Scheldt.

This is coolbert:

Yet one more instance of the German during the Second World War [WW2] executing with panache' the REVERSE AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION?

That operation in the vicinity of Antwerp and the Scheldt, commencing that first week of September 1944.

From the book "The Guns at Last Light" by Atkinson:

"and evacuation of German troops by ferry promptly began across the Scheldt from Breskens, west of Antwerp. In little more than a fortnight [two weeks], 86,000 men, 600 artillery pieces, 5,000 vehicles, and 4,000 horses, mostly from the Fifteenth Army [German], escaped to fight another day."

The Scheldt estuary [brackish water, mixed salt and fresh with tidal action] linking Antwerp to the open ocean [North Sea] and occupied by German troops, the port facility [Antwerp] captured intact but that land adjacent to the estuary occupied by German troops.

 

Antwerp about thirty miles [50 kilometers] from the North Sea. German occupiers either side of the Scheldt estuary able to block access.

NOT FOR OVER TWO MONTHS [subsequent to 5 September] WAS THE FIRST ALLIED SUPPLY SHIPPING ABLE TO PASS THROUGH THE SCHELDT ESTUARY, DISCHARGING CARGO AS NEEDED FOR FURTHER ALLIED OFFENSIVE IN WESTERN EUROPE.

Amphibious operations it is agreed [?] as the most difficult of all military maneuver, a REVERSE amphibious operation and UNDER PRESSURE assuredly that much more difficult.

German proficiency at this type of military operation during WW2 unrecognized?

Additional German reverse amphibious operations during that period of WW2 to include:

* Operation Hannibal.

* Messina.

* Crimea.

* Scheldt.

It can be argued that:

* Hannibal those being evacuated in the main civilians and not military units intact.

* Messina and Scheldt more resembling a river crossing.

* Crimea a true amphibious operation albeit with heavy loss.

Those 4,000 horses also it can be noted more than likely PRIME MOVERS for German artillery. German mechanized warfare lacking in some cases unknown to most.

coolbert.