Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[MicS]

Excellent find, which gives us the unit of one of the Westkapelle dozer wrecks!

AoS 344c is 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. See http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4524

Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Excellent find, which gives us the unit of one of the Westkapelle dozer wrecks!

Two wrecks The one of which there is a picture when it’s bulldozing in early November 1944, also has this AoS marking on the left rear, just aft of the Allied star. My conclusion is that this is the same bulldozer that ended the war on top of the dyke.

Originally Posted by MicS

AoS 344c is 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. See http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4524

Thanks!

Also, with a bit of luck I may have soon a bit more information on (what is probably) another of the bulldozers at Westkapelle, when I actually get to see some photos from a private collection.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

As promised:

AVRE (Martin Reijnhoudt en moeder).jpg

D6A (Martin Reijnhoudt).jpg

The top one is AVRE T69114/B, the identity of the D6A dozer I’m still not sure about, because I’m having a little trouble placing it. It looks like it’s on the middle of the beach, with the remains of the dyke near the village in the background.

Interestingly, the dozer has a name, The RAM and part of its WD census number is readable. The second digit is gone but must have been a 4, the fourth digit looks like a 9 to me, and the last one perhaps a 1 or maybe a 7? I’ve not really tried tinkering with the colours, contrast etc. on the much higher-resolution scan I have to see if I can make out more, though.

The little boy in both is Martin Reijnhoudt, who I got these photos from; the woman in the top picture is his mother. She and his father ran a bakery, which the AVRE was parked just in front of. Apparently, they moved back in in January 1945, and when British soldiers were using bulldozers around the village (reason unknown), his father paid one of them with a bottle of wine to tow the AVRE away from in front of his shop. The dozer driver hooked a thick steel cable to the tank, started pulling, and only succeeded in removing bricks from the paving of the street before the cable started to fray and broke


Edit, a few hours later: The WD-numbers seems to be E2?39?7:

E2?39?7.jpg

So most likely E2439?7 with one digit I can’t make out. There is some stuff visible where the fifth digit should be, but I can’t see a number in those squiggles.

Also, I think I figured out which bulldozer this is: the one I’ve got down as E22 (see my PDF), on the south side of the Gap, a bulldozer I only knew from the Rijkswaterstaat map I posted earlier and very long-distance photos, and of which I had not seen any close-ups at all.

The land in the right background does appear to be the old dyke near the village, with tank wrecks becoming more visible if I play with the colours and contrast in the scan. This fits with sight lines along bulldozer E22, from the south side of the Gap to the northwestern end.

[MicS]

Great photo of 'The RAM' Jakko!

I think it might be your E32, which by the way is a D6A, not a D7A (to be more precise, in your pdf the dozer on your first photo - Dozer 'D' in Hanno's post #64 above- is a D6A, located to the right front side of LVT(4) E23, while the one on the second photo, on the left front side of E23, is a D7A).

They are stuck at a similar angle, the left track is broken on both, the engine cover top plates are missing (not that this is exceptional on dozer wrecks!), and the angles of shot of the photos are compatible. More importantly, it seems that their Reg Nos are both E243xx7 (possibly E243927 or E243957).

It might be worthwhile to get a higher resolution scan from Beeldbank Zeeuwse to see if the Reg No could be read.

I think I can see the remains of AoS 12xx on the right side (left on your photo) of the front plate. This could be 1232 or 1236 for 149 Aslt Pk Sqn, although this unit is not suppposed to have landed any dozer on the right side of the Gap, but it could be another RE unit altogether since many had similar AoS serials.

Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

I think it might be your E32, which by the way is a D6A, not a D7A (to be more precise, in your pdf the dozer on your first photo - Dozer 'D' in Hanno's post #64 above- is a D6A, located to the right front side of LVT(4) E23, while the one on the second photo, on the left front side of E23, is a D7A).

I see what you mean, and now I think we’re both wrong in some ways I confused E22 and E32 in the photo Hanno also posted; the latter is clearly a D7A, and as you say, I failed to spot that the bulldozer here:



is a D6A.

However, No. E32 is the D7A with the hooks on the back, and No. E22 is the D6A that I thought I didn’t have any close-up pictures of — but did. More rewriting to do for v1.1 …

Originally Posted by MicS

It might be worthwhile to get a higher resolution scan from Beeldbank Zeeuwse to see if the Reg No could be read.

I downloaded it at the highest resolution possible from there, which turns out to be 1417 × 855 pixels.

(Tip: Dezoomify, though in Safari, that doesn’t let you save the image, so use another browser).

Originally Posted by MicS

I think I can see the remains of AoS 12xx on the right side (left on your photo) of the front plate.

You have better eyes than I do

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Let’s add another one: Crab Dandy Dinmont is T148143:

T148143 Dandy Dinmont.jpg

This is a still from Walcheren Heroverd (“Walcheren Reconquered”) available on the Wikipedia page about the inundation of Walcheren: the tank appears 1:22. The commentary at that time doesn’t mention the tank at all, BTW, but talks about damaged and destroyed homes instead.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Excellent, great find

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Let’s add another one: Crab Dandy Dinmont is T148143:

Attachment 116869

This is a still from Walcheren Heroverd (“Walcheren Reconquered”) available on the Wikipedia page about the inundation of Walcheren: the tank appears 1:22. The commentary at that time doesn’t mention the tank at all, BTW, but talks about damaged and destroyed homes instead.

[MicS]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Let’s add another one: Crab Dandy Dinmont is T148143:

Attachment 116869

This is a still from Walcheren Heroverd (“Walcheren Reconquered”) available on the Wikipedia page about the inundation of Walcheren: the tank appears 1:22. The commentary at that time doesn’t mention the tank at all, BTW, but talks about damaged and destroyed homes instead.

Superb view of DANDY DINMONT's markings! While on other photos the markings are alreay faded, they look quite sharp here.

Reg No T148143 appears in the War Diary for a Crab received by 1 Lothians during March 1944, which is consistent with DANDY DINMONT having a full set of markings, including the original name, turret number and formation sign, unlike "Memorial" tank T148656 which must have been a replacement one.

Michel