OPERATION AMHERST: French SAS in Holland, April 1945

Richard Borst · Mar 11, 2024

Indeed the stick Picard lost 4 more men. They probably fell behind and went straight where Picard turned left.
This happened when they left the forest in great haste, after Blaauw's dead, and crossed the open field towards De Fledders in the still dark morning twilight.
They ended up near a very small forest opposite the Lubbers family home. It's there that they were seen. They ended up in the Lubbers family home that morning, celebrating the liberation.
There were probably only 2 paratroopers left on that location. Hauser and Courcier were found on April 9 in the Blauwe Bos, near Haule.
They may have gone looking for Picard and lost their way.
It is also possible that they already lost the other two when moving to De Fledders.

Richard Borst · Mar 11, 2024

stolpi said: ↑

Stick Boulon - Norgervaartsebos

The stick Boulon came down in and around the Norgervaartsebos about one kilometer to the south of the intended Drop Zone. Some of the paras landed in the trees and had to be cut loose by their companions. One of the supply containers ended up in the Norgervaart, with the parachute spread out over the road. It should therefore be no surprise that the paras were noticed by a German convoy, that passed by on the road at the moment of the landing. Taking advantage of the darkness the paras managed to evade without a firefight and assembled deeper inside the forest. The stick was nearly intact. Only one man, Cpl. Bévalot, was missing; he would later join up with Valayer at the Mulder barn. As far as possible the French collected and hid their ammunition and provisions. The container that had landed in the Norgervaart could not be salvaged, it was later retrieved from the water by civilians who threw the weapons and ammunition back into the canal. But the landing had been detected and the enemy had sounded the alarm. In the morning of April 8th, the stick Boulon was attacked by strong German elements coming from the village of Norg. In the ensuing firefight the French were driven back to the eastern egde of the forest. Heavily outnumbered Lieutenant Boulon decided to break his unit up in small groups of twos to threes and try to escape eastwards across the heath and open fields towards Zeijen. One man, Magat was wounded during the firefight. He was left behind in the care of Chavand; both were captured.

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The small canal - more a broad ditch - of the Asserwijk to the east of the Norgervaartsebos. Driven out of the forest the men of the Stick Boulon fled across these open fields. The Norgervaartsebos is visible in the background to the right.

It was during this escape that André Boude was mortally wounded and had to be left behind. His lifeless body was later discovered in a dry ditch by the Dutch. Boulon accompanied by Mélinand, Dedieu and Laurent, who had suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, succeeded in getting out of the forest by crawling undetected across a heathland, almost under the eyes of the enemy. However, with the injured Laurent, the group only made slow progress. Following the Asser Wijk to the south they arrived near the Kroon farm in the evening. Here they found a hiding place in a potato pit, beneath a small farming cart, the only cover in this otherwise open and featureless landscape. They were discovered by late afternoon of the following day by yet another German patrol and after a short firefight, in which Mélinand received a legwound, all four men were captured. The wounded Laurent and Mélinand were evacuated to a hospital in Assen, while Boulon and Dedieu were taken to the town prison of Assen.

Miraculously, five men of the stick Boulon got away. Some of them, among them Moutier and Roques, ended up in a small triangular patch of heathland, where they build themselves a small hiding place from branches, while others found shelter in farm houses in the vicinity. The group hidden in the patch of heathland received food from well disposed Dutch civilians, who at great risk for themselves, for two days in a row brought the paras water, milk and a piece of rye bread. All men laid low until relieved by the Canadians.

On April 10th, three of the five French paras that were in custody in the prison of Assen were randomly picked out by the Sicherheitsdienst. Together with a group of 11 Dutch civilian inmates they were summarily executed in the Asser Bos, on the outskirts of Assen. While the bodies of the killed Dutchmen were left out in the open, those of the French were hastily buried. The uniforms and identity papers of the French however were burned by the executioners. Two of the bodies were later identified by the battalion padre, R.G. Gagey, as those of Lieutenant Francois Boulon and Pte Robert Jean Louis Dedieu. The third victim was later identified as Pte Jean Loeillet, who had been taken POW at Elp (see Operation Amherst: French SAS in Holland, April 1945). The executions were instigated by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and were not the only ones. In an attempt to erase all evidence of their crimes the SD shot the last groups of political prisoners detained in the prisons of Assen and Groningen. Between 8 and 10 April three other small groups of prisoners were executed in the woods at Norg (18), Anloo (10) and Bakkeveen (10) and hastily buried in mass graves. Why they decided also to shoot the French paras has remains unclear. Were the men executed in revenge for the fact that during the skirmishes around Assen 21 German soldiers had been killed? The act also might have derived from Hitler's 'Commando Order', issued in 1942, by which the German Army were told to offer no quarter to captured 'enemy sabotage groups' whether they wore uniforms or not. This order for example had led to the assassination of many captured SAS-troops in France during the summer of 1944.

Nowadays a monument at the execution site remembers of the men who were killed at this spot; see for the location Monument Executies 10 April 1945 - Assen - TracesOfWar.nl

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Stick Rouan: The 'Annie Hoeve' farm

The stick Rouan came down in the open fields to the south of Zeijen some 4 kilometers to the southwest of the intended Drop zone near Vries. Due to the high altitude from which the jump was made (600 m instead of the usual 200 meters) and a strong wind the paras scattered over a wide area and it took several hours before the men had gathered. Two men, Leveque and Spina, were missing and not seen again; they stayed off and joined the stick Lavayer at the Mulder barn. One man, Mouton, had broken his leg during the landing. Not knowing where he had landed, Lieutenant Rouan decided to await dawn to orient himself. Since the featureless terrain offered no cover for a group of thirteen men, there were no small woods in the vicinity, he decided to seek shelter at a nearby farm.

This farm turned out to be the Annie Hoeve along the Binnenweg which was inhabited by the Erkelens family. The paras contacted the farmer and were hidden in the barn at the back of the farm. By that time it was about 04:00 hrs and Rouan decided that the stick would lay down until the evening, since the risk of discovery was too great during daylight. In the nearby town of Assen, which had an old Dutch Army Barracks and was used by the Germans as a Fallschirmjäger training ground, there was a strong garisson. The parachute landings during the night had not gone unnoticed, the enemy had sounded the alarm and the troops were in high state of readiness. That morning the Germans started to comb the area to the northwest of Assen.

Around six o'clock, just before dawn, the French paras in the barn at the Annie Hoeve were aroused by a group of four Germans with a vehicle who entered the farm yard. The farmer warned the French to keep quiet since this was daily custom. The Germans came to load and unload milk canisters and left without noticing the French.

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A pre-war picture of the 'Annie Hoeve' farm

Then at about eight o'clock, the French suddenly found themselves surrounded. A strong German detachment had appraoched unnoticed and had surrounded the barn. Somehow the Germans knew that French soldiers were inside; it remains unknown if the milk collecting party had noticed something or if the French had been betrayed. A firefight broke out which lasted for about one hour. The Germans held their fire twice for several minutes and called out for the French to surrender. Rouan realized that it was a lost cause. He and his men were trapped and could not go anywhere. Consulting each of his men, Rouan decided that they would not yield. They would buy time and hold out until the evening and then attempt a sortie under cover of darkness. But shortly before nine o'clock the Germans set the barn on fire which forced the French to make a break out. The French destroyed their wireless set and radio codes. Divided in two subsequent waves the French rushed out of the stable door, throwing hand grenades at the enemy and trying to shoot a way out. The attempt failed. Some made it halfway across the farmyard and found cover in an empty slurry pit from where they engaged the enemy. But the Germans had the place well surrounded and after a short fight all thirteen paras had to surrender. As if by miracle none of the French was killed, though most were wounded, some seriously, including Rouan. He had been hit in the chest and the bullet had left his backside, ripping a big hole in his back. Mouton who had fought on with a broken leg had been hit by a bullet in his upper leg. Coulon, the German interpreter of the stick, was hit in the throat. The others were hit in arms, legs and shoulder. Only three men out of thirteen were unharmed.

For a while it looked as if the Germans were going to shoot their prisoners. The French were gathered and lined up and a highly agitated NCO menacingly waved his submachine gun in front of the row of prisoners. It seemed that the Germans had lost two men killed and three wounded. The arrival of a German officer saved the day. Georges Caïtucoli recalled: "Seven of our men were lying down, the other six lined up with their backs to the barbed wire, when a lieutenant decorated with the Iron Cross arrived without hurrying, who, passing close to the menacing excited soldier, did not seem to give him a very pleasant look. " Who's ordering?", he asked. "Me, now that Lieutenant Rouan is dying", I answered. The dialogue was short: - "Why didn't you surrender? - "We didn't come here for that." (1).

It took a long time before the prisoners were evacuated; a wait probably made necessary by the ongoing fight in the nearby Norgervaartsebos. All that time the wounded got no medical care. By the end of the afternoon the French finally were taken to a school at Norg (a village north of Assen), the seriously wounded loaded on a horse cart, with those who still could, marching behind it. Only the next day the wounded were given some medical treatment. Later the wounded were brought to the hospital at Assen by horse cart and the non-wounded went to the prison of Assen from where they later were transferred to Groningen.

The farmer Erkelens and his family were lucky and escaped execution. They were saved by a relative who was serving as an officer in the German army as a veterinarian and happened to be on the spot. The family went into hiding for the remaining days of the war.

For a more detailed (French) account of the stick Rouan see: » Opération Amherst. Un stick SAS en mission le 7 avril 1945 en Hollande, par Georges Caïtucoli

Story - my paraphrase - courtesy: Col. Roger Flamand: "AMHERST : les parachutistes de la France libre, 3e et 4e SAS, Hollande 1945" - I used the Dutch translation of this book by Jaap Jansen and ‘Bijna vrij: de Operatie Amherst’ | De Krant Nieuws - Het laatste nieuws uit de gemeente Noordenveld, Westerkwartier en Haulerwijk, Hoogkerk en omliggende plaatsen.

(1) Opération Amherst. Un stick SAS en mission le 7 avril 1945 en Hollande, par Georges Caïtucoli - Fondation de la France Libre - Page 2
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The attack on the Annie Hoeve didn't take place in the morning following the landing. It took place on april 9th!
Extensive research made this clear.
In 2015 Chris Erkelens, who was there when the French arrived also made this clear in an interview: it was the next morning.

Richard Borst · Mar 11, 2024

stolpi said: ↑

The tail of the stick Valayer - the demi-stick Raillard

The actions of the other members of the stick Valayer, who did not make it to the barn, remain uncertain, other than that they did survive. In his book, Roger Flamand quotes the story of Lieutenant Raillaird, leader of the second team of the stick, but he is not very clear about the location of the group. They probably moved to the Wittelter Veld, the area between Kloosterveen and Bovensmilde and eventually ended up in Bovensmilde, where they made contact with the Canadians on 13 April.

Raillard reports how he and seven others, including the injured Corroy with his broken leg, could not keep up with the pace of the lead group and lost contact in the darkness and fog. After they no longer knew which way to go, Raillard decided to stay on spot in the hope that Valayer would send someone back to collect them. Since no one appeared after about an hour and it started to get light, Raillard decided to look for a shelter. Corroy was left behind, hidden along the bank of a canal (1), with the promise to fetch him as soon as a safe hiding place had been found and the rest of the group continued in a northerly direction. They lay low during daytime under an old abandoned farm cart in the middle of the open fields. Many farmers had hidden their farm carts in potatoe pits, to prevent them from being requisitioned by the Germans. Although several German patrols were active in the vicinity, the men were not discovered. Perhaps because the chosen shelter in the open field was not a very obvious one. That night, April 8 to 9, the French moved westward and hid in a grove. That same night two men went back to pick up the lonely Corroy; he was savely brought back to the new shelter. The next night, April 9 to 10, the group moved through the Norgervaartsebos, crossed the canal at the bridge of the Koelenweg and moved along the Norger Petgaten, following the same short-cut as taken before by Picard, in the direction of the Norgervaartsebrug. Here Corroy was left behind at the sluice-gatehouse of the Oosterwijk family, where he was lodged until the arrival of the Canadians (2). Railard then moved on to a wooded patch, somewhere to the souheast of the Norgervaartsebrug, where he hid.

Next morning, April 10th, Lieutenant Ferchaud, leader of the 2nd stick, 1st Coy/2nd RCP (4th SAS), joined Raillard's group. Ferchaud had failed to contact his stick - which had been dropped near Vries, a village hard north of Assen - and had wandered around all alone for several days. Over the following nights, the French operated from the grove and laid various ambushes, though they met with little success. The Germans no longer showed themselves on the roads. On April 13, Lieutenant Raillard and his handful of men linked up at Bovensmilde with Canadian ground troops, after they first had 'liberated' the village themselves.

(The story - my paraphrase - with courtesy to: Col. Roger Flamand: "AMHERST : les parachutistes de la France libre, 3e et 4e SAS, Hollande 1945"; I used the Dutch translation of this book by Jaap Jansen.)

(1) Identified as Pittelo's Wijk by Albert Eleveld. The approximate spot is marked with a red cross on the map in the previous post;
(2) Oral info Albert Eleveld. Note that Flamand gives a different version: according to him, Corroy arrived on Sunday morning, April 8th, shortly after the body of Lt. De Sablet had been discovered.

For more details of the operations to the NW of Assen see the in-depth research of Frank Eleveld c.s. published on You Tube:

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(2) Oral info Albert Eleveld. Note that Flamand gives a different version: according to him, Corroy arrived on Sunday morning, April 8th, shortly after the body of Lt. De Sablet had been discovered: this is not entirely correct. The original French version of Flamand's book (1998) does not have the chapter in which this is described. This chapter only appears in the Dutch version (2002), and is based on a newspaper article.

Richard Borst · Mar 11, 2024

stolpi said: ↑

Stick Valayer - Mulder barn at the Koelenweg

The stick Valayer landed ten kilometers south-east of their Drop Zone, almost on the western edge of the town of Assen in and around an estate known as De Lariks which bordered on the north side of Het Kanaal. Some of the men landed on rooftops, others in gardens or in one of the small streets (1). The men of the stick gathered near a large farm which formed part of the estate and was owned by the Slofstra family. Eventually fourteen men reported in, only Sgt Marc Loï was missing. One man, Henri Corroy had broken his ankle during the landing. Inside the Slofstra farm, Lieutenant Valayer learned from the residents that not only had he landed far off from his intended Drop zone near Donderen, but also that he was in a dangerous spot, since he had landed just in front of the Army Barracks of Assen, situated on the opposite side of the canal, which held a strong enemy garrison. This probably prompted Lieutenant Valayer's decision not to wait for daylight, but to leave immediately and head in the direction of the intended Drop Zone. The son of the house, Lammert Slofstra who spoke a little French, offered himself as a guide.

In single file - with the young Slofstra and Valayer in the lead, some men carrying the packs in the middle and the wounded Corroy, supported by Cpl Borderon in the rear - the stick moved across the Zeijerveen (2). The stick followed the course of the Asser Wijk canal, but it was a difficult move in the dark, since they had to move across country, in order to avoid the roads and enemy patrols. The flat fields were crisscrossed by many ditches and visibility worsened by an emerging ground fog and soon the stick fell apart. The tail of the column lost contact and got lost.

View attachment 354907

At dawn Valayer, at the head of his stick, arrived at a large detached barn along the Koelenweg on the edge of the Norgervaartsebos. The barn belonged to a farmer called Mulder - hence it later became known as the Mulder barn. The structure had two big folding stable doors on either end and was used as storage of agricultural machinery. Only upon arrival at the barn did Valayer realize that he had lost touch with the rest of his men. Just two paras were still with him, Sgt. Doal and Pte Azem and a couple of prisoners. Slofstra warned Valayer that it was too dangerous to continue in daylight since there were a couple of notorious Dutchmen, members of the Landwacht, living in the vicinity and he suggested to Valayer to hide in the barn in the daytime. Suddenly the sound of a firefight came from further north out of the wood. Valayer did not hesitate and he and his companions and the prisoners entered the barn. Slofstra did not stay with the paras, but promised to return in the evening to guide them further to their objective. Unfortunately that wouldn't be the case. While sheltering with a nearby befriended family, he was arrested by a German police patrol, which was checking the farms in the neighbourhood for French paras. Slofstra was unable to show his identity card, which in haste he had forgotten as he left home at Assen. He was taken to the town hall of Norg where he remained in custody for the rest of the day (8th). Meanwhile, at the Mulder Barn, Valayer waited in vain for the rest of his men to turn up. In the course of the day his small force of three was augmented by the arrival of four stray paras: Bévalot from the stick Boulon, Munch from the stick De Sablet/Picard and Spina and Lévêque from the stick Rouan. All four decided to join Valayer and stay at the barn.

That Sunday morning the sound of skirmishes could be heard in the vicinity. An alerted enemy obviously was chasing other paratroopers. In the afternoon when things quieted down a bit, the paras got in touch with the Buist family, who lived on the nearby farm some 200 meters farther down the Koelenweg. The Dutch family supplied the French with food and drinks. When Slofstra did not turn up that evening Valayer, for reasons unknown, decided to stay at the barn. Did he count on the guide to return, or was he still hoping that he would gain contact with the rest of his men?

Anyhow, dawn of April 9th, a Monday, found the French still at the Mulder barn. At noon a horse cart with two members of the Landwacht, clad in civvies, moved along the Koelenweg. They were on their way to Assen to collect a coffin for their fallen comrade, Tiette Blauw, who had been killed the previous day by the stick Picard. When they passed by the Mulder barn they noticed a group of French paras who were carelessly standing outside the barn. Seemingly unperturbed the two men on their horse cart continued their way. The two small sisters of the Buist family, who were on their way to the barn to bring some food, immediately saw the danger. However, due to the language barrier they were unable to make themselves understood to the paras. Though they wildly gesticulated to the French that these men were traitors and should be stopped, the paras did not get the message and the horse cart with the two harbingers of doom disappeared unmolested in the bend of the road that led to Assen. That afternoon the son of the Buist family found an ammunition container in the Norgervaartsebos and he and his grandfather took it to the French, who were very glad to receive the additional ammunition. That evening Buist went over to the barn to express to Lieutenant Valayer his worries over the safety of the paratroopers, which in his view had been more than compromised by the incident with the two Landwachters earlier that day. Valayer, however, did not heed the urgent advice to leave the place, instead the French barricaded both stable doors as a precaution for the night.

Early next morning, April 10th, the inevitable happened. In a dense fog, a detachment of about forty enemy, a mishmash of soldiers, military police and Landwachters, surrounded the Mulder barn. The Germans could have easily approached the barn unseen and surprise the French, because of the poor visibility, but instead chose to fire their weapons at the barn from a safe distance. This reluctance to engage the SAS at close quarters, did cost them dearly. In the ensuing firefight, which lasted for well over an hour, the French succeeded in eliminating a large number of their assailants, but eventually the Mulder barn was set on fire by tracer bullets which were fired into the thatched roof. This forced the paratroopers out. Hopelessly trapped inside the burning barn, the SAS men decided to make a break-out at both sides of the building. Three of them, Valayer, Munch and Spina, died in the fire when the stable door at their end of the barn blocked. The remaining men, Bévalot, Azem, Lévêque and Doal, at the other side of the barn, which faced north towards the forest, dashed outside and engaged the enemy. After a short fire exchange Azem and Bévalot were killed by enemy fire. Doal and Lévêque then tried to make a run for it, but after running only a couple of metres Lévêque too was hit and killed. Only the 23 year old Sgt. Jean Doal managed to escape by running as fast as he could across country, with bullets zipping around him. One bullet even went through the pocket of his battledress. Doal ran for several kilometers, losing his shoes in the sucking mud as he jumped across ditches. Barefooted, wounded, out of ammunition and out of breath, he finally was hidden by Dutch farmers near Westerveld.

View attachment 237065 View attachment 237067 View attachment 354502
Left: the sad remains of the Mulder Barn, with in the foreground an improvised grave for the three men who perished inside the barn. The charred bodies of Valayer, Munch and Spina, wrapped in blankets, were buried on the spot by Buist and his son. The Germans moved the other French casualties by horse cart to Assen. Center: 25 years old Lieutenant Jean Auguste Valayer, who was killed with his men at the Mulder barn. It remains a mystery why he decided to stay in this place for so long. Right: Sgt Jean Doal was the only one to escape the action at the Koelenweg alive.

Six French were killed, the exact number of enemy casualties remains unknown. Sgt.Doal claimed that at least twenty enemy soldiers must have been killed. The Germans moved their casualties to Assen where they were buried. After the war two mass graves were opened at Assen which together contained 35 bodies, but it is hard to tell if all of them were casualties from the fight at the Mulder barn.

The Buist family was saved from further disaster by a befriended Landwachter who convinced his companions that these were 'good people who did no wrong'.

Story - my paraphrase - courtesy: Col. Roger Flamand: "AMHERST : les parachutistes de la France libre, 3e et 4e SAS, Hollande 1945" - I used the Dutch translation of this book by Jaap Jansen and postwar interviews with members of the Buist family (courtesy Boersma)

(1) The landing of the stick Valayer triggered an immediate enemy response. Shortly after midnight, on the 8th, the German town commander of Assen received the disturbing report, brought to him by a NCO, that paras "had landed on the eastern [sic] outskirt of the town". He immediately alerted his troops and dispatched a strong 'Alarm-Einheit' to the edge of the town, where no paras were found; they had already moved on. In the course of the morning 'Alarm-Einheiten' moved out in all directions to investigate all locations where parachutists had been reported or were suspected to have landed.(Report of General Böttger in Bontekoe, "Verslag Duitse zijde van de gevechten in Midden-Drenthe op 7, 8 en 9 april 1945");
(2) According to Roger Flamand, the stick Valayer took some German POWs during the night of the landing at the Lariks. If so they probably were with the middle group and tasked with carrying the packs. At some point in the early morning of the 8th, according to Flamand, the POWs escaped; the French guard had fallen asleep.
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There were indeed prisoners, 10 to be precies.
8 arrived with Slofstra, Valayer and Azem at the barn. Doal arrived one night later, he was alone during the day (so he wrote himself in 1946).
2 prisoners stayed with Raillard and were handed over to the Canadians on april 13.
Slofstra remembered (1970) that, when he left, there were 6 or 7 French and about 8 Germans in the barn.
It was six, because Doal wasn't there yet.

frankeleveld · Mar 29, 2024

We have been working on a podcast about Operation Amherst and a good week before the operation's 79th anniversary, we have the first part out. Episode 1 outlines the preparation and organization.
It is available now through Apple podcasts and Podbean.com (search for 'Operatie Amherst'). For now, it is in Dutch only. I am considering an English version as well, but the priority is getting a few episodes out in Dutch first. I will upload future episodes as time permits.

stolpi · Apr 7, 2024

Bump ... tonight it will be 79 years ago that 'Operation Amherst' started in NE Holland

stolpi · Apr 10, 2024

A new addition to my collection of Op Amherst publications arrived today. The booklet of Rinze Oenema (76 pp.), which was published in April 2017, tells the story of the demi-stick Vidoni at Haulerwijk. An action that is also covered in this thread: OPERATION AMHERST: French SAS in Holland, April 1945

JimHerriot · Apr 10, 2024

stolpi said: ↑

A new addition to my collection of Op Amherst publications arrived today. The booklet of Rinze Oenema (76 pp.), which was published in April 2017, tells the story of the demi-stick Vidoni at Haulerwijk. An action that is also covered in this thread: OPERATION AMHERST: French SAS in Holland, April 1945

View attachment 379873

View attachment 379878 View attachment 379877
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I hope it is a great book stolpi, a good source of accurate information.

A pity they've not used a wartime photo for the cover though :-( (post war modern chute, blanked gores for steering and perforated periphery to minimise oscillation - not a '45 thing by many many years unfortunately).

Still, happy reading!

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

frankeleveld · May 23, 2024

The third episode of our podcast on Operation Amherst has been released today. Like the previous two episodes, it’s in Dutch. For those interested, the podcast is available on Apple podcasts and Podbean (Operatie Amherst - E3 - Appelscha | Operatie Amherst).

We are working on making it available on more podcasts services.

Richard Borst · May 23, 2024

stolpi said: ↑

Norgerbrug - Lieutenant De Sablet

Lieutenant De Sablet had ended up in a similar ditch as Picard. Sadly enough, he died by drowning.

At dawn on Sunday April 8th, one of the residents at the Norgerbrug - the young Hans Naber, who was looking for lapwing eggs with two friends, a favorite pastime in the northern Netherlands at the time - discovered a parachute on the bank of a broad drainage ditch some 800 meters to the NW of his house (probably a side ditch of the De Bruggenwijk). Whatever had hung on the parachute had ended up in the water. Assuming it was a container filled with weapons and ammunition, one of many that had been dropped for the resistance lately, he decided to quickly recover and hide it before the Germans came. But when he pulled in the parachute chords a helmet appeared on the surface, beneath it was the lifeless body of a French para. Apparently the weight of the legbag, which still was strapped to his belt, had pulled him down and he had drowned. With the help of his friend and neighbor, Willem Oosterwijk, who had joined him, the young Naber pulled the body out of the water and laid it in the grass along the bank of the ditch. Completely preoccupied with this activity both young men had not noticed that two soldiers had approached. When they looked up they immediately saw that these men wore the same uniform as the dead soldier. The soldiers recognized the dead man. "It is De Sablet", one of them called out, "the poor fellow has not been able to free himself". The soldiers removed some of the papers of their dead collegue and then continued to the north, leaving the young Dutchmen with the body (1).

The body of De Sablet was later retrieved by some Dutch civilians and secretly buried at the local cemetery of Bovensmilde, where he rests until today at the express wish of his family.

View attachment 236782 View attachment 236784
Left: The 26 year old Lieutenant Gabriel Louis Saltet de Sablet d'Estières, who was in command of stick No.5 of the 3rd RCP, landed in a broad drainage ditch and drowned on the opening night of the Operation Amherst at Norgerbrug. Right: De Sablet rests at the nearby local cemetery of Bovensmilde. Picture of his grave taken by André Jans during one of the "Amherst" commemorations (courtesy André Jans).

Story - my paraphrase - courtesy: Col. Roger Flamand: "AMHERST : les parachutistes de la France libre, 3e et 4e SAS, Hollande 1945" - I used the Dutch translation of this book by Jaap Jansen

See for a more detailed version on the location of the body of De Sablet, Albert Eleveld on his You Tube contribution (from: 20:43 onwards) OPERATION AMHERST: French SAS in Holland, April 1945

(1) It is believed that these two paras were Battesti and Fabert who had become detached from the rest of the Stick.
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Born on 26-12-1920, De Sablet turned out to be 24 years old when he died. It's unknown why his gravestone mentions 26.

JimHerriot · May 23, 2024

Always remember, never forget,

Jim.

Richard Borst · May 24, 2024

Richard Borst said: ↑

Born on 26-12-1920, De Sablet turned out to be 24 years old when he died. It's unknown why his gravestone mentions 26.
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His mother visited the Netherlands in july 1947. She might have mentioned that he would have been 26 (that year). Most likely somthing went wrong with the translation.

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