"The Tank" at Poelcapelle and Westkapelle
 

I came across this photo of the Mk IV tank "D29 DAMON II" taken in 1923 at Poelcapelle, Belgium. Five years after WW1, the town of Poelcapelle - which was totally flattened during WW1 - was rebuilt, while the spoils of war were left to deal with later.

The similarity with Westkapelle (other than the "-kapelle" (chapel) part in the name of the towns) is that the people first rebuilt their homes, and bothered about cleaning up the wreckage later. D29 at Poelcapelle was dug up in 1923 and set up as a memorial as "The Tank", just like Sherman V T-148656 at Westkapelle. Sadly, D29 was scrapped in 1941 by the German occupation forces. Gladly, Sherman V T-148656 still survives to this day.

Read more at https://www.tankpoelcapelle.be/en/Cafetheswan

1917, nothing left of the town:
Attachment 133371


1923, shortly before it was dug up:
Attachment 133368 Attachment 133369


1940/1941 - shortly before it was scrapped:
Attachment 133370

That is, when you think about it, even weirder than having a bunch of wrecked tanks standing about the place … but I guess if there isn’t much motorised traffic then a half-buried tank in the middle of a crossroads isn’t that big of a problem, and housing is a more pressing concern anyway.

Fun bit of etymology: the -kapelle in Westkapelle as well as Oostkapelle, also on Walcheren, has nothing to do with a chapel. Rather, it’s a corruption of kaap (“cape”) because they were originally on the western resp. eastern capes of the island.

Thanks, I learned something new today