Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[David Herbert]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

David, that's the odd thing.....it does look like the blade is upside down, but the arms are definately not upside down. They have a kink upwards to clear the dozer suspension, so the arms face the normal way up. Maybe the thing we thing is the point of the blade is actually some other piece of steel laying a few feet away from the dozer(?)

Alex

Sorry Alex but I think that you are wrong. When viewed from the side of a complete dozer, the braces that set the angle of the blade are parallel to and lower than the top edge of the blade frame as seen in Michels photos. That fits in with the whole assembly being upside down on the beach. Also in the zoomed photo you can see the circular saucer shaped depth plates just behind the blade that help to control depth of cut.

In Michel Saberly's photos you can see that he has highlighted that these dozers has their Cat works numbers painted onto the front of the armour. These are in the 1T series which denotes that they are tractors built under licence from Caterpillar. A Cat built D7 would be a 7Mxxxx and a D6 would be a 4R or 5Rxxxx depending on track gauge. Cat works numbers, for say 7M D7s, started at 7M1 and ran to 7M9999. The next D7 would be a new prefix, in this case 9U1 which ran to 9U9999 and then another new prefix. Changes were brought in as required and a new prefix did not necessarily mean a new model but often did. There are a lot of 3T and 4T D7s about which are post war license built 7Ms.

David

David

[MicS]

Originally Posted by David Herbert

In Michel Saberly's photos you can see that he has highlighted that these dozers has their Cat works numbers painted onto the front of the armour. These are in the 1T series which denotes that they are tractors built under licence from Caterpillar. A Cat built D7 would be a 7Mxxxx and a D6 would be a 4R or 5Rxxxx depending on track gauge. Cat works numbers, for say 7M D7s, started at 7M1 and ran to 7M9999. The next D7 would be a new prefix, in this case 9U1 which ran to 9U9999 and then another new prefix. Changes were brought in as required and a new prefix did not necessarily mean a new model but often did. There are a lot of 3T and 4T D7s about which are post war license built 7Ms.

There were reportedly 138 D7A and 45 D6A armoured angle dozers built. They were numbered 1T1xxx and 1T3xxx respectively. I have found evidence of the following extreme numbers:

D7A : 1T1007 & 1T1111, so the numbers presumably ran from 1T1001 to 1T1138

D6A : 1T3034 & 1T3060, which may mean that the actual total number built was over 45, or that there were unarmoured dozers within the 1T3001-1T3060 range, and/or that the armoured series started after 1T3001...

I'd be very interested to see evidence of numbers outside the above ranges

In addition to this manufacturer's serial number, armoured dozers also sported the War Department Registration Number, apparently nearly all starting with E243xxx (I only know of one clip showing a D7A E244xxx).

Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

FWIW, I make the WD number of one of the dozers at Westkapelle, E234?85, with an unreadable fourth digit. This for the only one I’ve seen in a photo with this number visible at all, the one Hanno labelled “D”, and which I call E32:

Voertuiglocaties 't Stort 2010-06-14.jpg

[MicS]

Originally Posted by MicS

There were reportedly 138 D7A and 45 D6A armoured angle dozers built. They were numbered 1T1xxx and 1T3xxx respectively. I have found evidence of the following extreme numbers:

D7A : 1T1007 & 1T1111, so the numbers presumably ran from 1T1001 to 1T1138

D6A : 1T3034 & 1T3060, which may mean that the actual total number built was over 45, or that there were unarmoured dozers within the 1T3001-1T3060 range, and/or that the armoured series started after 1T3001...

I'd be very interested to see evidence of numbers outside the above ranges

In addition to this manufacturer's serial number, armoured dozers also sported the War Department Registration Number, apparently nearly all starting with E243xxx (I only know of one clip showing a D7A E244xxx).

Michel

I've just found one which was hiding in my hard drive: 1T3008 E243x63 RAT RUFF:

D6A - 1T3008 E243x63 RAT RUFF - A70 124-4 - 480 - 1944-08-15 - Grant - 00.44.jpg
Source: IWM A70 124-4 around 00:44

Michel

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Some more footage of the wrecks after the war, not sure if this link was posted on here before. "Walcheren 44-45.mp4" is a hidden file on Youtube so worth boookmarking:

https://youtu.be/uVRD0GK_THs?t=119

safe_image.jpg

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Bloody hell! I wish I had seen that earlier

Let me provide some commentary … (Side note: please refer to my e-book on the wrecks at Westkapelle, it will clue you in to what’s what as well I shall be using the ID codes from that to refer to vehicles.)

Up to about 0:30: No sure which gun that is, but clearly anti-aircraft.

0:27: this is the remains of the antitank wall on the landward side of the Westkapelle sea dyke; the semi-submerged bunker in the distance is the Regelbau 621 that was on the dyke the RAF bombed.

0:36–1:00: the buildings interspersed with the gunfire are probably in Vlissingen.

1:01–1:04: the round tower is the Gevangentoren (“Prison Tower”) in Vlissingen, that’s still there today on Boulevard De Ruyter; it’s a restaurant nowadays.

1:05: the large angular building is the Bomvrije kazerne (“Bombproof barracks”) that dated back to the 19th century, and were used by the Germans in WWII; it was demolished after the war.

1:10: the cranes in the distance are of the De Schelde shipyard. The ship visible between them is hull number 214, the later MS Willem Ruys (that ended its life as the MS Achille Lauro)

1:16–1:29: this is Hotel Britannia on Boulevard Bankert in Vlissingen, which was destroyed in the fighting in November 1944.

1:45: Coosje Buskenstraat, which leads off the boulevards down into the town. There was very heavy fighting in this area.

1:48: this looks to be on the eastern or southern side of Vlissingen harbour, but I can’t place it right away.

2:00: Westkapelle beach. These are not derelict LCTs but ones used to bring in supplies for the reconstruction.

2:07: D6A S55, closer-up than I’ve ever seen a picture of it.

2:09: AVRE S32.

2:13: AVRE S42, in the distance Crab S31.

2:18: Foreground Crab S52, background Crab “Rhoderick Dhu” S51.

2:22: D7A S33.

2:25–2:40: Westkapelle, filmed from the top of the dyke to the west of the village.

2:52: The windmill is De Noorman (“The Norseman”), the only operative one remaining after the war. In the background is obviously the lighthouse.

2:56–3:07: This looks like the gap in the dyke at Westkapelle, filmed from the south but I’m not 100% sure.

3:08–3:18: Clearly the gap at Westkapelle, filmed from the north. The crooked bunker is again the Regelbau 621.

3:16: D6A S55. At the very top of the picture is the German radar station on top of the dune now called Erika.

3:20: Not sure where this is, but it could be the gap in the dyke at Ritthem.

3:38: This looks like the gap at De Nolle to the west of Vlissingen.

3:49: Somewhere in the interior of Walcheren, hard to say where.

3:55: Middelburg, to be precise the gazebo in the garden of an 18th century town house just off the Seissingel; the gazebo overhangs the Domburgse Watergang (a minor canal to Domburg); the camera is moving along what is now a bicycle track on the south bank of that canal. (I went to school about 300 metres northwest of here in the late 80s and early 90s We used to take that bicycle track to go into town when we had an hour off.)

4:13 on: I suppose these buildings are in Middelburg as well, but don’t ask me where.