On April 11, 1944, six English Mosquito bombers flew to The Hague in broad daylight for an attack on Kleykamp, the Central Population Register. This is at the request of the Dutch Resistance. The result of the action: burning identity cards and approximately 60 deaths. But the resistance can now safely walk around with forged identity cards
11-04-1944 Tuesday. 613 Squadron RAF
De Haviland Mosquito LR355 SY-H
Wing Commander Robert Bateson
Flying Officer B. Standish
De Haviland Mosquito LR376 FB MKV1
Flight Lieutenant Peter Cobley
Flying Officer G. Williams
De Haviland Mosquito NS844
Squadron Leader C. Newman
Flight Lieutenant F. Trevers
De Haviland Mosquito NP927
Flight Lieutenant R. Smith
Flying Officer J. Hepworth
De Haviland Mosquito NI408
Flying Officer Robert Cohen
Flight Sergeant Peter Deaves
De Haviland Mosquito LR366
Flight Lieutenant V. Hester
Flying Officer R. Birkett
The six planes took off from RAF Station Swanton Morley in Norfolk at 1:05 PM (UK time). A brief account of the attack, given by Wing Commander Bateson, was printed in the edition of 'De Vliegende Hollander' (a small newspaper dropped by the Allied air force) of Thursday 4 May 1944:
"We flew very low. The inundation of certain parts of the land, which looked like muddy puddles, did not make it any easier to find our way. At first we thought we were over the wrong stretch of coast, but once we found our route everything went smoothly. On our model we had paid particular attention to a number of chimneys, but when we arrived on site, we found so many chimneys that we decided not to rely too much on them. I climbed to about 700 meters, took a good look around and saw then at more than 6 km, the tower of the Peace Palace, which was close to the target. I descended again and then the dive towards the target began.
The building had five floors and was estimated to be approximately 25m high. We bombed from a height of about 18m, lower than the roof. A sentry stood guard outside, but he threw down his gun and ran away. I couldn't see what happened myself, but my number 2 told me later that he had been able to follow my bombs exactly, that one had landed right in the front door and that the other two had gone into two large windows.
All bombs landed on target and the incendiary bombs did their job properly. When it was the turn of numbers 5 and 6, there was actually nothing left of the entire building."
aftermath
Villa Kleykamp had turned into a sea of flames. Some houses around the villa were also destroyed, due to the air pressure and explosions. But despite the building being completely in ruins, it turned out that the attack had been less effective than hoped. Less than half of the shadow archive was only destroyed. Many identity cards and other documents had been safe from destruction by rubble and fire in the archives and safes. The Germans recovered these documents from the ruins in the weeks after the attack and took them elsewhere.
59 people were killed in the attack. The majority of them worked at the Central Population Register. It was assumed that these employees were German sympathizers, but this was incorrect. There appeared to have been only a few collaborators among the staff, the others were innocent people. In retrospect, people have often wondered why the attack had to take place on a working day. Its effectiveness did not appear to be much greater, but it did cause a significant number of civilian casualties. The fact that the attack was only carried out in April 1944 and not earlier during the occupation has also caused considerable discussion about the usefulness of the attack. For example, the deportations of Dutch Jews were almost complete at that time.
The crews of 613 Squadron completed the mission without losses. "We got away without a shot being fired at us, so to speak. The Germans had no idea what was happening. An escort of Spitfires was waiting for us to guide us safely home," said Bateson. The commander was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) for courage and determination during a secret operation. Resistance fighter Pierre Louis d'Aulnis de Bourouill was awarded the Military William Order after the war.
- Aanval op Kleykamp - TracesOfWar.nl
- WW2 Original Press Photo RAF Named Mosquito Attack On Hague Netherlands #eu71 | eBay