This
audacious plan was promoted by General Montgomery who was thought to be
extremely careful and risk averse in his operations. Montgomery thought that
the great losses suffered by the Germans in the Normandy campaign and the
liberation of France had greatly weakened their military power and risky
operations were justified to end the war sooner.
General
Eisenhower approved this plan and roughly 35.000 airborne troops took part in the
battle. The original plan called for the paratroopers to secure bridges over
the Meuse, Waal, and Rhine rivers so that the ground troops could advance and cross
them without a fight.
By relying on
speed and surprise the airborne troops were expected to overwhelm the weak
German forces and be quickly relieved by the ground troops. The airborne troops
were certainly not supposed to fight for long periods of time. They also lacked
anti tank equipment so they were particularly weak against armored units.
Operation
‘Market Garden’ started out well for the Allied troops but the bridge at Arnhem could
not be taken and once the Germans moved armored units, that were stationed
close by, the paratroopers there were surrounded and destroyed.
Overall the
Allied paratroopers suffered heavy losses in their operations. Their bravery
however was recognized by friend and foe and thus the battle of Arnhem has been
immortalized in numerous books and movies.
The sad
failure of this operation is intertwined with the strange story of the Dutch resistance
leader ‘King Kong’.
Christiaan Lindemans
was a Dutch citizen born in 1912 in Rotterdam.
Prior to WWII he worked at his father’s garage as an auto mechanic. Due
to his impressive physique he had the nickname ‘King Kong’.
In 1940 the
garage was destroyed during the bombing of Rotterdam so Lindemans found a new
job as a lorry driver on the Lille-Paris route, carrying fuel for the German
AF. In Lille he lived with his girlfriend and had two children with her.
In 1941 it
seems that through her he met with members of the Resistance movement and became
involved in their struggle.
In 1942-43 he
worked for several groups and built up a reputation as a fearless Resistance
leader. The German authorities learned to fear him, not only due to his size
and physical strength but also because he was quick to draw his gun and shoot
at them.
However
Lindemans had his weak spot. He was an inveterate womanizer and he had many
girlfriends who often got him into trouble.
In late 1943
he learned that his girlfriend had been arrested by the Germans and at the same
time his brother who was a member of the resistance in Rotterdam was also
picked up by the police.
The loss of
his loved ones drove ‘King Kong’ to the edge and he finally decided to contact
the German military intelligence service Abwehr in order to bargain with them.
In Holland
the Abwehr officer in charge of counterintelligence activities was Hermann Giskes. His memoir
‘London calling
North Pole’ (which I have reviewed here) has a lot of
information on his talks with Lindemans.
Initially the Germans were fearful that Lindemans
would try to set up a trap:
From page 166: ‘He calls himself Christiaan
Lindemans and says he is a Dutch civil servant with a house in Rotterdam….The
man is either a quite genuine mine of information or else the most dangerous
character we have encountered so far………’’What does the man look like?’’
I asked. "He is a giant of a fellow, who gives an impression varying
between extreme brutality and harmless simplicity. Nelis declares that he is
one of the most active and sinister figures in the Underground movement in the
West, who has a record of bloody affrays with German police and who shoots on
the slightest provocation. His cover-name in Underground circles is King Kong.’
When Lindemans met Giskes and his officers he
explained his motives:
From page 167: ‘May I ask you to explain
what brings you here?" I started the conversation. "I have heard it
said that you have contacts with the Allied Secret Services, and I shall be
grateful if you will tell me in brief terms who you are, what you want from us,
and what you have to offer.’’ CC replied in fluent German. "If I am not
mistaken," he began, "I am speaking to the head of the German
counter-espionage. I wish to address my proposal to him alone, as I do not
expect to get satisfaction from anyone else. My personal particulars as given
yesterday to Herr Walter (Wurr) are genuine. I am Christiaan Lindemans of
Rotterdam, and I have worked for the English Secret Service since the spring of
1940. For the last six months I have brought in my youngest brother to assist
in getting English airmen out of the country. He has been discovered, arrested
by the SIPO, and is now under sentence of death pronounced by a German military
court. I feel myself responsible for my brother’s fate, since it was I who
introduced him to this work. If you can arrange to have my brother freed, i am
ready to hand over the whole of my knowledge of the Allied Secret Services.’
From page
168: ‘For the past five years I have been
impelled by single thought—to do my utmost for the Allied Secret Service,
without thought of thanks or reward. I have been met with ingratitude, mistrust
and betrayal. If you only knew how many weaklings, place-seekers and
collaborators, who have used their connections with the Germans simply to
enrich themselves, are now starting to come over to us because they believe
that the defeat of Germany is imminent. If you knew this you would understand
me better and would realize why I have come to you. The men through whom we
carried the Resistance during the
first years of the Occupation have nearly all gone—dead, arrested or just
disappeared. Of the remainder, there are only a few whom i can trust. Leave
them in peace! I will guarantee that in due course you will learn a great deal
about the plans of the Underground and of London. Hand me over my brother and
then make use of me as seems best to you. King Kong, as they call me, is friend
or foe.’
So Christiaan
Lindemans became a German spy and compromised the Resistance groups that he
knew of. However the most interesting part of his betrayal concerns his
knowledge of operation ‘Market Garden’.
The plot
thickens
Was Lindemans
able to warn the Germans about ‘Market Garden’? Let’s have a look at the
available information.
According to
the official history ‘British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume 4’:
‘At the beginning of September Giskes
instructed King Kong to stay behind in Belgium and try to penetrate the British
Intelligence Service. King Kong quickly obtained an introduction through the
Armee Blanche to a unit in Antwerp working for IS 9. Probably about 12
September he was dispatched on a mission to pass through the lines to Eindhoven
and inform chiefs of the Resistance there that they were to stay quiet. Such
Allied pilots as they had in their care were not to move as the Allied armies
would liberate the territory shortly.’
While
crossing the lines Lindemans was arrested by a German patrol and taken to a
prison. There he revealed to his captors that he worked for the Abwehr and was
sent to the Abwehr unit in Driebergen, where the commander of that unit, Major
Kiesewetter interrogated him. Afterwards he was taken to Eindhoven and stayed
there until it was liberated by the Allies.
According to
‘British intelligence’ vol4 Kiesewetter’s testimony on this matter is not
available as he was never interrogated. However Giskes and his subordinate
Huntemann were interrogated at Camp
020 at the end of the war.
These two
confirmed the story of Lindemans arrest and interrogation by Kiesewetter but
their information was second hand. Was ‘Market Garden’ compromised by ‘King
Kong’?
The relevant
information seems to be contradictory in some parts. Giskes told the British
that on September 15 ‘King Kong’ spoke of an Allied attack towards Eindhoven
with paratroopers taking part.
On the other
hand Huntemann said that on 16 September he learned from Kiesewetter that an
Allied airborne operation was expected in the Munster-Dülmen area of Westphalia
and Arnhem had not been mentioned but in 1945 he had heard from Giskes that
Lindemans had indeed identified Arnhem in his report.
However Giskes
says the following about King Kong and operation ‘Market Garden’ in his memoir:
From page 189
– ‘On August 25th King Kong brought in a report
which purported to emanate the head of the Armee Blanche. The report indicated
that the main thrust of the Allies was directed at the Dinant area, with the
intention of advancing via Namur in the direction of Eindhoven so as to seize
the river crossings at Nijmegen and Arnhem. The subsequent attack would follow
from a bridgehead thrown across the Rhine and Waal, down the Ijssel and towards
the German North Sea coast. On that day we were able to pass this message over
the radio-link which had been re-established with No. III headquarters West,
which had now moved back to the Luxembourg area. An attempt at confirmation of
the report was unsuccessful, but the actual development of the Allied attack
during the next three weeks established the correctness of the information.’
Note that
August 25≠September 15. Perhaps this is a mistake in the book. Or perhaps not…
In page 199
the story changes again and Giskes says that Lindemans did not mention Arnhem
in his interrogation of 15th September but he did reveal that
powerful American and British airborne units would take part in the upcoming
battle. According to Giskes this information coupled with other sources of
intelligence (Giskes mentions the Luftwaffe radio intelligence service and RAF
recon planes flying over Nijmegen and Arnhem) were enough to give the German
command a hint of what was coming.
In addition
there is the testimony of another Abwehr officer who worked for Giskes, named
Richard Christmann. In 1946 he was interrogated by the French and said that he
was the one that took Lindemans to Driebergen. According to him Lindemans
reported that major parachute landings were planned on the line
Eindhoven-Amsterdam-Zuider Zee on September 18. This information was
immediately transmitted to Army HQ.
The same
person was interrogated again by the Americans and this time stated that
Lindemans had warned them of aerial landings in Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Arnhem
with follow up operations in Amersfoort, Ostrand and Zuider Zee.
So as we can
see each person gives a different account…
The end of
King Kong
After Eindhoven
was liberated Lindemans continued to work for the Allies as a liaison with the
Dutch forces of the interior and regularly visited Prince
Bernhard’s headquarters.
In October
1944 his luck run out as another German agent who knew of his betrayal decided
to offer this information to the Allies. King Kong was arrested on October 28
and taken to camp 020 for interrogation.
The interrogations
were inconclusive with a British report stating: ‘Although the man has broken in the sense that he has admitted to
working for the Germans denouncing patriots and passing military information,
it has not been found possible to maintain the pressure on him owing to the
fits from which he suffers. The result
has been that camp 020 has been unable to report what information regarding
Allied plans and military dispositions King Kong has passed to the enemy.’
In December
Lindemans was handed over to the Dutch authorities but he committed suicide in
1946 before going to trial.
The
mystery continues
It seems that
in Holland several books have been published about ‘King Kong’ and his role in
the failure of ‘Market Garden’. Unfortunately I don’t know if any of these
books adds new information on this WWII mystery.
One of them
however was written by the high ranking Dutch intelligence official Oreste Pinto, who claimed
that Lindemans was the one who betrayed operation ‘Market Garden’.
Lindemans/King
Kong definitely gave the Germans some kind of information on the Allied plans
but so far it seems that no one knows exactly what he told the Germans. This is
another WWII mystery with no clear answers.
Sources: ‘British Intelligence in the Second
World War: Volume 4’, appendix 14, ‘London calling North Pole’, Wikipedia, ‘The Battle
for Western Europe, Fall 1944: An Operational Assessment’
Acknowledgement: I have to thank Ralph Erskine for
sharing the information in ‘British intelligence in the Second World War,
vol4’.
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