On the evening of April 3rd, the Lincoln and Welland Regiment was ordered to establish a bridgehead across the canal. At 16:46, under heavy German fire, C Company launched the attack in small assault boats. Artillery and smoke screens tried to mask their movement, but the crossing was treacherous. One of the lead platoons, No. 12, reached the far bank but quickly lost its commander in the chaos. 

Amid the confusion and fierce resistance, a 20-year-old Canadian soldier, Private Clifford Lloyd Challice, took action. Serving as a Bren gunner, Challice found himself and his comrades pinned down in a barn near Brinkstraat. When German paratroopers launched a fierce counterattack, a grenade exploded near Challice, severely injuring his right arm. But instead of withdrawing, he made a split-second decision that would prove decisive. 

Challice strapped the sling of his Bren gun around his wounded arm and took position at a window. His comrades, themselves wounded, helped reload and change magazines while Challice opened fire. His accurate bursts of gunfire halted the German advance just 50 meters from their position. He reportedly wounded or killed at least five German soldiers, and when the fighting was over, nearly 25 enemy troops lay dead near the barn. 

In an interview after the war, Challice recalled: “I wasn’t brave, I was crazy. A soldier should never get angry, but I only fight when I’m angry.” 

The situation remained critical. Surrounded and outnumbered, C Company risked being overrun. In a desperate move, their commanding officer called in artillery on his own position to break the German assault. Explosions rocked the area, some landing directly on the farm complex. Yet Challice held firm, helping to coordinate the defense and providing cover fire even as buildings around him collapsed. 

By 02:00 on April 4th, the German resistance finally broke. Additional Canadian units pushed through, and British patrols reached Delden. Inside the barn, Challice, now exhausted and in shock, was still helping treat wounded comrades. He was later evacuated to a field hospital and treated for his injuries. 

For his extraordinary bravery, Challice was nominated for the Distinguished Conduct Medal on May 16, 1945 — one of the highest honors awarded for gallantry in combat within the British Commonwealth. His actions had helped secure the canal crossing and paved the way for the Canadian advance toward Almelo. Many years later, in 1989, the town of Delden honored him once again, naming him an honorary citizen.