Doc grouping of a resistance fighter

Hello guys,

This time not a German document set but a Belgian one, recently I added this set to my collection and I want to share it with all of you.

Victor Willekens (°1905) from Antwerpworked for the local telephone company; in August ’43 he joined the resistance movement NKB.
The NKB was a small resistance movement in Antwerp (+/- 150 men) but at the time of the liberation they will play an important role; this resistance group was led by Eugene Colson a former merchant navy officer that worked as a spy in the Antwerp harbor, duringhis intelligence work he discovered details about how the Germans were going to demolish the Antwerp harbor, as a reaction he made a plan to prevent this.
The preparations are rather difficult, the Belgian government in exile doesn’t recognize the NKB and they thus don’t get any weapons drops from the UK.
Nevertheless they decide to act, when the British arrive in Antwerp on September 4 ’44 theygo in to action; the speed of the allied advance has taken the Germans by surprise and the city centre of Antwerp is liberated swiftly, the men of Colson with their limited means now take control of vital places in the harbor (the bridges) and prevent the German blowing up vital installations.
Now a drama takes place, a drama that will prolong the war several months!
Colson tries to persuade the British officers to sent their troops in to the harbor,so that they can take control of the bridges and locks; the German troops are shaken, the men of Colson control the bridges and there is no German combatunit north of Antwerp, so the road is open to occupy the Antwerp harbor and to advance as far as Woensdrecht, thus closing of the retreat of the German 15[SUP]th[/SUP]Army.
The British officers refuse to leave the city centre!
They got orders to liberate Antwerp and not to do anything else and in their eyes they have done their job. They don’t realize that the harbor is actually more important then the city itself.
Also they claim that they are running out of fuel, they have fuel left for another 100KM; this is more then enough to occupy the harbor and even enough to push towards Woensdrecht.
For the Germans this British halt is nothing short of a miracle.
The next day Colson decides to act on his own, his men now armed with weapons they havetaken from the Germans and some automatic weapons (Sten’s) they got from aresistance group that had received weapon drops prior to the liberation.
- They also receive one MG; this MG will be operated by Victor Willekens.
They men ofColson now go deeper in to the harbor and on September 6 ’44 they liberate the big lock “Kruisgans” at the northern tip of the harbor; the lock is defended by Russian troops of Ost Btl 600, they don’t put up much of a fight and the resistance fighters can prevent the destruction of the most vital part of theharbor.
But the German keep the control of the area just north of the lock, the German 15[SUP]th[/SUP]Army is using the ferry just north of the lock as one of their escape routes, these German troops fortify the German frontline.
When theyr ealize that the lock is lost and undamaged they make up a combat formation that has the task to retake the lock and to destroy it, in the afternoon of September 6 they attack.
The fighting is fierce but the resistance fighters, supported by a small British recon team can keep the Germans back.
- The MG manned by Victor will play an important role in the successful defense of the lock.
In the following weeks the unit led by Colson will join up with the Canadian army andfight with them to liberate northern Antwerp and southern Holland.
Early November ’44 the Belgian resistance is disarmed and also the NKB section of Colson is retreated from the front and disarmed.


In the grouping is his resistance ID card, the armband he used and the medal he got.
Their is also a document that confirms that he has turned his K98 rifle and munition in at the local police station, he refused the 1000 Francs that he could claim for the rifle.


After the war Sergeant Victor Willekens will be awarded with the “Croix de guerre” with a specialbravery citation for his action at the Kruisgans lock.

Peter,
That's fantastic! I've never seen such a grouping, fascinating stuff. He's a tough looking old bird Thanks for sharing this with us.
Regards,
HB

Very interesting piece of history, thank you Peter for sharing! It is a shame that brave men who fought to keep thier country free had to give up the weapons they used to do this once the counrty is liberated. I could understand but don't agree with tuning in MGs & SMGs, but don't understand haveing to give up the rifle.

As Usual

I would pay to read real life accounts like this...thanks for posting...

Thank you Peter.
Very interesting, as usual.

Thanks fellows!!!



P

mauser202 said:

Very interesting piece of history, thank you Peter for sharing! It is a shame that brave men who fought to keep thier country free had to give up the weapons they used to do this once the counrty is liberated. I could understand but don't agree with tuning in MGs & SMGs, but don't understand haveing to give up the rifle.

Click to expand...

The disarming of the Belgian resistance; a difficult subject matter.
Their are many sides to the story.
Some thing that are good to know:
- The majority of the armed resistance was under control of the communist party, although most the members of the armed partizans weren't communists their leaders were; so the pre liberation guerilla fighting such as blowing up railway lines and locomotives, executing collaborators,...etc was mostly done by the armed partizan units.
- The resistance also funded themselfs by the means of armed robbery of ration stamps and money.
The line between real resistance work and criminality was very thin.
During the occupation the Germans had unarmed the Belgian police.
Also in 1944 the Belgian police stopped giving information about crimes in which weapons were used to the Germans.
It all exploded in to a hugh crime wave.
- When Belgium was liberated the focus of the resistance units shifted from battling nazi-Germany to taking control over post war Belgium: politics.
The power of numbers became important and thus the resistance units started handing out weapons and uniforms to anyone that would take them, the result was that many dodgy figures were now walking around armed and in uniform.

At the time of liberation the Belgian governement had a hugh problem, they hadn't the support of the people, the police force was unarmed and the collaborators weren't removed and all the different resistance units had by now armed all their members (also the last minute recrutes) to the teeth, on top of that the most experienced group in guerilla fighting were the communist armed partizans.
The Belgian governement feared on the one hand a communist revolution and on the other end an armed uprising of the royalist.
But the Belgian governement had one big advantage, they had the absolute support of the allied supreme command under Eisenhouwer.
The allies wanted everything to be peaceful in the freshly liberated area's and they also didn't want to use troops the needed on the frontline to police the area's under their control thus the best option for them was to restore the pre war federal police in Belgium, it didn't matter that several police officers had collaborated; inmediately after the liberation secret weapon drops were made to rearm the Belgian federal police.
The allies weren't interested in post war Belgian politics but they sure weren't happy with a bunch of armed communists, that clearly had shown they were willing to fight, even in difficult conditions, running around armed to the teeth.
Soon after the liberation Eisenhouwer gave out an order that the Belgian resistance should disarm inmediately and compleetly.
The Belgian governement rightfully feared that this order of Eisenhouwer would enrage the resistance, specially the armed partizans, and it thus would trigger an armed uprising; an uprising they couldn't stop because the Belgian federal police and army wasn't yet strong enough.
It was only after a part of the armed resistance was incooperated in to the army and thus under control of the allies that the Belgian governement could issue Eisenhouwer's order to disarm.
Their was protest against this order to disarm, the partizans marched on Brussels but an armed uprising could be avoided; the resistance leaders decided to fight eachother on the political front in the parlement and not on the streets.



It has to be said that most, if not all, resistance members kept a gun as a war souvenir.
For example, when the NKB unit of Colson entered back in to Belgium they were halted by the federal police, the federal police demanded that they would disarm inmediately, Colson refused and the police had enough sense not to engage a group of men that were armed to the teeth and that had by now two months of combat experience.
Colson agreed to disarm in the following days after his men had visited their families; needless to say that this gave them a opportunity to keep their war souvenir at home.
Victor also kept a K98 rifle he had taken on September 5 '44, he later donated it to the Antwerp city museum.



Cheers,
Peter

Wow Thanks Peter! A lot more dynamics involveld than I initially thought.