Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[MicS]

Yes, on that particular photo it appears that there might be a dent on the left side of the fourth digit, but none on its right, which would exclude the digit being a 3, and suggest a 9 or a 0. However, the dent on the left side is not visible on the first photo in my post #15 above:
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...3&postcount=15
where the left side looks continuous, and not really apparent on the second, so my bet is still on a 0.

As for the dark colour of the digits, I think it's just the white paint ageing. The 'T' and first digit are still whitish, while the remaining digits have already turned dark. See also the white outline of turret #20 in post #2: part of it has turned dark.

Michel

[MicS]

For the left side of the fourth digit see also this photo:


WOLF OF BADENOCH - 1128x1600.jpg

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

For the left side of the fourth digit see also this photo:

Again, I find it very hard to see much of the number in that. I can recognise the 4 and the 2 somewhat, but everything else is mostly blobs Trying to make it more readable in Photoshop doesn’t work overly well (not helped by rather high JPEG compression) but after playing with colours and sharpness, I’m inclined to agree that it’s indeed more likely a 0 (or perhaps a 6) than a 3.

[James P]

Hello all, this is a amazing thread and it is always great to see the efforts put into figuring out what happened back in the day and where vehicles ended up. I will throw out a crazy suggestion that you guys should run an advertisement in local to the area newspapers seeking any pictures, no matter how mundane, of the period. Somewhere, someone has old pics or a treasure trove album of pics just begging to see the light of day (on MLU).

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by James P

I will throw out a crazy suggestion that you guys should run an advertisement in local to the area newspapers seeking any pictures, no matter how mundane, of the period. Somewhere, someone has old pics or a treasure trove album of pics just begging to see the light of day (on MLU).

It’s a very good idea, but I somehow doubt it … We’re talking about what at the time (before mass tourism) was a fairly poor village with a fairly strong Calvinist mindset (though not as much as some other villages nearby) — not a place where many people had photo cameras.

Most pictures of Westkapelle from this era come from one person, Neeltje Flipse-Roelse (at the time without the “Flipse”), who had taken up photography after being given a camera for her birthday as a teenager. She died in 2008, but her entire collection is now in the possession of the village museum. I would love to go through it sometime, because even though a lot of it has been digitised by the museum, I suspect a lot hasn’t.

Other photos of Westkapelle tend to be by visitors from elsewhere, as far as I can tell. I’ve found some in odd places where I’d never expected them, like the photo collection of the Frisian resistance museum — Friesland being on the other side of the country. Not a very great distance by, say, North American standards, but HUGE in 1940s Dutch terms. But it turns out someone from there came over here for a visit to the devastated Walcheren and took a good number of photos. These, for example, which includes a photo of Cock o’the North and Wolf of Badenoch and the only one of a Terrapin at Westkapelle that I’ve ever seen (though you’ll have to look hard to spot it ). Note, though, that the good people in Friesland seem to have trouble distinguishing between Westkapelle in the Netherlands and Westkapelle in Belgium, and also between the province of Zeeland and the village of Zeeland in the province of North Brabant : At least they’re not confusing it with Michigan or North Dakota

[MicS]

OK, I'll try and make myself more limpid:

1. Right side of the 4th digit: on this photo, the line is a perfect arc of oval, with the edges of the line slightly darker, just like when one uses a brush the paint is a bit thicker at the edges of the brush stroke. This means the digit is either a '0' or a '9', a '0' being more probable since a '9' would usually have a wider top:
1 - No.10 T-No. 4th digit - right side.jpg

2. Left side of the digit: even though the images are not sharp, they seem to show that the left side is continuous over the lower 2/3 of the left line, thus excluding a '9':
2 - No.10 T-No. 4th digit - left side.jpg
3 - No.10 T-No. 4th digit - left side 2.jpg

Consequently, there only remains the possibility of a '0'.

Michel

[David Herbert]

Good, sound reasoning Michel !
I can't see that anyone can argue with that.

David

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

OK, I'll try and make myself more limpid:

I already agreed with you What I did was take the photo you posted with the crew on the tank, cut out the relevant bit (to avoid distraction), zoomed in and out, played with the colour curves and then with sharpness. This results in variations on:

Schermafbeelding 2020-06-14 om 10.50.16.jpgSchermafbeelding 2020-06-14 om 10.50.20.jpgSchermafbeelding 2020-06-14 om 10.51.06.jpgSchermafbeelding 2020-06-14 om 10.51.49.jpg

Though the photo is unclear and the JPEG artifacts (the squares that appear in all but the first photo) make it even more so, it does look to me like the fourth number is a 0, yes.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Yes, on that particular photo it appears that there might be a dent on the left side of the fourth digit, but none on its right, which would exclude the digit being a 3

Um … you’ve lost me there A dent on the left side I would consider a good indicator of it possibly being a 3.

Edit: Wait, you mean there’s no small indentation on the right. Sorry, brain not working too well today But if the paint has flaked off, then a lack of an indentation on either side doesn’t mean anything: if it also took a bit of the underlying paint off, you can get a smooth outline when first there was an indentation.

Originally Posted by MicS

However, the dent on the left side is not visible on the first photo in my post #15 above:

I find it very hard to tell in that photo. The number is more a smear than anything resembling a digit, especially on the right-hand side.

Interestingly, the name also doesn’t seem to be visible at all in that photo.

Here’s another picture, with all the white gone:

Wolf of Badenoch WD-number.jpg

I still see an indent on the left side that I’d say likely points to a 3 or perhaps an 8.

Originally Posted by MicS

As for the dark colour of the digits, I think it's just the white paint ageing. The 'T' and first digit are still whitish, while the remaining digits have already turned dark. See also the white outline of turret #20 in post #2: part of it has turned dark.

Is this a phenomenon I’ve never heard of before? White paint turning yellow, yes, but that’s usually indoors when the paint isn’t in direct sunlight. That wouldn’t be the case here, but is there something about WWII-era paints that turns white paint dark after exposure to the elements, then?