CHAPTER SEVEN
While the battle for Flushing raged on, 4 Special Service Brigade continued its two-pronged advance along the coast of Walcheren. Brigadier Leicester’s primary objective on 2 November was to push south-west through Zoutelande, heading for Flushing. The weather was making it impossible to land supplies at Westkapelle and the sooner Leicester linked up with 155 Brigade, the better.
48 Royal Marine Commando capture Zoutelande
At first light on 2 November, 48 Commando found that the Germans had abandoned their flak cannon and withdrawn from W13. Lieutenant-Colonel Moulton was anxious to renew the advance as soon as possible and he ordered A Troop, led by Captain Daniel Flunder, to pursue the Germans along the dunes towards Zoutelande.
Since first light the Canadian artillery across the estuary had been targeting A Troop’s first objective, a series of pillboxes, codenamed W287. As Flunder’s men approached the bunkers, five minutes of intense bombardment broke the Germans’ spirit and before long the commandos had rounded up twenty shaken prisoners. As A Troop trudged along the dunes it seemed that the Germans were withdrawing towards Zoutelande. Occasional bursts of machine-gun fire brought the advance to a standstill from time to time but the enemy had usually fled before the marines were close enough to fire back. At one point a ‘fanatical rifle-grenadier’ refused to surrender and eventually had to be silenced by A Troop’s Bren gun; it was a stern reminder that there was still an element of fanaticism on the island.
Zoutelande and the high dunes to the south east, captured by 48 Commando
Zoutelande church, damaged by a shell from HMS Erebus. H Houterman
Captain Flunder sensed that the Germans were falling back to regroup and he was anxious to keep up the momentum of the advance. As long as his men kept moving, the Germans were unable to form a defensive position. At 11:00am A Troop reached the dunes overlooking Zoutelande, finding a series of bunkers overlooking the village. Hardly pausing to reform, Flunder ordered his men forward. They quickly negotiated the minefields covering the strong point and managed to penetrate the strong point before the Germans could react. A brisk fire-fight followed, but once the commandos had entered the bunkers the Germans capitulated. Although his men were tired, Captain Flunder was anxious to push on to capture the high dunes overlooking the village.
While Flunder was pushing his men to their limits, tension was mounting at Brigade headquarters. After the disastrous landing at Westkapelle, 47 Royal Marine Commando was finally ready to take its part in the battle. Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips accompanied Brigadier Leicester to 48 Commando’s headquarters late in the morning with the intention of taking over the advance, However, they found Lieutenant-Colonel Moulton facing a dilemma. He was aware that Captain Flunder had pushed on beyond Zoutelande, but attempts to contact A Troop had so far failed. Moulton had suspicions that his subordinate had deliberately turned off his radio set to avoid being recalled. It was an unorthodox way of disobeying orders and it would be some time before Moulton regained control of the situation.
Captain Flunder eventually came back on air once his men had secured a position on the high dunes overlooking the village. With a mixture of frustration and satisfaction, Lieutenant-Colonel Moulton ordered his errant captain to halt.
In the meantime, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips led his men south, eventually entering Zoutelande at 1:00 pm where they were met by a sea of orange flags as the local population turned out to meet their liberators. Although Zoutelande had been saved from prolonged bombardment, there was one last scare. As Captain Flunder assured the mayor that his village was safe, a final shell from HMS Erebus crashed through the church roof.
Captain Daniel Flunder.
During the afternoon, Phillips’ men relieved 48 Commando and continued their tiring hike south-east along the dunes. Early attempts to bring Weasels along the beach had been prevented by batteries along the coast and 47 Commando were forced to carry all their equipment on their backs. Meanwhile, 48 Commando withdrew to rest and while A and Y Troops gathered in Zoutelande the rest of Moulton’s men returned to W13 for shelter.
47 Commando’s view of Dishoek as it set off from Zoutelande.
Parts of the anti-tank barrier still lay hidden in the woods near Klien Valkenisse.
48 Commando had managed to capture dozens of bunkers and hundreds of prisoners since the landing. Losses had been high; eleven officers and over eighty men had been killed or wounded since the landing. As the survivors feasted on captured rations, they had time to reflect on the difficulties they had faced over the last two days.
47 Royal Marine Commando attack W11, the Dishoek Battery
While 48 Commando rested, 47 Commando trudged along the dunes south-east of Zoutelande heading for the next major coastal battery. W11 Battery sat on the dunes high above the hamlet of Dishoek; it possessed four 150mm guns, each one protected by a huge concrete casemate.
As the commandos advanced towards Dishoek, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips found that he was extremely hampered by the conditions; floodwater to his left and the open beach to his right, forced him to deploy a single troop in front, while the rest snaked behind in single file.
At first, they only encountered sporadic resistance and the Germans holding the bunkers codenamed W288 quickly raise a white flag. However, a little further on, the commandos were incensed when a German turned his weapon on Lieutenant Thomson as he accepted his surrender. It was a sharp reminder of the unpredictability of the opposition. In a gully beyond Klien Valkenisse, Phillips set up his headquarters alongside an impressive tank barrier. In front lay a group of bunkers codenamed W238 and beyond, high on the dunes above Dishoek, was the formidable W11 Battery.
On the approach to the battery the dunes widened out, allowing Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips to expand his frontage. While Q Troop led the advance along the seaward side, Y Troop moved in echelon to their left. Heavy fire greeted the marines as they approached W238, prompting Major Vincent to carry out a reconnaissance. Meanwhile, disaster struck his men. Mortar fire targeted Q Troop as it prepared to attack, killing and wounding more than twenty men. Captain McCormick, X Troop’s leader, was also wounded as he made his way forward to assist. Captain John Forfar, 47 Commando’s medical officer, eventually found the seriously injured Vincent out in front and as stretcher bearers came up to help they came under fire, (Forfar received the Military Cross for his part in the Walcheren Operation). Typhoons managed to suppress the bunkers, but with few officers left, Sergeant Esher took the lead The survivors were relieved to find W238 abandoned; the Germans had fled along the dunes.
47 Commando’s objectives.
It was late afternoon by the time 47 Commando closed on their main objective, W11. The casemates had been targeted many times in the hope of silencing its guns, first by the RAF and then by the Naval Bombardment Squadron, (a later survey counted 148 bomb craters alone in the immediate vicinity of the battery). However, the guns had remained undamaged and continued to shell Green Beach.
By now, air support had been exhausted and all Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips could call upon was artillery support from across the estuary. Assembling far closer to the target area than considered safe, 47 Commando waited for the barrage to begin. The first objective was a searchlight position on top of a high dune and a shallow gully had to be crossed before the commandos could assault the main battery 47 Commando had lost most of its mortars and machine-guns during the landing and Phillip’s men were at a distinct disadvantage without their support weapons.
The plan was for Y Troop to assault the searchlight position while B Troop cleared the bunkers on the inland side of the dunes. The first Allied shells began to fall at 4:55 pm and in the words of the Forward Observation Officer, the fire plan looked impressive:
[the dike] was given by four stonks which, joined together, made a straight line running along the top of the dunes up to and including the objective.
Five minutes later the commandos charged across the sand in a race against time. Machine-guns and mortars hidden in the houses of Dishoek hamlet immediately targeted B Troop and many were wounded, including Captain Moyes. Y Troop suffered many casualties as it approached the searchlight and Captain Flower was hit several times leading the final charge. A Troop pushed on into the gully, coming under fire from the bunkers on the dunes ahead. The attack was nothing short of suicidal without heavy support weapons but the commandos persisted, fighting a running battle among the bunkers. Sergeant-Major England captured one machine-gun post, firing his Bren gun from the hip to silence the crew. It was one of the few successes of the afternoon.
One of huge casemates at the Dishoek Battery.
A Troop edged forward and in the failing light, managed to enter the battery position. Working forward, the commandos systematically cleared the casemates, taking a number of prisoners along the way. Eventually, the lead troop was able to report that the battery was clear; it had taken five hours to clear the Dishoek Battery. However, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips’ troubles were far from over. 47 Commando had suffered heavy casualties, in particular among its leaders; five troop leaders and a number of other officers and senior NCO’s had been wounded, sixty commandos had also been killed or wounded.
Captain Spencer, the adjutant, and Captain Gower, the intelligence officer, went forward to assess the situation and they found that the commandos were far too disorganised to set up an effective defensive line. If the Germans counter-attacked at first light they could easily be overrun and the gully could easily become a death-trap if the Germans had mortars to hand. Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips faced no alternative, he ordered his men to withdraw to the searchlight position to regroup. As Captain Spencer organised the new defensive position the stretcher bearers were kept busy searching the dunes for wounded.
While 47 Commando consolidated its new line, Brigadier Leicester paid a visit to their headquarters Anxious to speed up the capitulation of W11, he urged Phillips’s to reoccupy the battery while it was still dark. Leicester received a flat refusal; 47 Commando could do no more at the present time.
Even though they had been beaten once, the Germans were determined to retake their position. Oberleutnant Helmut Lange reorganised his men and in the early hours, they launched a determined counter-attack, and for a time 47 Commando was in danger of being overrun. In the words of the Brigade diary, the commando was ‘very thin on the ground’. Sensing the commandos’ weakness, the Germans called out for their surrender:
A firm negative was substantiated by determined offensive action, and what might have been an unpleasant situation was saved.
The following morning the weather took a turn for the worse and gale force winds lashed the beaches as 47 Commando prepared to renew the assault on the battery. Captain Flunder arrived at Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips headquarters and, after receiving a frosty welcome following his exploits at Zoutelande, took his men forward to establish a fire position. As A Troop moved inland, German positions on the dunes came alive, targeting Flunder’s men. Running forward the commandos took cover in an unguarded pumping station from where they could return fire.
While Captain Flunder’s men gave covering fire, 47 Royal Marine Commando launched their attack on W11. A Troop were quickly pinned down by heavy fire as they attempted to cross the gully. With the attack at a standstill, X Troop crawled along the beach while A Troop engaged the machine-gun posts high on the dunes. Once X Troop had outflanked the main line of resistance, Captain Spencer’s men charged up the dunes entering the complex of casemates. Meanwhile, A Troop took advantage of the distraction advancing forward from the gully. Facing attacks from two directions, the Germans capitulated and, as the German officers began to call their men out of their shelters, the commandos grimly counted dozens of German bodies strewn throughout the bunkers.
It had been a bloody battle but before the last of the prisoners had been rounded up, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips was taking steps to press on. He wanted to clear the last stretch of dunes before the Germans had time to regroup and while troops remained behind to mop up the battery, the rest headed south. The tired commandos cursed the weather as they trudged along the dunes; rain lashed the beaches as high winds whipped sand into their faces. Ahead lay the final active battery before Flushing, W4.
Although the battery had been isolated by the floods and enemy action for several days, Kapitan Köll, was determined to put up a show of resistance and as the marines moved closer a scattering of shots caused casualties. Although it appeared that 47 Commando had a fight on its hands, a white flag appeared above the strong point as they prepared to attack. At first Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips sent Captain Spencer and his interpreter, Lieutenant Winter to negotiate with Köll. However, on their return the two officers found their leader in an uncompromising mood. Köll’s demands for an honourable capitulation were to be denied; Phillips wanted an unconditional surrender. Spencer and Winter delivered the demands but on their return, shots rang out from the bunkers. It appeared that the commandos would have to make one final charge. As they nervously waited for the order to attack, they were relieved to see Germans emerging from the bunkers in front, hands held high. As 47 Commando looked on, they watched in amazement as 200 men filed out. Soon afterwards Phillips’ met Köll:
… handing me his Luger pistol, [Köll] said. ‘You must shoot me if you think I have not done my duty.’ I was so relieved and delighted that I could have embraced him.
Korvettenkapitän Hans Köll.
Had Phillips known he had been outnumbered so heavily, the outcome could have been tragically different.
By 2:30 on 3 November all resistance between Westkapelle and Flushing had come to an end; it was not, however, the end of the battle for the island by far. As the young marines trudged north along the dunes with their prisoners, they had time to survey the scenes of devastation. An officer of 4 Commando made the same trek the following day and recorded what he saw:
On the left of the track the dunes, shifting sand, rose to heights of one hundred feet or more. There were shelters and pillboxes everywhere, all with an indescribable litter of German equipment, food, clothing and personal effects, especially letters, strewn about them. The track itself was narrow, the marching column had to move in single file, and pitted with huge bomb craters. On the right of the track lay the floodwaters stretching away inland as far as the eye could see in a smooth sheet, broken here and there by the upper storeys of houses or tree tops. No words or photographs can adequately convey the utter desolation of the scene and, looking across the island from the sand dunes, it was easy enough to understand the despair which must have gripped the German garrison when this catastrophe was unleashed on them.
The Battle for Domburg
We had left 41 Royal Marine Commando engaged in the ruins of Domburg. However, Brigadier Leicester wanted Palmer’s men to assist in the drive south towards Flushing. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando eventually reached the town at 4:00 on D+1 and before dark had managed to take over responsibility for the town. Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Laycock was, however, concerned by his exposed position:
Only half the town had been captured and there was much sniping and machine-gun fire going on, on arrival.
Laycock’s force was smaller than 41 Commando (the two French Troops were engaged in Flushing and the Dutch Troop had been split, its men acting as interpreters with the local population) so as a compromise, Palmer agreed to leave two troops in support. As Lieutenant Pierre Roman took out the first fighting patrol to ‘get the lie of the land’, Laycock was pleased to welcome three Buffaloes laden with ammunition and food. Meanwhile, Leicester had not been idle. Recognising Laycock’s need for assistance he had ordered the remaining handful of tanks to Domburg, (three had been ‘drowned’ overnight by the rising tide around Westkapelle). Although their journey along the flooded road was arduous, with the help of engineers, they eventually got through. 10 Commando’s delight is echoed in their war diary:
A Churchill AVRE tank moves cautiously through Domburg. Zeeland Library
Outlook considerably brightened by arrival of Major Pocock, commanding squadron of 1st Lothians, who brought up the relics of the squadron, two Shermans and two AVREs.
The presence of armour considerably strengthened Laycock’s hold on Domburg, and many Germans withdrew to a safe distance. Overnight, Laycock’s men were kept busy escorting refugees to safer areas while the Germans continued to mortar the ruins. Despite the dangers, several locals tried to return to their homes and the commandos had considerable difficulty keeping some out of German-held areas.
The following day, 10 Commando began in earnest to clear the village. Under direction of the commandos, Major Duncan Pocock’s tanks moved through the streets, systematically destroying suspected strong points and, in the face of armour, German resistance faded as many withdrew into the woods to the east. A large water tower on the sea front, used as an observation point, was one such target. A few rounds from the two Shermans brought resistance to an end and before long the occupants came running out, in fear for their lives.
Meanwhile, plans to advance east were underway. It was hoped that No 5, the Norwegian Troop, could make progress along the dunes while No 4, the Belgian Troop, entered the woods east of the village.
A rolling barrage from the Canadian guns south of the estuary preceded the attack and even though a 1,000-yard safety margin had been allowed, some shells still fell short. With support from two tanks, the Norwegians advanced along the dunes, encountering minefields, protected by high wire fences. Ladders were used to enter the strong points and Captain Rolv Hauge, the troop commander, was wounded in the arm climbing one fence. Although the Norwegians encountered sporadic fire, (killing one man and wounding their sergeant-major), they managed to get close to the German positions. Lieutenant Olav Gausland eventually brought all resistance to an end by throwing a well-placed hand grenade through the entrance. Dozens of prisoners emerged moments later, hands held high above their heads.
Despite his wound, Captain Hauge had remained in command of the Norwegian Troop, regrouping it before pushing on along the dunes towards W18. Although they encountered several more entrenched positions, the Norwegians attacked relentlessly, each time taking large numbers of prisoners. Hauge eventually reported to the medical officer once his men had secured a defensive perimeter. He was immediately sent back for medical aid and eventually evacuated across the estuary. His leadership was later rewarded with the Military Cross.
Meanwhile, the Belgian Troop moved cautiously into the woods east of Domburg, with support from two of Pocock’s tanks. Although few Germans were seen, snipers and mortar shells managed to wound a number of men. The Belgians noticed how the German artillery crews preferred to keep their distance rather than engage the commandos. In the words of the battalion diarist, ‘the Kriegsmarine did not like close fighting’.
Although outnumbered, with determination and skill Laycock’s men had managed to advance over half a mile through difficult country, taking over 200 Germans prisoner.