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LITTLE SHIPS TACKLED THE SHORE GUNS
London Daily Mirror Nov 2 1944
Running unflinchingly and directly into the fire of the mighty German shore batteries on Walcheren Island, small thin hulled British amphibious support vessels fought a battle the like of which sailors who were at Dieppe or Normandy had never seen before.

There were heavy losses. The little ships kept their guns hot until they went down or were forced to retire with holes in their sides and bleeding men on their decks.
Men on the ships, gunboats, rocket ships, and other small craft had been told to engage at point blank range, and knock out if possible, the fixed German gun emplacements lining the dykes and high ground near West Kapelle on the Western side of the Island.
They went in with all their guns firing, troop laden craft went up behind them to discharge their loads
With our ships some thousand yards from shore the German guns opened up, suddenly fire belched aboard one, she swung around in the water, another got a direct hit, another raced into the shore with all her guns firing, and turned out again with a single officer left on her bridge and holes in her sides.
One gunboat went into the shore, was hit, floundered, and made a last burst to the shore.
The Headquartership LCH 269 was nearly blown out of the water three times, it was a fight lasting nearly five hours.
During the fight, shells bounced off many of the five and six foot thick German gun emplacements without effect, until the Commandos were landed, and cut open the gun emplacements with flame throwers and grenades.



Also this report from the London Daily Mail:
November 2nd 1944
At Walcheren, bad weather made air support impossible and the only 鈥渟oftening up鈥� was by Naval bombardment.
After this inadequate preparation the little craft of the Close Support Squadron, outranged and outgunned, forced their way inshore in face of raking fire from enemy coastal guns, many of six and eight inch caliber.

Those craft which survived long enough to get within range, shot it out with the coastal batteries and succeeded in silencing many of them, of the twenty five gun and support landing craft taking part in the operation, nine were sunk and eight badly damaged** The Close Support Squadron suffered heavy casualties. 172 killed and 200 wounded**

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In his official report, Captain Pugsley stated: 鈥淭his success would not have been achieved without the outstanding gallantry and determination displayed by all the Officers and men of the Support Squadron, under the command of Commander K.A.Sellars, who led the attack and engaged the extremely active enemy batteries, from 9am till 12.30 pm, the Support squadron continuously engaged the enemy batteries, firstly in support of the landings and later supporting the Commandos advance to the southward.

Their losses were heavy, but they stuck to their job of engaging the enemy, thereby drawing the enemies fire and enabling the landings to proceed鈥� (from 鈥淥peration Neptune鈥漛y Commander Kenneth Edwards R.N. )
At dusk the shelling had subsided, we were off the Island wallowing in real heavy seas, we did not know if the reason for the lack of shelling was due to the marines or the dark or the fact that there were no longer any more targets left, the sudden quiet was eerie until the Radar operators notified the Skipper that five targets were spotted on the screen, coming in from the north and heading in our general direction, they were unable to fix the type of craft but judging by their speed they had to be torpedo boats, or E. Boats, all hands were ordered on deck with rifles our gunners manned the three Oerlikon 20 mm, the fourth on the bow was out of action due to the shell that hit the craft under the bow, we would not stand a chance against the fast heavily armed high speed boats but we were going to go down fighting, the Radar operator reported another object that was intercepting the five E. Boats, it was a British destroyer which completely mutilated the fast craft, with its heavier guns, several were hit, they then turned tail and raced back to where they had come from, the destroyer signaled us 鈥淕ood Luck LCH 269, signed Lieut Commander Holdsworth鈥� our old skipper had saved our lives!

Our Skipper received a signal that underwater one man submarines, and scuba units were headed our way, their purpose to attach magnetic charges to our hulls, the orders were to set up watch teams around the clock to throw charges into the water every three minutes to kill or destroy the underwater menace by compression explosion, we were up all night.

The underwater attack was partially successful for when dawn broke we were all aghast at the fact that only two ships from the SSEF had survived, the hospital ship and us, seven others were badly damaged and limped back to Ostende.

We left Walcheren Island, I hoped never in my lifetime to see that Island again. We were two very sorry looking ships, making slow headway in the still heavy seas, due to the large hole in our bow, damage control was still holding but the sea could change that in an instant, weather reports were being received that we were entering a strong weather condition, with gales off the East coast of England,

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our slow forward movement could not compensate for the strong winds, we were being forced off course, and consequently into the English minefields, we had no charts for these as they were top secret, we had charts of all the German minefields, but these did not help our situation at all.

The Commander called for slow ahead both engines, then signaled on the buzzer in the engine room to drop the engine revolutions by 50 revolutions per minute, he sent a further message to drop the engine revolutions to the minimum possible, we were unable to record engine temperatures, as our gauges were shattered by one of the near misses.
The Commander then asked a very unusual request,鈥漛ring your phonograph up to the bridge, and a record I had which was a very popular song at that time, 鈥淭iptoe through the Tulips鈥� he had it set up and one of the seamen was given the job of winding and replaying that record with the aid of a 鈥淟oud Hailer鈥� usually used when speaking to another ship nearby, we were all in a state of trepidation, we could hit a mine at any time, all the crew had removed their shoes and were walking the decks with bare feet for fear a sonic mine could be set off by heavy footsteps, and the Skipper was up on the bridge playing music!
Just before dusk the hospital ship hit the mine, I was on the upper deck at the time having a break and a smoke, I was talking to another crew member, the hospital ship was about a half mile off our starboard side.
I saw the ship suddenly stop her forward movement, shudder,then the ship lifted completely out of the water amidships, it came down in two parts and sank in a matter of seconds, all perished from that terrible explosion, we moved over to where she had been, to pick up any survivors, all were dead, they had not been in too good a shape to start with, they didn鈥檛 stand a chance. We were the only ship left in that original flotilla of thirty ships, I just could not believe that, how could this happen? would we now be next?
Sometime later, the Commander informed us that we were out of the minefield. The weather was horrible, our ship lurching and swaying drunkenly, everyone was feeling very miserable, I tried to sleep, I woke up suddenly, everything was motionless. Was I in heaven? I went up on deck, our ship was limping into Poole Harbor, we were in England and safe. I checked the money belt around my waist, believe it or not the small bottle of Chanel 21 was still intact!!
The Skipper decided to make a collection on our ship for a remembrance of some sort dedicated to the men that lost their lives on the Walcheren landings, as there was only sixteen men left on our the ships company, the amount collected was not very great, the Skipper then made a very generous donation, and after a discussion a temporary sign was decided until at a later date a lych gate could be erected at a local church, the sign would read as follows. 鈥淲ALCHEREN MEMORIAL鈥� a lych gate will be erected on this site to commemorate the men of the Royal Navy who fell at Walcheren鈥�

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The operation was well described by General Eisenhower as one of the most gallant of the war. It was in the true 鈥渓ittle ship鈥� tradition.
** Correction by the end of the operation, our ship, the only one left, limped into Poole Harbor. actual loss to the SSEF were 24 ships.

***280 men of the Royal Navy lost their lives, our ship returned with a crew of 18, and many wounded men in our troop quarters.
All officers then went for a de- briefing, and as the ship had gone in for repairs, we were all given a well deserved leave. I immediately removed the Chanel 21 from my money belt, gave it to Anne, who, in all the excitement, accidentally dropped it on the tiled hearth in her home, the house had a wonderful scent of perfume for weeks!


In Search of a Lychgate by Mail

Many years later, my son, Ian, asked me to write my biography, I realized that I never knew if the Walcheren memorial lych gate was ever fulfilled and if so, where?
It would not be difficult to find out, with the help of the Internet, I contacted the City of Poole by E.Mail, and shortly after I received a reply from Mr C. Barham the Churchwarden of St Michaels Church in Hamworthy, a small village near Poole. He wrote:
One day In May 2000, the Borough of Poole inquiry e.mail address received a request from a gentleman now residing in Florida USA. So the inquiry desk the e.mailed Dai Watkins, the local studies Center Manager at the waterfront Museum, who then e. mailed me, asking (This is St Michael's isn鈥檛 it?)

The request for information by Basil Woolf ( who was intending to visit the UK this summer) was to discover where the Lychgate was that was erected as a memorial to those who had lost their lives on the assault on Walcheren Island in November 1944. In that assault many ships were lost and hundreds of sailors died. Basil鈥檚 ship LCH 269 was the only survivor and had limped back to Poole to be repaired and refitted.
Within two days of Basil鈥檚 inquiry, I was able, with help from one of my daughters, to reply by e.mail and also send an attachment of a photograph of the Lychgate.
Basil and his shipmates had made a collection on their return to Poole, and had donated the money for a memorial to those men in the form of a Lychgate at a local church,
In his next mailing to me Basil included a photo print of a notice stating the intention to erect a Lychgate signed by the then Rector of Hamworthy, the Reverend J.A.Kingham. It would appear that St Michaels Church was chosen because of it鈥檚 proximity to HMS Turtle, now the Royal Marine Camp.

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This now gave me the opportunity to do some detective work.
By all accounts, one day early in 1952, our former Rector, Canon Brian Aldis, received a call from the Admiralty, informing him that the survivors of the Walcheren operation wished to erect a Lychgate. Later, Commander 鈥淢onkey鈥� Sellars, who had commanded the assault, visited Hamworthy with plans for the design.
Unfortunately, due to rising costs, the sum raised by the survivors was insufficient to pay for all the work involved. So the Parish agreed to provide the concrete base, the brick pillars and the curved approach wall, whilst the Royal Navy would supply the Oak woodwork and the two large stone memorial tablets which local stonemasons would prepare.
The original intention was to place the Lychgate at the entrance to the old church, but it seemed silly to do that if the new church was to be built next door and so the gate was to become the main entrance to the new church. Despite delays in getting hold of suitable oak, the work proceeded rapidly and by the summer of 1952 the lychgate was complete.
Then on a glorious sunny day, on July 5th, the great unveiling and dedication, took place in front of a great crowd of local people, naval personnel, with relatives and friends of the fallen.
First of all, the Bishop of Salisbury dedicated the whole field as an extension of the churchyard, and then with split second timing, the Royal Marine Band marched up Blandford Road.
The Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Vian, (Vian of the Cossack) came across from the Rectory, accompanied by Commander Sellars and a representative of the Dutch Embassy. Afterwards, over two hundred or so of the relatives and friends crossed to the Rectory Garden where tea was laid on for them and many old friendships were renewed and sorrows remembered as they saw a fitting memorial to those that they had lost. It was a great day in the history of Hamworthy.
Back to Basil Woolf, as luck would have it, his nephew Michael who lives in Bournemouth with his wife Susan, was able to bring Basil and his wife Anne, to see the Lychgate for the first time when they visited in July 2000. Harold Hudson of the local branch of the Landing Craft Gunnery and Flak Association was able to be present when Basil visited.
I was pleased to meet Basil in person, although we had e. mailed each other since his first inquiry.

Most contemporary books on the History of World War Two, do not even mention Walcheren in their indexes!

Today my wife and I live in Dunedin, Florida we have a daughter Louise who is a computer specialist, and lives nearby with her husband and daughter, Gabrielle.
Our other daughter is a registered nurse, and lives in New Jersey, she and her husband intend to move into this area shortly. Her daughter Hilary is in her first year of college in Troy, Alabama.
Our Son Ian, lives in Los Angeles, and is a first assistant director, he and his wife have two sons, one who is in his first year of college.

Petty Officer Basil Woolf CMX 116402. May 2005.

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