Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Was the land flooded out subsequent to the wartime landing, never diked back off and reclaimed, or am I just getting the information wrong from the two photos?

You’ve got it exactly right: the old dyke ran as the pale lines show, then curved more to the southeast just below the map until it got to the dune now known as Erika; from there it continued on to the southeast. When the dyke was reconstructed after the war, it was built in a big curve the other way — the footpath along the top is clear on the aerial photo, and pretty much follows the curve of the new dyke — to connect the remaining part of the old dyke to Erika. A sandy beach then formed at the foot of the new dyke. (The lake marked “De Kreeke” at the lower right also didn’t exist before 1945 — that area was farmland back then.)

If you want to see how the coastline changed because of the RAF’s actions, http://topotijdreis.nl is a good resource: type “Westkapelle” into the search box at the top right, then play with the date slider along the left.

“’t Gat”, BTW, translates as “the Gap” — the reason for that name is probably obvious

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

I cannot help think some of that armour did more travelling in town after the war than they managed during the landing.

Crab T148656 certainly did