Relation with Lake (class): Lake Area Inland Cemetery (LAI)  
Total nr. of casualties buried here (TC): 1 ? end WW2, today 1. 
Lake casualties, initially, end WW2 (LC-I): 0
Unknown today: 0
of which unknown from Lake (LC-U): 0
of which unknown from North Sea (NS-U): 0
Initial burial site in WW2: yes.
Post war burial site for collection and reburial from other sites: no
Cemetery with Lake casualties today: no.


                
WESTERLAND (WIERINGEN)

Wieringen was an island for on the boundary of North and Zuyder Sea since Roman times. Two Viking treasures have been found here in the fields. Not an island anymore today, but still lays high above the water and surrounding land. The landscape looks more Danish than Dutch. In 1924 a dike was laid to connect the island with the mainland. A few years later a large part of the Old Zuyder Sea south of Wieringen was dammed-off and pumped dry to win agricultural land, which was completed in 1932 (the Wieringermeer Polder). From the air the old island has rugged green patchwork, the new land under it has the typical white-yellow colour of the produce that grows well on this former seabed.
   
    

Dutch name cemetery: Westerland (op Wieringen) Prot. Begr. Pl.  
Full name: Westerlander St. Nicolas Protestant Churchyard
Address (usable for car navigation):
Westerlanderweg 60 (Westerland, Haukes, Hollands Kroon)

For reaction or comments; send us an email,
see address and info at CONTACT.
Please use as subject title: 'Westerland'.








On this small cemetery is the war grave of 1 man: RAF Sgt. Eric Hector Tucker. He was not assigned to a squadron yet. He and his crew were still in training with 21 OTU. His Wellington bomber made a navigational practice flight over the North Sea in the evening of 26st of January 1943. The men became lost. After a few hours, a nightfighter shot them down at an altitude of 700m about 5km to the north-west of here. The aircraft came down in the Wadden Sea on the Balgzand Sandbank. Three German soldiers stationed at a strongpoint on the Balgzand-dike, walked to the wreck but were caught by the high-tide and drowned. 2 months later 6 men of the Wellington had washed ashore. Three on the Eastern Wadden Sea dike off Den Helder and were buried in Huisduinen. Two men were found and buried on Texel island. There was one survivor: Sgt. John Newell Morgan. He was made POW.  


























































































































Sgt. Eric Tucker washed ashore and buried here. This was unusual because Den Helder Huisduinen was the designated cemetery for this coastline. Tucker was not buried on the yard behind the church, but on the right hand side of the entrance (photo below). It looks a temporary grave-position, as if they expected that he would be collected for burial in Den Helder within a few days. That never happened. In 1947 the 180 airmen in Den Helder Huisduinen were exhumed and reburied in Allied centralisation War Cemetery Bergen-op-Zoom in the south of the NL. Sgt. Eric Tucker stayed here. His grave is a lone reminder of the many Allied airmen that washed ashore here.





































.
















































The Westerlander Nicolas Church stands on the highest point of the island. Before 1924 it must have been a tremendous viewpoint with a 360° view over the seas. Believed is that here was a (religious) structure or tower before this church, which is from year 1200. The upper half of the tower is 14/15th century. Remarkable is that the tower and church were not connected in the past. During restoration in 1828, grave stones were found here with markings unknown for this region. Last restoration was 1982-1985. 
































































































The other location with war graves on Wieringen Island: village Hippolytushoef  http://www.zzairwar.nl/dossiers/940.html





© ZZairwar (Zuyder Zee Air war).