Wassenaar - Operation Premium

Date commenced: 
Sunday, February 27, 1944

Location

Wassenaar
Netherlands
52° 8' 31.4304" N, 4° 19' 15.942" E
Units: 

A raid on the Dutch coast near Wassenaar on 27/28 February 1944 by a small group of Commandos from No. 10 Inter Allied Commando who had embarked at Great Yarmouth on MTB 682.  

Captain Charles Trepel and the 5 other French Commandos  who left the MTB that night were never heard of again until the area around Scheveningen was liberated. During investigations into their disappearance their graves were found, five described as unknown Allied airmen, and one as unknown English soldier. The graves were disinterred and the men identified. There have been numerous suggestions as to how they met their death from drowning to execution. 

Mort pour la France

TREPEL, Charles
HAGNERE, Jean
GUY, Rene
RIVIERE, Jacquelin
DEVILLERS, Fernand
 
Sources:
  • No 10 Commando author Ian Dear who records his source as the French edition below.
  • Het Drama Bij Wassenaarse Slag, a detailed analysis of Operation Premium and the mysterious deaths of its participants, was written in 1985 by P.H. Kamphuis, a Dutch historian who is the assistant to the Head of the Historical Branch of the Royal Netherlands Army. This has been translated into French under the title Le Drame de Wassenaar. 
  • Letter from the Base of 1st Batallion Fusiliers Marins Commando, FNGB, to the Central Service of the Etat Civil in Paris.
 

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