Gijs van Zijtveld

Gijs VAN ZIJTVELD, Hardy's "GHYS", of the Helweg, Achterveld

About: An Achterveld man, Hardy's "Ghys", who took Murphy and James Hardy to the Veerman farm on 25 November 1944, visited them there, and on 23 December was the man at whose house they picked up the bicycles they rode on to Amerongen; by May 1946 he was in the Indies.

Where: Helweg, Achterveld, by the Veerman family's forms of 24 May 1946 (p. 6; p. 8).

Evidence: ✓ Hardy's report, 13 January 1945; ✓ the Veerman family's forms for the Americans, May 1946, US National Archives 286713002 (the handwritten table, p. 5; the typed copy, p. 3; the helpers they named, p. 4); ✓ Noordman, p. 286, for the full name.

On the evening of 25 November 1944 helpers cycled Murphy, James Hardy and Leslie Davison, "pannier fashion", from a farm near where they had spent the night to the outskirts of Barneveld (Hardy). There Ghys came to meet them:

We waited at this rendezvous about half an hour when we were joined by three more men, called GHYS, one JAN (3), and the other's names I do not know. They had with them three extra bikes besides their own so we continued our journey, our previous guides leaving us here. On approaching ACHTERVELD (Sheet 2, 470954) DAVISON left us with two of our guides while MURPHY and I continued our journey with GHYS. He took us to a farmhouse at approximately position 475955.

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

Hardy has "a farmhouse at approximately position 475955", its owner "Jacob VEERMAN, aged 43" (Hardy); the address is Achterveldseweg 34 by the family's own questionnaire (the questionnaire of 9 May 1946, p. 4), and the farm was Klein Achterveld by Jacques Vanhaelen's account (Jacob Veerman; the farm). Noordman names the two guides: by Jan and Gijs "worden Jan Dijkstra en Gijs van Zijtveld uit Achterveld bedoeld" (are meant Jan Dijkstra and Gijs van Zijtveld of Achterveld) (Noordman, p. 286). The Veerman family's own forms of May 1946 bear the name out: they list Murphy and Hardy, hidden from 25 November 1944 for 30 days, as received from him and passed on to Jan Dijkstra:

• the handwritten table (the transcript writes the hand's ÿ as y, as in every handwritten quote on this page): "THOMAS MURPHY No 2456457. parachutist." and "JAMES. HARDY. No. 1556339. parachutist", each received from "Gys. v. Zytveld. Achterveld." and passed on to "Jan Dykstra. Achterveld." or "Jan. Dykstra. Achterveld."; the year is written '45 throughout, a slip for 1944 (p. 5);
• its typed English copy, sent with the questionnaire of 9 May 1946: "Thomas Murphy, 2456457, paratrooper", "25-11-44, 30", "Gijs van Zijtveld, Achterveld.", and Hardy the same, the passed-on column left blank (p. 3; the date, p. 2);
• the two copies of 24 May 1946, which carry the hidden-from date, the stay's end and its length in different forms: "25 Nov. 25 Dec. '44", "1 month", received from "Gijs v. Zijtveld." and passed on to "Jan Dijkstra." in English (p. 7), and, in Dutch, "25 Nov.44- 25 Dec. 44." for Hardy and "25 Nov.44. 25 Dec.44" for Murphy, from "Gys v.Zytveld" to "Jan Dykstra" or "Jan Dijkstra" (p. 9).

The same table has two RAF men, R.D. Ward and W.Q. McGeachin, received from him too: on the handwritten table from "G. v. Zytveld" of Achterveld and passed on to Jan Dijkstra (p. 5), hidden from "25. Oct '45" ("25-10-45" on the typed copy, p. 3) for 30 days, the year a slip for 1944 like the other table's, and on the copies of 24 May hidden "20 Oct. 20 Nov. '44" and passed back to him ("Gys v.Zytveld"; in English "same person- same address") (p. 9; p. 7). R.D. Ward is David Ward, whose page tells their story; the later English copy has his companion as "W.Q.mc.Geachin-Australia. (navigator)" (p. 7).

◐ The family add four more RAF men whose names they did not know, each with them about a week by the first table and about ten days by the later ones: "Allen zijn ontvangen en door gegeven aan bovenstaande adressen" (all were received from and passed on to the addresses above) (p. 5), and in the later copy "door bovenstaande personen gehaald en gebracht" (fetched and brought by the persons above), adding that they stayed until about the middle of January (p. 9). The "persons above" are Gijs and Jan Dijkstra, and the forms do not say which of the two brought which man.

Murphy and Hardy stayed a month at the farm. Hardy:

During our stay there GHYS and JAN (3) visited us on three occasions bringing us soap, shaving material, etc, and giving us the news.

At about 1400 hours on 23 Dec, JAN (3) came and told us we were to move again, so we walked with him to the home of GHYS, about 10 minutes walk, where we picked up a bicycle each and we set off with HAN who took us to AMERONGEN (Sheet 5, 435803) ARRIVING THERE AT ABOUT 1630 HOURS.

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

At Amerongen Hardy met Capt. Roger Schjelderup, CSM Wilfred Berry and a private, all of the Canadian Scottish, and that night the two were taken to Gerald Esveld's house, where they stayed until 2 January 1945 (Hardy; Amerongen).

◐ Jacques Vanhaelen, the son of Jopie Veerman, lists a "Gijs Sijkveld" with Jan Dijkstra among the well-known contacts of Jacob Veerman's in that time, in his account of the family sent to Stewart in October 2026. Very probably the same man, by the first name and the pairing with Jan Dijkstra.

By May 1946 he and Jan Dijkstra were both in the Indies: the Veermans' questionnaire of 9 May 1946 lists him among the people they knew who had helped Allied men: "Gys. v. Zytveld. Achterveld. U. thans in Indië." (now in the Indies) in the handwritten Dutch (p. 4), "Gijs van Zytveld, Achterveld U. now in N.E.I." (the Netherlands East Indies) in the typed English (p. 2). The forms of 24 May give his address: "Gys v. Zytveld. Helweg Achterveld. verblijft thans in Indie." (is now staying in the Indies) (p. 8), and in English "Gys v. Zytveld, Helweg, Achterveld. (in India now)" (p. 6).

Nothing more has been found of him than Hardy's report, the Veerman file, Noordman and Jacques Vanhaelen's account give. He has no entry on the British index of Dutch helpers, whose Z pages, read on 17 October 2026, have no Zijtveld under that spelling, and "Zytveld" is not recorded as looked for; the notes are the evidence, since the Z sheets themselves are not archived here (the index's notes), and the name sweeps of 17 and 21 October 2026 found no helper file of his own at the US National Archives, the only NARA hit for any of the spellings being the Veerman file (gijs-van-zijtveld.json, gijs-van-zytveld.json, gijs-v-zijtveld.json, gys-van-zytveld.json, gys-v-zytveld.json).

• Who rode with them to Amerongen. Hardy's report has Jan walk them to Ghys's house and a guide he calls Han take them on (Hardy); Noordman's Dutch text of the same passage has "Jan als begeleider" (Jan as escort) (Noordman, p. 286).
• When they left the farm. Hardy has 23 December (Hardy); the family's copies of 24 May 1946 give the hidden dates as "25 Nov. 25 Dec. '44" (p. 7) and "25 Nov.44. 25 Dec.44" (p. 9), so ◐ the stay ending on 25 December by their reckoning; Mrs Esveld-Strubbe has Murphy at "a little place near AMERSFOORT until 24 Dec" (her statement, p. 5), ◐ the farm only if that place is the Veerman farm, which she does not name. Hardy's, of 13 January 1945, is the earliest of the three.
• Ward and McGeachin. The family's handwritten table has the two RAF men on the farm from 25 October for 30 days and passed on to Jan Dijkstra (p. 5); the copies of 24 May have them there 20 October to 20 November and passed back to him, "same person- same address" (p. 7; p. 9).
• His name. The family's handwriting has "Gÿs. v. Zÿtveld", with ÿ, the Dutch ij, so Gijs van Zijtveld (the transcripts write the hand's ÿ as y, so the handwritten quotes on this page carry y) (p. 5). The typed copies have "Gijs van Zijtveld" and "Gijs v. Zijtveld", and the typewriter's own y spellings "Gijs van Zytveld" (p. 2) and "Gys v. Zytveld" (pp. 6, 8, 9); "GHYS" in Hardy, "Gijs Sijkveld" in Jacques Vanhaelen's account.

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