My next modelling project is going to be closest to home I’ve ever built 
But first, some background.
Walcheren is a former island in the southwest of the Netherlands, strategically located on the northern side of the mouth of the Western Scheldt, along which all ships bound for Antwerp have to sail. In 1944, that city had — if I recall correctly — the third-largest port in Europe (after Rotterdam and Hamburg) and was vital to the Allied war effort because by late ’44, all supplies for the Allied armies were still being brought in through Normandy. Despite Antwerp having been taken with its port facilities still usable in September 1944, the Allies got distracted by Operation Market Garden that was to capture the major river bridges in the Netherlands, so as to allow a left hook to knock Germany out of the war in one blow. As is probably well-known, that failed dramatically and Montgomery belatedly turned his attention to securing the approaches to Antwerp — which he really should have done as soon as the port was in British hands. The Germans had used the time in between to improve their already formidable defences of the area, leading to some of the heaviest fighting of the war on the European front through October 1944 along the southern bank in the so-called “Breskens Pocket”.
In October 1944, the RAF repeatedly bombed sea defences in four locations on Walcheren, flooding the low-lying interior to hamper the German defenders. On 1 November 1944, Allied forces landed at Vlissingen and Westkapelle in Operations Infatuate I and II, respectively; by the evening of that day, British forces from No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando had made their way southeast along the dunes from Westkapelle towards Zoutelande.¹
[ATTACH]324923[/ATTACH]
The German map above shows the German defensive sectors on the western end of Walcheren (though Stützpunkt (Stp.) Undine had been literally wiped off the face of the earth by the bombardment of 3 October). By nightfall of the 1st of November, “Y” Troop, 48 (RM) Cdo., with support from naval gunfire and fighter-bombers had cleared the coast down to the southern end of the 15 cm coastal artillery battery at Snabbeldorp (that’s the arrow symbol with “15” on the map; the hamlet’s name is misspelled there, BTW); the following morning, “A” Troop continued the advance and by midday had cleared the rest of Stp. Meistersinger down to the southeastern side of the village of Zoutelande. At this point, No. 47 (RM) Commando took over the advance, allowing No. 48 some rest and resupply. From even before the landings the previous morning until the time “A” Troop had actually captured it, the village had been under continue naval and aerial bombardment, leading many civilians to seek shelter in cellars and in German bunkers. The naval gunfire included 15-inch shells from HMS Erebus, one salvo of which arrived just at the moment “A” Troop’s OC, Capt. Dan Flunder, was telling a group of villagers in a bunker that they were safe now … One of the shells knocked a large hole in the roof of the church, but apparently didn’t detonate because that seems to have been the only damage it took (an uncle of mine told me recently that he had seen this shell hit from where he was in the dunes at the time).
By 14:00 hours, LVT Buffalos of 5th Assault Squadron Royal Engineers, 26th Assault Regiment Royal Engineers, carrying supplies had reached the village:
[ATTACH]324925[/ATTACH]
A little bit of detective work from old photographs recently lead me to work out where exactly where this photo was taken. Here’s an aerial photo from the late 1940s on which I’ve marked the location:
[ATTACH]324929[/ATTACH]
And this is what the same spot looks like today (literally — I took this picture early this afternoon):
[ATTACH]324924[/ATTACH]
The LVT stood in the middle of the street, pretty much right next to where the car is parked, in front of the now white building (currently a shop, then a house). The other building next to that in the 1944 photograph has been demolished, probably in the 1950s to widen the side street, when a lot of new streets and houses were built in the area beyond the photo.
Then there’s also this photo:
[ATTACH]324926[/ATTACH]
It’s (almost guaranteed to be) the same vehicle, as it shows most of the same people who were posing in front of it in the other one, but now they’re on the front deck. The man in the cap and leather coat standing with his hand on the mudguard is Jan de Visser, the local grocer — his shop was behind the photographer, and is now a Spar store (I took the “now” picture from the steps in front of it). The woman sitting on the front deck in the dark coat is his wife Jane (pronounced /jɔnə/, not /dʒeɪn/ as in English), and all the girls are their daughters.
To build a model of this vehicle, I’ve got this collected:
[ATTACH]324936[/ATTACH]
An AFV Club LVT(4), a Scale Line Polsten gun on the type of mounting used on Buffalos, and an Eduard etching for the Italeri LVT(4) that I bought for that kit but never used; not sure if I will now, but some parts may come in handy.
As for references:
[ATTACH]324937[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]324938[/ATTACH]
There are very good articles by Bruce Crosby about the LVT-series and corrections needed to the Italeri kit in a couple of issues of Military Modelling from about 15 years ago, and some general books on amtracs don’t go amiss, even if American sources tend to be very brief about LVT usage in Europe. The two books in the lower photo are Walcheren bevrijd, november 1944 (“Walcheren Liberated, November 1944”) by Hans Houterman (Middelburg: J. N. Houterman, 1944; ISBN 90-73921-03-1) and Zoutelande in de Tweede Wereldoorlog — Een dorp aan de Atlantikwall (“Zoutelande in the Second World War — A village on the Atlantikwall”) by Hans Sakkers and Hans Houterman (Middelburg: Stichting Bunkerbehoud, 2002; ISBN 90-9015937-1). The back-and-white photos and the map I posted above were scanned from these.
¹ For our Dutch and Flemish readers: yes, the place that is now world-famous because of that bloody song by that overrated band.
But first, some background.Walcheren is a former island in the southwest of the Netherlands, strategically located on the northern side of the mouth of the Western Scheldt, along which all ships bound for Antwerp have to sail. In 1944, that city had — if I recall correctly — the third-largest port in Europe (after Rotterdam and Hamburg) and was vital to the Allied war effort because by late ’44, all supplies for the Allied armies were still being brought in through Normandy. Despite Antwerp having been taken with its port facilities still usable in September 1944, the Allies got distracted by Operation Market Garden that was to capture the major river bridges in the Netherlands, so as to allow a left hook to knock Germany out of the war in one blow. As is probably well-known, that failed dramatically and Montgomery belatedly turned his attention to securing the approaches to Antwerp — which he really should have done as soon as the port was in British hands. The Germans had used the time in between to improve their already formidable defences of the area, leading to some of the heaviest fighting of the war on the European front through October 1944 along the southern bank in the so-called “Breskens Pocket”.
In October 1944, the RAF repeatedly bombed sea defences in four locations on Walcheren, flooding the low-lying interior to hamper the German defenders. On 1 November 1944, Allied forces landed at Vlissingen and Westkapelle in Operations Infatuate I and II, respectively; by the evening of that day, British forces from No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando had made their way southeast along the dunes from Westkapelle towards Zoutelande.¹
[ATTACH]324923[/ATTACH]
The German map above shows the German defensive sectors on the western end of Walcheren (though Stützpunkt (Stp.) Undine had been literally wiped off the face of the earth by the bombardment of 3 October). By nightfall of the 1st of November, “Y” Troop, 48 (RM) Cdo., with support from naval gunfire and fighter-bombers had cleared the coast down to the southern end of the 15 cm coastal artillery battery at Snabbeldorp (that’s the arrow symbol with “15” on the map; the hamlet’s name is misspelled there, BTW); the following morning, “A” Troop continued the advance and by midday had cleared the rest of Stp. Meistersinger down to the southeastern side of the village of Zoutelande. At this point, No. 47 (RM) Commando took over the advance, allowing No. 48 some rest and resupply. From even before the landings the previous morning until the time “A” Troop had actually captured it, the village had been under continue naval and aerial bombardment, leading many civilians to seek shelter in cellars and in German bunkers. The naval gunfire included 15-inch shells from HMS Erebus, one salvo of which arrived just at the moment “A” Troop’s OC, Capt. Dan Flunder, was telling a group of villagers in a bunker that they were safe now … One of the shells knocked a large hole in the roof of the church, but apparently didn’t detonate because that seems to have been the only damage it took (an uncle of mine told me recently that he had seen this shell hit from where he was in the dunes at the time).
By 14:00 hours, LVT Buffalos of 5th Assault Squadron Royal Engineers, 26th Assault Regiment Royal Engineers, carrying supplies had reached the village:
[ATTACH]324925[/ATTACH]
A little bit of detective work from old photographs recently lead me to work out where exactly where this photo was taken. Here’s an aerial photo from the late 1940s on which I’ve marked the location:
[ATTACH]324929[/ATTACH]
And this is what the same spot looks like today (literally — I took this picture early this afternoon):
[ATTACH]324924[/ATTACH]
The LVT stood in the middle of the street, pretty much right next to where the car is parked, in front of the now white building (currently a shop, then a house). The other building next to that in the 1944 photograph has been demolished, probably in the 1950s to widen the side street, when a lot of new streets and houses were built in the area beyond the photo.
Then there’s also this photo:
[ATTACH]324926[/ATTACH]
It’s (almost guaranteed to be) the same vehicle, as it shows most of the same people who were posing in front of it in the other one, but now they’re on the front deck. The man in the cap and leather coat standing with his hand on the mudguard is Jan de Visser, the local grocer — his shop was behind the photographer, and is now a Spar store (I took the “now” picture from the steps in front of it). The woman sitting on the front deck in the dark coat is his wife Jane (pronounced /jɔnə/, not /dʒeɪn/ as in English), and all the girls are their daughters.
To build a model of this vehicle, I’ve got this collected:
[ATTACH]324936[/ATTACH]
An AFV Club LVT(4), a Scale Line Polsten gun on the type of mounting used on Buffalos, and an Eduard etching for the Italeri LVT(4) that I bought for that kit but never used; not sure if I will now, but some parts may come in handy.
As for references:
[ATTACH]324937[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]324938[/ATTACH]
There are very good articles by Bruce Crosby about the LVT-series and corrections needed to the Italeri kit in a couple of issues of Military Modelling from about 15 years ago, and some general books on amtracs don’t go amiss, even if American sources tend to be very brief about LVT usage in Europe. The two books in the lower photo are Walcheren bevrijd, november 1944 (“Walcheren Liberated, November 1944”) by Hans Houterman (Middelburg: J. N. Houterman, 1944; ISBN 90-73921-03-1) and Zoutelande in de Tweede Wereldoorlog — Een dorp aan de Atlantikwall (“Zoutelande in the Second World War — A village on the Atlantikwall”) by Hans Sakkers and Hans Houterman (Middelburg: Stichting Bunkerbehoud, 2002; ISBN 90-9015937-1). The back-and-white photos and the map I posted above were scanned from these.
¹ For our Dutch and Flemish readers: yes, the place that is now world-famous because of that bloody song by that overrated band.
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