Freerk Stob Jr

Amerongen ◐ 28 May 1924 – ?

Freerk STOB Jr., "Kik", of the Overstraat, Amerongen

About: "Kik" to the Allied men, of the K.P. at Amerongen, born 28 May 1924. With Coen Esveld ("Louis" to his mother, ◐ Hardy's "Koen"), he took Murphy and Hardy from Gerald Esveld's house over the Rhine to Lienden on 2 January 1945, the start of the crossing on which Murphy was recaptured.

Unit or role: The K.P. (knokploeg, an armed resistance squad) of Amerongen, by his own form (p. 2).

Where: Overstraat B 374, Amerongen, his address in May 1945 and the one the Allied men knew (p. 2).

Evidence: ✓ his helper file with the Americans, US National Archives 286691745: his form and his statement, both 28 May 1945, and the card in his file, November 1945; ✓ the British index of Dutch helpers, the sheet from STEKETEE to STOEL; ✓ Mrs Esveld-Strubbe's statement, p. 5; ✓ Hardy's report, 13 January 1945; ◐ the American Grade 5 list, p. 153.

He was born on 28 May 1924: his form gives "28.5.24", without a place (p. 2), and the card in his file "28-5-24" (p. 5). ◐ Amerongen as his birthplace comes from the marriage record below, which is matched to him by age and parents.

His father, Freerk Stob Sr. His form names "F. STOB Sr." as his next of kin, 53 (p. 2). The Dutch indexes give this much of him. ◐ The tie between these records and the man on Jr's form is the name, Amerongen, the age (the form's 53 against the records' 54, below), the mother's name on the 1949 marriage and the 1958 feature's "67-jarige", which fits a birth on 29 March 1891 in November 1958; no record names Kik as this man's son. The ✓ on each line below is for what that record says.

• ✓ Born at Hornhuizen, in the municipality of Kloosterburen, Groningen, on 29 March 1891, the son of Kornelis Stob, a labourer, and Grietje Venhuizen (birth record, index only).
• ✓ Married at Kloosterburen on 6 September 1915, aged 24, Gerritdina Wijn, 23; the index has him as an "agent van politie" (police constable) (marriage record, index only).
• ✓ Amerongen's village constable, veldwachter, from 1916, by a newspaper feature of 1958: "de 67- ■ jarige Freerk Stob, die in 1916 in Amerongen veldwachter werd" (the 67-year-old Freerk Stob, who became constable at Amerongen in 1916; the ■ is the OCR's) (Arnhemsche courant, 15 November 1958, OCR only). The feature calls him a retired constable (gepensioneerde veldwachter), and has him in the autumn of 1919 as the constable "die vlak by het gemeentehuis woonde" (who lived right by the town hall).
• ✓ A deed made at Amerongen on 22 May 1922 has "Freerk Stob, gemeenteveldwachter" (municipal constable) of Amerongen as a witness, and "F. Stob" signs it (the deed, OCR only).
• ✓ Died at Amerongen on 9 April 1972, born at Kloosterburen on 29 March 1891 by that record, his wife Gerritdina Wijn named as his partner (death record, index only).

The 1958 feature is an interview with Count Carlos Bentinck and, second, with him, about the ex-Kaiser's stay at Amerongen castle from November 1918, when he was on duty there; it says nothing about 1940 to 1945 or about his son. The same feature ran that day in the Tubantia, the Nijmeegsch dagblad, the Provinciale Overijsselsche en Zwolsche courant and the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden; the Arnhemsche courant copy is held (Arnhemsche courant).

His form for the Americans' helper office, dated 28 May 1945, gives: Freerk Stob Jr., Overstraat B 374, Amerongen, telephone 200 Amerongen, born 28 May 1924, Dutch, his next of kin his father, "Kik" the name the Allied men knew him by, a member of the "K.P. AMERONGEN" (his form, p. 2). His answer to question 10, the help he gave, is one sentence:

Tom MERPHY and James (Jim). (For full details see supplement to Mrs. ESVELD-STRUBBE No. 00261), were brought by Kik at the beginning of January to LIENDEN, to the stone quarry opposite RHENEN.

— Freerk Stob Jr. · his statement for the Americans · 28 May 1945 · the statement

The same page adds that "Kik's food position at the moment is moderate" and that "He would like to be a representative of a firm" (p. 4). The table of men helped on the back of his form is blank (p. 3).

"Tom MERPHY" is Murphy and "James (Jim)" is James Hardy. His statement sends the reader to Mrs Esveld-Strubbe's, A.B. No. 00261, of the same day (p. 4). Hers has Murphy brought to her on or after 24 December, where Hardy has the pair at the Esvelds' house from the night of 23 December:

He stayed there until 2 Jan, and was then taken away by Louis and Kik for a crossing, which did not succeed.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Mrs G.H. Esveld-Strubbe, Amerongen · answer to question 10, 28 May 1945 · p. 5

Her "Louis" is "Louis (Gerrit ESVELD)" earlier in the same answer, and further down it calls Gerrit "her son" (p. 5): ◐ Hardy's "Koen", Coen Esveld. Hardy has the two of them at the house of Gerald Esveld, a garage proprietor in Amerongen, from the night of 23 December: "Here we stayed until 2 Jan 45". He was debriefed eleven days after the crossing:

At 1300 hours we left on bicycles with KOEN and KEEK (?) and rode down to a ferry on the RHINE … Both MURPHY and I were wearing civilian suits loaned to us by KOEN, carrying our uniform in bags strapped onto the cycles, and we had no difficulty in crossing.

— MI9 · Pte J. Hardy, 16 Parachute Field Ambulance · IS9/WEA/1/270/2351 · 13 January 1945 · the report

✓ Kik was one of the guides, by his own statement and Mrs Esveld's; the two are not independent, since they are of the same day, numbers 00263 and 00261 in the same series, and his sends the reader to hers. ◐ Hardy's "KOEN and KEEK (?)", written on 13 January 1945, is the contemporary trace, and Keek is the same Kik by sound: Hardy marks his own spelling with a query, and the three sources name the same two guides, Koen or Louis, and Kik or Keek, for the same day.

Where he took them. After the ferry Hardy has the pair cycle to Kesteren, to a barn beside a farmhouse, where they met Tex Banwell, Armando Gri and two Canadian privates (Hardy). Stob's statement has "LIENDEN, to the stone quarry opposite RHENEN" (p. 4). ◐ By our reading that is the brickworks at Lienden: Adriaan Maljers, who went with it as a guide, wrote that they were "to cross the river Rhine with two boys every time and to collect them in a brickworks" (his statement, p. 16), and a Betuwe local-history page names the place as "de steenfabrieken Van Hesteren en Jansens bij Lienden" (the Van Hesteren and Jansens brickworks near Lienden) (Oorlogsslachtoffers West Betuwe). "Stone quarry" would then be the office's English for a steenfabriek, a brickworks; his Dutch original is not in the file. Schjelderup's report has the party assembling after the ferry "in a brick factory at (Sheet 5, 4876)" (printed with Hardy's), and Noordman's Dutch of that passage has "een steenfabriek" (Noordman, p. 287). Hardy's barn, at Kesteren (515730), has a different grid reference from Schjelderup's brick factory (4876), so that the barn and the brickworks are one place is our reading, not theirs; the nearest any source comes is Porter's "old barn-like building , in the brick yard" (below). Bob Porter, one of the party, put a photograph of the yard where he says they met in his book:

That night the party was fired on in the Betuwe and broke up, and Murphy was among the men lost from it: "We lost, and never saw again, one Dutchman and the following three men: Capt. NOBLE, Sgt. TEX (?) [Banwell], Pte. MURPHY" (Schjelderup's report, the bracket the Pegasus Archive's, printed with Hardy's). How he was taken is told in The crossing and recapture. No source puts Stob with the party after the brickworks.

His file with the Americans. The typed card in his file, dated 30 November 1945, gives him grade 5, names "Lt. van LOENEN" and 20 November 1945, and sums up his help:

Transported allied pilots from Amerongen to Lienden and to stone quarry opposite Rhenen.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Freerk Stob Jr · card of 30 November 1945 · p. 5

The "allied pilots" are the card's words; the men his own statement names were Murphy and Hardy (p. 4), both paratroopers by Hardy's report (Hardy). The folder is marked "GRADE 5" and "Conf. 16 20/11/45" (p. 1), and his form carries the same in pencil (p. 2). ◐ Whether this Lt van Loenen is the MI9 agent Hendrik van Loenen, who ran the crossings around Amerongen, the card does not say. ◐ The card of Leendert Cornelisse, with the same "Lt. van LOENEN" and the same date, ends "Served as courier for Cawton group" (p. 2), and Kluiters has CAWTON as Hendrik's mission (Kluiters); against that, a second van Loenen, "H. L. van Loenen" of Zeist, got the Medal of Freedom at the same ceremony as "Hendr. van Loenen" (De Nieuwe Nederlander, 22 November 1946), and no document puts either with Murphy. Three things point away from Hendrik: the bicycle receipts of 30 October 1945 name "H.L. van Loenen Lt." (Berend Esveld's, p. 2); A. M. V. Stapper lists "L. van Loenen, M.I.S. Kersbergenlaan, Zeist (Luuk)" (p. 2), and Adrianus van Wijnen had made reports "on the request of Luuc van Loenen at Zeist" (p. 5), ◐ "Luuk" being, by our reading, his brother Herman Lucas (Kluiters gives 'ALEX' and 'LUUK' to one H.L. van Loenen; his page); and Hendrik wrote in 1946 that he was in the Indies "Tijdens de uitdeeling hier in Zeist" (during the hand-out here in Zeist) (p. 36), though the letter does not date that hand-out. Points that favour Hendrik are on his page, which sets out the evidence both ways: his account of handing out parcels and bicycles in the winding-up at I.S.9, a letter of December 1945 naming "Capt.van Loenen I.S.9Headqart.", and his brother's absence in Switzerland from January 1946.

The British index. ✓ The British index of Dutch helpers has him as certificate 9629, "STOB, Freerk Jr.", "Overstr B374,Amerongen", award grade "5." (the sheet, read on the image; The National Archives, WO 208/5477, photographed by John Howes). The name, the "Jr." and the address are his form's.

The American Grade 5 list. ◐ The Americans' list of Grade 5 (Eisenhower) certificates has "(4027) STOB, F., Overstraat B 374, Amerongen" (the list, p. 153, image-checked), the address of his form. The entry has no given name, and his father was also F. Stob of Amerongen (above), so it could in principle be the father's; it is graded for the son because his own folder is marked grade 5 and the British index has the same address for "Freerk Jr." at grade 5.

His marriage. ◐ A Freerk Stob, 25, born at Amerongen, son of Freerk Stob and Gerritdina Wijn, married at Leersum on 8 November 1949 (the record, index only). His age fits Freerk Jr's, born 28 May 1924, and the parents are the couple above; the index has no birth date, so the match rests on those. His death has not been found.

• His father's age. Freerk Jr's form gives his father as 53 on 28 May 1945; the birth record (29 March 1891) makes him 54 (his form, p. 2; birth record).
• Who took Murphy and Hardy to the crossing.
  • Kik and Louis or Koen: Kik by his own statement (p. 4), "Louis and Kik" by Mrs Esveld-Strubbe, the same day and his refers to hers (p. 5), "KOEN and KEEK (?)" by Hardy (Hardy).
  • Berend "Flip" Esveld lists it for himself: his list has "Jimmy and Tom, 2 Engl. paratroopers from Arnhem, both were in the big transport which failed near Wageningen" (◐ Hardy and Murphy), and, typed beside the block running from "Jimmy and Tom" down to "4 others, names unknown" (it starts level with the end of the Jimmy and Tom entry, and a pencil line joins it to Shelderup and R. Major), "Crossed them personally to English lines near Dodewaard, with a transport of 12 men allied personnel" (his list, p. 10).
  • Noordman's Dutch text of Hardy's report has them leave "begeleid door Coen Esveld" (accompanied by Coen Esveld), with no second guide (Noordman, p. 287).
  • ⚠︎ A snippet of Caspers (p. 175; the book itself not read) has "Coen Esveld, Dirk Maljers en nog twee gidsen" (Coen Esveld, Dirk Maljers and two more guides) setting out with the party (Caspers); it does not name Stob.
• Where the party met.
  • Hardy: a barn beside a farmhouse at Kesteren, 515730 (Hardy).
  • Schjelderup: a brick factory at 4876. Stob's statement: a stone quarry opposite Rhenen (p. 4).
  • Porter: cycle to Opheusden, leave the bicycles and walk a few miles to "the old barn-like building , in the brick yard, where everyone was to meet", whose foreman, Leo Wels, was to hide them until dark; no ferry or Lienden in his account (Porter, p. 142, image-checked).
  • ◐ They may be one place told from different sides. Porter's barn-like building in a brick yard is the nearest any source comes to joining Hardy's barn and the brickworks, and none says so.
• Pilots or paratroopers. The card has him transporting "allied pilots" (p. 5); his own statement names Murphy and Hardy (p. 4), whom Hardy's report and the Veerman forms have as paratroopers, Hardy of 16 Parachute Field Ambulance (Hardy; the Veerman forms, p. 3).

Everyone, A to Z