Flushing Station; terminus of the city's liberation

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, November 1, a wide line of small boats appeared across the Scheldt at Breskens. They were the Scots of 5th Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers, put across the Scheldt by the Royal Navy to reinforce the attack on Flushing. While fighting in downtown Flushing had been going on for a day, German coastal artillery opened fire on the small ships from large concrete bunkers. Halfway across the Scheldt, white geysers of water sprayed up, slowly but surely springing up closer to the surging ships. The Scots wisely decided to turn back and under the protection of a smoke screen they headed back to Breskens.

In response to the shelling, Scottish soldiers saw fighter planes flash by from behind the safe harbor dam, firing rockets at the German artillery bunkers. Large plumes of black smoke marked the attack targets when the battalion made a second attempt at 5 p.m. The Air Force had done a good job. The landing craft moored unscathed in the small grinding harbor. It was quiet near the Vlissingen landing beach. Only the occasional stray bullet passed, while the horizon was illuminated by the yellow glow of the many burning houses.

At 5 a.m. on November 2, the artillery in Zeelandic Flanders opened fire in support of the battalion's attack. After a cautious advance through the debris-covered streets of the city, by 5:30 p.m. the attack targets had been reached. Flushing was in Scottish hands as far as the end of Badhuisstraat and along Paul Krugerstraat. Casualties were limited to three dead and a few wounded. Especially the road to the outer harbor was now under anti-aircraft fire from the German positions. There the rest of the battle would concentrate.

As the British main force attempted to capture Hotel Brittania on Friday, November 3, the King's Own Scottish Borderers had to retreat about 300 yards at the floodgate bridge. The continuous German interference fire from the outer harbor proved very dangerous. An attempt to use a loudspeaker to convince the German defenders to abandon the futile battle produced only a few prisoners. Soon planes were again diving on the remaining, fanatical defenders.

In the dead of the night of Nov. 3 to 4, the Scots finally passed the floodgate bridge over the canal and fanned out toward the Vlissingen harbor area and train station. At dawn, the remaining German defenses finally surrendered. About a hundred exhausted German soldiers emerged from the crumbled bunkers. Flushing was completely liberated!