SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE, 1940-1946:
SUBVERSION AND SABOTAGE DURING WORLD WAR II
Series One: SOE Operations in Western Europe

Part 4: Holland, 1940-1949
(Public Record Office Class HS 6/723-774)

• These records for Holland provide a case study in how an enrire network of agents was turned by German intelligence. The human cost of this tragedy, the role of double agents, the discovery of German pentration of the circuit, the mistakes made, and the subsequent fall-out are all descibed in detail.
• There is excellent material on the arrest of Herbert Lauwers and the Englandspiel masterminded by the German Abwehr Major Hans Giskes.
• The papers of the NORDPOL investigations are made available, including agent lists, arrests and records of executions.
• Other SOE activities in Holland, such as the records of operations Claude, Clarence, Daniel and Edward in support of the allied airborne invasion of Arnhem, are well covered.
• There are files on top level planning for SOE activities in Holland.
• Others papers deal with Dutch Resistance groups such as the RVV, LO, KP, OD and GDN.
• There are also post-war plans for the reconstruction of the
  Dutch Counter-Espionage Service under General Einthoven.

"For Messrs Blunt, Bingham and Successors Ltd… you are trying to make business in Netherlands without our assistance. We think this rather unfair in view of our long and successful co-operation as your sole agent. But never mind whenever you will come to pay a visit to the Continent you may be assured that you will be received with the same care and result as all those who you sent us before. So long."
Hans Giskes, 1 April 1944, (HS 6/736).