Gerard Hendrik Bendien 10IA Commando .......info Help Please!

This message was edited 20 times. Last update was at 16/01/2013 05:20:34

Dear Nick

Good to hear from you. I still have to tell to you the past day or so has been an exceptional experience for me.

I unexpectedly discovered CVA and its fountain of information when I spoke with a most helpful gentleman Denis Muir curator at the Achnacarry Museum just two days ago.

My first task is to collect as much information as I can about both my father my mother.

Brief Bio

Within a few days of my mother arriving in London on the kinderstransporten she met my father. They married within a few months. He then volunteered for Achnacarry then WW11 started. My mother never talked about her family - all 89 perished leaving her as the sole survivor of her line. My father died within 5 years. He was an only child and I know little or nothing about his life and absolutely nothing about mother's life or family before she left Berlin.

My father's Roll of honour at Charterhouse bears witness to this lack of recorded history. Today I have spoken with Charterhouse and have sought permission to improve the following:-

BENDIEN - Gerard Hendrick Joan
RSM. He was at Charterhouse [D] 1930 - 1934. He died on 25.11.45, aged 29.

For the sake of my children and grandchildren - actually we are now family with my two brothers which extends to 32 and still growing - this as a result of my father and mother meeting under incredibly difficult circumstances - it is my ambition to record and to celebrate my father's and mother's lives - surely and example of serendipity at its best.

I now know CVA will greatly assist in that mission for which I am deeply grateful.

Today for the first time in my entire life I now understand why we were moved from London, to Torquay, to Wolverhampton, to Portmadog and to Eastbourne. I was able to learn the reasons from the CVA website. Remarkable!

I will write some more soon

Best wishes

Ben

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 16/01/2013 19:56:51

I had a nice chat with Ben on the phone today. I will add the photo to the gallery in due course once some more information is gathered. Nick quoted some postings on the 5/6th Sept. 1944 from the book Commandos in Exile by Nick van der Bijl. In fact we have copies of documents outlining postings for individuals in 2 troop actually in our gallery provided previously by Jack Bakker and the Dutch Commando Museum. I have added some detail provided by Jack on this forum thread to the document detailing postings on the 6th Sept 1944. It can be found on this link to our No.10 Inter Allied 2 troop album :

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/10IA/Dutch/

There is also a good history of the origins of 2 troop in that album

Ben I have also sent you a private message.

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 19/01/2013 01:40:39

Dear Pete

I am grateful for your time today in providing an introduction to the history of the No 10 (IA) 2 Troop Dutch Commando's, a very helpful understanding on the CVA and its excellent website.

We talked about the prefered role of these commando's penetrating the German lines and infecting them with misinformation which greatly diluted their efforts. I have attached a page from a book entitled "Onder der vlage der commado." Its in Dutch and I hope to have it translated - however I understand it mentions my father and further along in English "those bloody Dutchmen ...." It is I believe a reference to my father misleading the French ?

I believe Capt J. Linzel and Capt. Westerling were frequent guests at our house in Portmadog.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben,

Here is a translation of the page from the book "Onder de vlag der Commando's" by Willem van der Veer, who was one of the first members of No 2 Dutch Troop.

"One of Troop members was Bendien, who knew six or seven languages. The same Bendien who later drove into a tree in a jeep near the towm of Zeist and subsequently died. When Bendien was searching the radio waves with a transmitter, he catched the French who were in positions about three kilometers away from us. After listening for half an hour to find out their codenames, Bendien ordered the French to leave their positions and march in a certain direction, where we were waiting for them in an ambush in which we "killed'' them according to the book. As far as I know they never forgave us. Colonel Lister was wringing his hands saying all the time: "These bloody Dutchmen, these bloody Dutchmen.""

I think Capt Westerling must have visited your house after the war as he became a Captain when he was serving in the former Dutch East Indies and not during WW2.

This message was edited 7 times. Last update was at 19/01/2013 01:40:57

Jack

Many thanks - most helpful - amazing piece of trainee espionage

I knew that Capt Westerling visited/stayed in my parents house and my brother stayed at Capt Linzel's house whilst my mother was giving birth to my younger brother Julian.

My brother Jacques has found a Xmas card/book created by Prince Barnhard and my father for the No 2 troop. It is with him in Naples and I should be getting a digital copy and also a photo of my father talking on microphone from a broadcasting station. He is purported to have helped bring in the first convoy of food into Holland near the end of the occupation. Do you know anything about that?

Do you know if the book onder vlag der commando has been translated?

Did you managed to locate the author of the Green Berret ?

BW's Ben

Ben,

As you might guess, I am very interested in the Xmas card/book and the photo of your father talking on a microphone. I haven't seen that photo before and I have never heard that your father, nor any other Dutch Commando, was present with the convoy of food. Very interesting stuff.

As far as I know the book "Onder de vlag der Commando's" has not been translated.

Concerning the site Soldatenvanoranje: my friend in the Dutch Commando Association told me that they are in process of renewing the site of the Association and they will look into it if the info of the former site Soldatenvanoranje will be made part of the new site. It will take some time!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 18/01/2013 01:59:32

Jack

First of all - thank you for your kind interest. You and your colleagues are doing an invaluable job for posterity. I have been speaking to my brother Jacques in Naples and he is sending me the information which I will pass to you most willingly.

I recall from the Green Berret (Soldatenvanoranje) website is that it was beautifully and sensitively created and if I can be of any assistance to help recreate it I have experts who can assist in that direction- if we can have the content - it would not be a problem - Kindly ask your colleagues if we can help. This site must be restored.

Best wishes
Ben

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 18/01/2013 18:22:43

Dear Jack

Please find attached the picture as promised of my father Gerard Bendien broadcasting - I am told - to the Dutch people informing them that he and his commando colleagues had managed to bring in the first convoy of food into Holland since the occupation. It is dated 5th May 1945. I would appreciate your kind observations.

I will soon have further information and pictures from the Xmas magazine - I now understand a little more about it - it was a book sending greetings from and signed by Prince Bernhard, Churchill, and I think other Commander's in Chief of the allied forces to the troops and states "Compiled by G H Bendien." It is about 10 pages in all.

My brother has it and will find it and make copies for you soon.

Best wishes

Ben

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 18/01/2013 23:33:59

Dear Ben,

Nice picture of your father! I have printed it and will put it with his papers in the archive of our Commando museum.

I have had a close look at it and I can see parachute wings on his left chest. This is very possible as he and the others who volunteerd for work behind the German lines, did a parachute course before they went into action.

The thing I wonder about is the hackle on this beret. Dutch Commandos did not wear such a thing on their berets. I can also not make out the Dutch Lion on his beret. But I am sure some variations were made to the uniforms in those days. For instance, there were some who put on a red beret with the badge of the Parachute Regiment after finishing the parachute course and there were some who kept the green beret.

At the end of April 1945 the Germans allowed food convoys to enter the West of Holland. I have never heard of Dutch Commandos, i.e. No 2 Dutch Troop, being involved in that in any way. The Troop was in the South of Holland at that time. But it could be possible that your father was involved in one way or the other. From the first of December 1944 he was promoted to the rank of temporary Sergeant Major for the time he was attached to the Staff of the Dutch Interior Forces. I have no info how long he stayed in that job, but being with the Staff it might be possible that he had something to do with the convoys. Perhaps your father's service record could shed a light on this.

The date on the photo is 5 May 1945. This was the day on which the Germans officialy surrenderd in Holland and that day later became Liberation Day.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 19/01/2013 01:00:59

Jack Bakker wrote:
The thing I wonder about is the hackle on this beret. Dutch Commandos did not wear such a thing on their berets. I can also not make out the Dutch Lion on his beret. But I am sure some variations were made to the uniforms in those days. For instance, there were some who put on a red beret with the badge of the Parachute Regiment after finishing the parachute course and there were some who kept the green beret.

I have examined the beret closely too and have come to the conclusion that there is no cap badge!
The hackle is quite small and circular and the pin is long and could be a metal cone.

Nick

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 19/01/2013 15:29:49

Dear Nic and Jack

Thank you for your studied comments with regards to the photo. I do recall being told by my mother that my father had become a paratrooper. It was she who insisted as told to her by my father the broadcast was to do with a food convoy he had brought in.

I very am gratified that you are able to reveal the date as having such significance - being liberation day. I had not realised before (sorry) - and that date was pre-empted by a couple of days with the first food convoys. Brilliant.

Is it possible to identify whether the place he made the broadcast was from the Dutch Broadcasting Station?

With regards to the service record - which I still have to find for you - sorry about the delay -however - it was very basic as to be almost no help - I wish I could find a more detailed record - I am almost certain it didn't have the kind of information you allude to.

Charterhouse have kindly agreed to improve the paragraph on my father's roll of honour and will await my input - they said they too found it hard to gain any information as the following excerpt from their keeper of the roll of honour Chris Williams confirms:-

I spent some time looking for more information on him, but found nothing apart from these brief references. So if you have any further information, I'd be very pleased to read it, and pass it on to 'Roll of Honour' Chris Williams/Charterhouse

As I try to research material related to my father's military career - I now realise in contrast how little I really know about military matters. Was this perhaps his greatest wish realised - that his children would never have to know?

I feel they would want to know and never forget.

My gratitude for all CVA's efforts

Ben

Poem by GHJBendien

I have created an entry in our gallery for Ben's father, Gerard Hendrik Joan Bendien. I have other items to place in due course. It can be viewed here:

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/10IA/Dutch/Bendien/

Pete