Brugge, van der, Dirk L.

Date of birth:: June 21st, 1922
Date of death:: December 17th, 2003
Nationality:: Dutch

Biography

Dick had to go into hiding after having participated in the strikes in May. Together with other youngsters, he had attempted to shut down the dairy factory. On Monday May 3 in the South-eastern part of the Land van Altena, demonstrations took place in front of the dairy factory at Eethen. Subsequently a group of strikers, including employees of said factory, advanced on nearby Wijk. There, the mob increased to 150 persons. The mob went to the rationing office and summoned the employees to lay down their work. Forced by the public, even the employee of the P.T.T. had to shut down his counter.
Next, the strikers moved to the town hall where they encountered the major, the secretary and the usher. These did not reconsider very long and went home. Subsequently, the strikers dispersed in the vicinity of the village to see to it that no field work was being done anymore. Here and there they had horses unhitched. Meanwhile some inhabitants, members of the NSB had probably alerted the SD in Den Bosch because suddenly an SD unit appeared that opened fire on the strikers from the Heusdensedijk. Everyone fled. After the SD had confiscated some 40 bikes that had been abandoned, they started searching the vicinity of Wijk and in the process they arrested four workers who had hid in a small shed. One of them, S. van Zandvliet carried a large hack knife in his pocket, used when harvesting beets. This made him the prime suspect of the four arrestees who were speedily transferred to Eindhoven to stand trial before the Standgericht. In the end, the Germans considered it sufficient to sacrifice just one of the arrestees. On Monday afternoon, S. van Zandvliet was executed along with a number of detainees from Eindhoven.
Genderen, the Netherlands, May 3, 1943.
Member of the resistance group Groot Ammers. This group was an element of the knuckle squad (KP) in the Alblasserwaard, the KP of Sliedrecht. Involved for intance were Kars van Duuren and Klaas Heijboer. The LKP in the Alblasserwaard organized crossings with Allied military, including General Hackett through the Biesbosch to the liberated South. For this he was awarded the Medal of Freedom.
A British Major, George L. Sullivan had been injured near Den Bosch and was arrested by the Germans and was treated in the Citadel barracks in Gorinchem; he escaped from there and was taken to Hoogblokland by the resistance. After having recovered and provided with forged papers, his journey to the liberated South across the Meuse begins on November 1, 1944. Dick van der Brugge from Babyloniënbroek picks him and two others up in Hoogblokland and takes them via Hardinxveld, Dordtse Biesbosch, Nieuwe Merwede, Bandijk, Werkendam, Tol, Almkerk, Den Duyl and Hillse Steeg to Babyloniënbroek. Dick's parental house is crowded with German soldiers so they want to reach the farm of Wim and Bram Straver at Den Hill in the same night. Meanwhile, there is such chaos on the road with evacuated people and German military so they decide to flee across the fields near Izak the shoemaker to try and reach Den Hill by way of the Mosterddijk. On the dyke, George, cold and feverish, wants to spend the night in a haystack.
A little from the ground, they dig a hole in it and eat pieces of beet from the field in order to quench their hunger. Dick asks Wim en Bram Straver and fortunately, they have a hiding place for George: the pumping station of Hannes de Graaf in the Hillse Polder. A member of the resistance had already found shelter there but some evacuees were staying there as well. A week later, line crossers took him from Werkendam through the creeks of the Biesbosch and across the Amer to Drimmelen and George safely arrives in Antwerp.
Navy Officer. */1/1948 cadet, 1/7/58 discharged asLtz 1, Ltz 1 KMR 1961-1967 van Januari 1, 1948 to Januari 1, 1961. To Korea aboard HM Evertsen . Dispatched by the navy to the war in New Guinea from September 1953 to February 1955.

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