Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[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:

COUP D'ESSAI - LVT4 79 ASRE - PR2011.0001-14-0.jpg

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:

11874872204_f71db4dc87_b.jpg

[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:
No.27 Crab - image078.jpg

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:
No.27 Crab 1LBY, AVRE - Westkapelle beach - FO039988 larger.jpg

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:

Dandy Dinmont (via Walther du Burck).jpg

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.

Minotaur (via Walther du Burck).jpg

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):

3D0EF71C-852C-4B1D-A714-A35F70B1FFCA.jpeg

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

0EACB04B-8113-406E-86FD-0F2BA073181B.jpeg

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

F6EB82D9-AE6F-4B69-8F91-A5AFC34F305C.jpeg

12FE050E-491B-42BB-A49D-1F70B32C5C16.jpeg

DB1B8CFE-F17E-481C-885A-41C755F3CC3B.jpeg