Can you help?
Apart from trying to identify the people in the photographs throughout the site, we are also trying to help those who are looking for information about Intelligence School 9, particularly about their relatives. Please let us know if you have any information that might help. Below are some specific topics we are currently researching:
Release certificate
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Pte John George Dunnington - any further information about him is being requested by his son Allan, who knew nothing about his dad's involvement in the unit until he found a case of documents in his parents' attic! The documents include a diary written in German in John's handwriting - which was particularly strange, as to the family's knowledge he did not speak German! Bizarrely John and Jimmie were born on consecutive days in August 1918 - we wonder if they ever celebrated their birthdays together!
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List of staff being moved on the disbandment of unit - found in files at the national archives and includes an A Dunnington - which could possibly be J Dunnington?
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Sgt Harry W Sykes
The list of staff at disbandment throws up another interesting point as it indicates that Sgt H W Sykes was awaiting Court Martial in Brussels. This confirms a family story as Jimmie told me that he organised a 'safe' job for Harry but until we found the IS9 WEA Battle Order, we were not aware that they were in the same unit and both were part of the advance headquarters. Jimmie said he was let down badly by Harry and sadly the cousins never spoke again. We would love to know what the Court Martial was actually for... Some years later Jimmie was mistaken for Harry while in the South of France by a lady who drank at the pub that Harry was the landlord of, The Half Moon in Collingham Wetherby Yorkshire. Knowing they looked alike made us take another look at the IS9 WEA group photograph in Brussels and we wonder if Harry is actually standing next to Jimmie - you can just see his head over someone's shoulder on the back row, three from the right and then Jimmie is the other side of the man in front, further towards the middle of the photo. Can anyone can confirm for us or add to this? |
IS9 WEA Brussels - they worked on one of the floors above the awards bureau in Brussels
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Nijmegen - when three witches came to stay...
Dr Nick Lambrechtsen has provided us his story living as a young boy in Nijmegen in 1944 when an IS9 unit was stationed at his home. Below are pictures drawn by his mother of some of the soldiers that came to stay and we are trying to help identify them:
On 17 September 1944, the British and American troops reached Nijmegen and it was liberated after prolonged heavy fighting, but it became a frontier city for 7 months. It was the last city to be freed in the well-known “Operation Market Garden” with its Battle of Arnhem which the airborne troops of the 1st British Airborne Division could not hold against the German Panzer divisions that happened to be nearby. I remember American airborne troops coming past our house, walking very quietly in their rubber boots. They had been dropped south of Nijmegen near Groesbeek. We offered them pears from our pear tree. At first they were suspicious: these kids could try to poison us, but soon they enjoyed eating that fresh fruit and gave us real chocolates in exchange. That was such a luxury. We had not seen real chocolate for years. Later-on tanks, most probably Sherman tanks, came through our street, and we saw how they cooked their food in half a drum that they filled with sand, then put petrol on, and then set on fire. When the flames started to die down, they would poke the sand, and things would flare up again.
Because we had such a big house, we had British Commonwealth soldiers quartered in our house: I think there were 23 of them at one stage. They were British, Irish and Scots, and a few Canadians. We slept in the cellar under the house, so they could occupy as many rooms as they liked. The soldiers turned out to be an intelligence unit [see next paragraphs] which helped to get the airborne troops back from Arnhem through the Betuwe which was no-man’s land. This operation was called “Operation Berlin (Arnhem)” and involved the 23rd Canadian Field Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers which on the night of 25/26 September 1944 managed to get some 2,500 airborne troops back to liberated territory, using “assault boats” and “storm boats”. They had to cross two big rivers, Rhine and Waal, and had to avoid German artillery. Subsequent efforts were made on 22/23 October 1944 in “Operation Pegasus” when about 138 troops were carried across the Rhine. However, Operation Pegasus II on 18 November 1944 was not successful, but seven men crossed during the next two days. The latter crossings [or subsequent crossings] may have been made with inflatable canoes, but the soldiers found that they were so noisy on the water that the Germans could hear them at night and shoot at them. So then the soldiers “acquired” all the canoes from a local Dutch canoe club. Those wooden canoes were much quieter on the water so they were successful in bringing back some more soldiers from the Battle of Arnhem. In February 1945 and later, more troops from Arnhem were brought back to the liberated part of the Netherlands.
On 17 September 1944, the British and American troops reached Nijmegen and it was liberated after prolonged heavy fighting, but it became a frontier city for 7 months. It was the last city to be freed in the well-known “Operation Market Garden” with its Battle of Arnhem which the airborne troops of the 1st British Airborne Division could not hold against the German Panzer divisions that happened to be nearby. I remember American airborne troops coming past our house, walking very quietly in their rubber boots. They had been dropped south of Nijmegen near Groesbeek. We offered them pears from our pear tree. At first they were suspicious: these kids could try to poison us, but soon they enjoyed eating that fresh fruit and gave us real chocolates in exchange. That was such a luxury. We had not seen real chocolate for years. Later-on tanks, most probably Sherman tanks, came through our street, and we saw how they cooked their food in half a drum that they filled with sand, then put petrol on, and then set on fire. When the flames started to die down, they would poke the sand, and things would flare up again.
Because we had such a big house, we had British Commonwealth soldiers quartered in our house: I think there were 23 of them at one stage. They were British, Irish and Scots, and a few Canadians. We slept in the cellar under the house, so they could occupy as many rooms as they liked. The soldiers turned out to be an intelligence unit [see next paragraphs] which helped to get the airborne troops back from Arnhem through the Betuwe which was no-man’s land. This operation was called “Operation Berlin (Arnhem)” and involved the 23rd Canadian Field Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers which on the night of 25/26 September 1944 managed to get some 2,500 airborne troops back to liberated territory, using “assault boats” and “storm boats”. They had to cross two big rivers, Rhine and Waal, and had to avoid German artillery. Subsequent efforts were made on 22/23 October 1944 in “Operation Pegasus” when about 138 troops were carried across the Rhine. However, Operation Pegasus II on 18 November 1944 was not successful, but seven men crossed during the next two days. The latter crossings [or subsequent crossings] may have been made with inflatable canoes, but the soldiers found that they were so noisy on the water that the Germans could hear them at night and shoot at them. So then the soldiers “acquired” all the canoes from a local Dutch canoe club. Those wooden canoes were much quieter on the water so they were successful in bringing back some more soldiers from the Battle of Arnhem. In February 1945 and later, more troops from Arnhem were brought back to the liberated part of the Netherlands.
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The logo /emblem of the intelligence unit comprised 3 witches, and we used their stencil to decorate our “splintcar” built on an old pram frame. See photos of my youngest brother Caspar in the crate on the splintcar, and a close-up of the witch. The crate had contained army rations. I painted the witch onto the crate but did it the wrong way around! After all, I was only 10 at that time. The soldiers had made a stencil so that they could paint the 3 witches onto the mudguards of their trucks. |
The officers of the soldiers stayed with our neighbours at #12, but we reckoned we had a much better deal, and certainly a lot more fun. Being soldiers from an intelligence unit[1], they had a big transmitter in what was actually the bedroom of my brother and me. That transmitter was important enough for the Germans to pinpoint its location, so they sent a flying bomb, a “V-1” [“doodle bug”] to obliterate it. Fortunately they got the distance sufficiently wrong so that the bomb missed us by about half a kilometre and dropped into the farmland behind our house. It still created a lot of damage: blowing out windows and making the ceilings come down. You might say a bit like a big earthquake. In addition, the soldiers had portable transmitters which had been built into petrol cans, called “Jerry cans”, because the Germans designed them first. I am sure that they took such transmitters with them when they were dropped behind enemy lines to gather information or sabotage things. They also used these transmitters to listen in on German messages, and with the help of a Dutch woman, they would reply with erroneous messages to lead the Germans “up the garden path”. When the soldiers sent messages in code to their headquarters, we could not make any sense of the code because it used common words, like ‘sugar’ and ‘tea’. We saw that they had the key code on a piece of cloth [silk?] so that they could swallow it if they got caught by the Germans. We also had a big tree on the corner of our house, which the soldiers used for practising throwing their knives. We reckoned that was to kill German sentries. Since the soldiers were part of SHAEF, several had the famous rainbow badge of that Force; they were very proud of it. One of the soldiers had a badge with P on it. He was extremely proud of it, because that belonged to the GHQ Liaison Regiment Phantom Force, which was established in 1939. Its main duties were to use wireless communications and mobility in order to provide real-time assessment from the front line. Phantom recruited men with various skill-sets – linguists, drivers and mechanics – and undertook rigorous training in wireless communication and cipher. In January 1944, the Phantom Force was absorbed into the Royal Armoured Corps but Phantom was disbanded in 1945.
The reference to the Royal Armoured Corps is interesting because, while we had the Three Witches in our house, the Guards Armoured Division of the XXX Corps had its Head Quarters under Major General Sir Allan Adair at the Weesinrichting Neerbosch, on the other side of the Maas-Waal canal, from September to November 1944. Then the Polar Bears took over. Near this Weesinrichting [orphanage] an airstrip for Austers was made, such as used by 664 AOP squadron [see below]. This airstrip was most likely “Nijmegen 66”[1]. The strip has been described in detail with photos by Mr Arjen W. Kuiken, 10-02-2017 [Reactie 9] on the Dutch website https://www.noviomagus.nl/h1.php?p=Gastredactie/Geertsen/AOP.htm%23Rx09 It was approximately located at the present day Binderskampweg, Neerbosch. I think it is very likely that the Three Witches communicated with the Guards Armoured Division HQ. Since the bridge over the Maas-Waal canal at Neerbosch had been blown up, they would have had to travel via Weurt, but it still would have been a fairly short trip of 5-6 km.
Just one more anecdote: One day, my mother had put a green camouflage parachute in the garden to dry it on the grass. She got a big telling off from the soldiers because a spotter plane could easily see that from the air and possibly betray the presence of the intelligence unit. She was very firmly told never to do that again. My mother used the parachute silk to make summer pyjamas.
[1] For “Nijmegen 66” see the book “RAF Squadrons: A Comprehensive Record of the Movement & Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912” by Wg Cdr C G Jefford MBE, first published in 1988, ISBN 1 85310 053 6. He describes how “Nijmegen 66” was used by the 653, 662, and 660 RAF squadrons. Major John Dicksee of the AOP Officers’ Association wrote to me 22/10/2007 that it was probably the B flight of 662 squadron that used this strip.
I received additional information from Fred Judge, researcher at the Military Intelligence Museum, Chicksands, Shefford , UK, about the unit that stayed with us. He writes on 12 June 2013 “I am more than ever convinced that the unit stationed in your house was probably one of the Special Counter Intelligence Units (SCIUs) which were run by MI6 with MI5 participation and often quite a few members of the Intelligence Corps”. A few days earlier, on 9 June, he wrote: “’Both the Security Counter Intelligence Unit' (SCIU), and the 'Special Patrol Unit' (SPU) had close links to the intelligence and security fraternity and some of their members were MI5 and/or MI6 in uniform. Their role was to run agents and line-crossers in the field, amongst many other similar duties. Members came from a number of other units including American and Canadian.”
The involvement of the Canadian Field Company was revealed in April 2015 when my sister in the Netherlands found our mother’s 2 sketch books with 35 drawings of the soldiers who had stayed in our house. None of the sketches were named but one Lance Corporal G A Sutherland had written his 23rd Canadian Field Company details on the cover of one of the books. Thanks to the help of several people in Canada, I found that it was Lance Corporal Gerald A Sutherland who died on 25 May 1997, aged 79 in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. His obituary stated that he had spent 4 months in a special force with the Dutch underground to help with evacuation of aircrew, escapees and transported special types. I managed to contact his son Freddie who sent me a photo for comparison.
The reference to the Royal Armoured Corps is interesting because, while we had the Three Witches in our house, the Guards Armoured Division of the XXX Corps had its Head Quarters under Major General Sir Allan Adair at the Weesinrichting Neerbosch, on the other side of the Maas-Waal canal, from September to November 1944. Then the Polar Bears took over. Near this Weesinrichting [orphanage] an airstrip for Austers was made, such as used by 664 AOP squadron [see below]. This airstrip was most likely “Nijmegen 66”[1]. The strip has been described in detail with photos by Mr Arjen W. Kuiken, 10-02-2017 [Reactie 9] on the Dutch website https://www.noviomagus.nl/h1.php?p=Gastredactie/Geertsen/AOP.htm%23Rx09 It was approximately located at the present day Binderskampweg, Neerbosch. I think it is very likely that the Three Witches communicated with the Guards Armoured Division HQ. Since the bridge over the Maas-Waal canal at Neerbosch had been blown up, they would have had to travel via Weurt, but it still would have been a fairly short trip of 5-6 km.
Just one more anecdote: One day, my mother had put a green camouflage parachute in the garden to dry it on the grass. She got a big telling off from the soldiers because a spotter plane could easily see that from the air and possibly betray the presence of the intelligence unit. She was very firmly told never to do that again. My mother used the parachute silk to make summer pyjamas.
[1] For “Nijmegen 66” see the book “RAF Squadrons: A Comprehensive Record of the Movement & Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912” by Wg Cdr C G Jefford MBE, first published in 1988, ISBN 1 85310 053 6. He describes how “Nijmegen 66” was used by the 653, 662, and 660 RAF squadrons. Major John Dicksee of the AOP Officers’ Association wrote to me 22/10/2007 that it was probably the B flight of 662 squadron that used this strip.
I received additional information from Fred Judge, researcher at the Military Intelligence Museum, Chicksands, Shefford , UK, about the unit that stayed with us. He writes on 12 June 2013 “I am more than ever convinced that the unit stationed in your house was probably one of the Special Counter Intelligence Units (SCIUs) which were run by MI6 with MI5 participation and often quite a few members of the Intelligence Corps”. A few days earlier, on 9 June, he wrote: “’Both the Security Counter Intelligence Unit' (SCIU), and the 'Special Patrol Unit' (SPU) had close links to the intelligence and security fraternity and some of their members were MI5 and/or MI6 in uniform. Their role was to run agents and line-crossers in the field, amongst many other similar duties. Members came from a number of other units including American and Canadian.”
The involvement of the Canadian Field Company was revealed in April 2015 when my sister in the Netherlands found our mother’s 2 sketch books with 35 drawings of the soldiers who had stayed in our house. None of the sketches were named but one Lance Corporal G A Sutherland had written his 23rd Canadian Field Company details on the cover of one of the books. Thanks to the help of several people in Canada, I found that it was Lance Corporal Gerald A Sutherland who died on 25 May 1997, aged 79 in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. His obituary stated that he had spent 4 months in a special force with the Dutch underground to help with evacuation of aircrew, escapees and transported special types. I managed to contact his son Freddie who sent me a photo for comparison.
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Two drawings of Nobby - see below
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Nobby
This person “Nobby” was also in our house in Kerkstraat 14, Hees near Nijmegen, the Netherlands, from about 20 September 1944 to March-April 1945. He was in a unit called the “Three Witches” which was part of IS9(WEA) which stands for Intelligence School No 9, Western European Area. It was probably one of the Special Counter Intelligence Units (SCIUs). It was part of MI9. This unit dealt with escapers, evaders and POWs mainly; with agents and line-crossers in the field, amongst many other similar duties. Its members came from a number of other units including American and Canadian. It was attached to SHAEF=Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
My mother Helena de Baat painted Nobby in his tank driver’s suit, but no badges are shown in the painting. My sister in the Netherlands would like to send the painting to his next of kin. My brother Caspar visited him and his wife in 1960 in Halifax but cannot recall much from that visit.
We only knew this person as “Nobby”, but he had red hair and was from the UK, not from Canada; about 5’9”. His rank was sergeant. Several persons in the UK have advised me that “Nobby” was a common nickname for somebody with the surname Clark or Clarke. I am sure that my mother Helena de Baat wrote to him after the war, but no correspondence has ever been found.
We assume that “Nobby” was ‘loaned’ from the Manchester Regiment and that he was probably from the Mechanical Section of the Regiment. He made a brass shell case with the emblem of the Manchester Regiment on it, which he left behind. He could make anything out of brass shell cases, and even made a ring out of a Dutch silver coin. I still have a brass dustpan that he made from a shell case. I have already been advised on 13 October 2014 by Mr Fred Judge, Military Intelligence Museum researcher, that a Sgt L Clark appears on an IS9 (WEA) structure chart as part of Ops HQ under Major H Fraser but it gives no regiment or other details. From Victor van Haeren I learnt that Major Hugh Fraser was head of the Nijmegen operation of IS9 (WEA) and may well have stayed at our neighbours’ house #12 where the officers stayed. So we may be looking for a Sgt L Clark, who lived in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK, in 1960 , and was most probably part of the Manchester Regiment, likely from its Mechanical Section . He was extremely adept at making metal objects. You may be interested to know that Major Hugh Fraser trained Victor van Haeren's father Jos "Titmouse" in the operation of the S-phone in Nijmegen and later in Vught and Tholen.
My mother Helena de Baat painted Nobby in his tank driver’s suit, but no badges are shown in the painting. My sister in the Netherlands would like to send the painting to his next of kin. My brother Caspar visited him and his wife in 1960 in Halifax but cannot recall much from that visit.
We only knew this person as “Nobby”, but he had red hair and was from the UK, not from Canada; about 5’9”. His rank was sergeant. Several persons in the UK have advised me that “Nobby” was a common nickname for somebody with the surname Clark or Clarke. I am sure that my mother Helena de Baat wrote to him after the war, but no correspondence has ever been found.
We assume that “Nobby” was ‘loaned’ from the Manchester Regiment and that he was probably from the Mechanical Section of the Regiment. He made a brass shell case with the emblem of the Manchester Regiment on it, which he left behind. He could make anything out of brass shell cases, and even made a ring out of a Dutch silver coin. I still have a brass dustpan that he made from a shell case. I have already been advised on 13 October 2014 by Mr Fred Judge, Military Intelligence Museum researcher, that a Sgt L Clark appears on an IS9 (WEA) structure chart as part of Ops HQ under Major H Fraser but it gives no regiment or other details. From Victor van Haeren I learnt that Major Hugh Fraser was head of the Nijmegen operation of IS9 (WEA) and may well have stayed at our neighbours’ house #12 where the officers stayed. So we may be looking for a Sgt L Clark, who lived in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK, in 1960 , and was most probably part of the Manchester Regiment, likely from its Mechanical Section . He was extremely adept at making metal objects. You may be interested to know that Major Hugh Fraser trained Victor van Haeren's father Jos "Titmouse" in the operation of the S-phone in Nijmegen and later in Vught and Tholen.
These fantastic drawings from Helena de Baat's sketch book have been kindly provided to us by the National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek, if you think you recognise someone, please do let us know.
