Tuesday 10 January 2012

Day 14 - The Resistance Movement and "Dulle Griet"!

"By the time of the Spring of 1942, which would have been my early call-up for the class of 1943, I was looking and trying to gather information on how to get closer to the Spanish border without being noticed.

Boosts to our moral were being given by the knowledge that agents were being dropped everywhere with the equipment and monies to continue the struggle on a more even basis.  Some were landed by short takeoff planes on the new autostrade strip at Jabeke near Bruges.  Somewhere on the other side a party of blackshirts was taking place in an old castle and aerodrome with the consequence that it got bombed out.

This was the boost to our moral we had been looking for.  Everything was in good working order now.  I met an electrician, in the trade school, called Everaert, an extremely selfish character he turned out to be but reliable, whose uncle, an opportunist of considerable dimensions turned collaborator.

The uncle advertised the fact that he needed able bodied students for the vacation periods and others for the Normandy coast with good pay and food; that was it! John his name was, handled a subcontracting firm for the "örganization Tod" for helping at construction of which we had no knowledge.

Curiosity got the better of us and we were told, find out.  We were all fully aware of the secret operations carefully implemented by our teachers, documents were supplied by John.  The trip would go through Brussels, Paris, Le Mans to Cherbourg and surrounding places.  Contacts would be looked out for by us all along the route.  Everything was as wished for and set for those assaults.

I had probed the Dunkirk area first but that was hopeless too well guarded. Some of us got into the Calais region.  I went there with an old friend, George, a boyhood acqaintance who had recenlty gained a lot of experience on the island of Jersey.  He had escaped by hiding away on a provisions ferry.

George and I nearly got ourselves arrested in the same dunes as I had been in before by a German platoon on exercise, who took us for spies.  After this, I lost track of George as he belonged to a new resistance group and found Daniel instead who was interested in getting to England.

For this mission, with John and Everaert plus another eleven of us I had to find out if I could get through now one way or the other.  Our team consisted mostly of Ostend lads, quite a few had a British background like the Hendersons, Jarvis's and Maynards of families like mine from past British campaigns and fuly integrated.  Ostend had still quite a decent sized Anglican community.  We all had one single thing in mind, reaching England and hitting the enemy back as hard as we could from there.

Our John had his quota now and we set off on the day of the trial run fully operational.  He had to watch the lot of us as he was solely responsible for us.  I suspected that he realized what we had in mind, so much his nephew would have told him, too, but his ideas were to make the knife cut both ways. For so much, I realized from my own personal observations that we were in relatively safe hands for this double game, for the moment!

The loyal bunch I should call the group now was off.  The trip went according to plan smoothly rolling along, crossing the frontiers with flying colours.  This time check points and free passage provided for!  It took us nine hours to reach Paris.  

I now stood in the silvery moonlight and I thought, we are making better headway than in that early May day of 1940 when I was with my family.  We passed Compiegne, the Armistace Place where Hitler had stood on so much! 
I now started to reflect about my Grandmother who had left for the old Inn on t' Sas, Slijkens?? or muddy sluices as we called it.  She wouldn't budge anymore for the rest of the war, that was for sure!  Once the old lady made up her mind she could be like a "Dulle Griet", or an angry old lady.  ""Dulle Griet", was also a well known character in Flemish folklore, illustrated by H. Bosh.  It could also mean a big gun used in sieges and in dialect meaning, somebody, usually female, who gets in a fierce fighting mood..."


To be continued ...



  

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