Fort Garry Horse - Battle of the Scheldt Then & Now

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Back to the crossroads: seeing the signs these crossroads are placed along the main road from the town of Bergen op Zoom in the east to the town of Goes in the west, with a road branching off to Yerseke in the north. Looking at today's maps, this location would be just east of the Beveland Canal, so the photos were taken just before the Sherman tanks crossed the Bailey Bridge. This sequence of events is consistent with Ken Bell's contact prints - see the first posting.

In the years after WW2 the subject area was heavily reconstructed, in essence the canal and the railroad are the only main consistent features. With the aid of online maps at topotijdreis.nl I was able to pinpoint the correct location. I did have to select a later map though, as when zooming in on the Beveland Canal one is actually shown a much older map. So I made the comparison with the 1951 map.

Vlakebrug 1944_redlined.jpg

This is what the current situation looks like - the intersection Oude Rijksweg coming from the east, turning onto the Zanddijk road going north. The road leading west to Goes was demolished, so this screenshot from Google streetview is not the viewpoint of the photographer back in 1944.

Kruising Oude Rijksweg - Zanddijk Kruiningen.jpg

The Sherman on the left would have been where the white truck in the photo above is today, coming from the direction of Yerseke.

312933488_1788866494783884_8101152828088102239_n.jpg