Texel
This article is about the Dutch island Texel. For the meaning in computer graphics, see Texel (graphics)
Texel (pronounced: Tessel; population: 13,733) is an island and municipality in the North Sea, belonging to the Dutch province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark.
The island forms one municipality that includes the towns, villages and townships of Bargen, De Cocksdorp, De Koog, De Nes, De Waal, Den Burg, Den Hoorn, Dijkmanshuizen, Driehuizen, Harkebuurt, 't Horntje, Midden-Eierland, Molenbuurt, Nieuweschild, Noorderbuurt, Ongeren, Oost, Oosterend, Oudeschild, Spang, Spijkdorp, Tienhoven, Westermient, Zevenhuizen, and Zuid-Eierland.
The municipality covers an area of 585.96 km² (of which 416.14 km² is water) and also includes the uninhabited sand bar of Noorderhaaks. The island of Texel, which received city rights in 1415, is made up of two islands, Texel proper to the south and Eierland to the northwest, which were connected by shoals. In the seventeenth century, the islands were poldered together.
Texel is known for its wildlife, particularly in winter, when birds of prey and geese take up residence.
There is a ferry to Den Helder on the North Holland mainland. The island has an airstrip at Midden-Eierland.
During the Second World War, the island became a pivotal point in the German Atlantic Wall and was heavily fortified. During the last year of the war a battalion of Georgian soldiers in German service (ex-POWs from the Eastern front who had chosen to defect rather than starve in the Nazi POW camps) was stationed on the island. As the war drew to a close in April 1945, they rose against the Germans and took control of the island for a short while, but failed to capture the naval batteries on the north and the south of the island. Thus they were unable to stop German reinforcements from being brought in. The Germans launched a counter offensive supported by armour from the Dutch mainland and retook the island in five weeks of very tough fighting. The pointless bloodshed only ended when the war in the Netherlands ended with the German capitulation on May 5, 1945. The fallen Georgians lie buried in a ceremonial cemetery at Oudeschild.
