Operation Pheasant, also known as the Liberation of North Brabant, was a major operation to clear German troops from the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands during the fighting on the Western Front in the Second World War. This offensive was conceived as a result of the failure of Operation Market Garden and the allied effort to capture the important port of Antwerp. It was conducted by the allied 21st Army Group between 20 October to 4 November 1944.
After overcoming some German resistance, this operation liberated the cities of Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Roosendaal, Bergen op Zoom, Willemstad and Breda. As a result, the offensive cleared much of Brabant; the German positions which had defended the region along its canals and rivers were broken.
In September 1944, the Allies had launched Operation Market Garden, a major offensive from the Dutch-Belgian border across the south of the Netherlands through Eindhoven and Nijmegen toward the Rhine bridge at Arnhem. The goal was to cross the Rhine and bypass the Siegfried Line in preparation for the final drive towards Berlin. Allied airborne troops managed to take the bridges but delays and toughening resistance resulted in the defeat at the Rhine bridge in Arnhem. The advance stopped south of the Lower Rhine, resulting in a narrow salient that ran from the north of Belgium across the south-east of the Netherlands and was vulnerable to attack. German assaults in this salient, particularly at Nijmegen were repelled, and the allies named this region "the island".
German forces attacked another part of the salient from a bridgehead west of the bend in the river Meuse (known as Maas in Dutch and German) near the city of Venlo. Operation Aintree was launched to destroy this bridgehead and the threat was removed albeit at high cost in taking Overloon and Venray. However this meant that the flank further West towards Tilburg and 's-Hertogenbosch became a threat also which needed to be extinguished as well as to broaden the front line.
By 16 October Commander of 21st Army Group Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery had reoriented the British 2nd Army so that this formation's full weight would be available for the Anglo-Canadian effort to open Antwerp as the Allied forces’ main supply port. The army's right would move along the Maas river and its left passing some 16 kilometres (10 mi) south of Tilburg. This placed XII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie, on the left flank of the Eindhoven-Nijmegen corridor, facing west. On the corps' right were the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division and 7th Armoured Division, supported by the 4th Armoured Brigade and 33rd Armoured Brigade. The left flank composed of two Scots divisions – the 51st Highland Division and 15th Scottish Division – would be supported by the 6th Guards Tank Brigade.
An operation was devised in order to liberate the middle and Western sections of the North Brabant Province through a strong thrust westward on the axis from 's-Hertogenbosch to Breda. In order to support the ongoing battle of the Scheldt the Allied 21st Army Group would be launching the attack – the components of the Canadian 1st Army would attack from Belgium known as Operation Suitcase and the British 2nd Army would attack from the Netherlands on the exposed Western flank of the Nijmegen corridor. The overall operation codenamed Pheasant would start on 20 October.
On the first day 53rd Welsh and 7th Armoured (Operation Alan) would clear 's-Hertogenbosch. The city with a population of 50,000 was effectively a medieval fortress with ramparts, a moat and a citadel intersected by waterways: the River Dommel and the Zuid Willems Canal.
Operation Colin would involve the 51st Highland; they would attack along with the 15th Scottish on their left to capture the city of Tilburg and push north. The plan for the divisional attack from Sint-Oedenrode was that 153 Brigade's objective was the town of Schijndel, 152 Brigade to the left would clear the wooded area east of the River Dommel and 154 Brigade, mounted in Kangaroos, would be in reserve to exploit with the aim of taking Esch, Boxtel and Vught as well as the towns and villages south-east and south of 's-Hertogenbosch.
The I British Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General John Crocker would support on the left flanks of Colin with the aim of the Polish 1st Armoured Division to capture the city of Breda and the Canadian 4th Armoured Division would attack towards Bergen-Op-Zoom. On the Poles' left flank the British 49th Infantry Division aimed to strike at the city of Willemstad and to force a bridgehead over the River Mark, which was the German 15th Army's only ferry and bridge crossing points over the one-mile wide Hollands Diep (part of the Maas Estuary). They would be assisted on its left flank with the US 104th Timberwolf Division which had been assigned to support the British I Corps.
Facing these two corps was the German 15th Army of Heeresgruppe ‘B’ ("Army Group B") commanded by General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen. This was itself composed of the LXXXIX Corps, LXVII Corps and LXXXVIII Corps. Army Group B was itself was part of OB West which was under the command Gerd von Rundstedt.
The attack began on the night of 22 October – the Royal Artillery of XII Corps opened fire on known German positions in the village of Nuland. The Corps advanced soon after but the weather conditions were so poor that they prevented air support. Later in the day visibility improved and all calls for immediate air support were met by elements of RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force. With a strong force of medium bombers as well as Hawker Typhoon and Supermarine Spitfire fighter-bombers they attacked the Maas/Hollands Diep bridges at Hedel and Moerdijk. Their biggest success was the destruction of the 15th Army's headquarters at Dordrecht; two generals and seventy other staff officers were killed in the attack. The 53rd Welsh, consisting of the 71st and 160th Brigades with the 158th held in reserve near Oss launched their attack together with the 7th Armoured on Nuland. The 71st Brigade began pushing up from the Vinkel-Papendijk line in the south and the 160th from the Loonschestraat line just west of Geffen. Nuland was cleared by 0745 with two German battalions on the run, later in the day a counterattack was then held off by machine gun fire.
The 51st Highland composing of the 152nd, 153rd and 154th Brigades would attack from the village of Eerde near Veghel, about eleven miles from ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Facing the 51st was the veteran 59th Wehrmacht infantry division holding the 'Eerde Line' to Liempde between Boxtel and Veghel.
The attack took place at dawn on October 23 and the Highlanders took Schijndel with relative ease and then pressed on despite stiffening resistance. 152nd brigade attacked the woods east of the River Dommel and the area opposite Boxtel and the Schijndel dyke. Against hardened paratroopers the Scots took their objectives albeit with some loss. Eventually they reached Vught and liberated the Herzogenbusch concentration camp – a Konzentrationslager ( concentration camp) built on Dutch soil. The position in the town was confusing as 7th Black Watch were subjected to heavy shelling and mortaring from the area of Fort Isabella, but by 1500 this too was also overcome.
Meanwhile, 7th Armoured Brigade had been halted by German guns at Loon op Zand – 153rd Brigade were sent to assist and together they took the town before moving north having reached Sprang on 30 October. 154th Brigade then exploited north west towards Raamsdonk which they reached by end of the day. Germans desperate not to be enveloped tried to keep the route open for as long as possible but the British crossed the Donge after having found an intact bridge and subsequently took the city of Geertruidenberg without any resistance. A small German counterattack failed to halt the British advance and they found the bridge over the River Maas blown up.
After taking Schijndel and having reached Boxtel the Scots moved in only to find it having been abandoned by the Germans. In the wild celebrations that followed 2nd Seaforth managed to rescue 100 escaped soldiers and airmen from 1st Airborne Division who had made it out of Arnhem. The bridge at Hal however was blown and held by the Germans in strength. Colin was now over and the division as a whole had a few days rest. Further to the south, the other Scots division the 15th moved toward Tilburg.