Deliver Us From Darkness

by Ian Gardner

  A few moments later the boss called me back in. “Shames, you are truly a pain in the behind but I recognize that there may be certain differences of opinion between yourself and Captain Nixon.” Luckily Sink still had a reasonable amount of affection for me, which no doubt influenced his subsequent decision. “Shames, before you say anything, there is no way that I’m going to transfer you back to third battalion. In a few weeks, I am planning to redesignate 3 Ptn, E Company as Regimental Patrols Platoon and would like you to head them up. They are a tough bunch but I think you can handle “the mutineers”* so what do you say?” Of course I was delighted with the offer and in the meantime, Sink assigned me to assist Regimental Operations Officer, Major Clarence Hester, in the S-3.

  Before too long Shames would be back in action and working alongside 3rd Bn, but in the Netherlands, not Belgium.

  * Clawson won a Silver Star, alongside S/Sgt Fred Bahlau, for his actions at the road bridge near Brevánds, on June 6, 1944.

  * So-called because of a controversial incident before Normandy involving a group of senior NCOs after refusing to serve in combat under Captain Herbert Sobel – who at the time was in command of E Company.

  2

  “Circle of fire”

  The German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands

  Before World War II, the Dutch government naively supported a neutrality and disarmament policy. Despite regular warnings given by the Dutch military attaché in Berlin, Maj Gijsbertus Sas, the government chose to ignore all threats of German attack. It was not until August 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, that the Netherlands began to mobilize and strengthen its land forces but by then it was too late.

  Originally created in 1745 to counter French aggression, the country’s main area of defense was known as the “Vooruitgeschoven Stellingen,” or the “Grebbe Line,” named after the hill feature. Covering a distance of 80 miles, the Grebbe crossed the heart of the Netherlands from the IJsselmeer in the north to Hertogenbosch in the south. Before reaching the province of North Brabant, the Grebbe joined the “Peel Line” and continued south to Roermond on the Belgian border.

  In 1939 two smaller defensive lines were dug closer to the frontier with Germany. At one point the Maas–Waal Line, as it became known, extended along the southern bank of the river Waal, close to villages and towns such as Appeltern, Wamel, Beneden-Leeuwen, and BovenLeeuwen. The purpose of the system was to delay any possible enemy advance – by defending vital road junctions, railway lines, and ferry crossings – long enough to allow Dutch forces to withdraw back to the Grebbe Line.

  Dirk van Tintelen, a 21-year-old army reservist, was living and working on his father’s dairy farm in Dodewaard on the river Waal when he received his joining instructions for mobilization at a camp at Leersum:

  I was a member of a five-man heavy-machine-gun team sent to defend the dijken [dikes] along the Maas–Waal Line. Most of us who were in the reserves were driven by a sense of duty and a hatred for the Germans. Due to the lack of motorized and horse-drawn transport we had to put on special harnesses and physically pull our guns like pack mules. There were only a handful of concrete bunkers along this stretch of the line, as the bulk of the defenses were constructed from wood. We dug deep gun pits into the wall of the dijk and settled in to await the German attack.

  Our billet was at a nearby farm and selfishly the farmer made it quite clear to us that his apple orchard was out of bounds. One night we thought to hell with it and decided to raid the orchard. The following morning the farmer demanded to see our boss, Lieutenant Reidingf [sic], who, anxious to keep good relations, promised to post a guard. Not to be outdone, I made a couple of small chicken coups and hid them inside an old threshing machine. Before long, I was collecting around twenty eggs a day and cooking them every morning for the lieutenant and our two gun teams.

  About a week later the old farmer began to notice that his chickens were not laying their usual quota. Much to our amusement he couldn’t figure out what was happening. It was hard for Reidingf to keep a straight face, as the old man blamed the shortfall on the amount of noise he thought we’d been making. Reidingf told him in no uncertain terms to stop being so petty, as we could be at war the next day and fighting for our lives.

  As a joke we made a large wooden sign declaring in big letters “Het Scheutige Boertje [The Generous Peasant]” and fixed it firmly to a post along the road from his house. The old farmer didn’t find this at all amusing and complained to the local police. After talking with us for a while, the officers realized what was going on and instructed that the sign be left exactly where it was. I guess you could say this wasn’t a great start to protecting my homeland from the Germans.

  In the early 1930s, work had begun to restructure and re-strengthen the entire Grebbe system, but its design was flawed and outdated even before the rebuilding commenced. The German Army was well aware of this fact and noted that the northern bank of the Neder Rijn near Rhenen was weak and vulnerable to attack.

  On February 6, 1940, Gen Henri Winkelman took over as supreme commander of Dutch forces after his predecessor General Reijnders was discharged due to personal issues with the government. Winkelman realized how desperate the military situation was, but he did not have enough time to do what he thought was necessary.

  Fortuitously some antiaircraft units (AAA) had been recently equipped with the most modern 40mm Bofors guns. This was due to the generosity and foresight of a wealthy businessman, who donated around 45 artillery pieces to the army. Most of these weapons would be used to good effect around the country against the Luftwaffe (some were later transported to England where they played a vital role in Britain’s air defenses). Despite this the Dutch Army was lacking in soldiers and incredibly had only a handful of tanks at its disposal.

  In the event of an invasion, Winkelman’s plan was to stage a tactical withdrawal, westwards from the Grebbe and Peel lines to form a defensive perimeter along the coast, which he called “Vesting-Holland” (Fortress Holland).This perimeter would encompass the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, to the north and The Hague and Rotterdam in the south. In theory this delaying tactic would give French and British forces time to reach the beleaguered Dutch Army and repel any German assault.

  At 0355hrs on Friday May 10, 1940, the attack on the Netherlands began when the Germans attempted to break through the main defensive line at several points. Primarily the German plan was to drop airborne troops and capture two main airfields around The Hague, allowing the 22. Luftlande-Infanterie Division (22nd Air Landing Division) to be flown in. The division consisted of nearly 9,000 men whose orders were to attack The Hague, and capture the Dutch royal family. However, Princess Juliana, her husband Prince Bernhard and their children managed to escape by sea to the UK, closely followed by Queen Wilhelmina, her government ministers, and senior military staff.

  As the first enemy troops stepped across the Dutch border, the Luftwaffe attacked airfields to the west. Thousands of paratroopers dropped around The Hague, near key airfields at Valkenburg and Ypenburg, and bridges along the main road leading to Rotterdam. The Germans completely underestimated the Dutch AAA defenses and lost nearly 450 transport aircraft on the first day. As a result a large proportion of German ground forces were unable to link up with the airborne troops, who had been devastated by the losses incurred by the Luftwaffe. The Dutchmen on the front lines did a wonderful job, and in many instances took the enemy by surprise, proving that they were no pushover.

  Anxious to get into the action, Dirk van Tintelen’s machine-gun crew had been moved to a section of the Grebbe Line at Maarsbergen, 20 miles east of Utrecht. “This time it was for real as we watched helplessly as hundreds of German aircraft flew overhead. We sat and waited until the order was given to withdraw towards Rotterdam, where we were to support the marines defending the Maas bridges at Moerdijk. It was imperative for the enemy paratroopers to capture not just Moerdijk but also the bridges at Dordrecht and Rotterdam, to allow their ground forces clear access
to The Hague.” At 1030hrs on May 14, a German official visited the headquarters of the Dutch Army in Rotterdam, with an ultimatum that read:

  To the Town Master, Alderman and the Authorities of the city of Rotterdam. If you do not cease all military operations immediately the German Army will be forced to take effective action against the city and Rotterdam will be destroyed. I implore you to responsibly consider this ultimatum because if you do not then the consequences will be disastrous. I request that you send a Minister immediately who has the necessary power to act. You have two hours to come to a decision. If no word reaches us within that time then you leave me with no choice other than to order the destruction of the city.

  That same morning Dirk van Tintelen was ordered to “the White House” in Rotterdam, a high-rise office building with commanding views across the river Maas.

  Using an elevator to carry the heavy equipment up to the roof our commander set up our machine gun behind a solid brick wall. At first we were apprehensive about opening fire but that soon changed after we shot down our first aircraft. It wasn’t long before the German artillery marked our position and began to return fire, killing one of our crew. The same explosion also damaged the gun but we managed to keep firing until running out of ammunition. With the building now under heavy bombardment, and the lift rendered unserviceable, we were forced to abandon our post and seek shelter in the basement of a nearby warehouse. Not long afterwards, we heard the sound of aircraft and began praying as the bombs started to drop. Moments later the ceiling collapsed as the building received a direct hit and everything went black. Trapped under the rubble our situation seemed bleak but nobody said a word, I guess we figured that this was the end. When the dust settled one of the guys noticed a small bead of light. Realising that this might be our only chance of survival, we dug furiously with our bare hands and managed to escape. Outside, the scene that greeted us was truly horrifying. The city was in flames, dead bodies were lying in the streets and we were speechless at what the Germans had done to innocent civilians.

  Another infantry attack came from the north across the low ground from Friesland, and stalled when it reached the heavy fortifications on the IJsselmeer. Again the 40mm AAA guns played a vital role in defending the area at Afsluitdijk. Except for the paratroopers, most of the enemy soldiers from Army Group B never reached “Fortress Holland” or even came close.

  The evacuation of “the Island”

  By far the largest and most aggressive assault came in the northeast, six miles west of Wageningen, along the Neder Rijn, against the recently rebuilt Grebbe Line. Commanded by Gen Jan Godfried, the Grebbe was defended by 2nd and 4th Army Corps, who put up a fearsome resistance around the Grebbeberg. At nearly 50 meters in elevation, the Grebbeberg is the highest and most densely wooded point in the Veluwe (the area north of the Neder Rijn). The imposing hill was dissected by the main trunk road between Arnhem and Utrecht, and was also close to a vital railway bridge crossing the river at Rhenen.

  For several days Godfried’s men held out against attacks by hundreds of tanks supported by fanatical SS troops who showed no mercy. Nearly 400 Dutch soldiers were killed in action around the Grebbeberg and nearby Wageningen. After the indiscriminate bombing of Rotterdam, Hitler threatened to do the same to other cities if Dutch forces did not surrender immediately.

  Situated northwest of Nijmegen, Betuwe, known by the Americans as “the Island,” is bounded by the Neder Rijn and the river Waal. The area measures a maximum of 30 miles wide by eight miles deep and is split in the west by the Amsterdam Rijn Canal. The canal was built at the end of the 19th century and today still connects the port of Amsterdam to the main shipping arteries of the Rijn. Before the German attack on the Grebbe, most of the civilian population on the Island was placed on evacuation alert, while in the Veluwe, larger towns like Wageningen moved 12,400 people in less than two and a half hours.

  It was originally planned to transport the people from Opheusden (in the Betuwe) along the Neder Rijn to Krimpen a/d IJssel (Krimpen on the IJssel), but due to the ferocious attacks on Rotterdam, the evacuation only reached the town of Groot Ammers. However, there was a separate plan in place for Dodewaard and the suburb of Hien, where a small fleet of coal barges had been moored in readiness on the river Waal. “The idea was to move the population further south to the islands of Beveland and Walcheren,” recalls Dodewaard resident Frits van Schaik. “Everyone was covered in coal dust by the time we reached Tiel, where we spent the night on the barges because the Dutch Army had blocked the river with a pontoon bridge. The next morning the armada was allowed to continue west to Papendrecht (14 miles southeast of Rotterdam) where we anchored for the night. The area had only just been bombed and we were now surrounded by a ring of burning buildings. As the evening progressed the circle of fire grew larger forcing us to move back upriver to Sliedrecht where we were billeted with local families.”

  In 1940, Clazien Hermse was eight-years-old and lived with her family on a large farm on Groenestraat in Hien. She recalls:

  The local church verger, Wim van Schaik, was a member of the Luchtbeschermingdienst (LB-Civil Air Defense)and told us that we were to report, along with my younger brother Marinus, to the dockyards at Dodewaard. Rather stupidly we didn’t take any food because our neighbors said that they had enough for both families. But after we set sail they selfishly kept all the supplies for themselves. My dad had been mobilized and was stationed at Culemburg, from where by chance he witnessed the armada sailing along the Waal. Of course he had no idea why this was happening or that we were on board. Finally we arrived at Sliedrecht and were sent to a family who owned a large house from where they ran a printing business. The Van de Waards were very welcoming and allowed us to share their bathroom and dinner table and we remained with them until the capitulation.

  On May 17, after four futile days of heavy fighting, the Dutch military machine capitulated. Hitler was bewildered by the fact that the Dutch Army, which was for the most part composed of farmers like Dirk van Tintelen, was capable of inflicting such severe losses among his own highly trained storm troopers.

  After the surrender most of the “refugees” from Dodewaard and Hien returned to their homes, as Frits van Schaik, who was 22-yearsold at the time, recalls: “Many returned in the same filthy coal boats, but some luckier families like ours went home by lorry. Our house had been ransacked and everything we possessed was gone. The first German troops we encountered tried to tell us that they had taken the Netherlands to prevent the English from invading! We laughed but I think they actually believed it was true.” The Dutch Army was decommissioned and the regular soldiers sent to prisoner-of-war camps, while the reservists either went back to work on their farms, or were eventually sent to Germany as forced labor. After forcing Dutch soldiers to sign a combatant register, the Germans pledged to release all prisoners of war as a sign of goodwill. However, the gesture came with one alarming caveat, that if any man wanted to work he had to go to Germany to do so. Unemployment benefit was denied to those who refused, and any worker who had the audacity to return to the Netherlands was automatically denied benefits or a ration card. The German war machine needed food, so Dirk van Tintelen returned to his father’s farm in Dodewaard, hopeful that some day in the future his military training would once again be needed.

  The German occupation

  In the weeks that followed the surrender, the main Dutch political parties tried hard to preserve the ideals and identity of the country without clashing with the Germans. Publicly, Reichskommissar Dr Arthur Seyss-Inquart (appointed on May 20, 1940) encouraged a tolerant attitude on both sides, but he knew it could never last. High-grade civil servants felt justified by continuing to work on under German rule in accordance with a pre-invasion cabinet directive. The order instructed that in the event of enemy occupation, “it would be in the public interest to carry on the administrative process in the best possible way.” The judicial system also continued in the same manner, except for those crimes commit
ted against the occupying forces, which were ruthlessly dealt with by the military regime.

  The German Army requisitioned the shipyard at Dodewaard, where Frits van Schaik worked to convert river vessels into troop transporters:

  The bows were removed and fitted with ramps, before the wooden floors were ripped out and replaced with concrete to enable access for tanks and other military vehicles. It was no secret that the barges were intended for use in the proposed invasion of England. All copper, brass, tin, or nickel objects had to be handed over to the authorities. To the average person iron and copper were scarce, but we used large quantities in building the invasion barges and were able to utilize some of these raw materials to repair tools and engines for local farmers, who paid us with produce such as meat and butter.

  Civil engineer Anton A. Mussert founded the Dutch Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (NSB or National Socialist Movement) in 1931. The Dutch disliked Mussert even more than they did Adolf Hitler, and many were convinced that members of the NSB had fought against the Dutch national forces in 1940. In reality, anybody who posed a threat to security during this period was either arrested or went into hiding. After the capitulation, Mussert welcomed the occupying German forces as liberators and protectors of the Dutch people. Refusing to simply grant the unpopular Mussert leadership of the Netherlands and Flanders, Hitler instead promised official authority if Mussert could obtain the loyalty of the general population.