The destruction of the Netherlands during WW-II in color, Part-4: Zeeland, Brabant & Limburg (1945)

Zeeland is a province in the South West of The Netherlands consisting of many large islands. There is a lot to tell about what happened in Zeeland during the war, but that will be a topic for another series about WW-II. Main towns like Middelburg, Vlissingen and Breskens were severy damaged and hardly inhabitable anymore After the Dutch government’s capitulation on 15 May 1940, fighting still continued in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Some French troops were still present there and trying to halt the German onslaught. After Antwerp was liberated in early September 1944, the German authorities also decided to carry out large-scale inundations in nearby Zeeland. Flooding large areas was aimed at trying to hinder and halt the advancing allies. This led to mass evacuations: on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland, as many as three-quarters of the population had to leave their homes. There was a lot of resistance, especially among farmers especially because they knew that the salt sea water would make the soil infertile. In the province of Zeeland, more than 43,000 hectares of land was flooded as a result of German inundations. However, not only the Germans were responsible for the floading of Zeeland but also the allies. On 3 October 1944 the RAF bombed the dykes around Walcheren from three directions thus floading the entire region. Twice a day eb and flood had free game to overflow and retract from the island thus rapidly raising the groundwater level. It did contribute to the withdrawal of the Germans to higher ground. The many Dutch inhabitants had hardly anywhere to go and many fled to higher ground in cities like Middelburg. Later on, after Walcheren was captured, the allies forced the local population to evacuate. About half of them ( in all) left. It took until 1946 before all dykes were repaired. The Zeelanders suffered a lot and were attacked several times by both German and Allied inundations. The swirling seawater that flowed through the deliberately broken dikes caused a large flow of refugees that continued until after the liberation of the Netherlands. Travelling too and from Zeeland was difficult because important bridges like the Moerdijkbrug were partially destroyed as seen earlier. The island of Tholen was flooded too, as can be seen here. The two other Southern provinces of the Netherlands, Noord Brabant and Limburg suffered badly too as these pictures will show. The South of the Netherlands was captured by the allies by late autumn 1944. The rest of the country had to wait until the next spring and endured a terrible famine, the Hongerwinter, as shown in detail in one of my other videos. Being a thrifty and entrepreneurial country, the Netherlands soon started to restore the war damage. To finish this part-4 of my series, here are some glimpses of these activities. This series will be extended with one or two more episodes. Part-5 will deal with the war destruction of Arnhem and Nijmegen. Source: Beeld En Geluid Music: Trevor Kowalski