Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Found this photo of the transmission data plate, I think Jakko posted it somewhere:

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I did, and it also appears in my book The original one in the possession of the Polderhuis museum, mounted in a picture frame (that’s why it has thumb tacks in it), so I just put it on the scanner there at one point.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks for that Jakko. Good to see this small artefact was saved sometime before the interior was ravaged by the weather.

Did you decipher the hull serial number in the end?

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I was told somebody brought the plate into the museum at some point, but I don’t know when (or who) that was. The serial, I got to 2030 plus one unreadable number as being the most likely — see page 44 of my book

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Today, I got an e-mail from one Walther du Burck, who sent me this photograph, and graciously allowed me to post it here as a small contribution to historiography:



It shows his father and sister with Cock o’the North. I estimate the photo to have been taken in 1947 or ’48, based on the houses being built in the background and the road surface having reached the tank’s axles. Red Tod is also just visible behind the pile of bricks in the left background.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Nice photo - thanks for sharing it here, Jakko

[Jakko Westerbeke]

The other day, I purchased the booklet Zware tijden: Domburg en Oostkapelle 1944-1945 by Laurens Priester (Domburg, 1990, no ISBN). This describes the events in the two villages in the title during the years indicated (the main title translates as “Hard Times”), and in it, I spotted this photo that I don’t remember seeing before:



It’s captioned as having been taken in the Burgemeester van Teylingenpark in Domburg, but not dated. As the LVT (4)’s track is broken and there are no weapons on it, I’m assuming it was probably abandoned.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Interesting photo, not seen it before.

Is the LVT4 named "Coup d'Essai" or "first attempt", "a trial run"?

[MicS]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

The other day, I purchased the booklet Zware tijden: Domburg en Oostkapelle 1944-1945 by Laurens Priester (Domburg, 1990, no ISBN). This describes the events in the two villages in the title during the years indicated (the main title translates as “Hard Times”), and in it, I spotted this photo that I don’t remember seeing before:

Attachment 131700

It’s captioned as having been taken in the Burgemeester van Teylingenpark in Domburg, but not dated. As the LVT (4)’s track is broken and there are no weapons on it, I’m assuming it was probably abandoned.

Nice find Jakko!

I only have one other photo of COUP D'ESSAI:



Source is the Donald Carson fonds from the Provincial Archives of Alberta:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/albert...57638183401235
which I trust you already know, and which has a number of other great photos shot on Walcheren.

COUP D'ESSAI naturally belonged to 79 Assault Squadron RE;

Michel

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by MicS

Source is the Donald Carson fonds from the Provincial Archives of Alberta:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/albert...57638183401235 which I trust you already know, and which has a number of other great photos shot on Walcheren.

Michel, thanks for sharing that link. Have seen many of Carson's photos before, but found some new ones in here.

A few LVT4 seem to have been quite stationary after the landings:

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Nice find Jakko!

I only have one other photo of COUP D'ESSAI:

Cool, we’ve just doubled our knowledge of the vehicle I had kind of assumed there would have been machine guns on it, but it seems there were none.

Originally Posted by MicS

Source is the Donald Carson fonds from the Provincial Archives of Alberta:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/albert...57638183401235
which I trust you already know

Yep, as you can see there, I provided location data in the photos I could place. Too bad nobody behind the scenes bothered to actually place the photos on the map Flickr provides for that purpose

Very hard to tell where this particular photo was taken, of course. Somewhere in the dunes, so I’d guess at Westkapelle, but it could well be Domburg or somewhere between the two.

[MicS]

Just found this new (to me) photo of Crab No.27 on the beach:


Source (last photo): https://erenow.net/ww/47-royal-marin...43-1946/15.php

Still no WD number or name visible, but the Alied Star on the engine deck is clear. Note the peculiar style of the digit '7', quite different from that on the right side of the turret. This might just be the result of uneven wear and tear though:


Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Just found this new (to me) photo of Crab No.27 on the beach:

Are you seriously saying I knew one of these photos before you did? No idea where I found it, but I have it on my hard drive in the same size (566 × 420 pixels) that you posted it here. I just tried seeing if it’s in 1940s books about the state of Walcheren at the time, but couldn’t find it; I did spot a (poor quality) picture showing T148656 as well as some of DUKWs and Terrapins that I haven’t seen before, that I intend to scan and post soon

Originally Posted by MicS

Note the peculiar style of the digit '7', quite different from that on the right side of the turret. This might just be the result of uneven wear and tear though:

I think the top right corner just wore off before the rest did, yes.

[MicS]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

Are you seriously saying I knew one of these photos before you did?

I've now checked my hard disk too and found that I did download this image, from the same webpage, back in July 2020 but had not filed it in the correct directory, so did not find it (nor remember about it) when seeing it again recently

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

I did spot a (poor quality) picture showing T148656 as well as some of DUKWs and Terrapins that I haven’t seen before, that I intend to scan and post soon

Excellent!

[Jakko Westerbeke]

It may take a few days, as I’m a bit under the weather — I’ve been having a mild case of COVID for the last few days, and though it feels like I’m getting better, for all I know right now, I’ll feel worse again tomorrow …

For the moment, BTW, here are two more photos I got from Walther du Burck, that I realise I hadn’t posted yet but which I had at hand:



This is his father and, I assume, his sisters on/in Dandy Dinmont, by the looks of it when it was parked alongside the houses ca. 1947–48 rather than when it was still in the Zuidstraat.



And his mother with Minotaur.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Feeling a bit better, but not quite well yet, I took pictures of the photos. I think I’ve seen some of these elsewhere, but I didn’t feel like looking them up to make sure

First T148656, from the booklet Westkapelle: De ramp van 3 October 1944, de worsteling met het water (“Westkapelle: The disaster of 3 October 1944, the struggle with the water”, published by the Comité „Westkapelle Herrijst”, no date):



And Red Tod, from a volume in the series Zeeland in bewogen dagen (“Zeeland in turbulent times”, Middelburg: Altorffer, no date):



These other photos are also from that series, DUKWs in Middelburg:

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Two more, also from Zeeland in bewogen dagen:



This Terrapin is actually captioned as such in the book, so it seems the distinction between it and the DUKW was well-known at the time and only lost in later years.

“Liberators”, which I’m including mainly because of the trucks behind the men:



I’m not up to speed enough on British softskins to identify the one on the left, and I’m also wondering which unit the 282 AoS marking indicates, for very similar reasons

[MicS]

Nice photos Jakko! All are new to me except the last two, online on Beeldbank Zeeuwse, now Beeldbank Zeeland, part of digitaal.dezb (these otherwise great websites keep changing their sturcture every year so...):

FO066453:


FO066462:


I don't know which unit had the AoS 282d, only that it's a RA unit (Anti-Aircraft) and that it also appears in the film "BROKEN DIKES (ACTE 2) (1945)" which used to be online on beeldengeluid.nl:


Michel

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

All are new to me except the last two

Those were the main ones I was wondering about, yes. I also think I’ve seen the Red Tod photo elsewhere, but I don’t remember where.

Originally Posted by MicS

online on Beeldbank Zeeuwse, now Beeldbank Zeeland, part of digitaal.dezb (these otherwise great websites keep changing their sturcture every year so...):

Yes, it’s annoying. The best way to link to those pages is to click on the “chain” icon on the left and copy the permalink — though this doesn’t help for including the photos on web sites and forums, of course.

(BTW, quick lesson in Dutch: “Zeeuwse” is the adjective form of “Zeeland” What you call Beeldbank Zeeuwse was actually called Beeldbank Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, “Image Bank [of the] Zeelandic Library”.)

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Great photos, gentlemen.

Here’s another one, not of vehicles but an aerial photo of Westkapelle, taken in January 1946. The devastation can be clearly seen, as can the new dyke which is situated much further inland. It bulges inwards where it used to bulge out to sea.

Westkapelle 1946 01 19

Op deze luchtfoto, gemaakt in 1946, kort na de sluiting van het dijkgat, is goed te zien hoe de kreek zich door de inundatie en de dijkherstelwerkzaamheden heeft gevormd.
De noordoever van de kreek, later een gewilde bouwlocatie aan de De Casembrootstraat, is nog een woeste zandvlakte.
Het dorp zelf ligt nog in puin.
Het vooroorlogse stratenpatroon is nog duidelijk zichtbaar.

Fotograaf:
Collectie: SCW
Tekst: Jan Kaland
http://westkapelle-beeldbank.nl/

[Jakko Westerbeke]

For a really good comparison, try the Topotijdreis site (the name means “Topo(graphical) time travel”). That link will take you to a map of Westkapelle before the war; now click on any year after the war in the vertical blue bar on the left.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

For a really good comparison, try the Topotijdreis site (the name means “Topo(graphical) time travel”). That link will take you to a map of Westkapelle before the war; now click on any year after the war in the vertical blue bar on the left.

Good visualisation - see https://www.topotijdreis.nl/vergelij...9,394412,10.53

Not many people realise that the beach and the inland lake are very much traces of war - or better: "scars of war"

[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.)

[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!