Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Another photo of T148656 I have never seen before, by the looks of it when it was outside the war museum in the late 1940s/early 1950s before it got partly cut up:
(With thanks to Ivo of the Polderhuis museum, who saw this posted on Facebook.)

Nice find!

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Two more that are new to me:

Dandy Dinmont ca. 1948 (Kroon, G.S.:ZB Beeldbank Zeeland:186802).jpg
Source

De Tank eind jaren 40 (Kroon, G.S.:ZB Beeldbank Zeeland:186803).jpg
Source

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Two more that are new to me:

Refresher

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...581#post281581

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Oh, you’re right. I didn’t recall seeing those before …

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before:

LCT 1005 on Westkapelle beach.jpg

That’s the Crabs from assault group Apple stuck on Red beach, with the bridge from AVRE A2B between them and still resting on LCT 1005’s bow ramp.

This is a still from a video that somebody posted on Facebook. As I don’t do Facebook, I asked the person who told me about it to download it for me, and he very kindly did. However, those of you who don’t have any qualms about visiting that site can view the video here. This part starts at 2:29.

Other things of interest concerning the Westkapelle part of Operation Infatuate are pictures of the approach right from the start, LVTs wading ashore at 2:22, and troops and vehicles in Westkapelle from 2:32.

[Ed Storey]

That unattributed film footage should be credited to the Canadian Army Newsreels which are all freely available on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...CC43B7CD63C686

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I was not aware of those, thanks Finding anything in them seems to be difficult, though, given they didn’t even bother to put the dates they were published into the titles …

OK, randomly trying a few to work out approximate dates helped: it’s from No. 47, https://youtu.be/bRfDDjzID4U?list=PL...CD63C686&t=436

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before:

That’s the Crabs from assault group Apple stuck on Red beach, with the bridge from AVRE A2B between them and still resting on LCT 1005’s bow ramp..

Nice find, I don't think I saw this before either!

Joël Stoppels uses a lot of footage of the Canadian Army Newsreels for his battlefield tours. He's one of the people making sure people know about the Canadian and British role in the liberation of the Netherlands

[MicS]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before:

Attachment 134977

That’s the Crabs from assault group Apple stuck on Red beach, with the bridge from AVRE A2B between them and still resting on LCT 1005’s bow ramp.

Great find again Jakko. This particular sequence and a few others in this film are new to me too.

It shows the third and last beaching attempt by LCT 1005, trying to prevent the remaining vehicles from getting bogged in the cobbles. It seems that the SBG bridge has just been dropped and is still attached to the front of AVRE A2B. The submerged SBG bridge from AVRE A2A (ex LCT 737 "Bramble") is also visible on some frames:
LCT 1005 WK - Notes.jpg

The following photo was shot after the first attempt, resulting in the first two Crabs getting stuck:
LCT 1005 landing - Story of 79 AD p171.jpg
Source: The Story of 79th Armoured Division, page 171


The War Amps issued a contents list for Canadian Army Newsreels here. I am attaching it as well in case the source disappears...

Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Great find again Jakko.

I can’t take the credit, someone else found it on Facebook and downloaded it for me when I asked him to

Originally Posted by MicS

The submerged SBG bridge from AVRE A2A (ex LCT 737 "Bramble") is also visible on some frames:
Attachment 135072

I hadn’t noticed that yet … but it nicely shows the bridge indeed was white too, so I got the colour (mostly) right on my model