Christiaan Lindemans
Christiaan Antonius Lindemans, the fourth son of Joseph Hendrik Lindemans and Christina Antonia van Uden, was a Dutch double agent during the Second World War, working under Soviet control. Otherwise known as Freddi Desmet, officer in the Belgian army and SOE agent with security clearance at the Dutch Military Intelligence Division of the SOE. He is better known under his nickname "King Kong" or in some circles as "le Tueur" as he undertook missions to kill and was ready to shoot at the slightest provocation. There is speculation that Lindemans may have been a member of Colonel Claude Dansey's Z organisation.
He is blamed for betraying the plans of Operation Market Garden, or more precisely, the Arnhem operation to the enemy and as a result caused the Allies defeat at the battle of Arnhem in 1944, the loss of the battle prolonged the war by 6 months, allowing the Red Army to enter Berlin first.
Krist, as he was called by his comrades, had worked for the Allies, being personally responsible for the death of at least twenty-seven Germans during the guerrilla war in the outskirts of Antwerp. A natural risk-taker, he did not know the meaning of fear; neither did he know the meaning of loyalty.
Biography
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Lindemans worked alongside his brother Jan as a mechanic at his father's garage in Rotterdam. In the summer of 1936, he was injured in a motorcycle accident sustaining a cracked skull and injuries to his left arm and leg which left him walking with a lumbering, simian-like, gait. Tall and heavily built, he was nicknamed King Kong, he spoke French and German well and some English. By his own account, Lindemans started to work as an informant for the British Secret Service since the spring of 1940, relaying shipping movements to London. In August of the same year, he found work as lorry driver on the Lille to Paris route carrying petrol for the German air forces. While living at Lille, and through his girlfriend, he became involved with the resistance sometime in 1940. About September 1942, Lindemans established his own escape line in Abbeville where he was arrested two months later after being denounced by a woman living in Paris, an acquaintance named Colette. He was imprisoned by the Germans for five months, he was the only one of his organization to be detained.By 1943, his popularity as one of the leaders of the Dutch resistance was its highest. He had begun collecting jewels and other valuables from rich women to provide fighting funds for the underground "escape route" through occupied Belgium and the Netherlands into Spain and Portugal.
Lindemans served as a contact with resistance movements, some with Communist tendencies such as the RVV, the CS VI group of Amsterdam the Trouw, the Het Parool, the Dutch-Paris escape line run by John Henry Weidner and for evasion networks within the jurisdiction of MI9.
Lindemans was a member of one of the twelve recognised units of the Belgian underground army called :fr:Les Affranchis |fr:Les Affranchis, allowing him to remain in possession of a machine gun and a revolver.
Sometime in February 1944, his younger brother Henk was arrested in Rotterdam by the Sicherheitspolizei and held captive at The Hague, awaiting execution for helping English people to escape from the Netherlands. Followed on 24 February by the arrest of his wife who was then 3 months pregnant, expecting her second child, a French cabaret singer who worked for the French Resistance named Gilberte Letuppe nicknamed Gilou Lelup at Hotel Montholon, situated in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the arrest was made by two members of the Gestapo assisted by four German soldiers heavily armed.
They searched her bag and her room and found three ID cards, some Kommandantur signatures, pass and some German employment permits, all stolen the previous day, in addition to the items discovered, three revolvers and a box of ammunition, all to be hand over to a French resistance movement in Bordeaux.
Letuppe was taken prisoner and interrogated for eleven hours that day, she was beaten with such force in the face, she fell from her chair but she refused to speak. She was therefore taken to Fresnes Prison, south of Paris where she was jailed, manacled hand and foot with no food and water on a bed for four days. She was questioned violently a couple of times, beaten in the face on every occasion. Because of her mutism, she spend the next six months in Solitary confinement.
She is registered, at the beginning of August, to be the last woman admitted to Fort de Romainville, a stop before deportation. Her file numbered 6 862 described her being born on 15 September 1922 and nine months pregnant. But, instead, being among the prisoners aboard the last convoy of deportees from Paris to Germany and alike some of her fellow inmates who were considered unfit for transportation, she was evacuated from the Fort of Romainville on 17 August to a local Hospice in Saint-Denis where she gave birth on 25 August to her second child, a daughter named Christianne. Letuppe's release might have been ordered by Abwehr Colonel Oscar Reile, he supposedly left Paris on 18 August. The fort of Romainville was under the control of the German military authorities.
Her testimony was later written down by the Allied Information Service -SHAEF and used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.
By March 1944, he was able to initiate contact with Abwehr operatives in Brussels, due to his inability to pay 10,000 Florins asked by the first intermediary agent in exchange for their freedom, Lindemans agreed to meet Dr. Gerhard, sometimes called Dr. German in a villa outside Brussels and agreed to become a double agent on condition that his wife and brother were released. Giskes claimed that he performed his part of the bargain, Henk Lindemans was released in due course and went as a voluntary worker to Germany where he had some acquaintances
From here on, Lindemans was instructed to renew contact with resistance agents and transmit back to Major Hermann Giskes information about the resistance movement in the occupied Netherlands, France and Belgium. In return he received large sums of money. During his time as an informant for the German military intelligence service, Lindemans was closely shadowed by an Abwehr agent. Lindemans' early denunciations created a Domino effect resulting in the arrest of 267 Dutch and Belgians resistance fighters. In the wake of D-Day's landings, Lindemans said to have visited the British sector of the Normandy Beachhead, he succeeded in getting himself recruited by IS 9 Western Europe Area, an Anglo-American secret agency which worked under MI9, by the end of September 1944, he was a member of Prince Bernhard's Staff and was appointed to the position of liaison officer between Dutch resistance and a British Intelligence unit commanded by a Canadian officer.
The true nature of Lindemans' mission could have been an assassination attempt against Prince Bernhard but according to Bernhard's biographer that was not his orders, Lindemans was to spy on Prince Bernhard's HQ and find out who was the primary source of intelligence.
September 1944
On 3 September 1944, Giskes left Brussels and instructed Lindemans to stay in Belgium and make contact with Anglo-Canadian intelligence, he was to offer himself as an agent, the mission was to find out what plans Canadian Intelligence had made for the Netherlands and as soon as possible cross the lines with that information, in that case he was to use a secret code to get past German sentries. Lindemans was involved in the liberation of the city of Brussels, alongside three Belgian police officers, he attacked German forces who were still holding out in the North railway station district, Lindemans managed to kill two German soldiers and wound two.On 4 September 1944, British intelligence officer, Captain Peter Baker of IS 9 of the D group, an expert in sabotage and hand-to-hand combat and assigned to SHAEF G-2 division, arrived in Brussels on his way to the newly liberated Antwerp in search of a Dutchman who would be able to go through the lines and to contact Allied airmen hiding in the southern part of the Netherlands.
An Armée secrète 's operative named Urbain Renniers recommended Lindemans for the job, before sending him out, Baker made a few enquiries, he then went to the 21st Army Group's headquarters which in turn contacted Prince Bernhard's staff, on SHAEF Special Forces Captain de Graaf's recommendation, Prince Bernhard notify Baker that Lindemans could be trusted, accordingly special priority clearance was granted and an IS 9 pass under the name of Christiaan Brand was issued.
Lindemans, operating under the alias of "De Vries" given to him by Baker, in order to protect his identity had now joined The Buccaneers, Baker's private army, the Jolly Roger was the unit Battle standard. The De Vries alias was also used by another Abwehr agent, Antonie Damen, Lindemans was required to perform the role of Baker's Chauffeur. The Baker mission begin on 12–13 September from the Belgium town of Diest.
On the night of 14 September, Captain Baker conducted Lindemans and a Belgian named Lucien de Ness to Hechtel-Eksel near Beringen. For the most part of his journey, Lindemans, wearing full British battle dress, was escorted by a patrol of fourteen British soldiers under the authority of a Major Ross. Lindemans and de Ness crossed the frontline near Valkenswaard through a hail of shells. de Ness got seriously wounded and was taken to a German field Hospital, where he died shortly after. For Lindemans he had rendezvous with the German HQs in the Netherlands.
Lindemans first met with German Luftwaffe general Kurt Student in Vught and then escorted to Driebergen by Giskes' right-hand man, Abwehr agent Richard Christmann who had been detached from FAK 307 to FAT 365 in the upcoming meeting with Lindemans. The latter was driven back to the region of Eindhoven on 16 September by agent Christmann.
Alongside his BBO assignment, Lindemans had received a Dutch BI order by Baker, once in Eindhoven he was instructed to deliver personally to four high-ranking members of a Dutch resistance organisation, all employed by The Philips Company also known as Eindhoven Philips the following assignment that they should hold back information on the development of V-2 rocket and a cyclotron until the Allies reached them unless they considered it to be a strategic imperative. In that case they were to hand their intelligence to Lindemans on his way back through the lines and to prevent the Germans from committing acts of sabotage against the Philips' factories.
Possibly part of the Melanie Mission, a joint operation between the Office of Strategic Services and the BI, the Melanie Mission was to collect military, economic and industrial intelligence.
On Saturday 16 September he went for the safe house of resistant police officer Inspector Kooy, whose address had been given to Lindemans via Baker by Dutch intelligence liaison officers. Kooy started to suspect Lindemans, he had him searched, a copy of the Deutsche Zeitung in den Niederlanden and a pass signed by Major Ernest Kiesewetter, head of FAT 365 in Driebergen were discovered in his pocket, Lindemans answered that he had picked up the newspaper on the road and the document bearing Kiesewetter's signature was a forgery. Unconvinced by Lindemans' explanation, Kooy had him locked up in a coal cellar near the police station.
Lindemans was released on Tuesday, 19 September, one day after the Allies entered Eindhoven by Baker who was absolutely furious that one of his best agents was detained, Kooy produced the items discovered, Baker's reply that the newspaper meant nothing and the pass was a fake.
On 23 September, Lindemans was debriefed and cleared of any suspicion by Captain de Graff and Captain de Jong who had recently arrived from England and who was also serving on Prince Bernhard's Staff.
On duty with the SOE and in company of two British officers, Lindemans paid a visit to French resistance fighter named Charles Buisine on 17 October. Buisine, a veteran of the Battle of France, had been recruited into the SOE in 1940 by Lindemans with the immediate rank of Lieutenant, he was head of an intelligence and escape network codenamed Sector 6-North-F with HQ in Beuvry. Buisine codenamed agent 28/24 who was working under the authority of Belgian Officer Desmet was unaware of his commanding officer true identity.
Waiting to be alone with Buisine, here is what Lindemans had to say:
In the following days, Buisine learnt to his own disbelief that Freddi Desmet, SOE Captain of the Belgian army with an impeccable track record and Christiaan Lindemans, one of the leaders of the Communist group CS VI of Armsterdam who was held prisoner by the British Military police on suspicion of treason were the same.
Tactical advantage
Since the war various authors have speculated that Lindemans' information led Field Marshal Model to reposition the II SS Panzer Corps under the cover of darkness to positions overlooking likely Airborne targets, mainly bridgeheads, near Arnhem and for the troops. They were camping in the nearby forests waiting for the Allied airdrop to begin.According to Lindemans, the Allies wanted to attack Eindhoven. More specifically, Lindemans' information stated that the Allied attack would be north of Eindhoven and would consist of Airborne troops eventually backstopped by Allied armor.
Lindemans' information was incomplete but enough to let the German High Command to pinpoint some of the enemy targets, likely bridges at Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem, the last-mentioned was brought forward in Lindeman's report. Early September, Model who had the task to defend a line running from the North Sea to the Swiss border, had ordered the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg to the neighborhood of Arnhem for refitting and upgrading under the direction of Bittrich who would set up his command post in the area in preparation for the upcoming Allied invasion of Germany in reaction to the V-2 campaign.
Lindemans' second report was made into two summaries, enabled the Germans to counter-attack and send further reinforcements made of auxiliary units in the Arnem and Nijmegen area.
The limited availability of German jet planes, most of the Me 262 were grounded due to the lack of adequate fuel, made impossible the full use of Lindemans' intelligence on the position of Eisenhower's HQ and the whereabouts of Allied battle tanks.
Allied aircraft reconnaissance were used on 11 and 16 September but not on the 15th due to bad weather, nothing critical was detected.
Prince Bernhard impersonation
On the eve of the liberation of Eindhoven, preceded by Sherman tanks, Baker entered the town of Valkenswaard, accompanied by Charles Muller, a French officer, the two men were driven through the town in an impressive black Cadillac limousine, quickly attracting devoted followers.With his horn rimmed spectacles and his London-tailored uniform, Baker bore an uncanny resemblance to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, and as expected, a large and enthusiastic crowd started to cheer at Baker who politely replied waving his hands in royal manner. At the end, Baker had to take refuge at the Irish Guards's HQ at Aalst near Eindhoven where some British and American journalists were waiting to interview the Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch Forces.
Baker acknowledged in his memoirs that pictures were taken that day.
Capture and death
On 26 October 1944, Lindemans was denounced as a German spy by a fellow Abwehr agent named Cornelis Johannes Antonius Verloop nicknamed Satan Face, a recipient of the German Cross in Gold. Verloop who at that time was in Allied hands, claimed that Lindemans had betrayed Operation Market Garden to intelligence officer Kiesewetter on Friday, 15 September at the Abwehr station in Driebergen. "King Kong" showed no resistance to his arrest by British security officer Alfred Vernon Sainsbury of Special Forces Detachment on the afternoon of 28 October 1944 at Prince Bernhard's headquarters located at Château de La Fougeraie also known as Château Wittouck in Uccle outside Brussels. After five days in St-Gilles-Prison, Brussels, Lindemans was transferred to Camp 020, placed under the command of Lieutenant colonel R.W.G. Stephens nicknamed Tin Eye. Lindemans' personal effects were seized but gave no evidence of his betrayal.Following an intense two-week interrogation by MI5 agents, Lindemans had several epileptic seizures and consequently, he made a full and detailed confession and contrary to initial findings compelled by Camp 020 officers that they were unable to report what information Lindemans had transmitted to the enemy, Colonel Stevens recommended that Lindemans should receive the death sentence. Lindemans' questioning at Camp 020 had revealed that he had general knowledge on some of Nazi Germany's top-secret weapons including the V-2 program and the existence of an atomic bomb which burns and destroys everything within a radius of 500 yards, that large amounts of gold were stored in an unknown location in Brussels, he also disclosed that Giskes was a personal friend of Hitler. Lindemans was also suspected of helping German spies getting back into enemy lines during the month of October.
He was then returned to Dutch custody where he was jailed in Breda Prison up to March 1945 and in Scheveningen until summer 1946, held under sentence of death by the Dutch government, for treachery during the war.
Oreste Pinto did visit Lindemans at least once, the very muscular and keen boxer nicknamed "King Kong" was now the shadow of his former self, the two men looked at each other, Lindemans asked, Is there no mercy ?, Pinto did not reply. Lindemans allegedly committed suicide by swallowing 80 aspirin in a psychiatric ward before his case could be heard.
Prison, rumours and escape
According to British officer Capt Baker's own recollections of events, Lindemans was kept at the Tower of London, he was later executed for treason.In the summer of 1946, a Dutch newspaper published an article on a prison break which occurred at Scheveningen Prison, three men being held at the camp for political delinquents escaped, one of the escapees was the notorious Christiaan Lindemans, the mysterious Tower of London prisoner, a previous escape attempt by Lindemans from the same place had been thwarted, he may have been allowed to escape to South America after a body-swap.
Russian Syndicate
In April 1946, Lindemans' wife visited the Soviet Embassy in Rotterdam, at least on three occasions. The British intelligence service took the matter seriously and intervened with help of one of their agents inside Scheveningen Prison to get through to Lindemans, in exchange for his wife's safety, he agreed to share information on a Russian organisation who have ties with senior members of France, Germany and the Netherlands Armed forces and civilian administrations. This organisation is said to be all over the Netherlands territory and actively try to absorb all Dutchmen who served in the SS during the war, had taken into custody German engineers who had worked on the German atomic project and exfiltrated them to the Soviet Union, the same group had now spread to Persia, possibly threatening British interests. The British intelligence service cross-checked Lindemans' report and found it to be very accurate.The same mysterious organisation might have been involved in Verloop breaking out of Scheveningen Prison. According to his British personal file, classified 'Red', Verloop was regarded by the British intelligence service as one of the most dangerous German spies to have worked in the Netherlands. He was last seen in 1949, reappearing decades later, although Lindemans was believed to have known where Verloop was hiding. Verloop's name was on the official list of German agents kept by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris in his office in Berlin.
During the 1980s, Verloop was interviewed by French historian, Michel Rousseau about two SOE networks in north of France, the Garrow-Pat O'Leary network and the Farmer network. The article was printed in the French quarterly publication Revue d'histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et des conflits contemporains in 1984. He was also interviewed by American journalist, Brendan M. Murphy, for his projected book on British spy turned traitor Harold Cole, published in 1987.
In January 1944, posing as patriots, Verloop and fellow Abwehr agent, Antonie Damen, raised some suspicions in the mind of a member of the Belgian resistance movement, Mrs Lambot of 15, rue d'Alliance, Brussels. Lambot who lodged Verloop and Damen, suspected both men to be working for the Russian intelligence service. Damen's capture by Allied forces caused that of Verloop.
Body exhumed
On Tuesday, 17 June 1986, Dutch pathologist Martin Voortman positively identified a skeleton exhumed as that of Christiaan Lindemans, according to Voortman, the skeleton had an irregularly healed break in its left ankle, corresponding to Lindemans' medical records.The body was recovered at dawn the same day from Rotterdam Crooswijk cemetery from a coffin sandwiched between those of Lindemans' parents.
Hendrik Lindemans witnessed the exhumation of his brother's body, states that he was convinced that the remains were those of his brother.
In 1997, Lindemans' suicide note surfaced and had provided satisfactory evidence that Lindemans took his own life.