Christiaan Lindemans SOE I have downloaded Lindemans' KV files from Kew if anyone is interested in copies DM and will WeTransfer them over. KV 2/231-KV2/237 I downloaded them as I was interested in the Arnhem connection. FO 371/60241 Alleged collaborators: ex-Prime Minister de Geer and Christian Lindemans ("King Kong")
Dear Brithm, attached here for you (and if you already have the book, apologies) is Chapter 9 of Oreste Pinto's book "Spycatcher" in pdf format. I constructed the pdf a couple of years back so I could e-mail it to a friend who was interested in the story (I have the book in a box somewhere here at home, but as ever can't find it at present so I hope the pdf of the appropriate chapter will suffice). Kind regards, always, Jim.
There was an excellent BBC TV series,Spycatcher, over 50 years ago based on Col Pinto's interrogations of those entering Britain masquerading as refugees and uncovered as German spies. I remember one episode where a Frenchman stole into the country by a small aircraft.He stated that he had built up a supply of petrol for the aircraft over time in order to make the flight.He was exposed as a spy by the fact that he could not account for the reason that he had access to aviation fuel which it transpired had been supplied by his controllers,the German Abwehr. All incomers to Britain had to go through the interrogation centre at the Royal Victoria Patriotic School at Wandsworth and be cleared by them.I think there was a slip up in the case of Thomas Sneum of the RDNAS who flew to England in 1941 with a colleague.They were processed by MI 5 at Wandsworth but for some considerable time not believed as being genuine resistants but as infiltrators.They arrived by a Hornet Moth,the RAF were dubious that such an aircraft had the range to arrive in England when the truth was that to attain range Sneum had performed the dangerous form of in flight refuelling with cans of petrol,while his colleague controlled the aircraft. History records he was badly treated but he had support from R V Jones who became interested in his case as he turned up with photographs of Freya radar equipment located on Fano....(a beautiful island off the port of Esbjerg...a sight of this island from the ferry,now withdrawn.indicating that the ferry was about to join the buoy marked out channel to sail into Esbjerg.) R V Jones pays tribute to Thomas Sneum with an inscription on his gravestone, recognising Sneum's contribution in the war against Germany as a Danish patriot. Thomas Sneum
Before going to work for the Germans, to save his brother’s life, Lindemanns ran a very successful escape line. A friend’s father who needed to flee Holland had a meeting with him in Rotterdam in October 1943 in order to seek to obtain documentation and other assistance. In the end Lindemann’s didn’t make the second meeting and he was forced to find another route. Those friends that did use Lindemann’s services arrived in the UK before him. The attached is taken from his SOE Personal file into which he was recruited.
That book was based on the research conducted by the Dutch historian Theo Boeree. He published the attached booklet in 1955 which includes his investigation into the role of Lindemans
I remember the Spycatcher TV series, which was very good, and the claim by Col Pinto about Lindemans betraying the Arnhem operation. But I thought that claim had since been discredited by many sources, including this book. Were there any German files that corroborated the claim? That surely would have been conclusive.
Even Herman Giskes, who Lindemann’s reported to, dismissed the claims that he had provided advance information about Market Garden
I would expect nothing from this side: at least when it came to the annihilation of important documents, there was no talk of a fuel shortage. I am speaking from sorrowful experience... At least from the war diary of the Wehrmacht I know absolutely nothing that indicates a planned ambush But: Since mid-1943, Hitler has interfered in the leadership of the General Staff, sometimes down to battalion level. If the air landing was betrayed, why was there no "Führer's decree" or the like, which would be almost mandatory for a large-scale ambush? Instead, Panzer Brigade 108, for example, which was supposed to be transferred to Alsace, was sent to Arnhem on an ad hoc basis - after the air landing had already taken place. I think it´s a cock-and-bull story....