Eighty years ago the war returned to Brabant. After the liberation period, the guns roared again and the machine guns rattled. At Kapelsche Veer, British and Polish soldiers opened the attack on German positions in the early hours of New Year’s Day. A battle ensued that would last a month and claim many victims, including among residents of the Land van Heusden and Altena.
“It was actually a big drama. And completely useless,” says military historian Jack Didden. The island between the Bergsche Maas and the Oude Maasje was an unimportant no man’s land.
Bridgehead
At Christmas 1944, a small group of Germans suddenly crossed the river from occupied territory. They dug in. This gave them a tiny bridgehead, an advanced post to the other side. In the meantime, the land behind Heusden and Altena was filling up with thousands of German soldiers.
Because the Germans had broken through in the Ardennes, the Allies thought that the enemy had something planned here too. That’s right. The Allies sounded the alarm.
The Germans did not sit idle during the Christmas holidays. Meeuwen, Eethen and Drongelen were evacuated. Bridges, rubber boats and canoes were delivered at Genderen and Dussen, towards the banks of the Bergsche Maas.
‘X tag’
At that moment, at least fifteen thousand Germans were ready for an attack. Jack Didden calculated that. He was promoted on the German counter-attacks at the end of 1944.
The Germans spoke of ‘X-tag’. It had to start on December 30 at the earliest. What the Allies did not know is that the Germans were encountering logistical problems: too few boats and trucks, but they did have bicycles. “It wasn’t a fumble, but the possibilities were over. Everything was deployed in the Ardennes,” says Johan van Doorn, military historian.
Paratroopers
Moreover, it was also not possible to get enough paratroopers for the planned German airborne landings in Tilburg. “If that had been successful, it would have taken a while before the Allies had gotten everything under control,” says Van Doorn. “The actual success was the total chaos that Brabant was plunged into. Rumors of paratroopers caused 100 percent confusion.”
A turning point is December 27. Then one of the three German divisions in the Land of Heusden and Altena must head to the eastern front. The Allies have not noticed this yet. They are now talking about ‘The Altena Threat’.
After two disastrous Polish patrols near Kapelsche Veer after Christmas, we have had enough. The bridgehead must be destroyed, General Maczek decides. The Allies collect all the artillery.
At least 120 guns including the Long Tom. Eight of those mega cannons are concealed in and around the Loonse and Drunense Duinen. On December 29, they opened fire en masse and almost continuously on German positions in the Land van Heusden and Altena.
Air raids
There will also be air raids. Meeuwen and Aalburg in particular are having a hard time. On the 30th it is too foggy and flying is not possible. Intelligence services keep receiving alarming messages from the resistance on the 30th: ‘the enemy here is preparing an attack against Brabant’
After an artillery bombardment in the early hours of December 31, 1944, a ground operation follows. Polish troops attack Kapelsche Veer, from three sides. They arrive on the island with boats and a walkway. Polish tanks fire on the German trenches and the ruins at the ferry. But the Germans are safe in the cellars. Of panzerfausten they take out allied tanks. Sturmgeschütze -‘Stugs’- also fired on the Poles.
In the swampy polders and in the trenches, there is hand-to-hand fighting and hand grenades are thrown. The Poles are stuck.
“An underestimation of both terrain and the enemy,” is what Jack Didden calls it. He is currently writing a book about the 1st Polish Armored Division.
Kill
The Poles must withdraw. With heavy losses: 38 wounded and eleven killed. Young men of the 1st Polish Armored Division with names like Ignacy Cichocki (34), Zbigniew Faszczwewski (23) and Bronislaw Szuluk (35). They end up forever in the field of honor in the Ginneken in Breda. Marceli Januszwewski (24) his body washed up at Werkendam where he rests in the Protestant cemetery.
The German side took heavy casualties on the 31st alone. At least thirty German dead and an estimated hundred wounded.
Seagulls will be bombarded later on New Year’s Day. Typhoon fighter-bombers fire 128 rockets at the German positions in and around the village that is wiped off the map. A total of 47,000 kilos of aircraft bombs are falling in the region these days. Thanks to German evacuations, the number of victims remains limited.
The attacks were intended to send a signal to the Germans. “We know what you are planning: this is the answer,” says Van Doorn.
But neither party wants to hear about any changes. The situation at the front at Kapelsche Veer only got further out of hand.
YOU MAY ALSO FIND THIS INTERESTING
Great alarm on the eve of Christmas 1944: German counter-attack threatens