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Around the ward room bulkheads were air photographic maps of an Island coastline, Commander Sellars entered the room and told us to remain seated, he stood at the end of the room and said 鈥淕entlemen, this is Walcheren Island, we all looked very surprised as this was the first time we ever heard of that place!, Commander Sellars continued, 鈥淚t is located in the mouth of the river Scheldt, like most Dutch Islands that are lower than sea level, it is dyked. It is preventing our ships, by its heavy shelling, from entering the Scheldt with supplies that could be unloaded at Antwerp, The Air Force has attempted to damage the dykes and cause flooding on the Island, with the possibility that the flooding has put some of the heavy fortified gun positions out of action, however our sources tell us that these heavy fortified gun positions are still operational. The sites are in six and eight foot reinforced concrete emplacements and are untouched by the bombing, and they are extremely accurate, our orders are to get into the beaches, land our Royal Marine Commandos who will systematically silence each gun position.
Hitler has declared this Island a bastion, which means that his men are forbidden to surrender, and will fight to the last man.
The guns on the Island are various types. There are 3.7 anti aircraft, 150mm which have a high rate of fire and are extremely accurate, numerous 88 and 50 mm are fully operational. The beaches are heavily mined with booby traps on underwater stakes, barbed wire completely surrounds the beaches, which are strewn with thousands of mines, he pointed to a 400 foot broken area of the dykes and said 鈥� this is where we will land our Marines, a place called West Kapelle.
The Island also has several pads that are being used to launch the V2 Rockets on the civilians in London.
The Island must be taken, it is imperative that our supply ships get up the Scheldt to Antwerp. General Patton is currently relying on supplies to get to him by land all the way from Normandy, the German army have retreated to the other side of the Scheldt and are attempting to reinforce. the overthrow of this bastion will give us victory and considerably shorten this war.
At the same time as our landing takes place a large scale attack will take place at Breskens to our south, by units of British and Canadian commando units, followed by British and Canadian Infantry units.
The landing by the SSEF is supposed to coincide with a thousand bomber raid prior to our landing on the beach, but I have been notified that the weather is getting worse in England, and due to very foggy conditions, the Royal Air Force will not be able to participate. It is too late to change our plans at this point, we are going in, it wont be a piece of cake, we will use anything at our disposal. Even if it means going in with small arms. Be prepared for a heavy bombardment by our monitors, which will start some time before we hit the beaches.
I wish you all the best of luck, gentlemen. Touchdown for operation 鈥淚NFATUATE鈥� will be 0900 November 1st.

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We headed north, and at 0440 hours course was altered to 056 degrees, the seas were very heavy and under a gray miserable sky, at 0550 hours speed was increased to 6 1/2 knots and course was altered to 041 degrees true, at 0645 hours 鈥渁ction stations鈥� was called and all hands took their positions, at 0700 hours the coastline was clearly visible and at 0713 hrs the Tower on WestKapelle, on Walcheren was clearly seen.
At 0808 hrs, course was altered to 079 degrees, the ships company continued closed on 鈥淎ction Stations鈥� at 0809 the first fire came from the West Kapelle batteries, they had spotted us!
The Naval bombardment started from three large battleships of the Royal Navy, they were HMS 鈥淲ARSPITE鈥�. HMS 鈥淩OBERTS鈥� AND HMS 鈥淓REBUS鈥�, The latter had one gun turret inoperable from damage sustained at Normandy, and at 0825 hours the Westkapelle battery ceased to operate after receiving direct hits from the large guns of the battleships.
In our group of 27 landing craft were 3 LCRs, these were tank landing craft that had been adapted as rocket ships. the upper deck had chutes for 1200 rockets, all fired by twelve volt batteries, the bridge was protected by a large steel flame shield, all the crew were positioned behind the shield, these rockets when fired were able to clear a beach for a quarter of a mile of any living person, as the rockets would come down straight, like mortars, slit trenches would be of no use. the deck of the LCR would glow red after ignition.
The 3 LCRs were coming up behind the main group of landing craft heading for the beach, a shell hit one of the LCRs directly on the starboard side, the craft listed badly and pre ignition set off 1200 rockets that landed amongst the support squadron, I have never heard explosions like that in all my years of war! they appeared to go on for several minutes, but in reality it was probably 45 seconds, we had no eardrum protection, my stomach turned over, my ears rang with the clamor,
I could do nothing but clap my hands to my ears and put my head down, from up above I could hear screaming, leaving one of my hands at the controls, I climbed the stairs from the engine room to find out what had happened, a necessary option as no one bothers with the engine room staff, we are down in that hole like troglodytes.
I saw landing craft burning and sinking all around, the sea was on fire, men were in the water, some motionless, some attempting to swim, our ship was picking men out of the water, The Well deck was full of injured sailors, five of our craft were sunk by this 鈥渇riendly fire鈥� thirty sailors were injured
We took the wounded and dead personnel to the hospital ship and returned to assault zone, landing craft were heading into the beaches with the sea in turmoil from the incessant shelling, small landing craft were running parallel with the shore line firing their 20 mm guns directly at the slits in the gun emplacements, the ammunition being used was anti personnel which shattered into myriad's of shrapnel pieces inside the gun positions.

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The enemy fire was fierce, and were systematically hitting the small craft approaching the beach one LCG was hit and on fire was abandoned on the beach, other craft were burning sinking and exploding, with this heavy fire from the shore batteries we were being annihilated rapidly some craft had already reached the gap in the dyke and were successfully landing the Marine commandos. LCH 269 received a very close shell off our stern, which really shook us up in the engine room, shrapnel caused several holes in our bulkheads, sea water spurted in, we used damage control plugs, conical wood plugs, to stem the water, we got a call from Commander Sellars asking if all engine room hands were O.K, he also asked about the engines, I reported that all was fine, he said 鈥淔or Gods sake keep those engines running鈥� The shore batteries were systematically hitting the small craft approaching the beach one LCG was hit and on fire was abandoned on the beach, other craft were burning sinking and exploding, with this heavy fire from the shore batteries we were being annihilated rapidly some LCIs had already reached the gap in the dyke and were successfully landing the Marine commandos.

LCH 269 received a direct hit on our starboard bow, it shook us all, the ship heeled to Port, we were thrown on to the deck, luckily no sailors were in the vicinity of the bows, nobody was hurt, other than shaken up, no water came in but it certainly could not stay that way, the skipper called for damage control parties, I was in that group, on investgating, we found that metal from the ships side was very jagged and a simple patch would not work. someone came up with the idea of using our rolled up hammocks as a form of gasket, we gathered all the hammocks from the ships company. jammed them around the hole, and with a large sheet of plywood forced up against the hammocks with two by fours hammered in to the other side of the bows, a very fine emergency repair!!

鈥淔rom the Epic of Walcheren鈥�. Previous experience had shown that German Shore batteries could rarely resist the temptation of concentrating their fire on any craft attacking them. It was therefore a part of the plan that the Support Squadron which was under the command of Commander K.A.Sellars and consisted of twenty seven landing craft of various types should close the shore and deliberately draw the enemy fire upon itself. This would inevitably result in heavy casualties; but as it was hoped that it would enable the assault forces to land with comparative immunity, it was considered that, so long as the enemy made the fatal error of concentrating fire on the Support Squadron, close action was justified and heavy losses acceptable!! In other words this was a suicide operation..!

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Commander Sellars, in his report on the action said 鈥淚t was early recognized that we were up against formidable opposition, and that losses and damage were to be expected in craft engaging shore batteries at close range. It is considered that this was fully justified because the Commandos got ashore well and lightly. I considered that, so long as the Germans made the mistake of concentrating their fire on the Support Squadron, close action was justified and losses acceptable. In fact, I decided that if there was signs of batteries selecting incoming loaded L.C.Ts with troops as their primary target even closer action would be ordered so as to force the Germans to fire on the Support Squadron, he also added later,鈥漈here can have been few more gallant actions in Naval history than the way in which the Support Squadron drew the fire of the formidable German Batteries on to itself and provided the the assault forces with a comparative safe conduct to the shore鈥�

The following is an excerpt from Captain A F Pugsley鈥檚 report (he headed the operation),鈥滻t was not the easiest of decisions. To say execute might mean signing a death warrant for an entire brigade of Commandos, their assault and Landing Craft and the Support Squadron who were to escort them in鈥�. His final injunction from Ramsey, Simmonds, and Foulkes, his immediate Senior Officers, had been that he should not proceed with the operation unless he was facing opposition that was 鈥渘ot more than weak鈥�. at 0800 Captain Pugsley said there was certainly no evidence that there was such a state of affairs.
The germans found, to their dismay that the large 88mm guns could not be lowered to be of any use against the craft closing in on the beach, however the smaller guns were being used and were sinking many craft and causing high amounts of casualties.
The battle continued for several hours, on our ship a very well known war correspondent by the name of Dennis Johnston was covering the operation for the B.B.C. I have a transcription of his report as follows:

B.B.C WAR REPORT NUMBER 135. 2nd NOVEMBER
1944

McLEOD. Here in the studio is a man from Walcheren.. our correspondent Denis Johnston, who took part in the Naval side of the assault on this Island, the attack on German gun positions at West Kapelle.

Johnston left the coast of the continent early this morning and, after a rough crossing, came direct to London, he reached Broadcasting House only two hours ago.

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JOHNSTON. They came down in the belly of the Landing Craft. where we were all lying curled up in the darkness, and told us if we came up now we could see the beginning of the attack on Flushing. this attack on the Island was a three-pronged drive. While the Canadians fought their way in from the causeway, a second party was attacking across the Scheldt from Breskens against the second of the little humps that were all that was left of Walcheren ever since the floods broke in. Our job-- which was an all Naval show- was to attack the western most tip-West Kapelle- where the German batteries faced out to sea, and a few thousand of the enemy were holding out on another of these sodden hummocks of sand dunes
Up on the bridge of the Landing Craft we could see the red flashes of the guns coming from the east over Flushing and directly in front of us the dawn came up behind the light house tower of West Kapelle. As it grew lighter, this armada of little craft drew slowly in towards the coast.
Our ship, LCH 269, was leading. Behind us came a string of gun and rocket carrying landing craft to cover the assault which was being made by the Marines. For a while there was no sign of life at all on the shore, and we speculated as to whether the enemy batteries had been knocked out already by air attacks.
But suddenly from here and there along the beach came little yellow flashes of light and we knew they were alive all right although we couldn鈥檛 see to begin with where their shells were going.
I don鈥檛 think they saw us for some time- the dawn was behind them, and we were backed by a long line of scudding rain clouds. but as it became fully daylight the covering craft moved forward and closed with the batteries and the assault craft moved up from behind and passed through heading for a big gap in the dyke that we could see clearly not more than a mile or so away.
There was no question that they saw us then. From all along the coast the enemy batteries opened up on our fleet of ships. the shells came whining overhead falling in the water with great plumes of spray. But they were getting from us far more than they were giving, and then from behind us came hurtling the great shells of the battleship Warspite, and from two monitor, the Erebus and the Roberts joining in the fight at long range.
It was an incredible sight to see those landing craft heading straight for the gap in the dyke and passing through, while the little gunships hugged the beaches and poured their fire into the enemy caissons. the Marines fanned out behind the gap and leapt ashore.
On the far side there was more flooding, so they had to land on the causeway itself- on the concrete slopes of the causeway, and fight their way in both directions along the narrow neck of dry land that was all that was left of West Kapelle. The enemy put up a smoke screen. Presently it was aided by smoke from a fire in the lighthouse itself, as the battle on the shore swept past it鈥檚 base.

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