Friday, May 7, 2010

American and British Docks in Antwerp in WWII

In September 1944 when the British liberated Antwerp the port was divided into areas of American and British control. The Americans were assigned the north docks and the British used the southern docks. I recently found a reference for the specific divisions:
“Allocation of Berths: US Forces to have that portion of the port North of a line drawn through Albert Dock through Berth 140 on the east and between Berths 115 and 117 on the west, including the north portion of Albert Dock, the Leopold Basin, the Vierde Habendock, Quatrieme and the Hansadock adjacent to the Kruisschens Locks. British Forces to have the remainder of the Albert dock south of this line, and including the Lefebvre Dock and the Amerikadok."

This quote comes from: Historical Section, Office of the Chief of Transportation, European Theater of Operations, Historical Report of the Transportation Corps in the European Theater of Operations, Volume V, October-November-December 1944, Part 1, p. 1.

Benjamin King and Timothy Kuta offer this information in an article available on the US Army Fort Eustis Transportation School website. The article, "Antwerp: Enemy attack on supply lines in Europe 1944 - 1945." was King and Kuta's initial draft of chapter 10 in their book, Impact. The article includes some details that didn't make it into the final published book such as the above dock allocation.

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