On this day 6th September 1944.

On this day 6th September 1944.

The German garrison in Calais, France became surrounded by Canadian troops

The liberation of the Channel Ports of Le Havre, Boulogne and Calais (5-30 September 1944) saw the Allies finally gain control of the French coast opposite Kent, ending the long artillery bombardment of that part of the English coast, and eventually provided the Allies with ports closer to the front.

The Allies reached the Channel Ports early in September, during the ‘Great Swan’ - the breakout from Normandy. The first troops to arrive were from the Canadian II Corps. This unit crossed the Somme at the start of September and pushed north. On 1 September the Canadian 2nd Division captured Dieppe unopposed, returning to the scene of the costly defeat of 1942, and on 2 September the 51st Highland Division liberated St. Valery, where an earlier incarnation of the division had been forced to surrender in 1940.

On 6 September the Polish Armoured Division crossed the Albert Canal at St-Omer (only a day after Hitler had ordered Field Marshal von Rundstedt to build a new ‘West Wall’ along the Albert Canal, Meuse and Upper Moselle). On their left the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division reached Boulogne and Calais, while the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division passed through them and reached Dunkirk.

At all three ports it soon became clear that the Germans intended to make a stand. Hitler had ordered XV Army to hold some of them as fortresses on 4 September. The Canadians thus had to leave some troops outside each port, while detachments continued the rapid advance. Nieuport and Ostend were reached on 9 September. The Canadian 4th Armoured Division then came up to the left of the Poles and crossed the Ghent-Bruges canal south-east of Bruges, while the Poles moved to Ghent.

The Channel Ports were thus cut off, but each was strongly held. At first Eisenhower had considered leaving them alone to focus entirely on Antwerp, but on 9 September Montgomery argued in favour of capturing Le Havre, Dieppe, Boulogne, Dunkirk and Calais, then using them to support an attack by 40 divisions straight across Germany to Berlin. Eisenhower was won over, and clearing the Channel ports was given a higher priority than clearing the approaches to Antwerp. In retrospect this looking like a mistake, but at the time it was felt that attacks on the Channel ports could be mounted quickly, using troops already available on the Continent, while the sea approaches to Antwerp would require a much more complex amphibious assault that couldn’t be mounted for at least a month.