page_title: Inundation of Walcheren
section_title: Closing the breaches and draining the island
hierarchical_section_title: Inundation of Walcheren / Closing the breaches and draining the island
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph made of a poster, which for a long time decorated the offices of various employees of Delft University of Technology. It depicts the closure of the dike breach near Fort Rammekens in Zeeland, the Netherlands on 1 December 1945, with help of a Phoenix caisson.
context_page_description: The Inundation of Walcheren was the intentional, but uncontrolled military inundation, effected by bombing the sea dikes of the former island of Walcheren in Zeeland by the Allies on and after 3 October 1944 in the context of Operation Infatuate during the Battle of the Scheldt after the Allied Invasion of Normandy during World War II. Though the inundation was justified by military necessity, it is controversial whether it was proportional in view of the predictable devastating effects for the civilian population, and the ecology of the island. The fact that the breaches in the sea dikes of the island remained open for a very long time, subjecting the island to the full impact of the twice-daily tides, caused severe damage to agricultural land and infrastructure, and severe hardship for the civilian population. Leaving the breaches open for such a long time, which was unavoidable due to the war-time lack of resources making closing impossible, subjected them to scouring by the tides, that widened and deepened them to such an extent that closing them eventually became extremely difficult, necessitating the development of new dike-building techniques, such as the use of caissons.
context_section_description: Immediately after the German surrender attempts to close the breaches in the dikes started. But because of a lack of dike-building materials,, heavy construction equipment, and skilled dike workers, and the damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and the impediment of extensive minefields in the access areas, those attempts were doomed to fail. Only in the Summer of 1945, after the end of hostilities in Europe, and when these deficiencies had been addressed, could the closing of the breaches start in earnest.
  A particular problem was that by that time the breaches had become so wide and deep, that normal earth-moving operations were unable to overcome the strength of the tidal flows. The total width of the breaches had grown to three kilometers. The depth of the tidal trenches was tens of meters in places. For this reason new techniques of hydraulic engineering had to be developed. To block the deepest parts of the breaches surplus caissons, originally built for the Phoenix breakwaters of the Mulberry harbours, were given a new application. Once the strength of the tidal flow was thus broken, more traditional techniques could be successfully employed.
  
  The breach of the Nolle dijk near Vlissingen was first filled on 3 September 1945, but the dike broke again three weeks later. This breach was finally closed on 2 October 1945, almost exactly a year after it was formed. The breach at Westkapelle was closed on 12 October, followed by the Veere breach on 23 October. The area east of the Canal through Walcheren took longer. The breach at Fort Rammekens near Ritthem was finally closed on 5 February 1946. 
  In the period between May 18, 1945 to February 2, 1946 (almost 9 months) around 4 million m3 of sand, 140,000,000 kg of rocks, 3,600,000 bundles of wicker were used. In addition to the many hands, huge machinery was involved in carrying out the repairs. This included 12 suction dredgers and 20 tugs.
  But by closing the breaches only the tidal movement was stopped. The mass of water still had to be removed. The Dutch experience with the draining of the recently reclaimed Wieringermeer and Noordoostpolder would seem to point to using pumping stations. But the capacity of the existing pumping stations, used for the normal draining of accumulated precipitation, was insufficient. Therefore an ingenious method was used to let nature take its course. A breach was made in the western levee of the Canal through Walcheren, that formed the eastern border of the flooded area. By simply opening the locks at either end of the canal in Veere and Vlissingen at ebb tide, the bulk of the water mass was drained by mid-December 1945. Thereafter the existing pumping stations were able to drain the remaining water, though it was necessary to reopen the preexisting drainage ditches and canals, that had silted up. The island was "dry" again in early 1946.
caption: Closing the breach near Ritthem in February 1946
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