A Glider Pilot's Story - continued (15-16)

CHAPTER 15

There was little else to do except wait and pray that the forthcoming second attempt would have a successful outcome. I felt as though there was something I should do but now I must remain passive once again. I hoped that what I had said would prove to have been some use but my feeling was that I had only fulfilled the requests of my Dutch hosts and underlined the urgency of their situation. The results were out of my hands but at least I could assure the others that the British were coming to fetch us that night.

After changing back into my uniform I thanked Joost for the use of his clothes, and we passed the rest of the afternoon attempting to converse. There were a couple of interruptions by callers knocking at the door which saw me crawling in the direction of the chicken coop but on each occasion the all clear was given before I actually got there.

The afternoon wore on and with the dusk came Phil and Jork. Phil was eager to know how things had gone. I told him about the Brigade Major and the Commando Officer and that it was on for that evening. Min prepared some food and we all sat round a table while she served us with some hot soup. There was again an atmosphere of mounting excitement in the midst of calm control. Once again it was time to go; we donned the raincoats and trilbies and after thanking Min we said goodbye.

As before under the guidance of Joost and Jan we left the town and made our way along the road which led to the dijk. This time as we met van de Beek he explained that he though it was wiser if only a small group went to the beach to make contact while the bulk of the party waited in the empty house which lay nearby in the lea of the dijk. He suggested himself, his colleague Chris Wisse, and Herman; it seemed he sought my approval to this. It was an eminently sensible precaution and I readily agreed.

Inside the empty house were the others; again there was the low hum of conversation amid the general air of expectation. I exchanged some words with Marius, my friend from the previous evening. Then sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall I found myself next to Jork. We talked quietly. Through the medium of my limited German we exchanged the words of daily greeting in English and Russian. Repeating them and correcting each others pronunciation. "Guten tag .... Good day .... Dobre djin .... Dobre utro .... Good morning .... Dobre banikoff .... Good afternoon .... Spokani noces .... Good night."

I have no idea whether what I have reproduced here makes sense, I only know that it represents the memory of what I heard and thought it meant .... a mutual token of friendship from the extremes of Europe thrown together in a foreign land. It was also a way of passing the time of waiting. Occasionally there was a lull in the whisperings of conversation during which ears were strained to catch the hoped for sounds we all longed to hear.

"Shhsh. Listen .... is it .... could that be the sound of a boat's engine ? It must be."

The quiet excitement mounted. Soon van de Beek would return to tell us that they were here, The sound faded and was no more. More waiting and listening. Nothing. Then came the other policeman, Wisse.

They had heard the boat, they thought they had seen a light flashed from it. Then they had lost it again.

He returned to the beach and rejoined van de Beek and Herman. The minutes ticked away and in the little house the air of expectancy was being replaced by misgivings. Could it happen again? Were we all to be disappointed a second time? How long had we been waiting this time? It was already more than an hour past the appointed time.

Van de Beek and the other two returned. Sadly we would have to abandon the attempt again. He went around to the other members of the group and told them of his decision and what must now be done. The other policeman and his wife would go along the road before us and would give warning of any difficulties. Pushing their bicycles they set off along the road. Some way behind, another small group was just setting off in the same direction.

A mile or so to the west the dim lights of a car could be seen; it seemed to be on the road near the dijk when it changed direction as though the road swung away; a few seconds later it disappeared. At about the same time from the direction of Zierikzee another light was being waved. It looked as if Wisse was giving a warning of trouble.

Those who had set off in the same direction had seen it too and were returning towards us. There was a quiet consultation with van de Beek. We retraced our steps past the house and leaving the roadway came into the shadow of the dijk melting into the darkness of its grassy slope. The policeman mounted the dijk diagonally with most of the others following; I was towards the rear and as we faded into the cover of the dijk we were spread along its side with those who had been in the front nearer to the top and those in the rear like myself only about a third of the way up. Hardly daring to breathe, we waited in silence, listening and watching for whatever trouble Wisse's light had warned against.

When it came, it was not from the direction that Wisse and his wife had taken along the road. Looking in an easterly direction towards the top of the dijk past the other members of our group, I could see the silhouettes of two German soldiers coming towards us along the top of the dijk. They were barely five yards away from where the policeman lay and about twenty yards from my position. With their rifles pointing ahead of them they were advancing slowly towards us.

Suddenly van de Beek sprang to his feet just in front of them at the same time shouting "Hands up!" (had he stayed on the ground one of the Germans would have tripped over him two or three steps later.) Immediately two shots rang out in rapid succession. The first came from the nearest of the two Germans who must have advanced with safety catches off and fingers on the trigger. The second came from the pistol of van de Beek. One of the Germans gave a cry and fell headlong down the dijk I could not see what happened for the next few seconds as the members of our group came rushing down the dijk past me and scattering in all directions. Another shot rang out from the top of the dijk from the direction where I had last seen the two Germans. I fired my revolver in the direction of the flash and moved rapidly away from the dijk towards the house to gain cover.

The sound of running footsteps could be heard along the road and also splashing through the fields nearby. Backing around the side of the house I nearly collided with Herman and Phil coming in the opposite direction. None of us had a very clear picture as to the whereabouts of the two Germans or the rest of our group. We hurriedly decided to move away from the house moving cautiously some fifty yards or so to the west along the base of the dijk, then climbed to the top and over the sea-wall. As quietly as we could we crawled to the water's edge and then continued crawling in a westerly direction.

After about a hundred yards we stopped and after a hasty consultation decided that in case we were caught it would be better not to be wearing civilian hats and raincoats. These we left half-buried in the shingle and continued, this time just keeping low, in the same direction, the noise of our faster progress covered by the sound of the sea and the wind. We stopped three times more in the next mile. The first of these was to avoid detection when a flare was put up. The second was to observe a patrol of Germans advancing at the double along the top of the dijk in the direction from which we had come. The third was to decide that we were now far enough away from the flares and the sporadic firing which could be heard in the distance.

We left the beach and crossed the sea-wall and descended the dijk quietly. To our left was a farm close to the dijk. We turned away from it and walked along the road. Not far away was a road junction and beyond it were flooded fields with other farms. We were uncertain as to our best course of action but finally returned to the farm near the dijk. The house itself was not very large and nestled in the lea of the dijk. Across the yard stood a large barn which we entered quietly. We knew that not far away there was probably a German post from which the patrol had come. Nevertheless, since we had slipped by, we would perhaps be safer for two or three days until the hullabaloo died down.

At the far end of the barn was a loft or high platform with a ladder giving access. We mounted this and went above. There was some hay up there though the bulk of what hay there was in the barn was nearer to the entrance. Occasionally during the next hour, there came the occasional sound of light machine gun and rifle fire, mostly short-lived and not always from the same direction. Whatever was going on, we were better off out of it for the time being. We had no idea what was happening to our erstwhile comrades or whether they like us had managed to avoid trouble for the time being.

CHAPTER 16

We spent the next three days in the barn; to be precise from just before midnight on the 7th until about 8 p.m. on Sunday 10th December. Most of the time we were in a mental turmoil; torn between the desire to move to a more familiar place where we would feel safer and yet aware of the need to stay put until the hue and cry had died down. Added to this we wanted to know what had happened to the others - had they managed to escape and hide in their own familiar surroundings or were they in the hands of the Germans ?

Above all we felt let down. Our own people had failed not only us but also the Dutch resisters who were risking their lives. No doubt those other members of the underground who had not been trying to leave the island would be in for a more difficult time as a result of the incident of the 7th.

We were depressed, cold and tired. More than that we were angry. By comparison the additional problem of food and drink seemed at first to be the least of our worries. However, we had absolutely nothing and there seemed to be no way of obtaining anything at this stage since we were reluctant to leave the barn just yet.

We remained in the loft where we could see the full length of the barn. Around the middle of the day a farmer or farm-worker came into the barn. We watched him closely while remaining unseen. To our surprise he seemed to be behaving suspiciously and was apparently concealing something in the hay at the far end. After he had gone, we decided to investigate.

One of us, I think it was Herman, went below and returned with a large tin of catering pack size but unlabelled. It was somewhat dented but still intact and of American origin. After a brief talk to decide whether we should deprive the Dutchman of his jetsam we opened the tin to find that it contained full cream dried milk.

This cheered us up. We had food - the only problem was how to eat it. A mouthful of milk powder brings its own problems. We needed water. While skirting the barn the night before we had seen rain butts out at the back. However we were reluctant to risk being seen outside because of the possibility of a German post nearby.

Eventually the need for water became overwhelming. The only suitable receptacle was a dirty old wooden milking pail. We cleaned it as well as possible with handful of straw and then we pulled straws to see who was going outside for the water. It was Phil.

When he returned we found that the receptacle was ideal for our purposes. The technique developed as follows. First a handful of dried milk in the mouth; then with one's face in the pail the mouth was filled; the milk was then mixed by swishing the water around in the mouth; then finally the mixture was swallowed.

Our lot was now improved. We had milk and water; for the rest there was little else but conversation and waiting. During the second day most of our talk centred around the need for information and food. When darkness came we went over to the house and knocked quietly. The farmer came to the door and we went inside the kitchen. On the table was an oil lamp and by its light we could see that the other occupants of the room consisted of two women and two small children. The man seemed more afraid than the women. He wasn't pleased to see us and he was less pleased at the idea of us staying in the barn. His news was scant but apparently some Dutchmen had been caught by the Germans. He was unwilling to help us and wanted us to us to leave. I told Herman to ask for some food and to tell him that we would leave. He gave us some apples and we left, but only as far as the barn.

We decided to stay for another night and felt that as long as the farmer thought we had gone it would give us some measure of safety. The next night would be the third and if we left soon after dark we could hope to get into Zierikzee and I could find the house of Joost Ringleberg. In fact this is what we did. Cautiously we made our way back into Zierikzee in our stockinged feet. There my daylight experience of 7th enabled me to find the back garden which we entered over the fence. We quietly tapped on the back door. Joost appeared at a small window and when he saw who it was he let us in. Min busied herself making some porridge for us.

They were both relieved to see us and also very upset. Some of the group had been hanged that day in Renesse - they thought ten. Among those hanged had been van de Beek. This was shattering news. It was unthinkable that we should stay. Joost gave us directions that would take us to a place in the neighbourhood of Schuddebeurs where he thought it would be safe for us to hide. As soon as he thought it was safe he would try to reach us with food. We finished the porridge that Min had prepared for us. Sadly we said goodbye and left by the way we had come.

With great circumspection and still carrying our boots we made our way out of the town. Several times we stopped and in quiet discussed where we were and in which direction Joost had meant us to go. Several times in our uncertainty we retraced our steps and tried another way.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.