Qualla: Walcheren https://qualla.com/walcheren en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Walcheren https://qualla.com/walcheren Walcheren: Introduction https://qualla.com/walcheren/ On 3 October 1944, RAF Lancasters dropped their bombs on a sea wall instead of a city. The target was the dyke at Westkapelle, on the western tip of a roughly rhombus-shaped Dutch island called Walcheren, and the goal was to let the North Sea in. Within hours, salt water was pouring over fields and into farmhouses and German gun positions alike. Almost the entire island would sit under the sea for the better part of a year. The Dutch civilians who lived there had been warned by leaflet to flee, but many had nowhere to go. Walcheren has spent two thousand years arguing with the water, and that October the Allies turned the water into a weapon.

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Walcheren: A Rhombus at the Mouth of the Scheldt https://qualla.com/walcheren/ Look at a map of the southwestern Netherlands and Walcheren stands out: a tidy diamond shape tucked between the Eastern Scheldt to the north and the Western Scheldt to the south, the two arms of the river that eventually reaches Antwerp. The two sides facing the open North Sea ar...

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-a-rhombus-at-the-mouth-of-the-scheldt.mp3 0:06 2 full Walcheren: Romans, Vikings, and a Goddess of the Sea https://qualla.com/walcheren/ The Romans called the place Wallacra and used it as a jumping-off point for crossings to Britain. They left behind a temple to Nehalennia, a local goddess whose altars sailors stacked with thanks for surviving the North Sea — which in those days was even less forgiving than it is...

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-romans-vikings-and-a-goddess-of-the-sea.mp3 0:06 3 full Walcheren: Walcheren Fever https://qualla.com/walcheren/ In July 1809, 39,000 British soldiers stepped ashore on the island. Their commanders wanted to draw French troops away from Austria and seize the French fleet at Vlissingen. They did capture Vlissingen, but the Austrians had already lost at Wagram and were suing for peace, the Fr...

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-walcheren-fever.mp3 0:06 4 full Walcheren: Drowning the Island to Save It https://qualla.com/walcheren/ The 1944 inundation was not an accident. By autumn, the Allies needed the port of Antwerp to keep their advance across northwest Europe supplied. They had taken the city itself, but its sea approach ran past Walcheren, and the Germans had fortified the island into Festung Walcher...

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-drowning-the-island-to-save-it.mp3 0:06 5 full Walcheren: Living With the Sea Now https://qualla.com/walcheren/ Today, the dykes hold and the dunes are planted with marram grass against the wind, and the rebuilt towns wear their history lightly. Middelburg's lace-windowed houses and stepped gables hint at the wealth that came through Vlissingen when the Dutch East India Company anchored it...

Read more: Walcheren on Qualla

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/t/walcheren-wp/u14t-walcheren-living-with-the-sea-now.mp3 0:06 6 full