Berry Melis

Tilburg 24 Jul 1918 – ?

Bernardus Josephus Henricus Melis, "Berry", of Tilburg

About: A Tilburg resistance man of the K.P. who went with the party of 2 January 1945 and walked at its head with Adriaan Maljers. When the party was fired on near Opheusden he got away, and by his own form swam the Rhine when the Germans surrounded him.

Unit or role: The K.P. (his form of 17 August 1945, p. 3); on his second form (28 December 1945, p. 4) "N.B.S." stands in the box for the name he was known by to Allied personnel and the box for the organisation is blank; ◐ read as the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten. By trade a glazenier (a stained-glass maker) in 1946 (his marriage).

Where: Tilburg: born at Molenstraat 121 (his birth); his parents' house at Stokhasseltstraat 42 from 18 November 1921 (the family card), the address on both his forms of 1945 (there spelled Stokhasselstraat, p. 3) and on the American and British lists of 1946. His December form has "Berry Maurik" in the box for the address known to Allied personnel (p. 4); ◐ read as the name and place the Allied men knew him by: "Berry", at Maurik, a village in the Betuwe. ⚠︎ The form does not say what Maurik means.

Evidence: ✓ His helper file with the Americans, US National Archives 286674216 (p. 1, p. 2, p. 3, p. 4); ✓ Maljers's statement of 1945, p. 16; ✓ the Tilburg birth register and family card; ✓ the British helper index, certificate 9389 (sheet M/6); ✓ the Americans' Grade V list, no. 2800 (p. 105); ⚠︎ Betuwe-West, a local-history retelling of Maljers's recollections

✓ He was born at Tilburg on 24 July 1918, at half past three in the afternoon, at his parents' house at Molenstraat 121, the son of Henricus Bernardus Melis, a magazijnmeester (storekeeper), aged 27, and his wife Adriana Martina de Kok; his father registered the birth the next day, 25 July (birth deed 966, Tilburg 1918).

✓ The family card of the Tilburg population register for 1921 to 1939 has the household at Molenstraat 121 and then, from 18 November 1921, at Stokhasseltstraat 42: his father, born 5 June 1891, his mother, born 18 November 1891, both at Tilburg, himself as the eldest son, born 24 July 1918, and four younger children (the card). Stokhasseltstraat 42 is the address on both his forms of 1945 (there spelled Stokhasselstraat) and on the American and British lists of 1946, and his December form names his next of kin as "H.B Melis father" (p. 4), so the Berry Melis of the helper files is Bernardus Josephus Henricus Melis.

What he did in the resistance before January 1945 is known only from the summaries in his file, which give no dates or places. The Americans' summary of March 1946: he "Has done much in the way of looking after allies, weapons, transports, train derailmants [sic], espionage" (p. 2). His December form, written of him in the third person:

Berry Melis was a very good underground worker who also has done much in the way of looking after allies, weapon-transports, train-derailments, espionage etc. Has given to the allies a suit, bike, shoes, socks.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Bernardus J.H. Melis · questionnaire, 28 December 1945 · p. 4

The party set out from Amerongen on 2 January 1945 to cross the flooded Betuwe to the Allied lines: Canadian soldiers, the Canadian airman Bob Porter, a Polish soldier, and four British paratroopers, Murphy among them, with Dutch guides (Schjelderup's report). They crossed the Rhine by ferry two at a time and gathered at a brickworks on the far side (same; Maljers, p. 16). The whole night is told on Amerongen.

✓ Melis was there: both his forms put him on the transport (p. 3, p. 4). ◐ He is the "Berry" whom Adriaan Maljers, who went with the party, met at the brickworks (the first name, the date and the episode agree; Maljers gives no surname):

In the brickworks I was introduced to the man who had investigated the whole matter and who was called Weine and with the guide who was to show us the way. There was also a certain Berry, underground worker, to join us.

— Adriaan Maljers · statement of 3 December 1945 · p. 16

The guide knew the country; "To me and the other underground-worker Berry the way was unknown", and Maljers counted "14 soldiers and 3 Dutchmen" (p. 16). Schjelderup's report has "11 Allied personnel" (its own list has twelve entries, one an unnamed Polish soldier), "DERRICK, and 2 other Dutchmen as guides" (Schjelderup).

At the head of the party. Melis and Maljers had been leading the way since the start; when the party stopped for a rest after crossing an open sheet of ice, they called for the guide (Maljers, p. 16):

During all that time Berry and I had been leading the way but when we did not know the way so well any more we requested the guide to lead us, but we got no reply on our calling. After having investigated the matter, he proved to be absent.

— Adriaan Maljers · statement of 3 December 1945 · p. 16

The guide was gone, by Maljers's Dutch original "met een ondergedoken Pool" (with a Pole in hiding, p. 20), where the English of his statement makes the guide himself "a hidden Pole" (p. 16); who he was is on Albert van Hattem. The party went on along the forelands towards Opheusden, and about two kilometres above it, climbing the dyke, was fired on, in Maljers's Dutch original "op zeer korte afstand" (at very short range, p. 20); Maljers went off across the flooded land with five Canadians, Schjelderup among them (Maljers, p. 16). Schjelderup's report has the party scattered by automatic fire at a road, and "We lost, and never saw again, one Dutchman and the following three men: Capt. NOBLE, Sgt. TEX (?) [BANWELL], Pte. MURPHY" (Schjelderup). It does not name the Dutchman.

His forms. The questionnaire of 17 August 1945, like the December one, speaks of him in the third person:

M. tried to pass the German lines near Opheusden together with 11 Canadians on 2th [sic] January 1945. The expedition was a failure 3 men came through but the others were scattered. M. himself swam across the Rijn , when he was surrounded by the Germans.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Bernardus J.H. Melis · questionnaire, 17 August 1945 · p. 3

It adds that he lost "raincoat, suit and boots" (p. 3). His second form, of 28 December 1945, tells it at more length:

In order by Alex he tried to take 10 Cand. through the lines. It concerns here the transport of Major Shelderup and his men who have tried by way of land through the Betuwe to arrive at the allied side. This succeeded only partly. Major Shelderup and 3 others have passed safely the rest was taken prisoner. Berry Melis could escape. This was a very dangerous enterprise with which Berry showed much bravery.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Bernardus J.H. Melis · questionnaire, 28 December 1945, boxes 10–11 · p. 4

Who "Alex" was, the file does not say. The Betuwe-West local-history page on Maljers has Melis get clear of the pursuit and "Volgens de herinneringen van Maljers wist hij de Rijn opnieuw over te zwemmen" (By Maljers's recollection he managed to swim the Rhine again) (Betuwe-West).

The rest of the party. Schjelderup, Gri and Hardy reached the British lines (Schjelderup). Maljers was taken on a bridge near Opheusden station (his statement, pp. 16–17), and Briere's report names six recaptured men who reached Arnhem "the following day", undated, Murphy among them (Briere, p. 3); Porter, one of the six, gives a different six without him (Porter's page). What became of Murphy is on Amerongen and Captivity.

Adrianus van Wijnen of Kesteren (K.P. and L.O., known as "Ad") lists "B.J.H. Melis, Tilburg, Stokhasseltstraat 42" among the helpers on his form of 20 May 1946, and says "on the 2nd of January 1945, 13 Canadians were crossed through Grebbelines, Kesteren" (p. 5). His earlier form, of 18 October 1945, has the same day with "13 Canadians and 1 Dutchman through the line Kesteren": "Herewith several people were killed, because the guide of the second part of the traject ran away when a German patrol came in view, this happened between Dodewaard and Opheusden" (p. 3). ◐ Very probably the party Melis walked with: the day, the place and the guide lost at a patrol between Dodewaard and Opheusden agree, and Melis is on his list. The form names no guide. ⚠︎ Its "several people were killed" and its 13 Canadians and 1 Dutchman (no British) do not match the other accounts held, which have Allied men and Dutchmen lost or taken, and four British paratroopers among them. The men's own reports name one man wounded and no death; Porter "learned" that four or five had been killed, from whom he does not say, and the Air Ministry wrote to his wife in March 1945 that "two members of the party were killed", naming neither (Porter's account). ⚠︎ Charles Noble's own later account (unpublished private papers, shared with us privately), told long after the war, has one death, "our second guide", killed by a V1 that "malfunctioned, dropped near us", where his report of 1945 has that guide lost when a German patrol passed (Noble), as van Wijnen's form has him run away.

His file with the Americans. ✓ The American MIS-X office graded him 5 (p. 1); its summary sheet is dated 14 March 1946 and carries the name "Lt. Burke" with a second date, 9 March 1946, whose meaning the typed sheet does not give (p. 2). He is no. 2800 on the Americans' list headed "AWARD GRADE 5", in the file the US National Archives title "Netherlands Grade V (Eisenhower Certificate Cases)": "MELIS, B. J. H. / Stokhasseltstraat 42 / Tilburg, The Netherlands" (p. 105).

His file with the British. ✓ The British Awards Bureau of IS9 listed him as no. 26 among the cases "considered to be in Grade 5" in its letter of 14 May 1946 to Lieut. Burke of MIS-X, asking the Americans to confirm, as "MELIS, Bernardus J.H." of Stokhasselstraat 42, Tilburg (the letter, p. 36). The British index of Dutch helpers has him as "van MELIS, Bernardus J.", Stokhasselstr 42, Tilburg, certificate 9389, grade 5 (sheet M/6).

Marriage. ✓ He married at Tilburg on 30 October 1946, aged 28, a glazenier, living at Tilburg; his father, then 55, was still a storekeeper (marriage deed 1094, Tilburg 1946).

Eisenhower's thanks. Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden reported on 31 March 1947 that Mr B. J. H. Melis, of Hendrik de Keijzerstraat 27, Tilburg, had received a letter of thanks from General Eisenhower for help given to American pilots, and had earlier had one from the Air Chief Marshal, Allied Expeditionary Forces, for help given to British servicemen during the occupation (the notice). ◐ Very probably him: the initials and the town are his, and his grade 5 put him on the list of Eisenhower certificate cases the Americans kept (p. 105); the street is not the Stokhasseltstraat of his forms, though he had married five months before (deed 1094) and no source gives his address after that, and the notice does not mention the Rhine.

Later. Noordman lists a "Dhr. B.I.H. Melis, Tilburg" among the people and institutions in the Netherlands he names as his sources for his book of 2019 (Noordman, p. 338); ⚠︎ the initials match his but for the J read as an I, and the book gives no dates or subject for its informants, so it does not say who this Melis was; a relative of the same initials is as possible. It does not say what he told Noordman. When he died is not known.

• His birth date. His December form has "25-7-1" and a last figure that reads as 3 or 8 (p. 4); the birth register has 24 July 1918, registered on the 25th (deed 966).
• How many set out.
  • Eleven Canadians on his first form, ten on his second (p. 3, p. 4).
  • Maljers has fourteen soldiers and three Dutchmen (p. 16); Schjelderup "11 Allied personnel" (his list has twelve entries, one an unnamed Polish soldier) and "DERRICK, and 2 other Dutchmen as guides" (Schjelderup).
  • Adrianus van Wijnen of Kesteren has 13 Canadians and 1 Dutchman (p. 3). The other counts are on Amerongen.
• How many got through. "3 men came through" on his first form; "Major Shelderup and 3 others" on his second (p. 3, p. 4). Schjelderup names himself, Gri and Hardy (Schjelderup).
• Who led. His second form has him taking the Canadians through "In order by Alex" (p. 4); Maljers has a guide who knew the way, and the way unknown to himself and Berry (p. 16); Schjelderup has the party "with DERRICK in command" (Schjelderup).

Everyone, A to Z