title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Two precarious, separate footholds were established, but the enemy recovered from the shock of the flamethrowers and counter-attacked, though the Germans were unable to move the Canadians from their vulnerable bridgeheads. Brigadier J. C. Spraggree became worried that the Regina Rifles might be destroyed by the Germans' ferocious defence, leading him to order his reserve, the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, to cross over the Canadian Scottish Regiment's bridgehead and link up with the Regina Rifles. The polderland, which limited avenues of advance, proved to be a major difficulty as the Germans concentrated their fire along the few raised roads. At the same time, the Regina Rifles came under heavy counterattacks and were barely hanging on. Canadian losses were so heavy that a squadron of tankmen from the 17th Hussars Regiment were given rifles and sent to fight as infantrymen. The Canadian historians' Terry Copp and Robert Vogel wrote the fighting "...was at close quarter and of such ferocity that veterans insist that it was worse than the blackest days of Normandy". The war diary of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles reported: "Heavy casualties were suffered by both sides and the ground was littered with both German and Royal Winnipeg Rifle dead". The war diary of the Canadian Scottish regiment sardonically noted: "The grim fighting was such that Piats and Bazookas were used to blow down walls of houses where resistance was worst. These anti-tank weapons are quite handy little house-breakers!" By 9 October, the gap between the bridgeheads was closed, and by early morning on October 12 a position had been gained across the Aardenburg road.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The days of 10-12 October were ones of intense struggle while the men of the 7th Brigade with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles took, lost and then retook a group of houses known as Graaf Jan and the Regina Rifles found themselves pinned down by a group of well dug-in pillboxes that seemed to be resilient to artillery. The Germans had ample artillery, together with an immense number of artillery shells, and brought down heavy fire on any Canadian advance. Making the fighting even more difficult was the heavy rain that started the day after the crossing of the Leopold canal, with a post-operation report on Operation Switchback stating: "In places the bridgehead was little bigger than the northern canal bank. Even protection was slight: slit trenches rapidly filled with water and had to be dug out many times a day". The Canadians could not advance beyond their bridgehead on the Leopold canal, but Eberding, not content with stopping the Canadians, decided to "annihilate" the 7th Brigade by launching a series of counter-attacks that cost the German 64th Division dearly, as Canadian artillerymen were killing German infantrymen as proficiently as German artillerymen were killing Canadians. Simonds' plan failed when the 9th Brigade did not land at the same time as the 7th Brigade crossed the Leopold Canal and the 64th Division decisively stopped the advance of the 7th Brigade. In the end, only Eberding's determination to wipe out the 7th Brigade allowed Simonds' plan to work. In terms of numbers lost as a percentage of those engaged, the battle of the Leopold Canal was one of the bloodiest battles for Canada in World War II, with 533 killed and another 70 men breaking down due to battle exhaustion. Copp and Vogel wrote: "One in every two men who crossed the Leopold became a casualty!" The men who broke down under battle curled up in a fetal position and refused to move, speak, eat or drink as their spirits had been broken by the stress of the fighting. On 14 October 1944, Eberding, a man deeply committed to National Socialism, ordered that German soldiers who retreated without orders were to be regarded as deserters and summarily executed, and "...where the names of deserters are ascertained their names will be made known to the civilian population at home and their next of kin will be looked upon as enemies of the German people".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The Canadian 9th Brigade conducted an amphibious operation with the aid of Terrapin (the first use of the vehicle in Europe) and Buffalo amphibious vehicles, crewed by the British 5th Assault Regiment of the Royal Engineers. The brigade planned to cross the mouth of the Braakman Inlet in these vehicles and to land in the vicinity of Hoofdplaat, a tiny hamlet in the rear or coastal side of the pocket, thus exerting pressure from two directions at once. An "after action" report described the scene on the Terneuzen Canal: "As darkness fell only tail lights showed. The locks at Sas Van Gent proved difficult to negotiate, for the Buffaloes were not easily steered when moving slowly. Their aeroplane engines created a sound so like the roar of aircraft that over Flushing the anti-aircraft guns fired sporadically...Because of the damage to the locks near the ferry (at Neuzen) it was necessary to cut ramps in the bank and by-pass the obstacle. Not only was this a slow progress, but many craft were damaged. The decision was therefore taken to postpone the operation for 24 hours". The delay allowed for Admiral Ramsay to volunteer the services of Lieutenant-Commander R.D. Franks of the Royal Navy to serve as a pilot, guiding the Buffaloes expertly down the river Scheldt without the Germans noticing. Franks reported: "It was nearly ideal night, calm and quiet with a half moon behind a light cloud, but a bit of haze which restricted visibility to a mile at most. We were quite invisible from the north shore of the Scheldt, where all was quiet...Our touchdown was planned to be on either side of a groyne...we were able to identify it and then lie off flicking our lamps to guide the LVT's in. They deployed and thundered past us...I could see through my binoculars the infantry disembark on dry land and move off".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: In spite of difficulties in maneuvering vehicles through the canals and the resulting 24-hour delay, the Germans were taken by surprise and a bridgehead was established. The North Nova Scotia Highland regiment landed with no resistance and woke nine sleeping German soldiers at their dug-out, taking them prisoner. The Highland Light Infantry regiment's major problem at the landing site was not the Wehrmacht, but mud. After the initial landing, the Cameron Highlanders and the Stormont, Dundas and Glengary Highlanders were landed by Franks. Once again, the Germans recovered quickly and counter-attacked with ferocity; however, they were slowly forced back. Upon hearing of the landing at the Braakman Inlet, Model reacted promptly, telling Hitler: "Today, the enemy launched a decision-seeking attack on the Breskens bridgehead". Living up to his reputation as the "Führer's Fireman", Model ordered Eberding to immediately "annihilate" the Highland Brigade.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Starting on daybreak on 10 October, the Highland Brigade came under counter-attack, with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengary Highland regiment, known as the "Glens" in the Canadian Army, spending two days fighting for the village of Hoofdplaat with a loss of 17 dead and 44 wounded. The North Nova Scotia Highlanders took three days to take the village of Driewegen, with the regimental war diary reporting: "The artillery is kept busy and this dyke to dyke fighting is very different to what we have been doing. It appears the enemy are a much better type than we have been running into lately". The Canadian Army was known for the quality of its artillery, which took a heavy toll on the German counter-attacks by day, with the war diary of 15th Field Regiment for 12 October reading: "Today we were the busiest we have been since Cormelles and Falaise pocket days". The Germans' nightly attacks enjoyed more success, with the Highland Light Infantry losing and then retaking the village of Biervliet during a confusing night battle. Canadian Major-General Daniel Spry of the 3rd Division changed the original plan to commit the 8th Brigade in support of the 7th Brigade, and instead sent the 8th Brigade to link up with the 4th Division and then come to the support of the 9th Brigade.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The Canadian 10th Brigade of the 4th Armoured Division crossed the Leopold Canal and advanced at Isabella Polder. Then the 3rd Division's 8th Brigade was called to move south from the coastal side of the pocket. This opened up a land-based supply route into the pocket. Eberding used his reserves in his counter-attacks and reported to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht that some units of the 64th Division had "been reduced to one third". Between 10 and 15 October, the 64th Division staged a "fighting retreat", as Eberding called it, to a new pocket designed to shorten his lines, since so many of his units were now under-strength. The Canadian Scottish Regiment found the village of Eede empty and abandoned, entered the village and promptly came under heavy artillery bombardment. The Queen's Own Rifles regiment, leading the advance of the 8th Brigade, found the village of IJzendijke "well defended" on 15 October, but abandoned the next day. The Highland Light Infantry and the "Glens" broke through the main German line, but General Spry, unaware of this, ordered a withdrawal, in order to concentrate greater forces.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The German officers explained away their retreat by claiming they were being overwhelmed by tanks, but in fact there were only four, belonging to the British Columbia Regiment, operating north of the Leopold canal. The presumed tanks were actually the M10 self-propelled anti-tank guns of the 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment which provided fire support to the Canadian infantry. Joining the Canadians on 20 October were the 157th Highland Light Infantry Brigade of the 52nd Division, which allowed Spry to group the three brigades of the 3rd Division for the final push.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: From the summer of 1944 the Canadian Army experienced a major shortage of infantrymen, owing to policies of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie-King. In order to defeat Maurice Duplessis, the "Union Nationale" premier of Quebec who called a snap election in 1939 to seek a mandate to oppose the war, Mackenzie-King had promised that only volunteers would be sent to fight overseas and that there would be no overseas conscription. With only so many Canadians willing to volunteer, especially as infantry, the Canadian Army ran seriously short of infantrymen, as their losses were not compensated by replacements. In planning the final push, Spry favored a cautious, methodical approach, emphasizing firepower that was designed to save as many of the lives of his men as possible.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The 3rd Division fought additional actions to clear German troops from the towns of Breskens, Oostburg, Zuidzande and Cadzand, as well as the coastal fortress Fort Frederik Hendrik. When advancing, the Canadians proceeded very slowly and used massive firepower via air strikes and artillery bombardments when faced with opposition. The shortage of infantry replacements meant that Canadian officers were loath to engage in operations that might lead to heavy losses. On 24 October, Montgomery arrived at the headquarters of the 3rd Division. Despite the fact that Montgomery had chosen to fight the Battle of Arnhem instead of clearing the Scheldt in September 1944, thus having allowed the Germans to dig in, he criticized the 3rd Canadian Division for its slow advance, saying the Breskens Pocket should have been cleared weeks ago and calling the Canadian officers cowards for their unwillingness to take heavy losses. As a result, the 157th Brigade was withdrawn as a punishment and the 3rd Division was ordered to press on with "all speed".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Despite the fact that the Canadians could not afford heavy losses, the 3rd Division began a period of "intense combat" to clear out the Breskens Pocket. The Régiment de la Chaudière attacked the town of Oostburg on 24 October, losing an entire company, but since they had been ordered to take Oostburg at "any price", the "Chads" dug in to hold their ground while the Queen's Own Rifles came to their aid. On 25 October, the Queen's Own Rifles took Oostburg after what its war diary called "a wild bayonet charge" amid "fairly heavy" casualties. Lieutenant Boos of the A company of the Queen's Own Rifles was awarded the Military Cross for leading what should have been a suicidal bayonet charge on the Oostburg town gates but ended with him and his men taking the gates. Despite tenacious German opposition, inspired at least in part by Eberding's policy of executing soldiers who retreated without orders, the Canadians pushed the Germans back steadily. In the last days of the battle, German morale declined and the number of executions of "deserters" increased as many German soldiers wished to surrender rather than die in what was clearly a lost battle. The Régiment de la Chaudière, which could ill-afford the losses, seized a bridgehead on the "Afleidingskanaal van de Lije" (Derivation Canal of the Lys), over which the engineers built a bridge.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: On 1 November, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders stormed a pillbox and captured Eberding, who, despite his own orders to fight to the death for the Führer, surrendered without firing a shot. After being taken prisoner, Eberding met Spry and accused him of not being aggressive enough in taking advantage of "opportunities", saying any German general would have moved far more swiftly. Spry responded that having lost about 700 men killed in two "aggressive" operations within five days, he preferred a methodical advance that preserved the lives of his men. Eberding replied that this showed "weakness" on the side of the Canadians, noting that Wehrmacht generals were only concerned with winning and never let concern with casualties interfere with the pursuit of victory.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Operation Switchback ended on 3 November, when the Canadian 1st Army liberated the Belgian towns of Knokke and Zeebrugge, officially closing the Breskens Pocket and eliminating all German forces south of the Scheldt.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: On the afternoon of 22 October, Major-General Foulkes, as acting commander of the 2nd Canadian Corps told the 2nd Canadian Division that the start of Operation Vitality, the operation to take the South Beveland peninsula, had been pushed forward by two days by the "express orders from Field Marshal Montgomery who had placed this operation at first priority for the British and Canadian forces in this area". Major Ross Ellis of The Calgary Highlanders told Foulkes that the men were tired after the hard fighting earlier in October, only to be informed that the operation would go through. Morale in the 2nd Division was poor, with only the Royal Regiment of Canada, the Essex Scottish Regiment, the Cameron Highland Regiment and the Calgary Highlanders being able to assemble anything close to four rifle companies. The attack was to be led by the 6th Brigade consisting of the Cameron Highlanders, the battered South Saskatchewan Regiment and the even more battered Fusiliers Mont-Royal, who despite being very under-strength were assigned to lead the attack on the centre. This third major operation opened on 24 October, when the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division began its advance down the South Beveland peninsula. The Canadians hoped to advance rapidly, bypassing opposition and seizing bridgeheads over the "Kanaal door Zuid-Beveland" (Canal through South Beveland), but they too were slowed by mines, mud and strong enemy defences.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The war diary of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal reports simply that the regiment had taken "heavy casualties", the Cameron Highlanders reported "stiff opposition" from the 6th Parachute Regiment, while the South Saskatchewan Regiment reported: "The county over which we had come was not the kind you dream about to make an attack in as it was partly wooded, partly open, and it had many buildings, ditches, etc". Joining the 6th Brigade later that day were the 5th Brigade, with the Calgary Highlanders leading the assault and reporting the "remnants" of two platoons that had advanced beyond the dyke to be joined by the Black Watch when night fell. The Royal Regiment had seized its start-line during the night and in the early morning was joined by the Essex Scottish Regiment and the Fort Garry Horse Regiment to make a slow advance supported by heavy artillery fire. On 25 October, the Essex Scottish Regiment reported that 120 Germans had surrendered and that the "tough shell of defences at the narrowest point of the peninsula was broken". On 26 October, the 70th Infantry Division's commander General Wilhelm Daser reported to Rundstedt that the situation was untenable, and that retreat was unavoidable.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: An amphibious attack was made across the Western Scheldt by the British 52nd (Lowland) Division to get in behind the German's Canal through South Beveland defensive positions. The 156th West Scottish Brigade described the Dutch countryside as "extremely difficult", but also noted that German morale was poor, stating that they had expected the Wehrmacht to fight harder and that most of their casualties were coming from mines and booby-traps. With the formidable German defence outflanked, the Canadian 6th Infantry Brigade began a frontal attack in assault boats. The engineers were able to bridge the canal on the main road.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: With the canal line gone, the German defence crumbled and South Beveland was cleared. The third phase of the Battle of the Scheldt was now complete. Daser ordered his men to retreat and make a stand on "Fortress Walcheren".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: As the fourth phase of the battle opened, only the island of Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt remained in German hands. The island's defences were extremely strong: heavy coastal batteries on the western and southern coasts defended both the island and the western Scheldt estuary, and the coastline had been strongly fortified against amphibious assaults. Furthermore, a landward-facing defensive perimeter had been built around the town of Flushing (Dutch: "Vlissingen)" to defend its port facilities, should an Allied landing on Walcheren succeed. The only land approach was the Sloedam, a long, narrow causeway from South Beveland, little more than a raised two-lane road. To complicate matters, the flats that surrounded this causeway were too saturated with sea water for movement on foot, but had too little water for an assault in storm boats.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: To hamper German defence, Walcheren island's dykes were breached by attacks from RAF Bomber Command. Due to the high risks for the local population, the bombings were sanctioned at the highest level and preceded by leafleting to warn the island's inhabitants. The first bombing was on 3 October at Westkapelle, on the western shore of the island. The Westkapelle dyke was attacked by 240 heavy bombers, resulting in a large gap that allowed the seawater to enter. This flooded the central part of the island, allowing the use of amphibious vehicles and forcing the German defenders onto the high ground surrounding the island and in the towns. The bombing at Westkapelle came with severe loss of life, with 180 civilian deaths resulting from the bombardment and the resulting flooding. Attacks on other dykes had to ensure that the flooding could not be contained. On 7 October, dykes in the south were bombed, west and east of Flushing. Finally, on 11 October, northern dykes at Veere became a target. Bombing against the island defences was hampered by bad weather and requirements for attacks on Germany.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The island was then attacked from three directions: across the Sloedam causeway from the east, across the Scheldt from the south, and by sea from the west.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division attacked the Sloedam causeway on 31 October. Post-war controversy exists around the claim that 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".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: 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.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: 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 52nd continued the advance. The battle for the causeway had caused the 2nd Division 135 dead in what has become one of the most controversial operations of the 2nd Division, with much criticism centering on the decisions of Foulkes. Despite the fact that Lieutenant-General Simonds and Foulkes were both British immigrants to Canada, the two detested one another and Simonds often spoke of his wish to sack Foulkes, believing him to be incompetent.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Because of port shortage, Captain Pugsley of the Royal Navy had to improvise heavily to provide the necessary shipping for the landings on Walcheren island. Despite the refusal of Bomber Command to strike various German fortifications on Walcheren, opening up the Scheldt was regarded as so important that during a meeting on 31 October between Simonds, Foulkes, and Admiral Ramsay, it was decided that the landings on Walcheren were to go ahead. Pugsley, aboard the command ship , was given the final decision, with orders to cancel the operation if he thought it was too risky. At the same time, Simonds ordered two Canadian artillery regiments to concentrate 300 guns on the mainland, to provide fire support for the landings. The amphibious landings were conducted in two parts on 1 November.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Operation Infatuate I consisted mainly of infantry of the 155th Infantry Brigade (4th and 5th battalions King's Own Scottish Borderers, 7th/9th battalion, Royal Scots) and No. 4 Commando, who were ferried across from Breskens in small landing craft to an assault beach in the south-eastern area of Flushing, codenamed "Uncle" Beach. With the Canadian artillery opening fire, the 4th Commando were carried ashore in twenty Landing Craft Assaults, to be followed by the King's Own Scottish Borderers regiment who attacked Flushing. During the next few days, they engaged in heavy street fighting against the German defenders, destroying much of Flushing. The Hotel Britannia, which before the war had catered to British tourists, was the headquarters of the German 1019th Regiment holding Flushing and became the scene of "spectacular fighting" described as "worthy of an action film" when the Royal Scots regiment engaged to take the hotel, which finally fell after three days.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Operation Infatuate II was the amphibious landing at Westkapelle, also conducted on the morning of 1 November. To cross the shallow water required a daylight assault with fire support provided by the Support Squadron Eastern Flank (SSEF) commanded by Commander K.A Sellar, with additional support from the battleship and two monitors, and . Air support was limited due to weather conditions. With no air support, no spotter aircraft to guide the guns of his ships, and the Germans fully alerted with their coastal artillery already firing at the British ships, Pugsley was faced with the difficult decision to cancel or proceed, and after some deliberation, sent out the message reading "Nelson", which was the code name to land. The radar-guided guns of the German coastal artillery took a heavy toll on the SSEF, which lost 9 ships sunk and another 11 that were so badly damaged that they had to be broken up for scrap as they were beyond repair. After a heavy bombardment by the Royal Navy, plus a support squadron of landing craft carrying guns, troops of 4th Special Service Brigade (Nos. 41, 47, and 48 Royal Marines Commando and No. 10 Inter Allied Commando, consisting mainly of Belgian and Norwegian troops) supported by the specialized armoured vehicles (amphibious transports, mine-clearing tanks, bulldozers, etc.) of the 79th Armoured Division were landed on both sides of the gap in the sea dyke, using large landing craft as well as amphibious vehicles to bring men and tanks ashore. The Royal Marines took Westkapelle and Domburg the next day. Anticipating the fall of "Fortress Walcheren", on November 4, Admiral Ramsay ordered that mine-sweepers start the work of removing the German mines from the river Scheldt, a task that was not completed until 28 November.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Heavy fighting ensued in Domburg as well before the ruins of the town were captured. On 3 November, the Royal Marines had linked with the 52nd Division. Part of the troops moved south-east toward Flushing, while the main force went north-east to clear the northern half of Walcheren (in both cases along the high-lying dune areas, as the center of the island was flooded) and link up with the Canadian troops who had established a bridgehead on the eastern part of the island. Fierce resistance was again offered by some of the German troops defending this area, so that fighting continued until 7 November.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: On 6 November, the island capital Middelburg fell after a calculated gamble on the Allies' part when the Royal Scots attacked Middelburg with a force of amphibious "Buffaloes" from the rear. Since Middelburg was impossible to reach with tanks, due to the inundations, a force of "Buffaloes" were driven into the town, forcing an end to all German resistance on 8 November. General Daser portrayed the "Buffaloes" as tanks, giving him an excuse to surrender as he was faced with an overwhelming force.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Meanwhile, the Canadian 4th Armoured Division had pushed eastward past Bergen-op-Zoom to Sint Philipsland where it sank several German vessels in Zijpe harbor.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: With the approach to Antwerp clear, the fourth phase of the Battle of the Scheldt was complete. Between 20 and 28 November, Royal Navy minesweepers were brought in to clear the Scheldt estuary of naval mines and other underwater obstacles left by the Germans. On 28 November, after much-needed repairs of the port facilities, the first convoy entered Antwerp, led by the Canadian-built freighter "Fort Cataraqui".


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: At the end of the five-week offensive, the Canadian First Army had taken 41,043 German prisoners. Complicated by the waterlogged terrain, the Battle of the Scheldt proved to be a challenging campaign in which significant losses were suffered by the Canadians.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Throughout the Battle of the Scheldt, battle exhaustion was a major problem for the Canadians. The 3rd Canadian Division had landed on D-Day on 6 June 1944 and had been fighting more or less continuously since. A psychiatric report from October 1944 stated that 90% of battle exhaustion cases were men who been in action for three months or longer. Men suffering from battle exhaustion would go catatonic and curl up in fetal position, but the report found that after a week of rest, most men would recover enough to speak and move about. According to the report, the principal cause of battle exhaustion "seemed to be futility. The men claimed there was nothing to which to look forward to – no rest, no leave, no enjoyment, no normal life and no escape...The second most prominent cause...seemed to be the insecurity in battle because the condition of the battlefield did not allow for average cover. The third was the fact that they were seeing too much continual death and destruction, loss of friends, etc". The Canadian government policy of sending only volunteers overseas had caused major shortages of men, especially in the infantry regiments. Canadian units were too under-strength to allow leave, where U.S. and British units could. This stretched the soldiers tremendously. A common complaint of soldiers suffering from battle exhaustion was that the Army was trying to "get blood from a stone", with the under-strength units being pushed relentlessly to keep fighting, without replacements for their losses and no chance to rest.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: After the battle, the II Canadian Corps moved to the Nijmegen sector to take over from the XXX British Corps. Although Antwerp was opened to Allied shipping on 28 November, the German 15th Army had delayed the use of Antwerp to the Allies from 4 September to 28 November 1944, which was longer than Hitler had hoped for, justifying the German decision to hold the river Scheldt. Even before the Battle of the Scheldt, the Canadian Army was aware that it lacked reinforcements to replace its losses, and the losses endured during the fighting help provoke the Conscription Crisis. The Canadian Defence Minister, Colonel John Ralston, was forced to report to the prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, that the current policy of only sending volunteers overseas was not sustainable as the losses in the Battle of the Scheldt vastly exceeded the number of volunteers, and conscripts would have to be sent overseas. Copp and Vogel strongly praised Simonds's leadership of the 1st Canadian Army, writing how his operations "were brilliantly planned and sometimes brilliantly executed". Copp and Vogel also defended the Canadians from charges of incompetence and cowardice made by American and British historians stating: "The Canadian Army had, through October, the most difficult and important task of all the Allied armies, it had carried through a series of complex operations to a successful conclusion and it had done this with verve and skill despite the growing manpower shortage now apparent on all the Allied fronts."


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: After the first ship reached Antwerp on 28 November, convoys started bringing a steady stream of supplies to the continent, but this actually changed very little. Operation Queen continued to flounder while the Americans then suffered a major reverse in the Hurtgen forest offensive by December. The dismal fall weather hindered not only the Canadians in the Battle of Scheldt, but also the operations of First U.S Army in the Hurtgen forest, the Third U.S Army in Lorraine, and the Ninth U.S. Army, the Seventh U.S Army and 1st French Army further south. On 5 November 1944, Eisenhower calculated that for the offensives into the western borderlands of Germany to be successful, over the following month, it would require 6 million artillery shells, two million mortar shells, 400 more tanks, 1,500 jeeps, and 150,000 spare tires to replace worn-out ones, none of which was readily available until the Scheldt was cleared. By 15 December, only the Seventh U.S. Army had reached the Rhine by taking Strasbourg while the U.S. Third Army had advanced into Germany to run up against one of the strongest sections of the West Wall. At least part of the reason for the failure for the Allied offensives was the shortage of infantry replacements, with the Americans coming close to running out of infantry replacements and the British being forced to break up divisions to provide reinforcements.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Germany recognized the danger of the Allies having a deep water port, and in an attempt to destroy it – or at least disrupt the flow of supplies – the German military fired more V-2 rockets at Antwerp than at any other city. Nearly half of the V-2s launched during the war were aimed at Antwerp. The port of Antwerp was so strategically vital that during the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front, launched on 16 December 1944, the primary German objective was to retake the city and its port. Without Antwerp being opened, which allowed 2.5 million tons of supplies to arrive at that port between November 1944 and April 1945, the Allied advance into Germany in 1945 with the American, British, and French armies heading into the "Reich" would have been impossible.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The Battle of the Scheldt has been described by historians as unnecessarily difficult, as it could have been cleared earlier and more easily had the Allies given it a higher priority than Operation Market Garden. American historian Charles B. MacDonald called the failure to immediately take the Scheldt "[o]ne of the greatest tactical mistakes of the war." Because of the flawed strategic choices made by the Allies in early September 1944, the battle became one of the longest and bloodiest that the Canadian army faced over the course of the Second World War.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The French Channel ports were "resolutely defended" like "fortresses" and Antwerp was the only viable alternative. However, Montgomery ignored Admiral Cunningham, who said that Antwerp would be "as much use as Timbuctoo" unless the approaches were cleared, and Ramsay, who warned SHAEF and Montgomery that the Germans could block the Scheldt estuary with ease.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The Antwerp city and port fell in early September and were secured by XXX Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks. Montgomery halted XXX Corps for resupply short of the wide Albert Canal to the north of the city, which consequently remained in enemy hands. Horrocks regretted this after the war, believing that his corps might have advanced another with the fuel available. Unknown to the Allies, at that time XXX Corps was opposed by only a single German division.


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The pause allowed the Germans to regroup around the Scheldt River, and by the time the Allies resumed their advance, General Kurt Student's 1st Parachute Army had arrived and set up strong defensive positions along the opposite side of the Albert Canal and Scheldt river. The task of breaking the strengthened German line, which stretched from Antwerp to the North Sea along the Scheldt River, would fall to the First Canadian Army in the month-long, costly Battle of the Scheldt. The Allies "sustained 12,873 casualties in an operation which could have been achieved at little cost if tackled immediately after the capture of Antwerp. ... This delay was a grave blow to the Allied build-up before winter approached."


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: The British historian Antony Beevor was of opinion that Montgomery, not Horrocks was to blame for not clearing the approaches, as Montgomery "was not interested in the estuary and thought that the Canadians could clear it later". Allied commanders were looking ahead to "leaping the Rhine...in virtually one bound." Despite Eisenhower wanting the capture of one major port with its dock facilities intact, Montgomery insisted that the First Canadian Army should clear the German garrisons in Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk first, although these ports had all suffered demolitions and would not be navigable for some time. Boulogne (Operation Wellhit) and Calais (Operation Undergo) were captured on 22 and 29 September 1944; but Dunkirk was not captured until the end of the war on 9 May 1945 (see Siege of Dunkirk). When the Canadians eventually stopped their assaults on the northern French ports and started on the Scheldt approaches on 2 October, they found that German resistance was far stronger than they had imagined, as the remnants of the Fifteenth Army had had time to escape and reinforce the island of Walcheren and the South Beveland peninsula


title: Battle of the Scheldt

text: Winston Churchill claimed in a telegram to Jan Smuts on October 9 that "As regards Arnhem, I think you have got the position a little out of focus. The battle was a decided victory, but the leading division, asking, quite rightly, for more, was given a chop. I have not been afflicted with any feeling of disappointment over this and am glad our commanders are capable of running this kind of risk." He said that the risks "...were justified by the great prize so nearly in our grasp" but acknowledged that "[c]learing the Scheldt Estuary and opening the port of Antwerp had been delayed for the sake of the Arnhem thrust. Thereafter it was given first priority."


title: Milan Kundera

text: Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself as a French writer and insists his work should be studied as French literature and classified as such in book stores".


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera's best-known work is "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Prior to the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the communist régime in Czechoslovakia banned his books. He leads a low-profile life and rarely speaks to the media. He was thought to be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was also a nominee for other awards.


title: Milan Kundera

text: He was awarded the 1985 Jerusalem Prize, in 1987 the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the 2000 Herder Prize. In 2021, he received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera was born in 1929 at Purkyňova 6 (6 Purkyně Street) in Královo Pole, a quarter of Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a middle-class family. His father, Ludvík Kundera (1891–1971), was an important Czech musicologist and pianist who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno from 1948 to 1961. His mother was Milada Kunderová (born Janošíková).


title: Milan Kundera

text: Milan learned to play the piano from his father and later studied musicology and musical composition. Musicological influences, references and notation can be found throughout his work. Kundera is a cousin of Czech writer and translator Ludvík Kundera. He belonged to the generation of young Czechs who had had little or no experience of the pre-war democratic Czechoslovak Republic. Their ideology was greatly influenced by the experiences of World War II and the German occupation.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Still in his teens, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which seized power in 1948. He completed his secondary school studies in Brno at Gymnázium třída Kapitána Jaroše in 1948. He studied literature and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. After two terms, he transferred to the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where he first attended lectures in film direction and script writing.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 1950, his studies were interrupted when he and writer Jan Trefulka were expelled from the Communist Party for "anti-party activities". Trefulka described the incident in his novella "Pršelo jim štěstí" ("Happiness Rained on Them", 1962). Kundera also used the expulsion as an inspiration for the main theme of his novel "Žert" ("The Joke", 1967). After Kundera graduated in 1952, the Film Faculty appointed him a lecturer in world literature. In 1956 Kundera was readmitted to the Party but was expelled for the second time in 1970.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Along with other reformist communist writers such as Pavel Kohout, he was peripherally involved in the 1968 Prague Spring. This brief period of reformist activities was crushed by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Kundera remained committed to reforming Czechoslovak communism, and argued vehemently in print with fellow Czech writer Václav Havel, saying, essentially, that everyone should remain calm and that "nobody is being locked up for his opinions yet," and "the significance of the Prague Autumn may ultimately be greater than that of the Prague Spring." Finally, however, Kundera relinquished his reformist dreams and moved to France in 1975. He taught for a few years in the University of Rennes. He was stripped of Czechoslovak citizenship in 1979; he has been a French citizen since 1981.


title: Milan Kundera

text: He maintains contact with Czech and Slovak friends in his homeland, but rarely returns and always does so without fanfare.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Although his early poetic works are staunchly pro-communist, his novels escape ideological classification. Kundera has repeatedly insisted that he is a novelist rather than a politically motivated writer. Political commentary has all but disappeared from his novels since the publication of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" except in relation to broader philosophical themes. Kundera's style of fiction, interlaced with philosophical digression, is greatly inspired by the novels of Robert Musil and the philosophy of Nietzsche, and is also interpreted philosophically by authors such as Alain de Botton and Adam Thirlwell.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera himself claims inspiration from Renaissance authors such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Rabelais, and perhaps most importantly, Miguel de Cervantes, to whose legacy he considers himself most committed. Other influences include Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding, Denis Diderot, Robert Musil, Witold Gombrowicz, Hermann Broch, Franz Kafka, and Martin Heidegger.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Originally he wrote in Czech, but from 1993 on he has written his novels in French. Between 1985 and 1987, he undertook the revision of the French translations of his earlier works himself. His books have also been translated into many other languages.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In his first novel, "The Joke" (1967), he satirizes the totalitarianism of the Communist era. His criticism of the Soviet invasion in 1968 led to his blacklisting in Czechoslovakia and the banning of his books.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera's second novel was first published in French as "" in 1973 and in Czech as "Život je jinde" in 1979. Set in Czechoslovakia before, during, and after the Second World War, "Life Is Elsewhere" is a satirical portrait of the fictional poet Jaromil, a young and very naive idealist who becomes involved in political scandals.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 1975, Kundera moved to France where "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" was published in 1979. An unusual mixture of novel, short story collection, and authorial musings which came to characterize his works in exile, the book dealt with how Czechs opposed the communist regime in various ways. Critics noted that the Czechoslovakia Kundera portrays "is, thanks to the latest political redefinitions, no longer precisely there," which is the "kind of disappearance and reappearance" Kundera ironically explores in the book. A Czech version, "Kniha smíchu a zapomnění", was published in April 1981 by 68 Publishers, Toronto.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera's most famous work, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", was published in 1984. The book chronicles the fragile nature of an individual's fate, theorizing that a single lifetime is insignificant in the scope of Nietzsche's concept of eternal return. In an infinite universe, everything is guaranteed to recur infinitely. In 1988, American director Philip Kaufman released a film adaptation.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 1990, "Immortality" was published. The novel, his last in Czech, was more cosmopolitan than its predecessors, more explicitly philosophical and less political, as were his later writings.


title: Milan Kundera

text: The 2014 novel focuses on the musings of four male friends living in Paris who discuss their relationships with women and the existential predicament confronting individuals in the world, among other things. The novel received generally negative reviews. Michiko Kakutani of the "New York Times" describes the book as being a "knowing, pre-emptive joke about its own superficiality". A review in the "Economist" stated that the book was "sadly let down by a tone of breezy satire that can feel forced."


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera often explicitly identifies his characters as figments of his imagination, using a first-person narrator who comments on the characters in otherwise third-person narratives. Kundera is more concerned with the words that shape or mold his characters than with their physical appearance. In his non-fiction work, "The Art of the Novel", he says that the reader's imagination automatically completes the writer's vision so that, as a writer, he is free to focus on the essential aspects of his characters, not on their physical characteristics, which are not critical to understanding them. Indeed, for Kundera the essential may not even include the interior psychological world of his characters. Still, at times, a specific feature or trait may become the character's idiosyncratic focus, such as Zdena's ugly nose in "Lost Letters" from "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting".


title: Milan Kundera

text: François Ricard suggested that Kundera conceives his fiction with regard to the overall body of his work, rather than limiting his ideas to the scope of just one novel at a time, his themes and meta-themes traversing his entire œuvre. Each new book manifests the latest stage of his personal philosophy. Some of these meta-themes include exile, identity, life beyond the border (beyond love, beyond art, beyond seriousness), history as continual return, and the pleasure of a less "important" life. (François Ricard, 2003)


title: Milan Kundera

text: Many of Kundera's characters seem to develop as expositions of one of these themes at the expense of their full humanity. Specifics in regard to the characters tend to be rather vague. Often, more than one main character is used in a novel; Kundera may even completely discontinue a character, resuming the plot with somebody new. As he told Philip Roth in an interview in "The Village Voice": "Intimate life [is] understood as one's personal secret, as something valuable, inviolable, the basis of one's originality."


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera's early novels explore the dual tragic and comic aspects of totalitarianism. He does not view his works, however, as political commentary. "The condemnation of totalitarianism doesn't deserve a novel," he has said. According to the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, "What he finds interesting is the similarity between totalitarianism and "the immemorial and fascinating dream of a harmonious society where private life and public life form but one unity and all are united around one will and one faith." In exploring the dark humor of this topic, Kundera seems deeply influenced by Franz Kafka.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera considers himself a writer without a message. In "Sixty-three Words," a chapter in "The Art of the Novel", Kundera tells of a Scandinavian publisher who hesitated to publish "The Farewell Party" because of its apparent anti-abortion message. Not only was the publisher wrong about the existence of such a message, Kundera explains, but, "I was delighted with the misunderstanding. I had succeeded as a novelist. I succeeded in maintaining the moral ambiguity of the situation. I had kept faith with the essence of the novel as an art: irony. And irony doesn't give a damn about messages!"


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera also ventures often into musical matters, analyzing Czech folk music for example; or quoting from Leoš Janáček and Bartók; or placing musical excerpts into the text, as in "The Joke"; or discussing Schoenberg and atonality.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 2009, Kundera signed a petition in support of Polish film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and anally raping a 13-year-old girl.


title: Milan Kundera

text: On 13 October 2008, the Czech weekly "Respekt" reported that an investigation was being carried out by the "Institute for Studies of Totalitarian Regimes", into whether a young Kundera had denounced a returned defector, Miroslav Dvořáček, to the StB, or Czechoslovak secret police, in 1950. The accusation was based on a police station report which named "Milan Kundera, student, born 1.4.1929" as the informant in regard to Dvořáček's presence at a student dormitory. According to the police report, the ultimate source of the information about Dvořáček's previous desertion from military service and defection to the West as Iva Militká.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Dvořáček had allegedly fled Czechoslovakia after being ordered to join the infantry in the wake of a purge of the flight academy, and returned to Czechoslovakia as an agent of an anti-communist espionage agency organised by Czechoslovak exiles, an allegation which was not mentioned in the police report. Dvořáček returned secretly to the student dormitory of a friend's ex-girlfriend, Iva Militká. Militká was dating and later married a fellow student, Ivan Dlask, who knew Kundera.


title: Milan Kundera

text: The police report alleges that Militká told Dlask of Dvořáček's presence, and that Dlask told Kundera, who told the secret police. Although the Communist prosecutor sought the death penalty, Dvořáček was sentenced to 22 years in prison, fined 10,000 crowns, stripped of personal property, and deprived of his civil rights. Dvořáček survived 14 years in a labor camp, some of it working in a uranium mine, before he was finally released."


title: Milan Kundera

text: In his response to "Respekt"s announcement, Kundera denied turning Dvořáček in to the StB, stating he never knew him at all, and could not even remember an individual named "Militká". On 14 October 2008, the Czech Security Forces Archive announced that they had ruled out the possibility that the document could be a forgery, but refused to arrive at any other definite conclusions.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Vojtech Ripka of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes said, "There are two pieces of circumstantial evidence [the police report and its sub-file], but we, of course, cannot be one hundred percent sure. Unless we find all survivors, which is unfortunately impossible, it will not be complete." Ripka added that the signature on the police report matches the name of a man who worked in the corresponding National Security Corps section and that a police protocol is missing.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Many in the Czech Republic condemned Kundera as a "police informer", while many others accused "Respekt" of committing journalistic misconduct by publishing such a poorly researched piece. The StB report does not contain Kundera's signature. On the other hand, presenting an ID card was procedure whenever dealing with the StB in 1950. Kundera was the student representative of the dorm Dvořáček had visited, and while it cannot be ruled out that another student could have denounced him to the StB using Kundera's name, impersonating someone else in a Stalinist police state posed a significant risk. Contradictory statements by Kundera's fellow students appeared in the Czech news media in the wake of this "scandal". Historian Adam Hradílek, the co-author of the "Respekt" article, was also accused of an undeclared conflict of interest since one of the individuals involved on the incident was a distant relative. Nonetheless, "Respekt" states on its website that its task is to "impartially study the crimes of the former communist regime".


title: Milan Kundera

text: On 3 November 2008, eleven internationally recognized writers came to Kundera's defence, including four Nobel laureates, Orhan Pamuk, Gabriel García Márquez, Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee, as well as Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, and Jorge Semprún.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 1985, Kundera received the Jerusalem Prize. His acceptance address appears among the essays collected in "The Art of the Novel". He won The Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987. In 2000, he was awarded the international Herder Prize. In 2007, he was awarded the Czech State Literature Prize. In 2009, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. In 2010, he was made an honorary citizen of his hometown, Brno.


title: Milan Kundera

text: In 2011, he received the Ovid Prize. The asteroid 7390 Kundera, discovered at the Kleť Observatory in 1983, is named in his honor. In 2020, he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, a Czech literary award.


title: Milan Kundera

text: Kundera appears in the third volume of "Danganronpa Togami" by Yuya Sato, where he (also known as "K") explains to the former Shinobu Togami about how Borges and the K2K System works.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The Holden Commodore is a full-size car that was sold by Holden from 1978 to 2020. It was manufactured from 1978 to 2017 in Australia and from 1979 to 1990 in New Zealand, with production of the locally manufactured versions in Australia ending on 20 October 2017.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Between 2018 and 2020, a rebadged Opel Insignia, built in Germany, was sold in Australia as the Holden Commodore (ZB). All sales of new Commodores ended in 2020, coinciding with the discontinuation of the Holden marque and nameplate entirely.


title: Holden Commodore

text: From 1978, the Commodore replaced the long-serving Holden Kingswood and Holden Premier: mid-sized executive cars developed in Australia. Initially, the Commodore was based on the Opel Commodore (C), a smaller, contemporary rear wheel drive (RWD) platform designed by General Motors' German subsidiary. This was redesigned by Holden, to suit the demands of the Australian market, road conditions and manufacturing. Subsequent series of Holden Commodore became larger, and were also influenced by the Opel Senator and Opel Omega. The fourth generation Commodore, fully developed and manufactured in Australia, was based on the Holden developed Zeta platform.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Initially introduced as a single sedan body style, the range expanded in 1979 to include a station wagon. From 1984, Holden began branding the flagship model as Holden Calais, with the Commodore Berlina introduced in 1984 gaining independent Holden Berlina nomenclature in 1988. Long-wheelbase Statesman/Caprice derivatives and Commodore utility body variants followed in 1990. The third generation architecture spawned the most body styles, with a new Holden utility launched in 2000 (now officially as the Holden Ute), reborn Monaro coupé in 2001, four-door Holden Crewman utility and all-wheel drive (AWD) Holden Adventra crossover in 2003. Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) in 1987 began official modification of high performance variants of the Commodore and its derivatives, under its own nameplate.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Rivalry came predominantly from the Ford Falcon—also locally built. Prior to the second generation Commodore of 1988, the Holden was positioned a full class below the full-size Falcon. To varying degrees, competition also came from mid-size offerings from Toyota Australia as well as Chrysler Australia, which morphed into Mitsubishi Motors Australia. Moreover, between 1989 and 1997, Australian federal government policy saw the launch of the Toyota Lexcen, which was a rebadged version of the second generation Commodore. With the introduction of the third generation in 1997, Holden implemented its largest export programs involving Commodore and its derivatives. In the Middle East, South Africa and Brazil, the Commodore sold as a Chevrolet. High-performance export versions followed in North America, sold as Pontiac and later Chevrolet. HSV also exported to the United Kingdom as Vauxhall, in the Middle East as Chevrolet Special Vehicles (CSV) and in New Zealand and Singapore as HSV.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In December 2013, Holden announced that it would cease its local production by the end of October 2017 committing, however, to use the long-standing Commodore nameplate on its fifth-generation fully imported replacement, moving to a front-wheel drive (FWD)/all-wheel drive (AWD) platform.


title: Holden Commodore

text: On 10 December 2019, Holden announced that the Commodore nameplate would be discontinued in 2020, in what is, according to Holden's interim chairman and managing director Kristian Aquilina, "decisive action to ensure a sharp focus on the largest and most buoyant market segments", focusing on their SUV and Ute range, which had accounted for over 76% of their lineup during 2019. This marks the end of the Commodore nameplates' 41 years." On 17 February 2020, General Motors announced that the Holden marque in its entirety would be retired from sale in Australia and New Zealand by 2021.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Introduced in October 1978, the VB Commodore development covered a period with the effects of the 1973 oil crisis still being felt. Hence, when Holden decided to replace the successful full-size HZ Kingswood with a new model line, they wanted the new car to be smaller and more fuel efficient. Originally, Holden looked at developing a new WA Kingswood, but that project was abandoned. With no replacement in development, Holden looked to Opel to provide the foundations of the VB, basing it loosely on the four-cylinder Rekord E bodyshell, with the front grafted on from the Opel Senator A, both constructed using GM's V-body platform. This change was necessitated to accommodate the larger Holden six- and eight-cylinder engines. Holden also adopted the name "Commodore" from Opel, which had been using the name since 1967. Opel went on to use Holden's Rekord-Senator hybrid as a foundation for its new generation Commodore C, slotting in between the two donor models.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VB series retained 96 percent of the preceding HZ Kingswood's interior space, despite being 14 percent smaller in overall dimensions, although five percent larger than the Torana. With the Commodore dropping a full class below the Kingswood and its Ford Falcon competitor, the smaller Commodore was predictably more fuel-efficient. This downsizing was first seen as a major disadvantage for Holden, as they had effectively relinquished the potential of selling Commodores to the fleet and taxi industries. These sales losses were thought to be unrecoverable; however, the 1979 energy crisis saw Australian oil prices rise by 140 percent, putting substantial strain on the automotive industry to collectively downsize, a change that Holden had already done.


title: Holden Commodore

text: During the VB's development, Holden realised that when driven at speed over harsh Australian roads, the Rekord would effectively break in half at the firewall. This forced Holden to rework the entire car for local conditions, resulting in only 35 percent commonality with the Opel. The Rekord's MacPherson strut front suspension was accordingly modified, and the recirculating ball steering was replaced with a rack and pinion type. These modifications blew development costs beyond expectations to a reported —a figure close to the cost of developing a new model independently. With such a large sum consumed by the VB development programme, Holden was left with insufficient finances to resource the development of a wagon variant. Added that the Commodore architecture was considered an unsuitable base for utility and long-wheelbase models, Holden was left with only a sedan, albeit one in three levels of luxury: a base, SL, and SL/E. Desperate measures forced Holden to shape the Commodore front-end to the rear of the Rekord wagon. As the wagon-specific sheet metal had to be imported from Germany, the wagon, introduced in July 1979, suffered from inevitable component differences from the sedan. Although infrequently criticised in the early years, quality problems were evident, with poor trim and panel fit problematic for all first generation Commodores. This coupled with mechanical dilemmas such as water pump failure and steering rack rattle ensured warranty claims were high in the first year. Despite these issues, VB was praised for its value for money and sophistication, especially in regards to the steering, ride quality, handling and brakes, thus securing the "Wheels" Car of the Year award for 1978.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The most significant change to the VC Commodore of March 1980 was the engine upgrading to "XT5" specification. Now painted blue and thus known as the "Blue" straight-sixes and Holden V8s, these replaced the "Red" units fitted to the VB and earlier cars. Changes included a new twelve-port cylinder head, redesigned combustion chambers, inlet and exhaust manifolds, a new two-barrel carburettor . Tweaks and changes to the V8s surrounded the implementation of electronic ignition, revised cylinder head and inlet manifold design and the fitment of a four-barrel carburettor on the 4.2-litre variant. These changes brought improved efficiency, increased outputs and aided driveability. In response to increasing oil prices, a four-cylinder variant was spawned in June 1980. Displacing 1.9-litres, this powerplant known as "Starfire" was effectively Holden's existing straight-six with two cylinders removed. The four's peak power output of and torque rated at meant its performance was compromised. Reports indicate that the need to push the engine hard to extract performance led to real-world fuel consumption similar to the straight-sixes.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Holden's emphasis on fuel economy extended beyond powertrains, with a fuel consumption vacuum gauge replacing the tachometer throughout the range, although this could be optioned back with the sports instrumentation package. Visual changes were limited: the relocation of the corporate crest to the centre of the redesigned grille, black-coloured trim applied to the tail lamp surrounds on sedans, and the embossment of model badging into the side rubbing strips. The previously undesignated base car, was now the Commodore L, opening up the range for a new unbadged sub-level car. This delete option model, was de-specified and available only to fleet customers. On the premium Commodore SL/E, a resurrected "Shadowtone" exterior paint option became available in a limited range of dark-over-light colour combinations. According to contemporary reviews, changes made to the VC's steering produced a heavier feel and inclined understeer, while the revised suspension gave a softer ride and addressed concerns raised while riding fully laden.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VH series Commodore introduced in September 1981 brought moderately updated frontal bodywork, with a new bonnet and front guards to facilitate the reshaped headlamps and a horizontally slatted grille. These front-end design changes worked to produce a longer, yet wider look. At the rear, sedans featured redesigned tail light clusters, the design of which borrowed from Mercedes-Benz models of the day, using a louvered design. At the same time, the nomenclature of the range was rationalised. The SL superseded the L as the base model, with the old SL level becoming the mid-range SL/X, and the SL/E remaining as the top-of-the-line variant. Wagons were restricted to the SL and SL/X trims. Redesigned pentagonal alloy wheels—replacing the original SL/E type used since 1978—along with a black painted B-pillar, wrap-around chrome rear bumper extensions to the wheel arches, and extended tail lamps that converged with the license plate alcove—distinguished the range-topping SL/E from other variants. The new pentagonal wheels were initially in short supply, such that only Shadowtone option SL/E sedans received them during 1981 production.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Mechanical specifications carried over, except for a new five-speed manual transmission, optional on the 1.9-litre four-cylinder and 2.85-litre six-cylinder versions. In an attempt to improve sales figures of the inline-four engine, Holden spent considerable time improving its performance and efficiency. Modifications were also made to the 2.85-litre six to lift economy, and the powerplants managed to reduce fuel consumption by as much as 12.5 and 14 percent, correspondingly. Holden released the sports-oriented Commodore SS sedan in September 1982—reintroducing a nameplate used briefly ten years prior with the HQ series. Provisioned with a choice of 4.2- or optional 5.0-litre V8 engines, both versions of the VH SS were teamed with a four-speed manual transmission. Racing driver Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team (HDT) high performance outfit produced three upgraded versions, known as "Group One", "Group Two" and "Group Three", the latter version available in either 4.2-litre or more commonly 5.0-litre V8 configuration.


title: Holden Commodore

text: By the time of the VH series, Commodore sales were beginning to decline. Holden's six-cylinder engine, which was carried over from the Kingswood, could trace its roots back to 1963 and was no longer competitive. Continual improvements made to Commodore's Ford Falcon rival meant the VH was not significantly more fuel-efficient or better performing despite the smaller size. This was curtailed by the absence of any major powertrain revisions by the time of the VH and the lack of visual departure from the original VB. Holden also had to deal with the influx of their own mid-size Camira from 1982, which presented comparable interior volume with lower fuel consumption, and for less than the Commodore pricing point. Camira sales were strong initially, but as fuel prices had stabilised, buyers gravitated away from Camira and Commodore towards the larger Falcon, which overtook the Commodore as Australia's bestselling car for the first time in 1982.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Representing the first major change since the VB original, the VK model of 1984 introduced a six-window glasshouse, as opposed to the previous four-window design, to make the Commodore appear larger. The revised design helped stimulate sales, which totalled 135,000 in two years. This did not put an end to Holden's monetary woes. Sales of the initially popular Camira slumped due to unforeseen quality issues, while the Holden WB series commercial vehicle range and the Statesman WB luxury models were starting to show their age; their 1971 origins compared unfavourably with Ford's more modern Falcon and Fairlane models.


title: Holden Commodore

text: New names for the trim levels were also introduced, such as Commodore Executive (an SL with air conditioning and automatic transmission), Commodore Berlina (replacing SL/X) and Calais (replacing SL/E). The 3.3-litre "Blue" straight-six engine was replaced by the "Black" specification, gaining computer-controlled ignition systems on the carburettor versions and optional electronic fuel injection boosting power output to . The 5.0-litre V8 engine continued to power high specification variants, but was shrunk from 5,044 cc to 4,987 cc in 1985 due to new Group A racing homologation rules. The new car cut its predecessor's weight by and models were fitted with an upgraded braking system. As high oil prices became a thing of the past, Holden decided to drop the 2.85- six and 4.2-litre V8, while the 1.9-litre four-cylinder was limited to New Zealand.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Marking a high point in terms of sales, the last-of-the-series VL Commodore sold in record numbers, finally managing to outsell the Ford Falcon in the private sector. The 1986 VL represented a substantial makeover of the VK and would be the last of the mid-size Commodores for 30 years. Designers distanced the Commodore further away from its Opel origins, by smoothing the lines of the outer body and incorporating a subtle tail spoiler. A thorough redesign of the nose saw the Commodore gain sleek, narrow headlamps and a shallower grille, while the Calais specification employed unique partially concealed headlamps.


title: Holden Commodore

text: By this stage, Holden's 24‑year‑old six-cylinder was thoroughly outmoded and would have been difficult to re-engineer to comply with pending emission standards and the introduction of unleaded fuel. This led Holden to sign a deal with Nissan of Japan to import their "RB30E" engine. This seemed a good idea in 1983 when the Australian dollar was strong; however by 1986 the once viable prospect became rather expensive. The public quickly accepted what was at first a controversial move, as reports emerged of the improvements in refinement, 33 percent gain in power and 15 percent better economy over the carburettor version of the VK's "Black" straight-six. An optional turbocharger appeared six months later and lifted power output to . In October 1986, an unleaded edition of Holden's carburettored V8 engine was publicised. Holden had originally planned to discontinue the V8 to spare the engineering expense of converting to unleaded. However, public outcry persuaded them to relent. VLs in New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand were also available with the 2.0-litre six-cylinder "RB20E" engine.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VL suffered from some common build quality problems, such as poor windshield sealing, that can lead to water leakages and corrosion. Awkward packaging under the low bonnet coupled with Holden's decision to utilise a cross-flow radiator (as opposed to the up-down flow radiator installed to the equivalent Nissan Skyline) meant the six-cylinder engine was especially susceptible to cracked cylinder heads, a problem not displayed on the Nissan Skyline with which it shares the "RB30E" engine. The Used Car Safety Ratings, published in 2008 by the Monash University Accident Research Centre, found that first generation Commodores (VB–VL), similarly to the Ford Falcons manufactured during the same years, provide a "worse than average" level of occupant safety protection in the event of an accident. It is perhaps noteworthy however, that the Monash University publication includes in its averages, vehicles manufactured as late as 2006. As such, and with reasonable necessity, the 2008 Used Car Safety Ratings include comparison of some non-airbag vehicles with later vehicles fitted with airbags. In 1988, it would still be some years before airbags became available to the public on vehicles manufactured in Australia, and, outside of the very high end luxury market, available in Australia at all. As airbag technology later become more available, the Holden Commodore would become one of the first to offer the option (see VR Commodore below).


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VN Commodore of 1988 and subsequent second generation models took their bodywork from the larger Opel Senator B and new Opel Omega A. However, this time, the floor plan was widened and stretched; now matching the rival Ford Falcon for size. Continuing financial woes at Holden meant the wider VN body was underpinned by narrow, carry-over VL chassis components in a bid to save development costs. In Australia, for the VN and succeeding models, the Commodore Berlina became known simply as the Berlina (but in New Zealand the V6 VN Berlina, assembled locally until the Trentham factory was closed in 1990, was badged Executive. The Berlina nameplate was not launched, as a new entry level grade, with trim and equipment equivalent to the Australian V6 Executive, until the locally built four cylinder model, using the Australian-made, Opel designed, two-litre Family Two fuel injected engine, was added some months after the V6s). The range expanded in 1990 to include a utility variant, given the model designation VG. This was built on a longer-wheelbase platform that it shared with the station wagon and luxury VQ Statesman sedans released earlier in the year. During this time, the rival Ford EA Falcon was plagued with initial quality issues which tarnished its reputation. Buyers embraced the VN Commodore, helping Holden to recover and post an operating profit of for 1989. The team at "Wheels" magazine awarded the VN Car of the Year in 1988: the second Commodore model to receive this award.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Changes in the relative values of the Australian dollar and Japanese yen made it financially impractical to continue with the well-regarded Nissan engine of the VL. Instead, Holden manufactured their own 3.8-litre V6 engine based on a Buick design, adapted from FWD to RWD. The 5.0-litre V8 remained optional and received a power boost to courtesy of multi-point fuel injection. Although not known for its refinement, the new V6 was nevertheless praised for its performance and fuel efficiency at the time. The 2.0-litre "Family II" engine offered in New Zealand was also offered in some other export markets including Singapore where the model also was badged Berlina. Accompanying the changes to engines, the VL's four-speed automatic transmission was replaced by the "Turbo-Hydramatic" and a Borg-Warner five-speed manual. A Series II update of the VN appeared in September 1989, featuring a revised V6 engine known internally as the "EV6". With the update came a power hike of rising to from .


title: Holden Commodore

text: Under an unsuccessful model sharing arrangement that was part of the Hawke Labor government reforms in 1989, which saw the formation of the United Australian Automobile Industries alliance between Holden and Toyota Australia, the latter began selling badge engineered versions of the VN Commodore manufactured by Holden. The rebadged Commodores were sold as the "Toyota Lexcen", named after Ben Lexcen, who was the designer of the Australia II yacht that won the 1983 America's Cup. The original T1 Lexcen offered sedan and station wagon body forms in three levels of trim: base, GL and GLX. Moreover, they were only available with a 3.8-litre V6 engine and automatic transmission combination.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VP update of 1991 featured cosmetic and mechanical changes, while carrying over the 3.8-litre V6 and 5.0-litre V8 engines from the VN. The 2.0-litre straight-four engine previously available in New Zealand was discontinued. Exterior cosmetic changes included a translucent acrylic grille on the base level Executive and Berlina, with a colour-coded grille for the S and SS, and a chrome grille for Calais. Updated tail lights and boot garnishes were also a part of the changes, which were different for each model, with the Berlina having grey stripes and the Calais chrome stripes. semi-trailing arm independent rear suspension became standard on the Calais and SS, but was made an option on lower-end models in lieu of the live rear axle, improving ride and handling.


title: Holden Commodore

text: A new wider front track was introduced to address issues with the previous carried-over VL chassis components. In August 1992, anti-lock brakes were introduced as an option on the Calais and SS trim levels, later becoming optional on all Series II variants. This January 1993 update also included a colour-coded grille for the Executive and alloy wheels for the Commodore S.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Toyota's pattern of updating their Lexcen model tended to follow Commodore's model cycle. The T2 (VP) Lexcen from 1991 pioneered new specification designations: CSi, VXi and Newport. All future updates (T3 (VR), T4 (VS) and T5 (VS II) Lexcens) made use of the new naming system until 1997, when the badge engineering scheme ceased. To give further differentiation to the Lexcen from the Commodore, the Lexcens from the VP model onwards had unique front-end styling treatments.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The 1993 VR Commodore represented a major facelift of the second generation architecture leaving only the doors and roof untouched. Approximately 80 percent of car was new in comparison to the preceding model. Exterior changes brought an overall smoother body, semicircular wheel arches and the "twin-kidney" grille—a Commodore styling trait which remained until the VY model of 2002 and remains a permanent staple on the HSV variants to this day.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The rear-end treatment saw raised tail lights, implemented for safety reasons, and a driver's side airbag was introduced as an option: a first for an Australian-built car. Other safety features such as anti-lock brakes and independent rear suspension were only available with the new electronic "GM 4L60-E" automatic transmission. Along with a driver's airbag and cruise control, these features were packaged into a new Acclaim specification level: a family-oriented safety spec above the entry-level Executive. Holden's strong focus on safety can be seen in the Used Car Safety Ratings. The findings show that in an accident, VN/VP Commodores provide a "worse than average" level of occupant protection. However, the updated VR/VS models were found to provide a "better than average" level of safety protection. Holden issued a Series II revision in September 1994 bringing audible warning chimes for the handbrake and fuel level among other changes.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The latest revision of the Buick 3.8-litre V6 engine was fitted to the VR Commodore, featuring rolling-element bearings in the valve rocker arms and increased compression ratios. These changes combined to deliver an increase in power to and further improvement in noise, vibration, and harshness levels. "Wheels" magazine awarded the VR Commodore Car of the Year in 1993.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The 1995 VS Commodore served as a mechanical update of the VR, destined to maintain sales momentum before the arrival of an all-new VT model. The extent of exterior changes amounted to little more than a redesigned Holden logo and wheel trims. An overhauled "Ecotec" (Emissions and Consumption Optimisation through TEChnology) version of the Buick V6 engine coincided with changes to the engine in the United States. The "Ecotec" engine packed 13 percent more power for a total of , cut fuel consumption by 5 percent, increased the compression ratio from 9.0:1 to 9.4:1 and improved on the engine's previous rough characteristics. Holden mated the new engine with a modified version of the "GM 4L60-E" automatic transmission, improving throttle response and smoothing gear changes. The Series II update of June 1996 included elliptical side turn signals, interior tweaks and the introduction of a supercharged V6 engine for selected trim levels, and the introduction of a new Getrag manual transmission. The new supercharged engine slotted between the existing V6 and V8 engines in the lineup and was officially rated at , just below the V8.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VS Commodore was the last of which to be sold as a Toyota Lexcen, as Holden and Toyota ended their model-sharing scheme. The last Lexcens were built during 1997. This model was also sold as the VS Commodore Royale in New Zealand. Similar in specification to the Calais also sold in New Zealand, the Royale featured a standard VS Commodore body with the front end from the VS Caprice and an Opel 2.6-litre "54-Degree" V6 engine. The Royale was also sold between 1995 and 1997 in small numbers to Malaysia and Singapore as the Opel Calais.


title: Holden Commodore

text: With the VT Commodore of 1997, Holden looked again to Opel in Germany for a donor platform. The proposal was to take the Opel Omega B and broaden the vehicle's width and mechanical setup for local conditions. In the early days, Holden considered adopting the Omega as is, save for the engines and transmissions, and even investigated reskinning the existing VR/VS architecture. Later on, the VT bodywork spawned a new generation of Statesman and Caprice (again based on the long-wheelbase wagons), and even went as far as resurrecting the iconic Monaro coupé of the 1960s and 1970s via a prototype presented at the 1998 Sydney Motor Show.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VT heralded the fitment of semi-trailing arm independent rear suspension as standard across the range, a significant selling point over the rival Falcon, along with increased electronics such as Traction Control. However, in terms of suspension, the original Opel design was simplified by removing the toe control links that was standard equipment on the European Omega since 1987. Consequently, this afflicted the VT with excessive tyre wear due to distortions to the suspension camber angle and toe under heavy load, such as heavy towing or when travelling over undulated surfaces.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Notably, Holden's performance arm HSV re-added the toe control link on the flagship GTS 300 model. The 1999 Series II update replaced the venerable Holden 5.0-litre V8 engine with a new 5.7-litre "Generation III" V8 sourced from the United States. The V8 was detuned to from the original US version, but would receive incremental power upgrades to throughout its time in the Commodore, before finally being replaced by the related "Generation 4" in the VZ. The supercharged V6 was uprated to from the VS. Safety wise, side airbags became an option for the Acclaim and higher models, a first for Holden.


title: Holden Commodore

text: From the onset, parent company General Motors was interested in incorporating a left-hand drive Commodore in its Buick lineup, as manifested by the unveiling of the Buick XP2000 concept car in 1996. Although this idea was ultimately abandoned (due to pressures by the North American automotive trade unions to retain local production), the GM-funded project allowed Holden to enter into a range of left-hand export markets. Thus began the Commodore's rapid expansion into parts of Indochina, the Middle East and South Africa badged as the Chevrolet Lumina and Brazil as the Chevrolet Omega 3.8 V6. In its home market, the VT series was awarded the 1997 "Wheels" Car of the Year award, the fourth such award in Commodore's history. It found ready acceptance in the market as many buyers steered away from the slow selling Ford AU Falcon, becoming the best selling Commodore to date and cementing its place as number one in Australian sales.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The sedan and wagon range comprised: Commodore Executive (base and fleet package); Commodore Acclaim (family and safety package); Berlina (luxury package) and Calais (sedan-only sport luxury package). Limited editions included a "Sydney 2000" Olympic version and Holden 50th Anniversary based on better equipped Executive models (e.g. Berlina alloy wheels on the former but no climate control).


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VX update from 2000 featured a revised headlamp design. The VT's rear tail lamp panel was replaced by two separate light assemblies. Conversely, the luxury-oriented Berlina and Calais sedans continued using a full-width boot-lid panel incorporating the registration plate and tail lamps.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VX series also formed the basis for a new Holden Ute, designated the VU-series. Earlier utility models were instead entitled "Commodore utility". An updated Series II was launched in early 2002, featuring revised rear suspension system now equipped with toe control links to address the VT's issues. The VX series also spawned the production version of the re-launched Holden Monaro (allowing Holden to commence exports to the United States, with this coupé sold as the Pontiac GTO).


title: Holden Commodore

text: Safety played a substantial role in the development of the VX model. Bosch 5.3 anti-lock brakes were made standard on all variants, a first for an Australian manufactured car; and traction control was made available on vehicles equipped with manual transmission. Extensive research was undertaken to reduce the effects from a side-impact collision through modification of the B-pillars. The risk presented by a side-impact collision in a VX fitted without side airbags is reduced by 50 percent when compared to a similarly specified VT model.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VY mid-cycle update of 2002 represented the first major styling shift since the 1997 VT. Designers discarded the rounded front and rear styling of the VT and VX models, adopting more aggressive, angular lines. The same approach was applied to the interior, whereby the curvaceous dashboard design was orphaned in favour of an angular, symmetrical design. Satin chrome plastic now dominated the façade of the centre console stack, and high-end models received fold-out cup holders borrowed from fellow GM subsidiary Saab. Leaving Eurovox behind, Holden turned towards German electronics manufacturer Blaupunkt to source audio systems—an arrangement that remains in place today.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Engineering wise, Holden kept the changes low key. A revised steering system and tweaked suspension tuning were among some of the changes to sharpen handling precision. Further improvements were made to the "Generation III" V8 engine to produce peak power of for sports variants. In a bid to recapture the market for low-cost, high-performance cars, Holden created a new SV8 specification level. Based on the entry-level Executive, the SV8 inherited the V8 mechanical package from the SS but made do without the luxury appointments and was sold at a correspondingly lower price. Holden also experimented by releasing a limited edition wagon version of its high-performance SS variant, of which only 850 were built. The Series II update added a front strut bar as standard to the SS, which was claimed to increase rigidity and hence handling. As became the trend, the update raised V8 power, now up . Amendments in the remaining models were confined to new wheels, trims and decals, however, the Calais has taken on a sports-luxury persona as opposed to the discrete luxury character seen in previous models. This repositioning in turn affected the Berlina's standing. The once second-tier model now became the sole luxury model, only overshadowed by the more expensive Calais. Coinciding with the VY II models was the first four-door utility model dubbed the Holden Crewman. Crewman's underpinnings and body structure while somewhat unusual, shared a fair amount in common with the Statesman/Caprice, One tonner and the two-door Ute.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In 2003, Holden launched an AWD system that it developed for the VY platform dubbed "Cross Trac", at a cost of . Unveiled after the Series II updates, the first application of this electronically controlled system was the Holden Adventra, a raised VY wagon crossover. The system was only available in combination with the V8 and automatic transmission. Holden chose not to spend extra engineering resources on adapting the AWD system to the 3.8-litre V6, due to be replaced in the upcoming VZ model. Unfortunately for Holden, the Adventra fell well short of expected sales, despite modest targets.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The final chapter of the third generation series was the VZ Commodore. Debuting in 2004 with a new series of V6 engines known as the "Alloytec V6", both and versions of the 3.6-litre engine were offered. These were later upgraded to respectively in the VE model. When compared to the previous "Ecotec" engines, the "Alloytec" benefits from increased power output, responsiveness and fuel efficiency. The new engines were mated to a new five-speed "5L40E" automatic transmission on the luxury V6 variants, and a new six-speed "Aisin AY6" manual transmission on the six-cylinder SV6 sports variant. However, the long serving four-speed automatic carried on in other variants, albeit with further tweaks in an attempt to address complaints about refinement. A new 6.0-litre "Generation 4" V8 engine was added to the range in January 2006 to comply with Euro III emission standards. Compared to the American version, both Active Fuel Management and variable valve timing were removed. The "Alloytec" V6 was also affected by the new standards, which saw the peak output reduced to .


title: Holden Commodore

text: Along with the new powertrain, Holden also introduced new safety features such as electronic stability control and brake assist. The Used Car Safety Ratings evaluation found that VT/VX Commodores provide a "better than average" level of occupant protection in the event of an accident, with VY/VZ models uprated to "significantly better than average". ANCAP crash test results rate the fourth generation VE lower in the offset frontal impact test than the third generation VY/VZ Commodore. The overall crash score was marginally higher than the outgoing model due to improved side impact protection.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Launched in 2006 after GM's 2003 abandonment of their last European rear-drive sedan, the Opel Omega, the VE is the first Commodore model designed entirely in Australia, as opposed to being based on an adapted Opel-sourced platform. Given this and high public expectations of quality, the budget in developing the car reportedly exceeded . Underpinned by the new Holden developed GM Zeta platform, the VE features more sophisticated independent suspension all round and near-even 50:50 weight distribution, leading to improved handling. Engines and transmissions are largely carried over from the previous VZ model. However, a new six-speed "GM 6L80-E" automatic transmission was introduced for V8 variants, replacing the old four-speed automatic now relegated to base models. The design of this new model included innovative features to help minimise export costs, such as a symmetrical centre console that houses a flush-fitting hand brake lever to facilitate its conversion to left-hand drive. Internationally, the Commodore is again badge engineered as the Chevrolet Lumina and Chevrolet Omega, along with its new export market in the United States as the Pontiac G8 (discontinued as of 2010 along with the Pontiac brand).


title: Holden Commodore

text: Variants by Holden's performance arm, HSV, were released soon after the sedan's debut, followed by the long-wheelbase WM Statesman/Caprice models. The VE Ute did not enter production until 2007 whilst the Sportwagon began production in July 2008. A VE V8 Calais was awarded "Wheels" Car of the Year, being the fifth Commodore/Calais model to do so.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In late 2008 Holden made changes to the VE Commodore, including the addition of a passenger seatbelt-reminder system. The rollout of such modifications allowed the VE range to be upgraded in stages (dependent on model) to the five-star ANCAP safety rating during 2008 and 2009.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The September 2009 MY10 update to the VE Commodore platform introduces a new standard engine–a 3.0-litre Spark Ignition Direct Injection (SIDI) V6 on the Omega and Berlina, with a 3.6-litre version of the same reserved for all other V6 variants. The standard transmission is now a six-speed "GM 6L50" automatic, replacing the four-speed in Omega and Berlina models and the five-speed in higher luxury levels. A six-speed manual is still available in sport models. Holden claims the newer powertrains would provide better fuel economy than some smaller four-cylinder cars; the 3.0-litre version is rated at . The 3.0L produces , more than the earlier 3.6L and more than the old 5.0L Holden V8. The new 3.6 produces a fraction more at although the difference is negligible in real world driving.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In mid-2010 Holden released the VE Series 2 (VEII). The major difference saw the introduction of the Holden iQ system, a centre-mounted LCD display that provides navigation, Bluetooth, and controls to the stereo. There were also small alterations to the styling and a number of other changes.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The VF Commodore, a major overhaul of the VE, was officially revealed on 10 February 2013 in Melbourne.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The body shell, suspension and electrics of the GM Zeta platform have been thoroughly reworked to reduce weight, improving handling and fuel efficiency. Changes to the model line-up see the deletion of the Berlina nameplate (which was merged with the standard Calais variant, represented the smallest share of sales in Commodore's line-up) and the base model renamed from Omega to Evoke.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Standard features across the Commodore range includes front and rear parking sensors, reverse camera and auto park assist, whereas high specifications models such as the Calais-V and SS-V redline models also feature, as standard, forward and reverse collision alert system and a colour heads-up display - all possible thanks to the VF's electronics now being compatible with those of more developed GM cars, resulting in the new Commodore being cheaper to manufacture. Indeed, recommended retail pricing have been reduced across the range, from for the base model and up to for the Calais V V8 and SS V Redline.


title: Holden Commodore

text: A day after the Australian range reveal and in the lead up to the Daytona 500 weekend, a more powerful and better equipped export version of the VF Commodore SS also made its debut in Daytona, Florida, as the MY14 Chevrolet SS. To maximise the SS's profile in the United States, GM also replaced in NASCAR the Chevrolet Impala with the SS, which raced in NASCAR's premier series through 2017, when it was replaced by the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the 2018 season.


title: Holden Commodore

text: A Series II update (VF II) was launched in late 2015, introducing minor styling revisions at the front, while the biggest change was the arrival of a "LS3" across the entire V8 range. In addition, the V8's final drive ratio and the Redline's suspension tune were also revised.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In 2017, Holden announced that the Commodore would end production in Australia and confirmed that the Commodore badge would be inherited by its replacement - now fully imported. This decision was made on the basis of a survey revealing that a majority of customers were in favour of retaining the long-standing Australian badge introduced in 1978.


title: Holden Commodore

text: In October 2016, Holden provided selected journalists an opportunity to test drive early prototypes of the 2018 Commodore.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The ZB Commodore was revealed on the 6 December 2016 as a rebadged version of the Opel Insignia B. The ZB Commodore was offered with four or six-cylinder engine options, as well as front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive. This was a major departure from the V8 and rear wheel drive variants available on the previous generation Commodore.


title: Holden Commodore

text: There has been significant controversy regarding Holden's decision to retain the Commodore name for the 2018 model, despite it being dimensionally smaller than its predecessor, lacking a V8 engine option and switching from a RWD to a FWD drivetrain. Whilst the decision has been considered to be a safe choice in order to preserve sales, the retention of the Commodore name has been critiqued for Holden missing the opportunity to rebrand its sedan range and push its offering into the more lucrative semi-premium end of the market.


title: Holden Commodore

text: , the ZB Commodore has the lowest resale value as a proportion of new price of any car on the Australian market.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Due to slow sales and Holden's interest in other vehicle segments, it was announced on 10 December 2019 that the ZB Commodore would be discontinued in early 2020, shortly before GM's decision to retire the Holden brand entirely.


title: Holden Commodore

text: Since the late 1990s, Commodores have been sent abroad as the Chevrolet Lumina in the Middle East until 2011 and South Africa until 2013, and as the Chevrolet Omega in Brazil until 2008 and, then again, in 2010. Vauxhall VXR8 sales began in 2007. Versions have also been previously exported in the mid-1990s to Southeast Asia as the Opel Calais and to North America from 2008 to 2009 as the Pontiac G8. From 2014 to 2017, the VF Commodore was sold in the United States as the Chevrolet SS and the sport version from HSV sold in the United Kingdom as the Vauxhall VXR8.


title: Holden Commodore

text: The Commodore was sold as the Chevrolet Lumina in the Middle East and South Africa, and previously in South East Asia.


title: Holden Commodore

text: A coupe version based on the Holden Monaro was also sold in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. In Arabia, the Lumina was offered in four different trims: LS (Omega), LTZ (Berlina), S (SV6) and SS (SS). The LTZ and S came standard with a 3.6 L Alloytec V6 and a six-speed automatic transmission for the S and four-speed for the LTZ, while the SS came standard with a 6.0 L Alloytec V8 with the option of active fuel management. A six-speed manual was standard with the option of a six-speed automatic on the SS. The LTZ was the luxury model, while the S and SS models focused on sportiness. Exports to the Middle East ceased in 2011.