Granted while Antwerp was liberated on 9/4/44 the British failed to persue the retreating German forces. The failure of the British to follow the capture of Antwerp with the destruction of the German forces aloowed said Germans to fortify the Scheldt Estuary. With the estuary in the control of the Germans the port of Antwerp was useless.
From... http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-rod-sch-e.htm
In early October 1944, the Allies controlled the harbours north of the Seine but the supply issue was not yet solved: Dieppe, Le Tréport and Ostende had been opened but could not handle the high volumes that Allied troops in Europe required. Le Havre, Boulogne and Calais were not serviceable having suffered major destructions. Further north, Antwerp had been liberated by the Allies on September 3rd, but the city was located on the Scheldt River, some 80 kilometres from the open sea and the river's mouth was still under German control. The only way to make sure that the supplies required by the campaign in Europe could enter the continent was to capture the Scheldt. This was to be the mission of the First Canadian Army.
Also from the above web site...
On November 1st, amphibious assaults were made on Westkapelle, Flessingue and the last pockets of German resistance fell on November 7th after some violent fighting. Walcheren Island was finally captured and, once the river mouth was cleared of mines, the Scheldt was opened to shipping. On November 28th, 1944, Antwerp harbour received the first supply shipment. Canadians were not present at the opening ceremony but the first ship of the convoy was a Canadian one, Canadian-made and bearing the historical name Fort Cataraqui.
The Battle of the Scheldt Estuary lasted from about 1 October to 8 November 1944 and resulted in the 1st Canadian Army taking a major number of causualties.
This is the reasoning behind my earlier assertrion that the forces for M-G would have been better served in the clearing of the Scheldt Estuary rthan in a willy nilly plan to form a single thrust into Germany.
Although as I said in the earlier post if it had worked the Allies would have been genius.
Also see...http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/mh/wwii/belgium.html
for more info regards the Canadians and the clearing of the Scheldt Estuary.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Yes, permitting the Germans to escape was a major blunder, but it is my recollection that most of them were allowed to escape via water, rather than through the neck of the peninsula. That was a result of the poor use of air power, rather than something which could have been cured by more armor. Or was it they crossed the west Schelde and then passed down the narrow peninsula? It's been some years since I have really read about the battle, and my recollections may be a little off.