The previous day, the island of Schouwen-Duiveland had been placed in a state of readiness after it became apparent that German forces were concentrating on the opposite shores of Tholen and Sint Philipsland. The troops available to the island commander were few in number and of limited military value.
By this stage of the campaign, the defence of Schouwen-Duiveland no longer served any broader strategic purpose. The French had no forces stationed on Zeeland's northernmost island and had, in effect, already abandoned the province. Their only remaining objective was to delay the German advance wherever possible.
Nevertheless, an immediate surrender of the island was never seriously considered.
German forces on Sint Philipsland, east of Schouwen-Duiveland, had been shelling the villages of Bruinisse and Zijpe with mortars since the evening of 16 May. The bombardment continued until 02:30 on 17 May, when an assault force of approximately company strength embarked in storm boats and pontoon craft to cross the narrow waters of the Zijpe.
The German assault force consisted not of specially trained marines but of ordinary infantrymen from the independant 15th Machine Gun Battalion. As they crossed the channel, many of the German soldiers were apprehensive about what awaited them on the opposite shore. Their concerns proved unfounded. Not a single shot was fired.
The Dutch guard company at Bruinisse had once again abandoned its assigned position and withdrawn westward. Approximately five kilometres from the village, the company commander halted his men and ordered them to make camp. As he prepared to rest, a group of German soldiers suddenly appeared. The entire company was taken prisoner without offering resistance.
Other Dutch units, having received warning of the German landing on the eastern shore, hastily made for the main city of the island, Zierikzee, in the hope of finding transport by sea. Zierikzee had a significant harbour and lays in the central south of the island. The Germans, however, had correctly identified the island's most likely avenues of retreat. The first motorcycles ferried across from Sint Philipsland were immediately employed by a reconnaissance detachment dispatched toward Zierikzee, the island's principal town and the most important escape route for the defending forces.
Major Meyer, the senior Dutch commander on Schouwen-Duiveland, quickly assembled the small force still available to him and began clearing the streets of Zierikzee. As his men advanced cautiously through the town, they soon discovered that German troops were engaged in exactly the same activity. When the two forces encountered one another, a brief but fierce firefight erupted in the streets.
During these engagements, five German soldiers from 3./15. MG Battalion and Pionier-Bataillon 52 were killed, while the Dutch suffered only a single fatality. These five Germans killed would be the only German soldiers killed during the entire operation to capture Schouwen-Duiveland.
The island's three modern 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns were captured intact while their crews were attempting to move them to Zierikzee for evacuation, leaving their guns behind without a proper effort to destroy them. The grateful Germans quickly redeployed the weapons near the coast at Zierikzee, where they were manned by personnel of I./Flak-Regiment 49. By that time, one battery of this regiment had already crossed the Zijpe.
Elsewhere on the island, Dutch resistance quickly collapsed. Most remaining units surrendered upon the arrival of the first German troops. Before noon on 17 May, the entire island was firmly in German hands.
The following day, the troops of the 15th Maschinengewehr-Batallion and Pionier-Bataillon 52 were relieved from occupation duties. They were replaced by elements of the 225th Infantrie Division, the formation designated to garrison the southwestern Netherlands. One battalion remained on Schouwen-Duiveland, where it established coastal defenses against the possibility of an Allied landing - a landing that, in the event, never came.