Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery

Located north of the Scheldt River near the Belgian border, Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery contains 968 Canadian graves, including 64 from the RCAF.

Most of the soldiers buried here lost their lives in the fighting north of Antwerp during the Battle of the Scheldt, as the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, with support from the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, worked to clear the right (north) bank of the Scheldt estuary of German forces.

The Liberation of Bergen-op-Zoom

The 4th Division set off in the morning of October 20, 1944 towards Esschen and a route beyond. Its 10th Infantry Brigade, composed of the New Brunswick Rangers, the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, the Algonquin Regiment and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, took Esschen during the morning of the 22nd. They then faced increasing resistance as the Germans fought to open an escape route for their troops around Woensdrecht. On the 27th, tanks of the South Alberta Regiment, supported by two companies of the Brigade's Lincoln and Welland Regiment, entered Bergen-op-Zoom after overcoming opposition from Germany's 6th Parachute Regiment. In the meantime, the two Canadian divisions had broken through enemy defences and had sealed off the peninsula from the mainland. The Canadians could now break into South Beveland. The port of Antwerp was very close to being freed.