In May 1940 Nazi Germans invaded the Netherlands. Five long years of occupation followed. The majority of the Dutch just endured the oppression. Numerous of Dutch supported the Germans and were a member of the NSB party (National Socialist Movement). And there were some who refused to accept their fate. They joined the Dutch Resistance to fight the enemy from the inside. Or they became a so called Engelandvaarder (England Voyager). An official name of honour for a Dutch person, who managed to escape the occupied territory with the intention to go the England or another allied country, to join the allied forces to the fight against the enemy. The England Sailors took different escape routes, over sea, land and air. They carried out different jobs. Approximately 2,150 Dutch were an Engelandvaarder, of whom 68 were women.
This is Trix’s story.
WOMEN ENTERING THE SKY
“Air hostess wanted”. With this newspaper ad, in 1935, the Royal Dutch Airlines KLM opened the door to Dutch women to have a career in the world of flying. Till then it was dominated by men, as women were not allowed to fly, it was considered too dangerous.
In the 20s and 30s civil aviation developed rapidly. KLM had been founded in 1919, with Albert Plesman as CEO. Plesman had a strong belief to prove that planes weren’t just war machines, but for transport of passengers and cargo. He was convinced flying could compete against boats and trains. Under his strong and stubborn leadership KLM grew to be one of the most important airlines in the world, now being the oldest still existing airline. KLM started their service with wooden Fokker planes.
The first official flight route from Amsterdam to London was established in 1920. Flights took much longer than now. At some journeys the engines needed to be replaced 4 times. The route from Paris to Stockholm took 4 days (Amsterdam – Paris – Copenhagen – Stockholm). The first flight to Batavia (Jakarta), the Dutch East Indies capital took 55 days. In 1930 they started a scheduled service to Batavia, which run 3 times a week. The journey took 13 days, still faster than by boat. Till WW2 this was the longest scheduled service in the world.
In 1934 KLM introduced the first full metal plane, the American Douglas DC-2. This aircraft, the Uiver (Stork), joined the famous London-to-Melbourne air race. Caught up in severe thunderstorms the plane got in serious trouble. Through the radio locals were called to the race track to light up the track with their car lighting, so the plane could make a safe emergency landing. The next morning the plane was pulled out of the mud by locals to fly on to Melbourne and win the handicap section of the race (passengers and cargo), coming second overall. Tens of thousands spectators waited their arrival.
In 1934 KLM undertook the first Atlantic Flight, this had never be done before by any airline. With 25.521 postal items on board the Snip (Snipe) flew, with several stopovers in Africa, Suriname and Venezuela. The plane’s interior had been reduced to a minimum and the windows were replaced by linen cloths, this way they were able to carry extra fuel tanks. A Dutch Royal Navy submarine, served as a beacon to navigate the plane over the Atlantic and could help in case of an emergency.
Flying was still in its infancy. It was very expensive, making it only accessible to the rich and famous. It was also very dangerous, the planes were a lot smaller and flew lower, cause the planes didn’t have air cabin pressure, the weather was of great influence. They carried just a few passengers on board. The Douglas DC-2 could hold 14 passengers and the Douglas DC-3 21 to 28.
It was not uncommon for planes to drop metres in the air, to make emergency landings or end up in accidents and the planes needed repairment during their journey. Sometimes the public needed to help out by pulling stranded planes out muddy fields, before they could continue their journey. Crashes were common. In one week KLM even lost 3 planes. Schiphol was no more than a grassy field with a small building on top.
There was no communication system on board and the pilots had to fly with just a map, a compass and a piece of paper with the weather conditions. The pilots were pioneers. Most pilots had enjoyed a military pilot training at the Soesterberg airbase. The most talented one switched to commercial flying. The pilots were celebrities, heroes, the public followed their adventurous stories through newspapers, magazines and radio. People around the world waited at airports to cheerfully welcome them. When the air hostess job was introduced, hundreds of girls applied. Only a few were hired. The girls were only allowed to fly on European flights though, international flights were too dangerous. The air hostesses were expected to be unmarried, once they married, they had to quit their job.
An air hostess was required to speak 3 languages fluently and preferably have a background in nursing. They would guide the passengers, advise on hotels, places to see and calculate the prices foreign currencies. They needed to keep their head cool and be able to reassure the passengers, a psychological test was part of the procedure. Air hostesses would carry their own thermos flasks and picknick baskets to provide for the passengers and washed the dishes on board. Not all pilots were happy on having girls on board, there was no place for women up in the sky, giving the first air hostesses a very difficult start.
Beatrice (Trix) Terwindt joined the KLM in 1937 after passing the tough application procedure.
Trix was born in 1911 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Being the youngest of seven she grew up in a highly respected Catholic family. Her father was Dutch and her mother was a noble French-speaking Belgian. Her father was a demanding man, to whom she hardly ever spoke and her mother was cold and reserved. She had nannies and went to boarding schools. She felt imprisoned and longed for another life, a more independent one. Her father wanted her to get marry to a Catholic man, but to her it felt like being imprisoned, she left home. She didn’t have enough money, so she took on multiple jobs.
To live close to Schiphol Trix and other air hostesses resided in an old windmill nearby. They needed to cycle on muddy paths over the dykes to get to the airport, carrying their heavy black KLM suitcase. The route was even more challenging at night. The old windmill was draughty, cold and had no running water, the girls had to bath in the pond near the windmill. It was a free life and Trix never felt more at home.
Soon the air hostesses became celebrities too, just like the pilots. They were adventurous, visited exciting cities in Europe and enjoyed an incredible life. They were praised in the media both in the Netherlands and abroad. A lot of teenage girls had posters of the air hostesses above their bed. Passengers brought the girls gifts and they received marriage proposals. Trix also became a celebrity and gave interviews and handed out autographs. The air hostess team became a success and over time the pilots came to accept them.
The old windmill served as a beacon for the pilots when landing at Schiphol. The planes flew so low, it was possible to wave to the people on the ground. Sometimes the pilots flashed the plane’s lights to say “hello” to the girls in the windmill. At some point the girls had to leave the mill, not only cause it was cold, but also due to their increasing popularity the windmill had become a tourist attraction. The KLM became one big family and Trix enjoyed an amazing life, while visiting different cities and meeting all sorts of VIP’s and Royals on board.
WAR IN EUROPE
Till 1938 the KLM had not been bothered with the political changes in Europe, but that was about to change. Europe was on the brink of a war again. The citizens of Czechoslovakia tried to flee their country by plane. Airline tickets gotten 3 to 4 times more expensive and were sold on the black market. Airlines used extra planes to handle all the extra passengers and so did KLM. Suddenly the air hostesses dealt with a different kind of passenger, scared refugees from all around Europe.
The Netherlands had been neutral during WW1, so the Dutch were convinced they could stay neutral in the WW2 too. They were naïve when things swiftly changed in the rest of Europe. However, the KLM crews experienced the upcoming of the Third Reich up close. Not only by the refugees on board, but the cities they visited changed too. Vienna was overflooded with military and in different cities “Forbidden for jews” signs emerged. It got more and more grim.
War broke out in Europe. This made it more difficult for KLM to carry out their passenger flights. Everyday more red dots (no flying zones) were added to the flights maps, so they needed fly different routes. The Germans summoned the airlines to fly lower than 1.000 metres, so it was visible from the ground it were passenger planes and the passengers windows needed to be blinded.
Meanwhile Schiphol changed, bombers and fighter planes were placed, sandbags were placed everywhere to protect the building and there was military everywhere. Many fly routes were closed down, just a few European routes were still open. KLM had painted ‘Holland’ at the top and bottom of their planes, so they could be recognised as a passenger plane from the ground. But in September 1939 the ‘De Mees’ (the Tit) got shot while flying over war territory, which killed a passenger. After that KLM and other airlines painted all their planes bright orange, so they couldn’t be mistaken for a military aircraft again. It had become even more dangerous to fly.
WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS
Eventually, on 10 May 1940 the Nazi Germans invaded the Netherlands. German bombers and fighter planes bombarded Schiphol, the bright orange planes being an easy marker. Total chaos broke out at Schiphol, almost all of KLM’s planes were destroyed, just the ones abroad were safe. On 13 May 1940 the Dutch government and Royals fled to Britain, to govern in exile. The Dutch queen Wilhelmina lived in Eaton Square, London and later Chester Square, where she held her office. Every night at a 08:15 Radio Orange broadcasted from London to keep the Dutch informed and to motivate them to hold on.
Trix got an administration job at KLM’s headquarters, she went to live in a rural area. She felt she needed to take action against the German suppressors, so she started to hand out underground newspapers. Through the Red Cross she made contact with a British prisoner of war in Germany, Colonel Shears, which she helped out by sending him goods, like books and chocolate. She had a frequent correspondence with him.
In the summer of 1941 Trix was approached by someone from the KLM to help out in setting up an escape line for British pilots, so they could return to Britain. There was already a very successful escape line in Belgium (the Comet line) but none in the Netherlands. She would serve as a passeuse to bring the British pilots to the French border. She was keen on helping out and the upcoming months she tried to find out, who in her network could be trusted enough to help out. She managed to establish contact with the Resistance. Unfortunately, the escape line had ‘snapped’ as some of the resistance fighters had been arrested. Trix was disappointed, cause she wanted to take some action. Meanwhile, in order to provoke the Germans, Trix cycled around with an orange at the back of her bike.
In 1942 the Resistance approached her again, for a much more dangerous job. If she could bring a Dutch cadet to Switzerland, he didn’t speak any foreign language. There was no time to gather a group, so she would need to do it on her own. She did not hesitate, cause she wanted to get to England herself, and they started their risky journey. The Resistance group had given her wrong hiding addresses, she needed to improvise and had to use all her savings. Both their lives were at stake. Due to her resourcefulness, after 10 days, they made it to Switzerland. Trix expected to be safe, but to her surprise she got arrested by the Swiss immigration police and prisoned for 3 weeks. The consul didn’t want to help her, she was told, “there’s no use for women in war”. Trix was determined and through her KLM contacts she managed to get the necessary visas. Finally, a half year after she left the Netherlands, she flew from Lisbon to Bristol.
ROOM 900
Once in Britain she was put in political quarantine, the so called ‘patriotic school’, to determine if she wasn’t a spy. She had to explain which places she went to, how she got there, who had helped her on her way. But also information about which KLM pilots had been ‘good’ or ‘bad’. After that she was handed over to the Dutch authorities, who interrogated her too.
Each England Sailor would visit Queen Wilhelmina and so did Trix. They had met her before on one of KLM’s flights. Trix and the Queen could got along very well, after het war the Queen even asked her to be her lady-in-waiting. They celebrated the annual Queen’s day at Albert Hall, where over 5,000 Dutch attended, which was a contrast in comparison what the Dutch in the Netherlands had to endure. Some weeks later the Queen gave Trix a medal for her bravery. Trix believed it was too much credit, she finally wanted to take action to help her country. Meanwhile, she met with some other KLM staff members, including pilots, who had managed to reach Britain too.
London in war times was totally different than Trix had expected. There were parties everywhere, there were lots of military from all around the world spent their free time there. Trix said she did not come to Britain to party, she came to fight. She was very disappointed when she was just offered an office job.
Then she was recruited by Captain Airey Neave from room 900, the most secret unit of MI9, who was impressed by her courage and perseverance. Airey Neave was the first British officer to escape from a prisoner camp in Germany and made his way back to Britain. At MI9 he was responsible for setting up escape lines for pilots that crashed behind enemy lines. Neave learnt from Trix that there were still British pilots in the Netherlands in hiding, but they didn’t have a way to return home. He saw in her the Dédée De Jongh (Belgian resistance fighter) of the Netherlands.
He asked Trix if she was willing to be parachuted back in the Netherlands for 3-6 months to set up an escape line for pilots in the Netherlands, which would be connected to the Comet line. Trix immediately agreed. She became a cadet in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (F.A.N.Y.). The ‘finishing’ MI9 report showed she was the ideal secret agent. She was very intelligent, capable, practical and her background as an air hostess helped. She looked like a ‘grey mouse’, but was the opposite. The MI9 did not train secret agents themselves, that was done by the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E). Under the name of Beatrice Thompson she started her accelerated training. She got training in codes, transmission and parachute jumping. Next to dry training, she made 5 jumps prior to her mission.
Neave had let the members of the Comet Line know that they would send a Ring leader, agent Felix, to set up an escape line for the Netherlands. He didn’t tell them the Ring leader was a women. Unfortunately, the Comet line was compromised and the leaders got arrested. This had led to hundreds of arrest of Belgian Resistance fighters. The Comet line’s leader managed to get to the Hague, where he contacted the Dutch Resistance, Kees Smit (code name Willem) and told them about the arrival of the Ring leader. Kees Smit run the Hague resistance and they usually met in the shoe shop ‘Bally’. Kees was keen on helping pilots, but worked as a spy too, by sending maps and photos of strategic information through the Comet line to Britain.
Trix wanted to pursue her mission. She would be dropped by parachute in the Netherlands, where a welcome committee would await her. She had strict orders to follow their instructions the first 24 hours and after that she was on her own. She should go to the shoe shop ‘Bally’, to meet with Willem and work with them in setting up the escape line. They gave her a fake ID and 20,000 guilders, and they would also drop transmission material and cigarettes. The S.O.E. send the welcome committee a message and also let them know that agent Felix was a women. They responded “Welcome to the most courageous woman”.
There were only a few days a month the moon was bright enough to make a parachute jump. It was very stormy, but finally Neave told Trix it was ‘on’. He gave her a piece of paper with the names ‘Poos’ and ‘Slachter’ on it and told her to watch out for these persons. She was extremely scared, she told the pilot to throw her out no matter what. She couldn’t go through so much fear again. And then she jumped.
After she landed the wind caught her parachute and she was dragged over the field, which left her scarred. The welcome committee, Leo and Martin were waiting for her. They immediately started to ask questions about her mission. They told her the Brits were incompetent and didn’t know things worked in the Netherlands. And neither did she, cause she had left the Netherlands over a year ago. Trix, remembering her strict orders told them about the shoe shop. But when they asked her about her personal code, she knew something was off. She had hidden her code in her lighter, but was trained to never give anyone your personal code, which would be used for sending secret messages. Then she felt a punch in her back and was handcuffed, which prevented her from taking a suicide pill. They told her London has betrayed you. A German officer showed up and called the other man ‘Slachter’. She was brought to the headquarters of Gestapo in Driebergen. Unknowingly Trix became a victim of the Englandspiel (also called Dossier Nordpol, this was a successful counterintelligence operation of the Abwehr from 1942 to 1944). The German counter-intelligence operatives captured Allied resistance agents operating in the Netherlands and used the agents’ radios and codes to dupe the S.O.E, into continuing to infiltrate agents, weapons, and supplies into the Netherlands).
CAPTURED
In prison Trix met with SS-Sturmbahnführer Joseph Schreieder. He was the head of the Gestapo’s counter intelligence service and played an important role in the Englandspiel. It was his tactic to put people at ease first, before she was interrogated for 3 days and nights in a row. Trix didn’t say anything. Trix was very unhappy she had already given them the shoe shop’s address upon arrival. Kees Smit got arrested and executed. Schreieder would later describe her: Beatrice Terwindt has proven that female secret agents can perform the same and can keep more silent than many other men.
Trix got seriously depressed. She was the only agent in the Englandspiel that didn’t have a roommate, because there were no other females. She did have some contact by morse code with other prisoners, but that was it. She was let outside for 10 minutes a day. Schreieder visited her on multiple occasions and they talked about England and politics, she even looked forward to his visits. She spent months in Camp Haaren. After that she was transferred to Orange hotel, this was a nick name for the Nazi prison in Scheveningen. Many Dutch Resistance Fighters were imprisoned here.
From there she was brought to the concentration camp Ravensbrück in Germany, where she was put into the Nacht und Nebel block, the severest section, meant for people who weren’t supposed to come home anymore. She had a lot to endure, she trained herself to sleep while sitting up, cause there wasn’t enough room. She slept on straw, there were pests and lice everywhere. She was put to work in the Siemens factory, but due to hunger and sleep deprivation it was almost impossible to work. She had open wounds and infections over her whole body. She got beaten with sticks and whips. In February 1945 she was transferred to concentration Camp Mauthausen. In May 1945 she was freed. From the 54 agents that were caught in the Englandspiel, only 4 survived, Trix being one of them.
After Trix’s mission had failed MI9 recruited Ger van der Weerd as her successor. Ger was an engineer at KLM and during the war, after several attempts, he managed to reach England. After being trained to be a secret agent by the British secret service, he was dropped back into the Netherlands to set up an escape line for British pilots. He succeeded after a few months. He was rewarded multiple medals. (Ger’s story will be published shortly).
Trix was awarded a Cross of Merit’, a Bronze cross and an American Medal of Freedom.
POST WAR
After the war Trix kept in contact with Schreieder. When two of her German interrogators were put to trial, they asked her to speak on their behalf, which she did. She said she’s been treated with respect in the German prisons in the Netherlands. She also married a former pilot, who had been a member of the Dutch Socialist party (NSB). This was not accepted by the Dutch, Cause she was a famous resistance fighter, people felt insulted she fell for a NSB-member. She always said he fought for his believes too, just from the other side. Trix and her husband had to move abroad.
Trix suffered severly, both physically and mentally of what she had to endure in the concentration camps. She was diagnosed with camp syndrom and got LSD therapy, which was very controversial at the time and later got forbidden, which she disagreed.
Trix was also an important witness in the big Dutch parlement inquiry about the Englandspiel. The Dutch wanted to know if the Dutch spies that worked for the British secret service were captured and killed due to a mistake and poor work from the secret service or if had been done deliberately and the agents had been sacrificed. Trix asked Airey Neave about it, he said that it wasn’t a plan, but poor mismanagement. That was enough for her. The inquiry came to the same conclusion. Till this day it is a black page in the Dutch WW2 history, where questions still remain.
Published by Their Story. Contact me at info@their-story.org
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