Operation Leek - capturing Weeze

Hi all,

After Goch fell 53rd Division was given the task of capturing Weeze. Reading about this, to my surprise I realized that even at this late stage in Op Veritable, the Germans were able to at least temporarily stop the Welsh division in its tracks.

24 Feb - 53rd Div launch "Operation Leek". A day of tough fighting, but eventually the villages of Host and Rottum are taken. (Unfortunately I have not found a period map. One postwar map I downloaded... uses a different grid!)

25 Feb - Some night operations (24-25) were effective but enemy shelling was extremely heavy and an anti-tank ditch of concern (at the edge of Weeze?) could not be reached by the infantry.

26 Feb - 71st Brigade assumes the front line and both of the other brigades withdrawn

27 Feb - In the afternoon, O group held. Plan to cross an east-west stream over which 3rd Div had a bridgehead - this was an east-west stream that ran into the Niers river, which ran north-south just on the eastern side of Weeze. The plan was to then cross the Niers river at or BEHIND Weeze. 71st div to breach the anti-tank ditches on the night of 28 Feb-1 March.

28 Feb - Took over this little bridgehead. Germans had good observation and were raining down artillery. Progress made after dark.



I'm wondering whether anyone knows of a period map of the area with grid coordinates. Also, was there any particular key to the Weeze defences? Was there an unusually high concentration of German artillery there?

 

Found one map, large scale though 1:250,000, looking for a smaller one

Walcheren-Amsterdam


Found this map at 1:100,000, copied from a German map

Geldern-Kaldenkirchen


Found a 1:25,000 map

Uedem

 

There's an older / earlier thread here...

Operations kalbecker forst (LEEK, HEATHER and DAFFODIL)

...along similar lines, and a few other threads under the tag "Operation Leek"...

operation leek | WW2Talk

The nature of the fighting is discussed here...

https://podbay.fm/p/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk/e/1616464800

Weather factors, a mix of mud, trees, hills, rivers and urban environments. The sheer scale of the destruction, with prior bombing, craters and mines etc. I've seen a variety of maps.

A while back, I was struck myself how, from the maps alone, it looks remarkably similar to Tilly-sur-Seulles (With Weeze as Tilly-sur-Seulles) and Point 103 ("being" the High Ground east of Weeze at no.2) ...



SRY HQ was at (no.1) 1d3m1945 and moved on to (no.2) 2d3m1945.

(No3) was the SRY Sabre move to cut off Weeze from the South.

Even "The previous night 4/7 Dragoon Guards with 71 Bde attacked WEEZE from the north but could not get south of the 39 grid line." Sounds similar to the 4/7 attempts on Tilly-sur-Seulles from the North etc.

There are plenty of pictures from around then showing the conditions etc.

Along the lines of Saeffelen

I hopefully should compile some "Weeze" links and events at some point (soon ;-)



Vs. Tilly-sur-Seulles

 

Hi Chris
Try this: Essen
Still only 1:100,000 though

 

Thanks all! I'll have to look through the maps and see what I can glean from them.

There was also a canal involved in the defences, which might be the dashed blue line in the Essen map.

"While this was going on the 1st Oxford and Bucks (71st Brigade) were advancing on Weeze from the North ..... This was supported by an attack East of the railway by the 4th RWF... attacked by artillery, flame, and infantrymen the defenders of the canal to the North of the town gave way." But how exactly this relates to the anti-tank ditches also mentioned is confusing. I think there might have been two ditches, one at least being south of the canal.

 

Listening to the "We Have Ways" episode - as you say Ramiles it's talking about the nature of the fighting rather than this specific action. However James Holland made a comment about using the Ike Skelton digital collection and that led me to this copy of the Operation Veritable after-report which is much more readable than the Canadian digitized version I have. So, cheers!

World War II Operational Documents

And here is what that report says about Weeze. The detail this mentions about the corps artillery being needed to support the Canadians seems important to me.

 

And this section of map at least shows Host and Rottum.

 

Chris, I meant to tell you that McMaster’s University (which all the links I gave you came from) had a series of Defence Overprints, made by the Royal Canadian Engineers for all the maps “surrounding” Weeze (but I couldn’t find Weeze itself) at 1:25,000. They had Goch, Geldern etc. If you’d like links to these also, let me know, I’ll find them (now that I know were they are won’t take long) and post them.

Cheers

 

No - thanks, but I had a dig through there myself.

 

For me, a difficulty is always that the information is in a wide variety of silos... on Rottum, for instance...

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/18730695/&q=Rottum&o=relevance

...and you'll find some quite detailed maps of the area here...

The attack on Schloss Kalbeck

Although perhaps not with a title that would necessarily lead you straight to them.

Edit - And then there's "Host" - where understandably it's a whole different kettle of fish... due to ambiguation...

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/18730772/&q=Host&o=relevance

 

Similarly re. TROOPER ALFRED GEORGE MORSE, 4752328...
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2040557/alfred-george-morse/
TROOPER ALFRED GEORGE MORSE
Service Number: 4752328
Regiment : Royal Armoured Corps, 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards
Date of Death : Died 28 February 1945
Age 29 years old
Buried or commemorated at REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY. 53. G. 15. Germany
Country of Service : United Kingdom
Additional Info : Son of Alfred George and Elizebeth Morse of Abertillery, Monmouthshire.
Personal Inscription : AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER HIM

-- x --



It references the 1/50000 map and coordinates 932338.

There's the Uedem map which shows Weeze, but it's not easy to pinpoint exactly where coordinates 932338 on the 1/50000 map would then be.



-- x --

Using this map... gives a location south of Weeze, but perhaps closer to Kevelaer...

 

The Battle Honours of the Second World War 1939-1945 and Korea 1950-1953

Has...



SRY

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2036125/john-philip-d-eath/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2046548/alfred-kenneth-turner/

-- x --

Battle Honours - RDG Museum

World War II 1939–46
Dyle, Withdrawal to Escaut, St Omer – La Bassee, Dunkirk 1940, Normandy Landing, Odon, Mont Pincon, St Pierre la Vielle, Lisieux, Risle Crossing, Seine 1944, Nederrijn, Lower Maas, Geilenkirchen, Roer, Rhineland, Cleve, Rhine, Ibbenbüren, Bremen, North West Europe 1940, 44-45.

4th7thRDG

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2037044/norman-booth/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2040657/jack-alec-neal/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2042082/george-henry-snell/

 

Chris, this map is from the wardiary of the SD&G.

932388, will be here. These days it is a residential area. Hope this will help in your search.

 

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far. I've had someone look over my chapter on this period and he wants me to be more specific about the "obstacles" (ditches/canals) that were in the way.

Bedee, which map did you use for that image?

 

In the Wardiary of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders from Feb and in March 1945.

Here a Defence overprint (see attachment from WD March) its a PDF when i convert it it will be to big to post.

 

I can screenshot, but it loses a bit of definition... in their original format these maps can be quite big, as you say, tens of MB etc.

Again, it makes me think (and look for) similarities with the situation at TILLY-SUR-SEULLES.

The Battle for Tilly-sur-Seulles - Normandy - June 1944

& Operation Leek - capturing Weeze

 

Thanks, I'll download the war diary myself. I was just hoping it would help me make sense of the multiple defensive lines mentioned north of Weeze. I think a canal and two anti-tank ditches?

 

Anti Tank ditch in the North and behind a trench system. Ans several rivers, at that time a bit wider because of the wet season.

 

Hi to you all, I'm a new member on here. I have a home in Weeze and it's always been my ambition to research the battle to take Weeze. Now I have the time to do so. Does anyone know if there are any maps that show the German units' defence positions in and around Weeze, and where Allied Forces attacked from.
I've been walking & cycling here for the past 15 years and other than the odd shell hole, and repaired masonry, it's difficult to see that much remains from the war.
In anticipation, many thanks.