HS9/1413/2
22666/A
REAL NAME: Johannes Antonius Steman. INTERROGATED BY: Capt. CHILDS
Operation Name: Frans Date: 16-6-45
Left Holland, April 1942. CODE NO: D/15
Parachuted back into Holland 1 Apr 44
Worked until liberation.
Various wireless plans, including NIDD, TEIFI and SPEAN
Mission.
Went with HANS, an organiser who was to act as liaison officer between the Dutch Government and the underground press in Holland. Agent was to act as radio link in this work.
Arrival.
A blind drop, near BREDA in BRABANT. After landing the two buried chutes and package, which included WT set and then made their way into BREDA, carrying only their personal effects. They arrived in BREDA about 8 in the morning, took the train to SANTPOORT near HAARLEM, where they went to the home of HANS' mother. The agent stayed there for several days, but HANS went off after two days to AMSTERDAM where agent believes that he met the contact he had been given before departure. After a few days HANS went back to the dropping place with PIETER DEKKER (van Paaschen) to recover the material. They found that the hiding place had been discovered by somebody, probably not the Germans as there was no hue and cry. All the material had been taken, including the set, but the packing was left in the hole.
HANS and DEKKER started to try to find another set, but they were unsuccessful in this and it was eventually decided that HANS should go back to the UK through an address he had in Paris and that the agent should work with PIETER DEKKER, who would take HANS' place as liaison officer if it became possible to establish contact by getting hold of a set. About two weeks later DEKKER succeeded in obtaining a set and the agent was able to start work. *1
Cover.
The papers supplied to the agent before his departure showed him to be a Dutch ex-prisoner-of-war who had returned from Germany to Holland and that after his demobilisation from the Dutch Army he was employed as a traveller for an Amsterdam newspaper "De Nieuwe Dag". These papers showed him to be 27, approximately three years more than his real age, which placed him outside the age of 18 - 25 between which people needed an Ausweis to travel. The agent used this cover and these papers until September, 1944, when people from 18 to 40 became liable for work in Germany, when he was forced to change them and his cover. DEKKER obtained new papers for the agent, which were still in the same name, but in which he was described as an official of the Food Control (CCD) which cover exempted him from forced labour in Germany. This second paper was as false as the papers provided from UK. It was not registered properly and any inquiry to the Food Office where agent was supposed to work would have drawn a blank. The agent never found any necessity to do anything very much to build up these covers. When he was supposed to be working for the paper he carried about with him material in support of his story and later when he was supposed to be a food officer he was actually transmitting from the country and was in a position to say that he was visiting farms, because he was responsible for control of farm produce. But neither of these rather slender cover stories was ever seriously questioned. When the agent was arrested he bluffed his interrogators by telling them to phone his office in THE HAGUE, but fortunately for him they didn't call his bluff.
Premises.
There was considerable difficulty in getting premises for transmitting and at one time the agent was actually living and transmitting in the same house for about two months. Part of the time he was working in the country, which he preferred, but after the arrival of the airborne troops at ARNHEM he had to move back to THE HAGUE because he was afraid of being cut off from DEKKER who was working there.
As far as possible he changed houses from time to time and had his set moved. This was always done by a girl, sometimes by JOS. When the agent was going to transmit from a house where he was not known a password was used and at certain premises the safety signal was always used. At one time he was using the old Belgian Legation, which was inhabited only by a concierge and where he fitted up the set between the ceiling and the roof, thus working in complete concealment.
Internal communication.
Personal contact. The agent would normally meer DEKKER at the house of a doctor in THE HAGUE, where they could, if necessary pretend to be people who had come for a consultation. The doctor knew, of course what they were up to. For passing messages between the two they were often able to make use of the public telephone. As underground worker belonging to an organisation known as O.D. worked in the telephone exchange and was able to provide private untapped lines for certain underground leaders. In the event of a police control he could cut off the subversive conversation. In this way the agent and DEKKER were able to pass wireless traffic to each other over the phone in clear language. When this means of communication broke down a girl courier was used.
External communications.
The agent had considerable difficulty in achieving a state of security from the point of view of safe houses, as these were difficult to obtain. He was transmitting from the same place for days at a time without changing the address and at one time was transmitting for four months (September to December, 1944) from the Belgian Legation. However, as far as possible he did move about, although this was always very much limited by the lack of accommodation. Partly as a result of this and partly because he found home-station tended to prolong the skeds unduly he was DF'd (Direction Finding) on three occasions that he knows of. The first time (in September, 1944) was whilst he was working in the Belgian Legation and a DF car was observed in the vicinity by someone looking from the window. He stopped transmitting and that was the end of that. On the second occasion (in December, 1944) he was till in the Belgian Legation and a DF car stopped at the end of the street. A Dutch policeman was getting into each house along the street and he decided that to stop would have betrayed to the listener in the car the fact that the man was entering a house where the set was, so he continued to transmit and as he was in a complete concealed place he was not found. About half an hour later, when he had finished his sked and gone five Germans in civilian clothes came and searched the house and spent about an hour doing so, including a visit to the roof where they found several pre-war aerials, but not the agent's own, which was concealed in the same place as the set.
About a fortnight later, the agent was sending from another house in a street of five houses. He had been using the same signal plan for nearly five months, but this was the first time he had used the house. About ten minutes after he cam on the air the immediate vicinity was surrounded by 5 DF cars and 75 Grüne Polizei. They began to search the 5 houses from the other end of the street and they went about it very thoroughly indeed, practically pulling the first four houses to pieces. The agent had only time to hide his et under some coal. The search began at about ten past 11 in the morning, and at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon the agent took his hat and coat and went out. One of the policemen asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to work and was allowed to continue. Although they search the ground floor of the house where the agent was, for some reason they did not go upstairs and so the set was not found and the next day the organisation was able to move it elsewhere. The agent stopped transmitting on the signal plan because he knew that a new one was on the way and he was able to start the new plan about five days later. He was never again DF'd as far as he knows.
At one time the agent tried to use guards outside the house from which he was transmitting, but he found that these people were constantly interrupting his skeds with false alarms about slow moving cars and so he abandoned this methode and merely used a guard in the house, looking out of the window (Cf. DEKKER Interrogation).
At the time that HANS was leaving to return to UK in May, 1944 the agent wrote an innocent letter to an accommodation address in Sweden. This letter was received and understood. It explained that HANS was on his way back.
Arrest and Interrogation.
The agent was arrested on 16 Feb 1945 for being in possession of a pistol. This was his own pistol which he had brought to the house where he was living to clean it. Unluckily for him, the Dutch police and the Landwacht came to this house looking for information about the son of the house, who had gone underground. The agent went out the back way to try to dispose of his pistol, but was unfortunately caught with it. He was interrogated first by the Dutch Police and later by the Dutch SD in Rotterdam and each time he told the same story that he had known there was a pistol in the house, probably belonging to the son who had gone underground, and that he was attempting to get rid of it in order to save the parents from any trouble. This story was treated with a certain amount of suspicion and he was knocked about. The Dutch SD did not make any very serious attempt to check up on the agent's papers, which were entirely phoney. He was able to bluff them by telling them to telephone his office but they did not bother to do it. He was then consigned to prison, being told that he would be executed next time there was an execution of hostages and three weeks later he was interrogated by the German SD. During this interval he received a letter from PIETER DEKKER via a Dutch Policeman, telling him that he was working for his release and there was no need to be afraid. He was next interrogated by an officer who had "Sicherheitsdienst" in full on his sleeves. This was merely a recapitulation of former interrogations and the agent told the same story and was sent back to the cells again. then followed a period of 2 months confinement, when nothing happened except that the agent received a certain amount of food and occasional encouraging messages from DEKKER intimating that he was still working for his release. These were always brought by the same Dutch Policeman.
On the 14th April he was informed that he was released. he left the prison in a car and was taken to SD HQ where he saw the Kriminal Kommissar HINKFUSS and a number of other SD officers. HINKFUSS asked him if he knew a Dutch SD man HAAKMAN and whether he had ever worked for him. The agent saw that he was expected to say that ha had and so he admitted that he had heard of HAAKMAN and gave guarded replies, which implied that he had worked for him. However, he told them that he could not give any details as to what he had done for HAAKMAN and they seemed perfectly satisfied with this and provided him with drink and cigarettes. After his interview the agent was taken by car from ROTTERDAM to THE HAGUE. HINKFUSS went with him and they went to the SD flats in THE HAGUE where HINKFUSS was living. There he was given a letter from HAAKMAN and was told that he was working for HAAKMAN and that he was not to know HINKFUSS and HINKFUSS would not know him. He then left in the same car which was driven by a Dutch policeman whom he knew. He was driven to PIETER DEKKER's and they both went to see HAAKMAN who was living at about 20 miles from THE HAGUE. HAAKMAN said "Remember the first telegram you sent to London you must tell them that HAAKMAN got you released". After this the agent went to NIEUWKOOP, where he worked without further incident until the liberation.
*1 Steman borrowed a set from SIS agent Leus, who lost his crystals. In August 1944 he got his own set from
SOE agent Hamilton who took it with him from the UK.
REAL NAME: Johannes Antonius Steman. INTERROGATED BY: Capt. CHILDS
Operation Name: Frans Date: 16-6-45
Left Holland, April 1942. CODE NO: D/15
Parachuted back into Holland 1 Apr 44
Worked until liberation.
Various wireless plans, including NIDD, TEIFI and SPEAN
Mission.
Went with HANS, an organiser who was to act as liaison officer between the Dutch Government and the underground press in Holland. Agent was to act as radio link in this work.
Arrival.
A blind drop, near BREDA in BRABANT. After landing the two buried chutes and package, which included WT set and then made their way into BREDA, carrying only their personal effects. They arrived in BREDA about 8 in the morning, took the train to SANTPOORT near HAARLEM, where they went to the home of HANS' mother. The agent stayed there for several days, but HANS went off after two days to AMSTERDAM where agent believes that he met the contact he had been given before departure. After a few days HANS went back to the dropping place with PIETER DEKKER (van Paaschen) to recover the material. They found that the hiding place had been discovered by somebody, probably not the Germans as there was no hue and cry. All the material had been taken, including the set, but the packing was left in the hole.
HANS and DEKKER started to try to find another set, but they were unsuccessful in this and it was eventually decided that HANS should go back to the UK through an address he had in Paris and that the agent should work with PIETER DEKKER, who would take HANS' place as liaison officer if it became possible to establish contact by getting hold of a set. About two weeks later DEKKER succeeded in obtaining a set and the agent was able to start work. *1
Cover.
The papers supplied to the agent before his departure showed him to be a Dutch ex-prisoner-of-war who had returned from Germany to Holland and that after his demobilisation from the Dutch Army he was employed as a traveller for an Amsterdam newspaper "De Nieuwe Dag". These papers showed him to be 27, approximately three years more than his real age, which placed him outside the age of 18 - 25 between which people needed an Ausweis to travel. The agent used this cover and these papers until September, 1944, when people from 18 to 40 became liable for work in Germany, when he was forced to change them and his cover. DEKKER obtained new papers for the agent, which were still in the same name, but in which he was described as an official of the Food Control (CCD) which cover exempted him from forced labour in Germany. This second paper was as false as the papers provided from UK. It was not registered properly and any inquiry to the Food Office where agent was supposed to work would have drawn a blank. The agent never found any necessity to do anything very much to build up these covers. When he was supposed to be working for the paper he carried about with him material in support of his story and later when he was supposed to be a food officer he was actually transmitting from the country and was in a position to say that he was visiting farms, because he was responsible for control of farm produce. But neither of these rather slender cover stories was ever seriously questioned. When the agent was arrested he bluffed his interrogators by telling them to phone his office in THE HAGUE, but fortunately for him they didn't call his bluff.
Premises.
There was considerable difficulty in getting premises for transmitting and at one time the agent was actually living and transmitting in the same house for about two months. Part of the time he was working in the country, which he preferred, but after the arrival of the airborne troops at ARNHEM he had to move back to THE HAGUE because he was afraid of being cut off from DEKKER who was working there.
As far as possible he changed houses from time to time and had his set moved. This was always done by a girl, sometimes by JOS. When the agent was going to transmit from a house where he was not known a password was used and at certain premises the safety signal was always used. At one time he was using the old Belgian Legation, which was inhabited only by a concierge and where he fitted up the set between the ceiling and the roof, thus working in complete concealment.
Internal communication.
Personal contact. The agent would normally meer DEKKER at the house of a doctor in THE HAGUE, where they could, if necessary pretend to be people who had come for a consultation. The doctor knew, of course what they were up to. For passing messages between the two they were often able to make use of the public telephone. As underground worker belonging to an organisation known as O.D. worked in the telephone exchange and was able to provide private untapped lines for certain underground leaders. In the event of a police control he could cut off the subversive conversation. In this way the agent and DEKKER were able to pass wireless traffic to each other over the phone in clear language. When this means of communication broke down a girl courier was used.
External communications.
The agent had considerable difficulty in achieving a state of security from the point of view of safe houses, as these were difficult to obtain. He was transmitting from the same place for days at a time without changing the address and at one time was transmitting for four months (September to December, 1944) from the Belgian Legation. However, as far as possible he did move about, although this was always very much limited by the lack of accommodation. Partly as a result of this and partly because he found home-station tended to prolong the skeds unduly he was DF'd (Direction Finding) on three occasions that he knows of. The first time (in September, 1944) was whilst he was working in the Belgian Legation and a DF car was observed in the vicinity by someone looking from the window. He stopped transmitting and that was the end of that. On the second occasion (in December, 1944) he was till in the Belgian Legation and a DF car stopped at the end of the street. A Dutch policeman was getting into each house along the street and he decided that to stop would have betrayed to the listener in the car the fact that the man was entering a house where the set was, so he continued to transmit and as he was in a complete concealed place he was not found. About half an hour later, when he had finished his sked and gone five Germans in civilian clothes came and searched the house and spent about an hour doing so, including a visit to the roof where they found several pre-war aerials, but not the agent's own, which was concealed in the same place as the set.
About a fortnight later, the agent was sending from another house in a street of five houses. He had been using the same signal plan for nearly five months, but this was the first time he had used the house. About ten minutes after he cam on the air the immediate vicinity was surrounded by 5 DF cars and 75 Grüne Polizei. They began to search the 5 houses from the other end of the street and they went about it very thoroughly indeed, practically pulling the first four houses to pieces. The agent had only time to hide his et under some coal. The search began at about ten past 11 in the morning, and at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon the agent took his hat and coat and went out. One of the policemen asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to work and was allowed to continue. Although they search the ground floor of the house where the agent was, for some reason they did not go upstairs and so the set was not found and the next day the organisation was able to move it elsewhere. The agent stopped transmitting on the signal plan because he knew that a new one was on the way and he was able to start the new plan about five days later. He was never again DF'd as far as he knows.
At one time the agent tried to use guards outside the house from which he was transmitting, but he found that these people were constantly interrupting his skeds with false alarms about slow moving cars and so he abandoned this methode and merely used a guard in the house, looking out of the window (Cf. DEKKER Interrogation).
At the time that HANS was leaving to return to UK in May, 1944 the agent wrote an innocent letter to an accommodation address in Sweden. This letter was received and understood. It explained that HANS was on his way back.
Arrest and Interrogation.
The agent was arrested on 16 Feb 1945 for being in possession of a pistol. This was his own pistol which he had brought to the house where he was living to clean it. Unluckily for him, the Dutch police and the Landwacht came to this house looking for information about the son of the house, who had gone underground. The agent went out the back way to try to dispose of his pistol, but was unfortunately caught with it. He was interrogated first by the Dutch Police and later by the Dutch SD in Rotterdam and each time he told the same story that he had known there was a pistol in the house, probably belonging to the son who had gone underground, and that he was attempting to get rid of it in order to save the parents from any trouble. This story was treated with a certain amount of suspicion and he was knocked about. The Dutch SD did not make any very serious attempt to check up on the agent's papers, which were entirely phoney. He was able to bluff them by telling them to telephone his office but they did not bother to do it. He was then consigned to prison, being told that he would be executed next time there was an execution of hostages and three weeks later he was interrogated by the German SD. During this interval he received a letter from PIETER DEKKER via a Dutch Policeman, telling him that he was working for his release and there was no need to be afraid. He was next interrogated by an officer who had "Sicherheitsdienst" in full on his sleeves. This was merely a recapitulation of former interrogations and the agent told the same story and was sent back to the cells again. then followed a period of 2 months confinement, when nothing happened except that the agent received a certain amount of food and occasional encouraging messages from DEKKER intimating that he was still working for his release. These were always brought by the same Dutch Policeman.
On the 14th April he was informed that he was released. he left the prison in a car and was taken to SD HQ where he saw the Kriminal Kommissar HINKFUSS and a number of other SD officers. HINKFUSS asked him if he knew a Dutch SD man HAAKMAN and whether he had ever worked for him. The agent saw that he was expected to say that ha had and so he admitted that he had heard of HAAKMAN and gave guarded replies, which implied that he had worked for him. However, he told them that he could not give any details as to what he had done for HAAKMAN and they seemed perfectly satisfied with this and provided him with drink and cigarettes. After his interview the agent was taken by car from ROTTERDAM to THE HAGUE. HINKFUSS went with him and they went to the SD flats in THE HAGUE where HINKFUSS was living. There he was given a letter from HAAKMAN and was told that he was working for HAAKMAN and that he was not to know HINKFUSS and HINKFUSS would not know him. He then left in the same car which was driven by a Dutch policeman whom he knew. He was driven to PIETER DEKKER's and they both went to see HAAKMAN who was living at about 20 miles from THE HAGUE. HAAKMAN said "Remember the first telegram you sent to London you must tell them that HAAKMAN got you released". After this the agent went to NIEUWKOOP, where he worked without further incident until the liberation.
*1 Steman borrowed a set from SIS agent Leus, who lost his crystals. In August 1944 he got his own set from
SOE agent Hamilton who took it with him from the UK.
w.mugge@home.nl
13-11-2019
13-11-2019