“Captain” George Mikol

About: A "Captain" and "spy", as Berend "Flip" Esveld called him, whom the Esvelds, the Amerongen family that had hidden Murphy, took to and from hiding places in January 1945 and Flip housed until mid-February, and who by Flip's account set off for the lines with "G.H. Esveld", ◐ Coen Esveld, and was not heard of again. ⚠︎ Whether he is Hendrik van Loenen's George Andrews, or the "Engelsch spion" of the party that left Amerongen on 27 January 1945, is not settled.

Unit or role: ⚠︎ Unsettled: "Captain - spy" to Flip Esveld (Flip's file, p. 7); "agent of the English" to Mrs J.H.D. Rolandus Hagedoorn of Amerongen (her file, p. 4); "George Mikol, Capt." on the Americans' summary of Flip's helpers (p. 8); "English spy" on Flip's own list of 26 April 1946 (handwritten, p. 13; typed copy, p. 10).

Where: Amerongen, at Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's; Maarn; Flip Esveld's house, A 12 Rijksstraatweg, Leersum (his address "known to Allied personnel" in his questionnaire of 26 April 1946, p. 9).

Evidence: ✓ Flip Esveld's statement, 28 May 1945, p. 7; ✓ Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's statement, 28 May 1945, p. 4; ◐ for the party of 27 January, the note attached to Hendrik van der Mheen's identification card (Nationaal Archief 2.19.255.01, 104012A, scan 8) and the Gemeente Dodewaard's letter of 1953 (41478A, scan 7); ◐ under the name Andrews, Hendrik van Loenen's statement, p. 23.

No source puts him with Murphy, who left the Esvelds' house at Amerongen on 2 January 1945 for a crossing "which did not succeed" (Mrs Esveld's statement, p. 5). His path ran through the same houses in the same days:

• Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's. She hid both Noble and the captain at Amerongen (her file, p. 4):
  • Charles Noble, "parachutist" to her and a doctor of the Royal Army Medical Corps by his report (133 Parachute Field Ambulance), "was brought by Luuk about 25 Dec. and was hidden by Mrs. Hagedoorn until 5 January. Then he too was collected by Esveld for a crossing". Noble's own report has him taken over the Rhine at Amerongen on 2 January 1945 with "12 escapees" (his report), the day Hardy and Murphy crossed the Rhine by a ferry that Hardy gives by map position, not by name (Hardy), three days before her 5 January.
  • "Captain George Nikol" she had for about a week; Flip has Mikol with her "Until 9 Jan" (p. 7).
  • Neither says whether Noble and the captain were in her house at the same time.
  • ⚠︎ Noble's own later account (unpublished private papers, shared with us privately), told long after the war, has "an agreeable ten days" at "the ‘Linden’ house" in Amerongen: "There was myself and the lady of the house, whose husband, I think had been the Mayor of Amerongen, and her four daughters." It names no other evader there. His report of 1945 has "the LINDENHOF" and eight days (Noble).
• The Esvelds. The "Esveld" who brought him to her house and collected him is not given a first name by Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn; Flip writes that "G.H. ESVELD Jr." took him to Maarn (p. 7): ◐ Gerrit Herman "Coen" Esveld, the younger son of the household that hid Murphy from 23 or 24 December 1944 to 2 January 1945 (Coen Esveld, on the name; Hardy; Mrs Esveld, p. 5). His part is told on Amerongen and the last night.

Two statements taken for the Americans on 28 May 1945 tell of him. Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's has one sentence: "Captain George Nikol, agent of the English stayed with Mrs. Hagedoorn for about one week. He was brought there by Esveld and also collected by him for the crossing" (her file, p. 4). Berend "Flip" Esveld, Coen's elder brother, born in 1910 (p. 8) to the same parents (his marriage record; Coen's birth record), gives the rest:

George MIKOL, Captain - spy.

MIKOL arrived at Flip's end of January. He had been brought from MAARN by the district leader of the B.S., with whom he had been staying. G.H. ESVELD Jr. had taken MIKOL to MAARN. Until 9 Jan MIKOL stayed with Mrs. HAGEDOORN. From end January to mid February MIKOL stayed with Flip. After that he crossed with G.H. ESVELD, Wim and Henk from BARNEVELD. Since this nothing more has been heard of them.

— Berend Albert Esveld Jr. · answer to question 10 · 28 May 1945 · US National Archives, his helper file, p. 7 · the transcript

By that account he was at Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's at Amerongen until 9 January, was taken by G.H. Esveld Jr. to Maarn, stayed there with the B.S. district leader, who brought him to Flip at the end of January, and stayed with Flip until the middle of February. ◐ The order of the first steps is our reading: Flip gives the Maarn move before the 9 January date. The Americans' summary of 28 November 1945, which carries a bare "5" that we read as a grade of Flip (the form's printed labels did not transfer), and "Lt. van LOENEN, 20 November 1945", lists "George Mikol, Capt." among the men he housed and guided (p. 8). No source gives Mikol's own account. Flip's list of 1946, below, calls him an "English spy", and Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn has "Esveld" bring him to her house.

Flip's own list, 26 April 1946. ✓ Section 13 of Flip's questionnaire for the Americans lists the Allied men he helped. In the handwritten original (p. 13) the line reads "George. English spy.", 21 days hidden, received from "Kreuner, Maarn. (gefusill.)" (shot), and the column for who he was passed on to is blank. The typed copy has "George, Engl. Spy." and "Kreuner, Maarn (shot)" (p. 10); its "transported to Biesbos, 1st. Etappe" sits on George's line there, but in the handwritten original it belongs to the line above, "Bill". ◐ That Kreuner is the "district leader of the B.S." at Maarn of the 1945 statement is our reading: the list gives no office. ◐ The 21 days is about the "end January to mid February" of the 1945 statement, if the days counted are those at Flip's.

Three sources tell of a journey that left Amerongen at the end of January 1945. ◐ That the police report's party is Coen Esveld's is our match, by the dates and by the Dodewaard deeds, where Willem van der Mheen's deed 14 sits beside Coen's deed 13 (the index records). None of them names Mikol.

The Gemeente Dodewaard, 1953. ✓ Answering the War Graves Foundation on 17 August 1953, the municipality wrote that an inquiry made at the time had shown that Coen left "in gezelschap van 3 personen, vermoedelijk op 27 Januari 1945, naar de Betuwe" (in the company of 3 persons, probably on 27 January 1945, for the Betuwe) "teneinde een Engelse boodschap over te brengen" (to carry an English message), and that "De toen in gezelschap van Esveld zijnde personen zijn allen op 29 Juni 1945 in Dodewaard overleden bevonden" (the persons then with Esveld were all found dead at Dodewaard on 29 June 1945) (the letter). It names none of the three.

The police report of 29 June 1945, as noted for the identification service. ✓ The War Graves Foundation's file on Hendrik van der Mheen of Lunteren holds a handwritten note attached to his identification card, No. 664, summarising a report by the Dodewaard policeman who found his brother:

According to the official report of 29-6-45 by Wachtmeester Johannes v.d. Haas of Doodewaard, H. v.d. Mheen had been in hiding with his brother Willem van der Mheen at the house of Gerrit Esveld, garage owner at Amerongen, who declared that they did a great deal of underground work and, four of them, with an English spy and an American (doctor), went on an English mission through the German line to the liberated area. On 27 January 1945 they went into the Betuwe by the Ingen ferry, and have been missing since 28 January.

Dutch originalv.d Mheen H was, volgens proces Verbaal d.d. 29-6-45 van Wachtmeester Johannes v.d Haas van Doodewaard, met zijn broeder Willem van der Mheen ondergedoken geweest bij Gerrit Esveld garagehouder te Amerongen die verklaarde, dat zij veel ondergrondsch werk deden en met gevieren met een Engelsch spion en een Amerikaan (Medicus) in Engelsche Opdracht door de Duitsche linie naar het bevrijde gebied zijn gegaan Op 27 Januari 1945 via het Ingensche Veer de Betuwe binnengetrokken. en sedert 28 Januari vermist zijn.

— Note attached to card No. 664 of the Dienst Identificatie en Berging · Nationaal Archief 2.19.255.01, inv. 104012A, scan 8 · the transcript

The note reads Haas; the last letter is not certain, and Haar is the other reading. It goes on: "Willem v.d Mheen is gevonden en geïdentificeerd door bovenvermelde Wachtmeester" (Willem v.d. Mheen has been found and identified by the policeman named above), and ends "Nadere informatie's te nemen bij de Garage Houder Gerrit Esveld te Amerongen" (further information to be had from the garage owner Gerrit Esveld at Amerongen). The note is undated; the card it belongs to records Hendrik's exhumation on 30 July 1946 (scan 6). What it gives:

• Who declared it. "Gerrit Esveld garagehouder", ◐ the father, Gerald (Gerrit Hendrik) Esveld, whom Coen's death deed calls garagehouder, where Coen himself is monteur (Amerongen 1945, Nr. 48). The note names no Esveld among those who went.
• Who went. The brothers, "met gevieren met een Engelsch spion en een Amerikaan (Medicus)": four of them, with an English spy and an American, a doctor. Neither the spy nor the American is named. ◐ Met gevieren is literally "as a party of four", and the note does not say who the four are, so it does not settle the count:
  • Either the four are the two brothers, the spy and the American, with Coen outside the count.
  • Or the four include Coen, which gives Dodewaard's "Coen and 3 persons" as a count, though the brothers, spy and American are then one more than his three companions.
• When. Into the Betuwe by the Ingen ferry on 27 January 1945, missing since 28 January, the same two days as Dodewaard's letter. ◐ That this police report is the inquiry "destijds" (at the time) the letter rests on is our reading of the matching dates.

Who the brothers were. ✓ The two Dutchmen of the note are Willem and Hendrik van der Mheen of Lunteren, who had been hiding with the garage owner Esveld at Amerongen (the note). They are very probably the "Wim and Henk" Flip has crossing with Mikol:

• ✓ Pte William Gordon of the 156th Battalion, hidden at a blacksmith's between Barneveld and Lunteren, wrote that on 8 January, "or thereabouts, the two brothers of VAN DER MHEEN - HANK and WILHELM - took me by cycle to AMERONGEN", to the garage owner there (Gordon). He also writes that the blacksmith who hid him was named VAN DER MHEEN, and Willem is recorded as a smith (below); whether the blacksmith was Willem or another of the family, his text does not say.
• ◐ Mrs Esveld has her "Bill, parachutist, Scotland" brought on 9 January by "Henk and Wim" from the "de MEENT family at 't Woud, near BARNEVELD" (her statement, p. 5), and Flip has "Bill" arrive at his house in mid-January "with Wim and Henk from BARNEVELD" (Flip's file, p. 7). That Bill is Gordon is our match, by the date and the escort.
  • ◐ Flip's own list of 26 April 1946 has "Bill Paratrooper from "Arnhem Landing"" received from "v. d. Mheen. Lunteren" and hidden 42 days (p. 13; typed copy, p. 10). That ties the "Wim and Henk from BARNEVELD" who brought Bill to the van der Mheens of Lunteren by Flip's own list, not only by the date and the escort.
• ◐ Van Loenen's "Wim and Henk van de Meent from Renswoude", lost with Koen Esveld and George Andrews, are very probably the same pair (the questionnaires made out for the brothers for the Americans (next of kin: their mother) have van Loenen, "Bob", send the two brothers over the Rhine on 28 January: Henk's, p. 13; Willem's, p. 14) (his statement, p. 23; Wim, Henk).

What the death records say. ✓ Willem van der Mheen, 22, smith, born at Ede, is recorded dead at Dodewaard on 29 June 1945, in the Dodewaard register's deed 14 of 3 July 1945; deed 13 of the same day is Coen Esveld's (the index records). ✓ Hendrik van der Mheen, 20, clerk, is recorded dead at Dodewaard on 28 January 1945, in a deed of 12 August 1946 (same). ✓ Hendrik's card from the identification service has him exhumed on 30 July 1946 from the front garden of a house at Hien, Dodewaard, under a cross reading "Unknown Civilian Killed in Action 28-1-45", and reburied at Ede (scan 6); the Foundation's form has him buried on 30 or 31 January 1945 "als onbekend persoon te Dodewaard" (as an unknown person at Dodewaard) (scan 4). ⚠︎ The same form gives his death as 29-1-1945, a day later than the deed and the cross, and his birth as 22 October 1925 at Ede, where his identification card has 14 July 1924 at Lunteren (scan 6); the deed's age of 20 on 28 January 1945 fits 1924, not 1925, and the index has Ede as his birthplace; ◐ the form is the only source for a burial at the end of January, so that date rests on a form that is wrong or doubtful on two other points. If it is right, Hendrik was buried at the end of January, where Dodewaard's letter has all of Coen's companions found on 29 June; if it is wrong, the letter's date may stand for all of them. No death record held names the spy or the American, and the Open Archieven index has none of Dodewaard's deeds 15 to 20 of 1945, so the index cannot rule out an unnamed death recorded there (the search).

Caspers. ◐ Elsa Caspers, a courier of the resistance on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, wrote fifty years on that "On 29 January 1945 Coen made one more attempt to find an escape route. He went with two other Dutch boys and a South African soldier", and that their bodies were found in June "in grazing land", after they had crossed no-man's-land: "they were killed by a V-1 'doodle-bug' explosion" (To Save a Life, p. 66). She names none of them. ⚠︎ Her 29 January is two days after the 27 January of the note and Dodewaard's letter, and neither of them mentions a V-1; a V-1 does appear in the questionnaire made out for Willem ("probably killed by a V 1 during his work", p. 14) and in Boeree, who has the brothers perhaps killed by a V 1 that went off too soon (p. 245).

When he crossed. ⚠︎ Not settled. Flip has him at his house "From end January to mid February", and crossing "After that" with G.H. Esveld and Wim and Henk (p. 7); his list of 1946 gives no onward hand-over for him, the column being blank in the handwritten original. The police report has the van der Mheen brothers leave Amerongen on 27 January with an English spy and an American, missing from 28 January (the note); Hendrik was buried on 30 or 31 January (scan 4). The questionnaires made out for the brothers (next of kin: their mother) have van Loenen send them over the Rhine on 28 January (Henk's, p. 13; Willem's, p. 14), and Boeree has them go to the Betuwe on 29 January (p. 245). Either Flip's dates are out by about three weeks, or Mikol was not the spy of that party. Flip wrote on 28 May 1945, before the bodies were found on either dating: the beginning of June on the Foundation's form for Coen (41478A, scan 4; ⚠︎ an entry with no source, see Coen Esveld), 29 June in Dodewaard's letter and register; the police report is of 29 June 1945, from the declaration of ◐ his father. Caspers has Coen's last attempt on 29 January (p. 66).

Who took him to the crossing. Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn has "Esveld" collect him from her house "for the crossing" (p. 4); Flip has him leave her house by 9 January, go to Maarn and on to Flip's, and cross only after the middle of February (p. 7).

One man or two. ⚠︎ Not settled. Flip's crossing party ("Captain" George Mikol, G.H. Esveld, "Wim and Henk from BARNEVELD") and Hendrik van Loenen's four lost ("Wim and Henk van de Meent from Renswoude, Koen Esveld from Amerongen, George Andrews") share, on our matching of the names, three men; the fourth in each is a captain called George (p. 7; van Loenen, p. 23).

• For one man. ◐ Three of four names match, if Flip's "G.H. Esveld" is Koen Esveld (our match) and the "Wim and Henk" of Barneveld are those of Renswoude (our match), and each list has one captain named George.
• For two. The police report's party has both "een Engelsch spion" and "een Amerikaan (Medicus)". Mikol is "Captain - spy" and "agent of the English"; Andrews is "capt. of the first Ameri[c]an Army". ◐ That would make Mikol the spy and Andrews the American, which is our match; the note's American is "(Medicus)", and nothing in van Loenen's papers says Andrews was a doctor.
• Against both readings. ◐ If the note's four leave Coen outside the count, Dodewaard's letter has Coen and three others, the police report the brothers and two foreigners with no Esveld named: Coen and both captains would make five. If the four include Coen, the letter's "Coen and 3" would fit Coen, the brothers and one foreigner, which favours one man, but the note names two. The note does not settle which. Caspers has a South African soldier and no American. Van Loenen received Andrews "Begin Februari" (p. 14), after the party of 27 January had gone.

His name. Mikol (Flip's statement and the Americans' summary, pp. 7–8), Nikol (Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn, p. 4), and ◐ Andrews (van Loenen), if they are one man.

His army. "agent of the English" (Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn), "spy" (Flip, 1945) and "English spy" (Flip, 1946), against "of the first Ameri[c]an Army" (van Loenen, for Andrews), if they are one man.

• Kew. ✓ The WO 208 catalogue of MI9 and IS9 escape and liberation reports has no entry for a Mikol or a George Andrews (WO 208/3324–3354, 5405–5436 and the card index 5275, checked 15 October 2026: the catalogue search).
• Other archives. ✓ The name sweep of 17 October 2026 found no Mikol or Nikol among the Oorlogsgravenstichting's war dead; at the US National Archives only Flip's file and Mrs Rolandus Hagedoorn's among the RG 498 helper files, with a "Mikol" hit in the Hungarian helper files (Zahalka Eva) logged as unrelated; at Kew only a 1915 crew list (BT 99/3102/38B), logged as the wrong person. Its other hits for "George Mikol" and "George Nikol" that were read are other men, none of them in the Netherlands in the war (the sweep):
  • Read: an 1883 Ohio county history, a 1934 Dutch article on a missionary from Africa, and the snippets of the other Internet Archive hits.
  • Logged as unrelated: NARA catalogue entry 367318908, "Week, Charles - Wellen, Roy (5 of 6)", outside RG 498 ("name, dates and place do not fit"; the review).
  • Not opened: a 1949 Nelson Daily News page.

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