Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

The freshly restored Sherman T-148656 back in situ at the WW2 memorial on the Westkapelle dyke. The grey sky backdrop makes for a fantastic photo.

Yesterday Storm Eunice raged over The Netherlands. I saw some footage of the Sherman on the dyke: it's feet got wet as water flooded over the crown of the dyke! That's what a combination of high tide and storm does - must have been some tense moments in the village of Westkapelle.

Attached picture shows the dyke looking in the other directiom, away from the Sherman:

images0.persgroep.net.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

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

IMG_7680.JPG

[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:

Cock o'the North ca 1947.jpg

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