WALCHEREN 1 9 4 4 Storming Hitler's island fortress
RICHARD B R O O K S
ILLUSTRATED BY G R A H A M TURNER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR RICHARD BROOKS is a freelance military historian with a BA in Modern History from Oxford University and an M S c in International Relations from Southampton University. With numerous published books and articles, his recent work includes Cassell's Battlefields of Britain and Ireland (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005), The Royal Marines: 1664 to the Present (Constable & Robinson, 2002) and Campaign 207: Solferino 1859 (Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2009).
GRAHAM TURNER is a leading historical artist, specializing in the medieval period. He has illustrated numerous titles for Osprey, covering a wide variety of subjects from the dress of the 10th-century armies of the Caliphates, through the action of bloody medieval battles, to the daily life of the British Redcoat of the late 18th century. The son of the illustrator Michael Turner, Graham lives and works in Buckinghamshire, UK.
C A M P A I G N • 235
WALCHEREN 1944 Storming Hitler's island fortress
RICHARD BROOKS
ILLUSTRATED BY GRAHAM TURNER Series editor M a r c u s C o w p e r
ARTIST'S NOTE
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Osprey Publishing, Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford 0 X 2 OPH, UK 44-02 23rd St, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY 11101, USA
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the colour plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. All enquiries should be addressed to:
E-mail:
[email protected] OSPREY PUBLISHING IS PART OF THE OSPREY GROUP
Graham Turner, P 0 Box 568, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP17 8EX, UK
© 2011 Osprey Publishing Ltd
The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 84908 237 2 E-book ISBN: 978 1 84908 238 9
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank the following for their invaluable assistance: John Ambler and Matthew Little of the Royal Marines Museum; Major J. C. Beadle MBE MC; Kate Brett and Jenny Wraight of the Naval Historical Branch; Ken Brooks; David Carson; Paul M. Crucq; David Fletcher of the Royal Tank Regiment Museum; J. N. Houterman; Jeff James; Roger Mountford; Dick Pool; J. Ruissen; Hans Sakkers; Colonel W. Townend RA; Alison Wareham, Margaret Newman and Stephen Courtenay of the Royal Naval Museum; the Reading Room staff at the Imperial War Museum; the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek/Beeldbank, Middelburg.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Editorial by llios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com) Page layout by: The Black Spot Index by Mike Parkin Typeset in Sabon and Myriad Pro Maps by Bounford.com 3D bird's-eye views by The Black Spot Battlescene illustrations by Graham Turner Originated by PDQ Media Printed in China through Worldprint
1011 12 13 14 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
www.ospreypublishing.com
Allied military operations in Walcheren were conducted by First Canadian Army and II Canadian Corps, which included units of many nationalities. The terms British and Canadian, therefore, refer specifically to units of those nationalities, and Allied to mixed activities or formations, including the whole Allied Expeditionary Force. The Dutch name is used throughout for the river Schelde, also known as the Scheldt or Escaut, and Vlissingen, referred to as Flushing in older English accounts. 'Commando' with a capital means a unit; 'commando' means a member of such a unit. Commando units used cardinal numbers, e.g. 48 (RM) Commando, pronounced four-eight. Army units are identified in full by ordinal numbers, e.g. 7th/9th Battalion The Royal Scots, or cardinal numbers when abbreviated, e.g. 4 K0SB.
THE WOODLAND TRUST Osprey Publishing are supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity, by funding the dedication of trees, www.ospreypublishing.
Key to military symbols X XXXX • Army Group 1
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Brigade
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Regiment
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Squad
Infantry
Air transportable
Unit HQ
Headquarters
Medical
Missile
Signal
Supply
Navy
Nuclear, biological,
Transport
Rocket artillery
Air defence artiller
• ga E3 ED EE Amphibious
Parachute
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
5
CHRONOLOGY
8
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
10
Allied . German
OPPOSING FORCES
13
Allied . German - Orders of battle
OPPOSING PLANS
23
Walcheren and the Schelde . Allied . German
THE WALCHEREN CAMPAIGN
27
Shaping the battlefield . Infatuate I: the landing at Vlissingen Infatuate II: the landing at Westkapelle . Storming the batteries I: Zuiderduin and Domburg Clearing Vlissingen . Storming the batteries II: Dishoek . Bridgehead logistics The surrender of Middelburg - Last stand in the north
AFTER THE BATTLE
89
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
92
FURTHER READING
93
GLOSSARY
94
INDEX
95
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Schouwen
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North
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Sea
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North Beveland Oosterschelde (Eastern Schelde)
N a v a l Force I Westkapelle
Operation Infatuate II 1 Nov
cr rD
Walcheren
Roosendaal®
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Middelburg
Operation Mallard
Oosterschelde
Bergen op Zoom
South Beveland
Wielingen Channel
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South Beveland Ship Canal
Breskens
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Sloe Channel I Operation Infatuate I 1 Nov
Ostend 14 miles (22km)
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Vitality I
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Westerschelde (Western Schelde) Westerschelde
