Their route back to the naval barracks, to Gebouw 24, was necessarily meandering because of the canals which provided Amsterdam with so much of its character, and they frequently had to walk some distance in the wrong direction, or at least some distance out of their way to the nearest bridge so that they could cross over the water.
‘There’s a sodding lot of canals here, sir,’ Dawson remarked, as they strode along the canal bank to yet another bridge.
‘They call Amsterdam the “Venice of the North”,’ Michaels told him. ‘Have you ever been to Venice, or anywhere else in Italy?’
‘No, sir. Until this caper started, I’d never been out of England, but over the last few weeks I’ve been to France, Germany and Belgium, and now I’m in Holland. The only difference here is that so far nobody’s started shooting at me.’
Michaels grinned at him.
‘Well, if our intelligence boys are right, that might change quite soon, because they’re forecasting that the Jerries are going to start dropping parachutists here any day now. But you’re right about Amsterdam. I’ve been here a few times so I do know a bit about it. The whole city is roughly 6 feet below sea level, and it’s made up of about ninety islands linked by more than twelve hundred bridges. And it’s old, Dawson. In fact, the oldest bridge here dates back to 1648, and that’s the Torensluis Bridge. It’s not just the oldest, but it’s also unique because there’s an old disused prison underneath it. You can still see the barred windows. And back in the Middle Ages, the whole city – it was a lot smaller then, obviously – was encircled by a moat called the Singel. You probably haven’t noticed while we’ve been walking around, but the inner part of the city centre is shaped a bit like a horseshoe, and that’s because quite a lot of the Singel is still there, and that’s the reason for the shape.’
Once back at the barracks, Michaels spent a few minutes talking to Lieutenant Dieckman, who was still acting as the liaison officer between the British soldiers and the Dutch authorities. He explained his personal interpretation of the telegram from The Hague, and asked the Dutch officer to arrange for three motor launches to be provided to transport the demolition parties and their stores – principally the containers of gun cotton – to the three oil depots they were tasked with destroying. After his talk with Dawson on the way back to the barracks, Michaels had realized that in Amsterdam the easiest way to get from one place to another, and certainly to somewhere as far out as the three tank farms that were their targets, was probably to travel on the canals, so using launches or some other kind of boat made obvious sense.
Meanwhile, Captain Rochester had collected together a decent supply of food for the men, which could also be sent to the targets on board the motor launches.
With all the men assembled, Michaels gave a full briefing, confirming the objectives of the operation and the demolitions that needed to be carried out. He then called on Dawson to explain the best way to cause the maximum amount of damage using the smallest possible quantity of explosives.
‘All the depots are pretty much the same,’ Dawson began, ‘and blowing the kerosene tanks will be easy. Just wrap some gun cotton around the valve or feeder pipe on each tank and blow it. That’ll start the kerosene coming out. The tanks are mounted in kind of shallow baths, so wait until that’s about half full, then fire a flare or something like that into the kerosene and it’ll catch fire. Then get the hell out of the way, because sooner or later the heat will blow the kerosene left in the tank, and you don’t want to be anywhere near it when that happens. And those are bloody big tanks.’
‘So we have to blow the kerosene tanks first?’
‘No. We can start the demo of all the tanks at the same time. The clue is in the name, heavy oil flows much more slowly than kerosene, and we’ll need to get quite a bit of the heavy oil out of the tanks before we can ignite it. In fact, just thinking about it, it would be a good idea to do it the other way round, and blow the pipes off the heavy oil tanks first. OK? Any questions about that?’
Dawson glanced round at the men in front of him, but none responded.
‘The kerosene is the easy bit. The heavy oil is more of a problem. You do the same thing to start the oil flowing, just blow off the valves or rupture the pipework. But to get it to light, you’ll have to use some kind of igniter, and I think the easiest thing to do is to take some woollen blankets to the depot and use them. There are plenty of blankets here we can take. First, you blow the valves on the heavy oil tanks, then you put the blankets in the bunds under the kerosene tanks and blow those valves as well. That will soak the blankets in the kerosene that comes out. Take the blankets over to the heavy oil tanks, put them in the oil that’s filling the bund and light them. The blankets should float and they’ll provide a concentrated source of heat that should be enough to cook off the heavy oil.’
‘Are you sure that will work?’ Michaels asked.
‘No, sir, but it’s the best idea I’ve come up with so far. Ideally, I’d prefer to have something like magnesium strips to use as a heat source, but we have to make the best use of what we’ve got.’
Michaels took over the briefing again and outlined the withdrawal routes that each of the groups should follow once they’d completed the demolitions, the rendezvous points that he had identified, and how they would get back to England once the operation was over.
That part of the plan was somewhat hit and miss at best. They were hoping to embark on a destroyer or another Royal Navy vessel, but what ships would be available very much depended upon the timing of the demolition. And actually getting from the coast of Holland out to any of the ships, assuming they couldn’t get into the harbour at IJmuiden because of the repeated bombing raids, was another matter altogether. It was a plan, but a plan that was very obviously full of holes, a fact that the captain freely acknowledged.
‘We’re going to have to think on our feet once we’ve done our work here,’ he said as he wrapped up the briefing. ‘If there’s no ship available to pick us up, we might have to lie low somewhere for a few days until we can get out of the country, but I’m hoping it won’t come to that.
‘Now, the launches should be here soon. As soon as they arrive, look sharp and get everything loaded, so we can get out to the oil depots as quickly as possible. We still need to take a good look at those so that you’re all familiar with the targets and what each of you will have to do when the time comes.’
But even before the first of the launches appeared, Lieutenant Dieckman walked onto the quay, clearly in something of a hurry, and told Michaels that the commandant wanted to see him urgently. The Dutch officer either couldn’t or wouldn’t provide any further information or elaboration.
‘I have to go and see the man, Gordon,’ Michaels said to Rochester. ‘In the meantime, just crack on with what we’re doing, and get the boats loaded as soon as they turn up.’
‘D’you think he might have changed his mind about letting us go ahead?’
‘I hope not, but we are, at least for the moment, under his command, so we’ll have to follow whatever his new orders are. If he has done an about-turn, then all I can do is go back to the consulate and ask them to try to exert some pressure on The Hague to make him change his mind back again.’
* * *
Michaels returned to the quay over an hour later, looking irritated, and walked straight over to where Gordon Rochester was standing, supervising the loading of the third launch, which had just arrived.
‘So what did he want?’ Rochester asked.
‘Just a minute, Gordon. David,’ Michaels called out to Lieutenant Barber. ‘Find Woody and Dawson, would you, and bring them here as well.’
Once the other three men had joined him, the captain explained what had happened.
‘The short version,’ he said, ‘is that the commandant got cold feet. He summoned me and ordered us to remain in the barracks until he gave the order for the preparations of the demolition to begin.’
‘Shit,’ Rochester said. ‘That bug
gers everything up.’
‘I haven’t finished yet,’ Michaels said. ‘I was trying to put myself in his position, and I can sort of see his point. He’s been tasked with authorizing a sabotage mission to be carried out on Dutch territory by soldiers of a foreign power who are under his command, and the operation will cause massive damage to the infrastructure of Amsterdam. I’m just glad I’m not in his shoes.’
‘But we need to do this because of the German advance,’ Barber said. ‘If we don’t, we’re giving the oil straight to the bloody Jerries.’
‘I know. The choice is really quite simple. Either we let the Germans have the oil, in which case we are actually helping the Nazis conquer Europe, or we destroy it and deprive them of an essential resource. And that’s exactly what I told the commandant. I explained to him that it was essential that we made our preparations to carry out the demolition, and that we needed our men to be on site ready to go the moment the order was given. Holding us here in the barracks would simply mean that we wouldn’t have time to get everything ready. It would be almost the same as us not being here at all, because we probably wouldn’t be able to complete the operation.
‘I also told him that if we were confined to the barracks and then received the order to proceed, we would be extremely vulnerable to attack from whatever advance elements the Jerries intend to throw in this direction, paratroopers or whatever. I finished up by saying that it was his decision – which obviously it is – but if he didn’t allow us to go ahead with our preparations and the Germans captured the oil depots intact when they reached Amsterdam, it would be his fault. And he would also be disobeying the orders – the ones in that telegram we got a copy of – issued by The Hague. I put it a bit more politely than that, of course, because of our vast difference in ranks, but that was the thrust of my argument.’
‘Did he agree?’ Rochester asked.
‘Eventually, yes, but it did take quite a lot of persuasion. Anyway, the upshot of the latest orders he has issued is that we can carry on making our preparations for the demolition. He didn’t specifically say that we could position our men by the target sites, but as far as I’m concerned that’s just as essential as getting the explosive charges prepped, so that’s what we’re going to do.’
‘So we can start the demolition once we’re ready?’
Michaels shook his head.
‘No. That would be too much to hope for. The commandant has insisted that the operation may not begin without his specific instruction. However, we will be able to rely on messengers and verbal or written confirmation of the order to start, rather than one of us having to somehow travel the roughly 3 miles from the closest of the tank farms to the commandant’s office to receive it. We have agreed on a code word that can be passed to us by any means and which will signal the start of the operation. All of you need to know that code word because obviously we will be dispersed once the men have been assembled at the three separate targets. Do not write the word down but simply commit it to memory. It’s not that difficult, which is quite deliberate.’
Michaels glanced around to ensure that what he said next could not be overheard by anyone else.
‘The code word is “Vesting”. That’s the English word “fortress” translated into Dutch, a reminder of who we are – the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. Everyone got that?’
The other four men all nodded. It was a good choice, the code word being simple to remember, easy to say for a non-Dutch speaker, and sufficiently unusual that it would probably not be said in normal conversation.
‘That’s the official position,’ Michaels emphasized, ‘but we all know how important this operation actually is. So, code word or no code word, the moment any of you see a German soldier you press the button or light the fuse or whatever is necessary to start the demolition process. And if any one of the other demolition teams start to fire their charges, you can all take that as a signal to do the same. Those are my orders, irrespective of what the commandant or any of the Dutch authorities might say. The most important thing, obviously, is just to get this done. We can argue about the rights and wrongs after the event. Right, let’s get going.’
‘I’ve already sent off the first two launches with the men and stores,’ Rochester said, ‘so this third vessel is going to the Petroleum Haven oil depot with the A1 group. We can hitch a ride on that.’
The force disposition that Michaels had decided upon was for A1 section to deploy to Petroleum Haven, the A2 section to the Shell tank farm, and the third group, A3, to target Benzine Hopper.
The journey along the canals to the oil depot was uneventful, and actually quite pleasant in the fading sunlight of early evening: Dawson was able to look at the city from the open rear deck of the motor launch as it proceeded steadily along the waterways, and then joined the much wider Noordzeekanaal on which the Petroleum Haven tank farm was located, out to the north-west of the city centre.
‘I can’t get seasick on this, can I?’ he remarked to Lieutenant Barber.
‘Not unless you really work hard at it, no.’
When they reached the tank farm, the Dutch sailor who was controlling the vessel brought the launch to a halt against a jetty next to the southern end of the U-shaped waterway that ran through it. Captain Michaels directed the men to shift the stores, including the food, from the launch and up the steps. From somewhere, the KFRE soldiers had acquired three stretchers, and Dawson looked at them askance for a few moments, before he realized what they were going to use them for. The boxes containing their stores were both bulky and heavy, but by positioning two or three boxes on each stretcher, two of the men were able to lift and carry them much more easily.
Once at the oil depot, Michaels instructed the soldiers to enter the site and set up a pair of defensive positions either side of the main gate using sandbags and anything else they could find. This was intended to confirm to the Petroleum Haven management that the British soldiers were at the site with orders to defend it against the Germans, at least from a land-based attack from the west, though that was very unlikely to be the direction from which any assault would be mounted. In reality it was just a convenient device to allow the KFRE force unrestricted access to the tank farm.
As soon as the makeshift sangars were complete, Michaels instructed one man to remain in each, with his Lee-Enfield .303 rifle loaded and ready to hand; the other men walked around the site familiarizing themselves with the layout, noting the locations of each of the scores of tanks, including details of their contents because of the need to crack open the heavy oil tanks first, so that Dawson’s makeshift ignition system would get a chance to work. This also allowed them to surreptitiously measure the circumference of the valves and pipes that they would blow off the tanks using charges made from gun cotton.
Then a couple of the soldiers replaced the two men who had ostensibly been on sentry duty, and allowed those two men to also walk around and inspect the site so that they knew where each type of tank was located. It was such a vast facility that the same process of reconnoitring and inspection continued throughout the afternoon. Michaels decided that, with the German advance getting closer all the time, it made sense for his men to be in position and ready to start the demolition immediately should enemy troops enter the city. And that meant knowing which tanks to hit first.
Michaels then left the oil depot and proceeded on foot, accompanied by Lieutenant Barber, to visit the other two locations a fairly short distance away. He wanted to ensure that all his men were fully briefed and ready in every respect for whatever the next day might bring.
Chapter 9
14 May 1940
Amsterdam, Holland
As soon as he got back, Michaels used a telephone in one of the Petroleum Haven oil depot offices to report to his direct superior for the demolition operation, Commander Slater-Jones, who was based for the time being at Ijmuiden; he reported that the KFRE team were fully prepared to carry out the demolitions as had been briefed. He couched his report in a
ppropriately vague terms, very well aware that parts of his conversation might be overheard by some of the staff at the depot, and he obviously avoided saying anything that might reveal the real reason why he and his men were on the site.
He explained about the code word that had been agreed with the Dutch commandant that would act as the ‘go’ signal, but Commander Slater-Jones told Michaels that he himself might order the demolition to go ahead without reference to the commandant if the military situation demanded it, and reminded Michaels that he might also have to act on his own initiative if communications broke down or the enemy advance reached the area. Then he ended the call and rejoined his men.
‘Any news, sir?’ Lieutenant Barber asked when Michaels walked back to the area inside the oil depot where they’d established a kind of base, and where the men who weren’t on guard duty in the two sangars had assembled. Barber and Rochester, the other officer, were there as well because Michaels wanted to give both of them a briefing on the current situation and issue any appropriate orders for them and the men under their command during the day.
‘No. We’re still waiting on a decision from The Hague,’ the captain replied. ‘All the commander did say was that he may order us to start the demolitions himself if he feels it necessary, without reference to a higher authority, and in the last resort I can initiate it myself, but that’s really only a final safeguard if communications break down completely or if we suddenly see a platoon of Jerry soldiers marching down the road towards us.’
Operation XD Page 8