Adriaan de Kok

Adriaan de Kok, as he introduced himself to the glider pilot Bernard Haller (Noordman, p. 270)

About: A young man who, by Bernard Haller's account, fetched Haller and James Hardy at Hulshorst in October 1944 and took them to a house in the woods; ◐ probably the "ADRIAN, a member of the Underground" whom Hardy found at the forester's house Kijkuit, where Murphy was hidden from 26 October to 6 November 1944.

Unit or role: ◐ A member of the Underground, if he is Hardy's "ADRIAN"; a student, as Haller took him to be.

Where: Hulshorst; the forester's house Kijkuit in the Leuvenumse Bos.

Evidence: ◐ Haller's account in Noordman, p. 270; ✓ Hardy's MI9 report, for "ADRIAN" at the house.

Hardy and Haller, escaped from the Willem III barracks at Apeldoorn on the night of 6 to 7 October (Noordman, p. 269), came to a farm at Hulshorst on 12 October 1944, where "the son of the farmer put us in touch with an organisation" (Haller's report). Haller's account, as Noordman prints it, names who came for them:

Two young lads fetched us; one of them was small and dark and about eighteen. They hardly spoke English. … The second lad was taller and spoke good English. He introduced himself as Adriaan de Kok. I think he was a student. After the war I had a letter from him, but after that I lost touch.

Dutch originalTwee jonge knapen hebben ons opgehaald, een van hen was klein en donker en ongeveer achttien jaar. Ze spraken nauwelijks Engels. … De tweede knaap was langer en sprak goed Engels. Hij stelde zich voor als Adriaan de Kok. Ik denk dat het een student was. Na de oorlog heb ik nog een brief van hem gehad, maar ben daarna het contact kwijtgeraakt.

— Bernard Haller, as Noordman prints him · Schuilplaats de Veluwe · 2019 · p. 270

Noordman identifies the first lad as Bram Baar of Joop Migchelsen's group, and says nothing more of the second. Then, in Haller's words, "Deze knapen brachten ons naar een huis in het bos" (these lads took us to a house in the wood), where he met James Branford, and later Sam Walsh and Tom Murphy (Noordman, p. 270).

The house was the forester's house Kijkuit in the Leuvenumse Bos (Noordman, p. 278), ◐ Migchelsen gives the house where he sheltered the men as Hierderweg 132, Hulshorst, a double house with a forester's family named v.d. Vlist in one half and the other half lent to him for his underground work (Migchelsen's statement, p. 3; Z. van der Vlist). He does not name Kijkuit and Noordman does not mention v.d. Vlist, so tying the two together is ours. Hardy's report lists who was there when he and Haller arrived:

In this house there was Eric BLOK, formerly a 2/Lt. in the Dutch Army and now a member of the Underground; EMMY, a girl of 19, also of the Underground; P/O. BRENTFORD, an Air Bomber of a Stirling crew … also ADRIAN, a member of the Underground, and two Dutchmen in hiding.

— Pte James Hardy, MI9 report · interviewed 13 January 1945 · the Pegasus Archive

Noordman renders the same man as "een zekere Adriaan" (a certain Adriaan) (p. 279). Hardy left the house alone on the morning of 19 October, and set out again after dark on 26 October, back to the house, with Murphy and the other paratrooper of 156 Battalion; "The same party was still occupying the house", and Tex Banwell joined them on 29 October (Hardy). ◐ So, if Hardy's "same party" included him, Adrian was in the house with Murphy from 26 October. At midnight on 6 November the men were taken on to Harskamp by "DEREK and LOEW"; Hardy's list of the eight who went does not include Adrian (Hardy). ⚠︎ Migchelsen's own statement has them handed on "en bloc" on 11 November, "transported through the woods to Bos, Farm Staverden" (p. 3; see Kijkuit and Harskamp). The six evaders were Branford, Hardy, Haller, Walsh, Murphy and Banwell, as Migchelsen listed them (his statement, p. 3).

Haller had a letter from him after the war and then lost touch (Noordman, p. 270). Nothing else is known of him.

• Who fetched Hardy and Haller. Haller remembered Bram Baar and Adriaan de Kok (Noordman, p. 270).
  • Hardy's report, from his interview of 13 January 1945, has two brothers, "JAN (1) and EEVID (?)", take them to a meeting place in a wood where "the two Underground members they took us to were BRAM and JOOP (?)", and "BRUMMAGER and JOOP took us to a house in the woods" (Hardy); Noordman names those two Bram Baar and Joop Migchelsen (p. 278).
  • Migchelsen himself wrote "I met B. and C. wandering in the woods", B. and C. being Hardy and Haller (his statement, p. 3).
  • ◐ So where Haller remembered Adriaan de Kok, Hardy's report, the earlier record, has "JOOP". Noordman does not say when Haller gave his account.
• Whether he is Hardy's "Adrian". ◐ The identification is ours, not Noordman's: the same first name, among the same people in the same days. Noordman names the man in the house only as "een zekere Adriaan" (p. 279), and Migchelsen's lists of his helpers name Emma Vroege, H. Baar, Reinier Mooy and Balthazar Sibbes, and no de Kok or Adriaan (p. 2; p. 4).

Everyone, A to Z