there was a "race" within the 2nd Division for the first regiment to take the causeway to Walcheren island, implying that the failure to take the causeway on 31 October was due to reckless determination to win the "race". Colonel C.P. Stacey wrote about the "race" in the official history of the Canadian Army, a charge that was vehemently disputed by Copp and Vogel in the Maple Leaf Route. The 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division had advanced rapidly up to the causeway, which led to Brigadier Keefler giving orders to take the causeway while the task of taking the Beveland end of the causeway had been given to the 52nd Division. The Royal Regiment took the eastern end of the causeway in a night attack. As there seemed an actual chance of taking the entire causeway, orders were sent to the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division to launch an attack, to be led by the "jinxed" Black Watch who were to advance down the causeway while the Calgary Highlanders and Le Régiment de Maisonneuve were to advance by boat. An initial attack by the Black Watch was rebuffed while it discovered the waters in the channel were too shallow for the 2nd Division to cross it, leaving a company of the Black Watch stranded on the causeway under heavy German attack. The Calgary Highlanders then sent a company over which was also stopped halfway across the causeway. During a second attack on the morning of 1 November, the Highlanders managed to gain a precarious foothold. A day of fighting followed and then the Highlanders were relieved by the Régiment de Maisonneuve, who struggled to maintain the bridgehead. The Régiment de Maisonneuve finally did secure the bridgehead, only to find that it was useless for an advance, since the German defences in the polderland were too entrenched for an advance to be made. Foulkes ordered Major-General Hakewill-Smith to launch the 52nd Division into a frontal attack on Walcheren, which Hakewill-Smith protested strongly. The "Maisies" withdrew onto the Causeway on 2 November, to be relieved by the 1st Battalion, Glasgow Highlanders of the 52nd Division. Instead of launching a frontal attack as ordered by Foulkes, Hakewill-Smith outflanked the Germans by landing the Cameronian regiment at the village of Nieuwdorp, south of the causeway, and linked up with the Glasgow Highlanders the next day. In conjunction with the waterborne attacks, the