England game

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The Fall of Icarus by Titus Leeser in memory of the England game in Van Stolkpark in The Hague (1980)

The England game , even companies North Pole called, was a joint counterintelligence operation of the German defense and security police in the Second World War in the Netherlands . Dutch agents trained in espionage and sabotage by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the United Kingdom fell into the hands of the Germans. Their transmitters have been used to transmit false information to the UK. Between March 1942 and May 1943, the SOE parachuted over 50 other agents as well as tons of weapons, explosives and sabotage material in the Netherlands , which were received by the Germans on landing.

prehistory

In August 1941, Major Hermann Giskes was appointed head of counter-espionage (III F) of the OKW Office Abroad / Defense in Holland for the purpose of clarifying agent connections with London. In November he learned of a group of British agents in The Hague through informants whom he had smuggled into the underground movement . Huub Lauwers , a Dutch journalist and agent of the SOE in the rank of lieutenant, was on November 7, 1941, together with Thijs Taconis from the United Kingdom via the Netherlands with the parachute jumped. He sent his first encrypted report to the United Kingdom on January 3, 1942 . The radio surveillance of the security police , which was subordinate to the Abwehr, located the transmitter ( callsign RLS) with remote station in London and monitored it. It recorded traffic times, frequencies and changes, radio duration, etc. a. After the levy, Giskes planned a radio counter-espionage game , which promised success, since it was also possible to smuggle in an undercover agent here.

Beginning of the England game

When the "Gruppe RLS" (British code name: "Ebenezer") was accessed, four people, including Lauwers, were arrested by the German Abwehr simultaneously on March 6, 1942. The captured keys made it possible to decrypt the recorded radio traffic, which provided the defense with a picture of the tasks, plans and goals of the group. According to this, safe landing sites for receiving weapons, sabotage material and agents from the air should be found, the material stored and employees recruited and trained. This was a unique opportunity for the Germans to get their hands on more secret agents and to give the British misleading information.

In order to ensure the continuity and peculiarities of the radio communication, it was absolutely necessary for Giskes to involve the radio operator. Lauwers was held in Scheveningen prison . At first he refused to cooperate with the Germans, but allowed Giskes to change his mind to save the life of Thijs Taconis. He also wanted to secretly inform the SOE of his arrest with his radio messages based on agreed security codes.

During his training at the SOE, Lauwers had learned to incorporate an intentional error into his Morse telegrams - the so-called security check - and to omit this error as soon as he was arrested. In the defense, the radio operator Willem van der Reyden, who had previously been arrested, was already aware of the existence of security checks, but they were not aware of the individual security check of each individual agent. Lauwers made the Germans believe that his security check consisted of sending “stip” instead of “stop”. In reality, the SOE had taught him to send every 16th letter wrong. On March 8th, he sent a first report to London on behalf of Giskes. Although he used his alleged security check (“stip” instead of “stop”) instead of his real security check in this report, there was no corresponding reaction from London.

Lauwers did everything he could, beyond the false security checks, to let the British know he was captured. On March 28, he began his telegram with the letters “GHT” and ended it with “CAU”, which put together “CAUGHT” (captured). In mid-May he even sent the word “CAUGHT” three times in a report. The SOE also ignored these instructions.

The game"

In April 1942, Giskes became aware through "foreign" radio communication with the SOE control center and a dead agent who was accidentally found who had died while jumping, that the SOE was carrying out further operations of this type independently of Ebenezer .

The defense succeeded in controlling these activities through favorable circumstances: When three other pairs of agents were dropped, two radios had become unusable. The agents contacted each other and sent "Trumpet" to London via the intact device of the group, whereupon they were instructed to contact RLS. The defense also lost their encryption material, short signal tables and the like. a. In the hand.

The Abwehr was not authorized to make arrests. The arrests and internment of the enemy agents therefore took place under the direction of Kriminalrat Joseph Schreieder , who headed Department IV E at the Commander of the Security Police and SD Wilhelm Harster in the occupied Netherlands, which is also concerned with counter-espionage . According to Giskes, the relationship between the Abwehr and the security police (Sipo) was "cool and correct." In retrospect, Schreieder also described the collaboration as problem-free.

In May 1942 Giskes had three independent radio lines to London as well as information about their dropping points. The agent George Louis Jambroes, who was deposed on June 27, 1942, was supposed to contact the Ordedienst , a Dutch resistance movement , and with its help set up seventeen sabotage and resistance groups of a hundred men each, each with two senior agents (radio operator and instructor) from England ( Action Marrow). This scheme also corresponded to the structure of parts of the French Resistance .

Giskes transmitted to London that the order service was interspersed with German agents and that he or RLS would use "independent patriots" instead. As a result, by November 1942, nineteen more agents jumped out, including five radio operators with their own codes. The defense reported to the SOE that 1,500 agents were now in training. The SOE sent five tons of equipment on request. By May 1943, seventeen other announced agents, including seven radio operators with their own lines, jumped straight into the arms of the Abwehr.

At times there were fourteen radio lines to London carrying the reports of over fifty agents. Giskes six radio operators were no longer able to cope with these orders, which is why he was already using his own staff. He suggested to the SOE in London to shut down some Marrow transmitters for security reasons.

In August 1942, the SOE demanded that the antenna system of the radio transmitter Radio Kootwijk , via which the German Admiralty conducted radio communications with the submarines in the Atlantic, be blown up . In the spring of 1943, the SOE ordered the murder of representatives of the Nationaal-Socialistische Bewegungsing and other collaborating Dutch people and submitted a list of fourteen death row inmates. However, with more or less convincing excuses, the Germans could fizzle out these two orders.

End of the England game

The end was looming since the SOE dropped its agents in June 1943 without announcing them beforehand. As a result, the Germans, who had previously always been able to arrest the parachutists directly after landing, lost control of the new SOE agents working in the Netherlands, who for their part were at least partially able to recognize that the existing network of agents was only a fictional product faked by the defense was.

On August 31, 1943, agents Johan Bernard Ubbink and Pieter Dourlein managed to break out of the prison of the security police in Haaren , where around fifty SOE agents were held in a four-story building of a former seminary. A major manhunt was unsuccessful. In order to mislead the SOE, Giskes conveyed that the two agents had gone over to the German secret service and would probably try to reach England on German behalf.

The last announced material drop took place in October 1943. In early December, the news became "so bland and bland" that there was no longer any doubt that the British had seen through the game. Some lines of radio game , apparently still intact by the SOE, were warned by London in December 1943. The others were no longer called.

For the time being, the Germans didn't show anything and waited to see what the SOE would come up with as a counterplay. The radio messages became increasingly irrelevant. In March 1944, Giskes suggested to the Abwehr department in Berlin to end the game, which had become pointless. On April 1, 1944, the England game was ended with an unencrypted message to the SOE via all channels still active:

“To Messrs. Blunt, Bingham and Co. We understand that you have been doing business in Holland for some time without our help. Since we have been your sole representatives for a long time, we find this very unreasonable. But this does not preclude that - should you ever decide to pay us a larger visit - you should receive the same hospitable reception as your agents. "

Result

The SOE supported the organization in Holland with almost two hundred dropping operations, in which twelve four-engine bombers were shot down by German night fighters on the return flight . In the course of the England game, the Germans came across fifty-one SOE agents as well as extensive espionage and sabotage material:

  • 15 tons of explosives
  • 3,000 submachine guns
  • 5,000 pistols
  • 300 machine guns
  • 2,000 hand grenades
  • 75 transmitters
  • 100 flashlights
  • 500,000 rounds of ammunition
  • Cash of 300,000 guilders

Incendiary devices with time fuses, direction finders, silent pistols, intercoms, infrared flashlights, bicycle tires, raincoats, rubber boots, lubricating grease for axle fires on trains, magnetic sticky mines with underwater time fuses, pulverized glass splinters for washing German soldiers, killers and the like were also delivered. a. Furthermore, to set up courier lines via Brussels-Paris to Spain and Switzerland, considerable funds in the currencies of these countries, as well as blank passports and ID cards of all kinds with the associated stamps and information about bases in the Brussels and Paris area.

Giskes described the success of the England game as follows:

“The attempt by the Allied secret services to gain a firm foothold in Holland was delayed by two years. The establishment of armed sabotage and terrorist organizations, which were to disturb the rear fighting area of ​​the Atlantic Wall and paralyze the defense at the decisive moment of the invasion, were prevented. "

The fate of the captured agents

The Security Police (SIPO), headed by Kriminalrat Schreieder, captured fifty-one SOE agents between the first agent drop announced in the context of the England game on March 28, 1942 and the last on May 22, 1943. Most of them were then held in hair by SIPO in a former seminary that had served as a police and remand prison since 1941. Major Giskes of the Abwehr had obtained a written assurance from the Reich Main Security Office in June 1942 that the captured agents would not be sentenced to the maximum sentence and would therefore remain alive. Yet only three of them survived.

After three more prisoners - Van der Giessen, Van Rietschoten and Wegner - broke out of their hair on November 22, 1943, the rest - with the exception of Huub Lauwers, Hendrik Jordaan and Beatrice Terwidt - were transferred to a prison near Assen , which was considered the most escape-proof Prison in the Netherlands was considered. At the same time, Schreieder, who was held responsible for the outbreak, lost control of the SOE agents.

After the England game was stopped, when Giskes' reasoning that he had to have the men available to answer questions at all times, the prisoners were transferred to the Rawicz prison fifty kilometers north of Wroclaw , where several perished. In September 1944 they were sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp . Thirty-five of the Dutch agents caught during the England game were liquidated there by the SS on September 6 and 7, 1944 .

Agents arrested between March 28, 1942 and May 22, 1943

No. Surname First name Born Jump fate Died
1 Andringa Leonardus Theodoris Cornelis 11/22/1913 03/28/1942 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
2 Arendse Pieter Arnoldus 02/14/1912 03/10/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
3 Baatsen Arnoldus Albert 04/11/1918 03/28/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
4th Bakker Jacob 05/01/1917 10/28/1942 Missing
5 Beukema toe water Karel Willem Adriaan 06/20/1909 09/25/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
6th Boogaart Pieter Cornelis 08/10/1912 03/10/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
7th Bor van de Klaas 03/05/1913 02/17/1943 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
8th Braggaar Cornelis Carel 09/23/1913 02/17/1943 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
9 Brey de Oscar Willem 10/01/1921 May 22, 1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
10 Buizer Johannes Joh. Corn. 09/11/1918 06/22/1942 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
11 Bukkens Joseph 06/08/1919 06/27/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
12 Dane Johannes Cornelis 04/27/1912 10/28/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
13 Dourlein Pieter C. 02/02/1918 03/10/1943 Survived 05/31/1976
14th Drooglever Fortuin Cornelis 04/10/1922 09/25/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
15th Pouring van der Aria Cornelis 08/02/1916 10/01/1942 Hair 06/10/1944
16 Haas de Johannes Henricus Marie 02/07/1918 04/09/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
17th Hemert van Gerard John 04/28/1920 07/24/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
18th Hofstede Jan December 17, 1918 10/25/1942 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
19th Hulsteijn van Cornelis Eliza 02/08/1912 02/17/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
20th Jambroes George Louis 05/22/1905 06/27/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
21st Juggling Roelof Christiaan 02/25/1913 09/25/1942 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
22nd Jordaan Hendrik Johan 07/09/1918 03/29/1942 Mauthausen 05/03/1945
23 Kamphorst Pieter 11/24/1894 10/22/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
24 Box Jan Christiaan 09/22/1912 02/19/1943 Missing
25th Klooss Barend 10/22/1913 04/05/1942 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
26th Koolstra Reduced 06/04/1917 10/22/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
27 Kruyff de Aria Johannes 11/06/1912 11/29/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
28 Macaré Humphrey Max October 12, 1921 10/25/1942 Missing
29 Mink Anton Berend 10/21/1918 May 22, 1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
30th Molenaar Jan 04/12/1918 03/28/1942 Death after landing 03/28/1942
31 Mooy Adriaan Klaas 07/11/1919 09/25/1942 Missing
32 Niermeijer Willem Johan 05/02/1914 03/29/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
33 Os van Gerard (Cornelis) 05/02/1914 02/19/1943 Mauthausen 09/06/1944
34 Overes Herman Johannes October 19, 1908 11/30/1942 Missing
35 Pals Michiel 05/04/1912 10/22/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
36 Parlevliet Hermanus May 16, 1916 05/29/1942 Missing
37 Pouwels Charles Christiaan 09/25/1923 10/25/1942 Missing
38 punt Laurentius Maria 10/13/1918 May 22, 1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
39 Ras Gozewijn Hendrik Gerard 08/28/1914 03/29/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
40 Rietschoten van Jan Jacob 08/25/1921 06/22/1942 Hair 06/10/1944
41 Rouwerd Frederik Willem 05/31/1912 04/22/1943 Missing
42 Ruseler George Lodewijk 02/27/1922 11/29/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
43 Sebes Hendrik 07/23/1919 04/05/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
44 Steeksma Horst Reinder 10/14/1919 10/25/1942 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
45 Steen van Antony 02/05/1912 05/29/1942 Missing
46 Terwindt Beatrice Wilhelmina Marie Albertina 02/27/1911 02/14/1943 Survived 04/07/1987
47 Ubbink Johan Bernard May 22, 1921 11/30/1942 Survived 04/31/1993
48 Uytvanck van Ivo 07/07/1917 04/22/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
49 Wegner Anthonius Johannes 09/20/1915 04/22/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
50 Wild van der Pieter 05/08/1914 02/19/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944
51 Wild van der Willem 06/01/1910 02/19/1943 Mauthausen 07.09.1944

Cross-connections between the SOE and the British foreign intelligence service MI6 brought the Sipo on the trail of independently operating agents, of whose existence originally nothing was known. This included the Niermeijer named in the table above. In May 1942, MI6 agents Ernst de Jonge and Felix Dono Ortt, who had been deposed in the Netherlands before the England game began, were arrested. They died under unknown circumstances. The agents Alblas, Emmer, ter Laak and Radema mentioned below, who had also been removed from MI6 before the England game began, were murdered in Mauthausen.

Memorial in Mauthausen concentration camp

The ashes of the forty-seven SOE agents who were killed are said to have been buried behind the detention building of the Mauthausen concentration camp .
Memorial plaques behind the detention building in Mauthausen concentration camp (1968)

In 1968 the Nederlands Oorlogsgravenstichting put a plaque behind the detention building of the Mauthausen concentration camp with the names of forty-seven SOE agents liquidated in September 1944. There are three other boards in Dutch, English and German that read:

“On September 6th and 7th, 1944, 40 Dutch and 7 British prisoners of war were cruelly murdered by the Nazis in this camp. They were special agents who had parachuted over German-occupied territory on a special mission. Their bodies were cremated in the camp crematorium. Yugoslav and Russian prisoners buried the ashes of these war heroes at this point, with great danger to their own lives. Dutch War Graves Foundation. "

Among the forty-seven victims on this memorial were

  • Thirty-five Dutch agents who dropped out of the England game in the Netherlands after March 28, 1942 and are included in the table above
  • Five Dutch agents who jumped out in the Netherlands before March 28, 1942 and are listed in the following table
  • Seven British SOE agents who fell into the hands of the Germans in France and are listed in the table below
Netherlands
1 Alblas Aart Hendrik
2 Emmer Jan
3 Laak ter Johannes Hermanus Arnoldus Maria
4th Radema Evert
5 Taconis Thijs
France
1 Bloom Marcus
2 Clement George
3 Jones Sydney C.
4th Newman Isidore
5 Norman Gilbert
6th Wilkinson Edward
7th Young John C.

Survivors

Huub Lauwers was spared this fate. At Giskes' instigation, he initially stayed in hair. Because of the isolation of the Abwehr after the " Hans Oster case " and its subsequent restructuring, Giskes had little influence on the fate of the prisoners who were formally subject to the security police. On April 26, 1945, Lauwers near Rathenow was liberated from the Oranienburg concentration camp by Soviet forces.

Pieter C. Dourlein and Johan Bernard Ubbink survived because they escaped from Haaren on August 31, 1943 and returned to England in February 1944. However, they were suspected of being German double spies there, arrested in May 1944 and found in Brixton much worse conditions than they had previously in German custody. In 1950 they were given third and fourth class awards, which indirectly meant their rehabilitation.

Beatrice Terwindt, the only woman among the Dutch SOE agents, was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and to Mauthausen in early 1945, where she survived the end of the war.

After the war

The Fall of Icarus in Van Stolkpark in The Hague by Titus Leeser (1980)
Commemorative plaque for the England game in the Binnenhof in The Hague (1980)
Dutch Monument in Mauthausen concentration camp by Appie Drielsma (1986)

After the war, Huub Lauwers, who was able to prove that he had repeatedly incorporated warnings into his radio transmissions as part of his collaboration with the German Abwehr - but ignored them in London - was honored by the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina .

After his internment in Great Britain and the Netherlands from 1946 onwards, Hermann J. Giskes was one of the first employees of the Gehlen organization and the later Federal Intelligence Service . In 1951, he published his memoirs under the title “Spione overplaying spies” with an afterword by Huub Lauwers. The 1953 English book version "London Calling North Pole" led to a parliamentary request from the opposition Labor Party in the United Kingdom to clarify the truth. The government spokesman announced that the facts were "unhappily true". A parliamentary inquiry was refused on the grounds that it was not in the public interest to publicly debate intelligence matters.

Joseph Schreieder was only deported to Germany by the Dutch on March 17, 1949 after the proceedings had been discontinued and an acquittal was made, and he was then also placed with the Gehlen organization . He published his memoirs in 1950 under the title That was the England game .

In 1955, Duilio Coletti shot the Italian feature film “Londra chiama Polo Nord” (German: London calls North Pole ), freely designed for spies Overwhelming spies by Hermann J. Giskes. The action was moved to Amsterdam and Giskes was cast as "Bernes" by Curd Jürgens "in his best role in a long time". His opponent Joseph Schreieder was played as "Hermann" by René Deltgen and a love story with a "Mary" portrayed by Dawn Addams was added.

In 1968, the Dutch War Graves Foundation in Mauthausen concentration camp installed memorial plaques behind the detention building for the SOE agents who were killed, where their ashes are said to have been buried in 1944.

On May 3, 1980, Queen Juliana , who had abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix a few days earlier, consecrated the sculpture “The case of the Abwehr ” in the Van Stolkpark in The Hague near the former headquarters of the Dutch branch of Department III F of the Abwehr in Hogeweg Ikarus ”by Titus Leeser in memory of the England game. The Dutch text reads:

“You jumped to your death for our freedom. England game 1942–1944. In grateful memories of the 54 Dutch agents and of the many in the news network. "

Also on May 3, 1980 , a memorial plaque with the following Dutch text was unveiled in the Binnenhof , where the German security police were based and where the captured agents were first housed:

“You jumped to your death for our freedom. England game 1942-1944. In grateful memories of the 54 Dutch agents and the many on the news network. Many of them were taken prisoner into this building. "

The names of the forty Dutch SOE agents killed in Mauthausen can also be found among the 1660 names on the bronze plates of the Dutch monument of Appie Drielsma , which was inaugurated in Mauthausen concentration camp in 1986.

literature

  • Joseph Schreieder : Het Englandspiel , van Holkema & Warendorf, Amsterdam 1949.
  • Hermann J. Giskes : Defense III F de duitse contraspionnage in Nederland . De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 1949.
  • Joseph Schreieder : That was the England game . Walter Stutz, Munich 1950.
  • Hermann J. Giskes : Spies cover up spies . Hansa Verlag Josef Toth, Hamburg 1951. - New edition: London calls North Pole. The successful radio game of the German military defense . Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1982, ISBN 3-404-65046-8 .
  • Jelte Rep : England game. Espionagetragedie in bezet Nederland 1942–1944 , Van Holkema & Warendorf, Bussum 1977, ISBN 90-269-4561-2 .
  • Pieter Hans Hoets : England game ontmaskerd. Schijnstoot Op Nederland En België 1942–1944 , Ad. Donker, Rotterdam 1990, ISBN 90-6100-345-8 .
  • Jo Wolters: Dossier North Pole. Het Englandspiel onder de loep . Boom, Amsterdam 2003, ISBN 9-05352-882-2 .
  • Hans Schafranek : Company "North Pole". The England game of the German military defense in the years 1942–1944 . In: Hans Schafranek, Johannes Tuchel (Hrsg.): War in the ether. Resistance and espionage in World War II . Picus-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85452-470-6 , pp. 247-291.

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schafranek (2004), p. 248.
  2. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 56.
  3. ↑ Schreieder (1950), u. a. P. 114, p. 380.
  4. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 159ff.
  5. ↑ Giskes (1982), pp. 176ff.
  6. ↑ Schafranek (2004) p. 267f.
  7. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 192.
  8. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 188.
  9. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 201.
  10. ↑ Schreieder (1950), p. 400.
  11. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 202.
  12. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 210.
  13. ↑ Schreieder (1950), p. 403. Almost identical: Giskes (1982), p. 211.
  14. ^ Giskes (1982), p. 133.
  15. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 187.
  16. ↑ a b c agents op naam gesorteerd on englandspiel.eu. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ Schreieder (1950), p. 402.
  18. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 175.
  19. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 212.
  20. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 151f.
  21. ↑ It is today's Penetentiaire Inlichting Veenhuizen about ten kilometers west of Assen. In the Dutch Wikipedia: Veenhuizen (gevangenis) .
  22. ↑ a b Schafranek (2004), p. 277.
  23. ↑ Schreieder (1950) p. 394.
  24. ↑ Giskes (1982), p. 210.
  25. ↑ Rep (1977), p. 320.
  26. ↑ Schafranek (2004), p. 278.
  27. ↑ Schafranek (2004) p. 261.
  28. ↑ Rep (1977), p. 368.
  29. ↑ Rep (1977), p. 365.
  30. ↑ Rep (1977), pp. 367, 366, 363 and 365.
  31. ↑ a b Mauthausen on englandspiel.eu. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  32. ↑ a b Schafranek (2004), p. 280.
  33. ↑ An afterword by HMG Lauwers , in: Giskes (1982), pp. 273–307.
  34. ^ Time, August 10, 1953.
  35. ↑ Procedure Ser. No. NL068 against Schreieder, Joseph: acquittal + proceedings discontinued ( memento of the original dated August 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on jur.uva.nl. Retrieved June 17, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  36. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 34/1957.
  37. ↑ Until the III F office moved to Driebergen in November 1942, see Giskes (1982), p. 181.