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Concept
Westkapelle, Netherlands
Summary
Westkapelle is a small city in the municipality of Veere on the island Walcheren, in the province Zeeland of the Netherlands. On 1 January 2021, it had a population of 2,632. Westkapelle is on the westernmost tip of Walcheren and is surrounded by the sea on three sides.
Westkapelle was a separate municipality from 1816 until 1997, when it was merged with Veere.
On 3 October 1944, the dyke to the south of town was destroyed by British bombers an event still known in Westkapelle simply as "'t Bombardement" ("the Bombardment") to flood the German occupation troops in Walcheren and so make liberation easier. 180 inhabitants were killed in the bombing and the village was all but wiped off the face of the earth by the bombs and the incoming sea. On 1 November 1944, during the Battle of the Scheldt British and Norwegian commandos performed an amphibious landing on the northern and southern edges of the gap made in the dyke. During these landings, only six people remained in the village; the rest of the survivors had been evacuated to other villages nearby. It took until 12 October 1945, more than a year later, to finally close the gap in the dyke.
A visible reminder of the Second World War is the brackish lake formed by the inrushing flood when the dike was bombed. An M4 Sherman tank was placed on the dyke as a memorial to the war and to the village's liberation. Behind the lighthouse, placed in a semicircle, are the graves of the war dead.
Westkapelle has two active lighthouses.
The oldest lighthouse, built 1458–1470, tall, visible from and standing prominently at the entrance to the village, is the remainder of a church that burned down in the 18th century. In 1818 the light was added to the top.
The other one, standing on the outer slope of the dyke, was built in 1875 of cast iron, is only tall and has a visibility range of .
Together they form leading lights, that lead vessels coming from the northern part of the North Sea into the narrow and busy shipping lane directly under the south west coast of Walcheren, that brings them into the Scheldt estuary and towards the ports of Flushing, Terneuzen, Ghent (via the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal) and Antwerp.
Official source
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