The battle was much harder than imagined due to several delays by the Allies.
Key point: Having a viable port to move supplies around meant capturing one intact and doing so quickly. Unfortunately, the Allies were distracted by other goals and so the costs of taking Antwerp were higher than expected.
Before World War II, the Belgian port city of Antwerp was one of the world’s great ports, ranking with those of Hamburg, Rotterdam, and New York. Antwerp is located some 55 miles up the Scheldt (Schelde) Estuary from the North Sea. Five hundred yards wide at its location on the estuary, the port’s minimum depth along its quays is 27 feet, deep enough to handle the largest ships in the world especially when it comes to maneuvering such vessels into place along the quays.