mainly in the open. We were occupying the attic of the house; the Dutch couple were so friendly.
Not far away was the canal. Our driver and myself got friendly with the two daughters on a barge. One name I remember was Gerada. She always mentioned that she had a Dutch Fiancée, so we were on our good behaviour and a day or two later some Canadians had muscled in so I thought we’d better move along. I didn’t want no bad feelings and get thrown in the Canal. So we parted amicably.
We wasn’t in these places long enough to get a romance going so Gerada is just a memory of a pleasant Dutch girl. Of course one wonders where they are now, perhaps after the war they continued chugging up the Canal, married and so on.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
*Ewijk is a village west of Nijmegen bridge and south of the Waal.
WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC November 1944
– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg
Date 10th Place ZETTEN
' “B” Squadron relieved “C” today. The relief was uneventful and completed by 1800 hrs.'
Eric Brewer of ‘B’ Squadron had written in his diary for 6th November:
“Moved to Zetlon (sic) on outpost. Plenty of Spando fire also shelling and mortar.”
Dick and ‘B’ Squadron were at Zetten, on ‘the Island’ east of Elst, until the 16th November 1944.
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