In November 1944, for instance, Lykele Faber was dropped at Haskerhorne with Peter Tazelaar as secret agents to maintain radio contact with London, organize the Frisian resistance and help set up locations where weapons and ammunition could be dropped by parachute. Haskerhorne is one such place.Lykele Faber's story is again closely linked to that of pilot John Gordon Fraser, who had to make an emergency landing with his plane just south of Lake Nannewijd, managed to go into hiding with the help of the resistance and assisted Faber until liberation.&nbsp;In the run-up to the liberation, fierce battles were fought with the retreating German occupiers near Scharsterbrug, just south of Joure where one Canadian Soldier, Lucien Potvin, died. First with the resistance, shortly afterwards with the Canadians. It also meant the end of Richard Jung, the Czech who ended up in Friesland after wandering through Europe and emerged as a courageous resistance fighter, always willing to voluntarily do the toughest and most dangerous work.

The Netherlands

Hawker Typhoon on the ground.

Richard Jung

Scharsterbrug destroyed

Monument to Gaele Visser

Around Lake Nannewijd

The Dutch Domestic Armed Forces (NBS) play a major role in the liberation of Friesland. The NBS in Friesland consisted (from December 1944) of the resistance groups of the KP ("Knokploegen", assault groups), LO (National Organisation for Aid to people in Hiding) and OD (Order Service).&nbsp;&nbsp;Such an underground army needed weapons, of course. 2,500 to 3,000 NBS personnel would be given weapons for the planned acts of sabotage, the occupation of bridges and locks, and capturing the enemy. From pistols and machine guns to sten guns.&nbsp;The weapons literally fell from the sky. From October 1944, Stirling and Halifax bombers flew from England in the direction of Friesland 47 times. At least 24 successful arms drops were carried out at some 14 places in the province. The bombers dropped containers of weapons, ammunition and explosives with parachutes above the Frisian meadows. Groups of NBS operatives would stand ready at night to indicate the drop zone with light signals and then transport and hide the weapons.&nbsp;Like here at Haskerhorne/ Ouwsterhaule, where five successful drops took place. On the night of 1 to 2 November 1944, secret agents Tazelaar and Faber were delivered there by parachute with the final drop.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Through secret transmitters, phrases indicating where and when a drop would take place would be exchanged with London. To liaise between England and the resistance over the drops, Prince Bernhard, as commander-in-chief of the NBS, sends two secret agents from the Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten (BBO, "Office of Special Assignments") to Friesland. Together with marconist Alfred Springgate and their radio transmitter, Lykele Faber and Peter Tazelaar hid for a long time (from November 1944), in a yacht on the small lake Nannewiid near Oudehaske in southern Friesland.&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, commandos N. De Koning and R. Groenewoud travelled around the province with fake papers to give weapons training. They were previously dropped from England over Drenthe and brought to Friesland by the KP.&nbsp;Arms drops and the hiding of the weapons regularly led to life-threatening situations. The occupiers were fiercely hunting for hidden weapons. Possession of a weapon was a capital offence. A drop at Aalsum near Dokkum indirectly led to the largest mass execution in Friesland of twenty men in Dokkum.&nbsp;On Sunday, 8 April, "Radio Orange" relayed the long-awaited phrase via the BBC: "the bottle is empty." For the NBS, this was the signal to start sabotage operations 36 hours later. Canadian troops were almost at the border of Friesland. Weapons were taken out of storage. The NBS groups met at secret locations, and weapons and ammunition were distributed.&nbsp;The resistance groups already largely controlled Friesland before the arrival of the Canadians. Only at Harlingen-Makkum did the Germans place artillery for the defence of the Afsluitdijk, and the Canadians had to put up with heavy fighting. Mainland Friesland was completely liberated on 18 April.&nbsp;

 Arms drops in Friesland - Haskerhorne

The monument contains information on both his private life and his military career.

Gaele Visser 

On 9 April, 13 men from the Dutch Domestic Armed Forces (NBS) of Doniawerstal tried to capture the bridge in Scharsterbrug from a dozen German guards. The Germans were overpowered, with one of them being shot. The NBS thought he had been killed, but that turned out to be incorrect when he, of all people, managed to warn another group of Germans.&nbsp;This group was on a nearby patrol boat. Using the boat's heavy weapons, the Germans then opened fire. As a result, the NBS men saw no chance of definitively capturing the bridge and withdrew. German fire caused several casualties in the village. Including one person killed.&nbsp; &nbsp; In the following days, the village saw columns of German soldiers retreating towards Lemmer with the aim of crossing to North Holland from there. Scharsterbrug was thus very important to the Germans in those days.&nbsp; &nbsp; On 15 April, the Canadians were so close that the Germans decided to blow up the bridge. But they did not withdraw after that. The Scharster Rhine was one of the last major obstacles on the way to Lemmer. And in Lemmer, there were still several hundred Germans who wanted to get to North Holland. So the village had to be defended.&nbsp;The first confrontation with the Canadians took place as early as that day.&nbsp;Joure had been liberated without a struggle. In an attempt to find a southern route to Sneek, 7th Reconnaissance Regiment Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars came across the blown-up bridge at Scharsterbrug. The Germans opened fire on the Canadians. However, the Canadians made short shift of the Germans on their side of the water and then withdrew.&nbsp;&nbsp;The remaining Germans entrenched themselves in the Hollandia dairy factory, some houses and farms, and in foxholes along the road. Here, they had a good view of the road to Joure. The local resistance played an important role in scouting the German positions. One of them, Richard Jung, was killed on one of these missions.&nbsp;&nbsp;After it was established that the Germans were also in the Hollandia factory, the Canadians opened fire with mortars and artillery on 16 April. The rest of the day there was shooting back and forth. Two vehicles of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa were hit by a piece of anti-aircraft artillery. Four Canadians were injured in the process. Then, an attack by the Régiment de la Chaudière put paid to German resistance in Scharsterbrug. During this attack, Lance Corporal Lucien Potvin was killed.&nbsp;After the battle, there was no celebratory mood in the village. The sight of Scharsterbrug after the fighting was terrible. Otto Haitsma, then aged six, recalled: &nbsp; &nbsp; "shattered houses, smouldering remains of stables and farms, blackened swollen dead cows and horses with their eyes wide open and near the dairy factory a heap of bodies without arms or legs and heads shot away in blood-soaked shreds of uniforms."&nbsp; &nbsp;The liberation of Scharsterbrug opened the road to Lemmer. Canadian engineers built a Bailey bridge next to the destroyed bridge on 17 April. Lemmer could be liberated the very same day.&nbsp;

Double battle at Scharsterbrug 

Jung was imprisoned in several concentration camps and prisons, from which he was discharged or managed to escape, including at Wenizza, Dniepropetrowsk, Dubno, Ratipol, and Brual-Rhede Lager III. He fled and entered the Netherlands at Nieuweschans. After many wanderings, he went into hiding in the Schar, with the Johannes Kuiper family. Here he stayed for nine weeks and met Brother Akkerman from Sintjohannesga.&nbsp;He left with Akkerman when his host was arrested in Drenthe. On 8 April 1945, the Haskerland group of the Dutch Domestic Armed Forces was mobilised. Jung revealed himself as a courageous resistance fighter, always volunteering to do the toughest and most dangerous work.&nbsp;On Sunday 15 April 1945, he volunteered for a reconnaissance mission for the Canadian army, which was advancing towards the bridge at Scharsterbrug. Jung left on his bicycle, but when that became too dangerous, he decided to continue on foot. Every now and then, he took cover in the so-called one-man holes on the roadside. In a hole that was half closed, Jung was unable to find enough cover, resulting in him being shot dead by the occupying forces.&nbsp;With the help of two Canadian soldiers, Akkerman removed Jung's remains under enemy fire. He was buried in the N.H. cemetery in Sintjohannesga on 18 April 1945. Jung was reburied at Loenen National Field of Honour. In Rotsterhaule, a road is named after Richard Jung.&nbsp;Unveiling&nbsp; The monument was unveiled on 15 April 1946. The memorial is a gift from the people of Sintjohannesga and surrounding areas.

Richard Jung 

A little after nine o'clock in the morning, the two groups of Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers left shortly after each other from Eindhoven for their mission. After arriving at Terherne, the first group successfully bombed one of the two lock sections. The second group fared less well. The bombs ejected by the pilot of the first plane exploded just as John Gordon Fraser's second plane had taken up a lower position above the lock to drop its own bombs.&nbsp;&nbsp;His plane was hit in the cooling system by shrapnel from the bombs that exploded below him. This caused the engine temperature to rise rapidly. The pilot of the third plane reported over the on-board radio that smoke was coming from the engine, which made it clear to John Gordon Fraser that he would not reach his base and would have to find suitable terrain for an emergency landing.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Soon after, he made a successful emergency landing here on the Scharweg. Pilot Fraser initially took shelter in the Easterskar after the crash landing. Siebe de Jong and Jan Sloothaak provided him with civilian clothes and food. With help from the resistance, he then ended up in Tjalleberd after some wanderings through Joure, Akmarijp and Oudehaske, among other places.&nbsp;&nbsp;There, he assisted Lykele Faber, agent of the Office of Special Assignments (BBO), who had been dropped together with Peter Tazelaar near Haskerhorne in November 1944. Their mission, code-named Necking, was to maintain radio contact with London, organise the Frisian resistance, and help set up sites where provisions, weapons and ammunition could be dropped by parachute.&nbsp;

Emergency landing of a Hawker Typhoon  

In early April, it became clear that the liberation of the northern Netherlands was close at hand. German troops in Overijssel were forced to retreat to Friesland, among other places. This did not go unnoticed in Joure. The Frisian resistance reported on 11 April that about 500 German soldiers were walking through Joure. Their goal was to eventually cross over to North Holland via the Afsluitdijk or the Frisian ports.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A villager recalled the soldiers passing by:&nbsp;"Most of them in tattered uniforms, with horse-drawn carriages or on stolen bicycles, young boys aged 16 or 17; they also took what they thought they needed along the way."&nbsp;Another wrote in his diary about the tired German soldiers:&nbsp;&nbsp;"many entirely or partly in civilian clothes with Germans who could no longer walk sitting on farmers’ cars in between. The whole thing made an altogether miserable impression."&nbsp;Joure thus lay along the route to both the Afsluitdijk and a number of ports along the Zuiderzee (now: IJsselmeer). And both were extremely important to the German troops as they provided a last way out to North Holland, which was still firmly in German hands.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Canadians knew this too. The Frisian ports and the head of the Afsluitdijk were therefore important targets for the Canadians. And so, Joure was part of those plans as well. There was no serious attempt by the Germans to defend Friesland against the approaching Canadians. Almost all actions were aimed at slowing that advance to ensure that as many troops as possible could escape. That is why they blew up many bridges, and troops were left behind at key junctions.&nbsp;No German troops were left behind in Joure to put up a fight. Instead, the occupying forces chose to post only a limited number of troops in Scharsterbrug. That position, across the Scharster Rhine, was more defensible. And indeed, it would be hard-fought. No shot was fired in Joure itself when, in the morning of 15 April, armoured cars of the Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars became the first to enter the village from Heerenveen.&nbsp; &nbsp; This reconnaissance regiment was tasked with finding alternative routes to Sneek and Leeuwarden. And so, their stay in Joure was short-lived. Not much later, however, the infantry of the Régiment de la Chaudière followed, and in the afternoon Sherman tanks and more Canadian infantry from other units also arrived there.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through Joure, Sneek, Bolsward and later Lemmer were successively liberated. The village remained an important junction in the route to south-west Friesland. Artillery guns were also placed near Joure for some time to shell German positions at nearby Scharsterbrug, Follega and Lemmer.&nbsp;

Joure junction 

With the phrase "If the shoe fits, wear it," an arms drop near Haskerhorne was announced in early November. But the plane also contained other important cargo: secret agents Peter Tazelaar and Lykele Faber. Their mission involved connecting resistance groups, establishing radio contact with London, and coordinating arms drops.&nbsp;&nbsp;To move around Friesland safely, the agents had carefully chosen false identities. Tazelaar went by the name 'Paul Christiaan Wouters', a veterinary student. Lykele Faber became pastor 'Arnold de Bruin'.&nbsp;&nbsp;For both secret agents, this was not the first time they were back in occupied territory. Tazelaar had once returned to the Netherlands in late 1941 for Operation Contact Holland, and Faber was dropped near Son during Operation Market Garden.&nbsp;&nbsp;After the drop, Tazelaar and Faber were taken in by the Frisian resistance, who provided them with a hiding place. To everyone's amazement Faber, who lived in Friesland for some time, was recognised at his first hiding place by a resistance fighter saying: "Hey, you're Faber's son, aren't you? I lived next door to you in Drachten."&nbsp;After a first short night, the secret agents soon moved to the village of Swichum below Leeuwarden, where the Friesland NBS regional headquarters was located. There, they acquired further information about the resistance and installed their secret transmitter. In the months that followed, they moved around regularly to avoid detection of the transmitter.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At one of their hiding places, they met the experienced wireless operator ​​​​Alfred Springate, a crew member of a Halifax bomber that crashed near Stavoren on the night of 13 to 14 October 1944. Springate assisted Tazelaar and Faber for the rest of the occupation period.&nbsp;&nbsp;On 2 February 1945, disaster struck the Frisian National Domestic Forces. In the village of Tjerkwerd, one of the dropped containers ended up in the yard of a farmer with German sympathies, who reported it to the local rural constable. House searches were then carried out in the village. One of the addresses raided was the hiding place of resistance leader Philip Willem Pander. With his arrest, the entire administration of the Frisian NBS fell into the hands of occupiers. A nerve-racking time followed for Tazelaar and Faber, during which they narrowly escaped arrest several times.&nbsp;&nbsp;Faber, Tazelaar and Springate eventually saw liberation in Heerenveen. Pander was shot on 10 April 1945 at the Katerveer near Zwolle. After the liberation, Tazelaar remained adjutant to Queen Wilhelmina for some time. He lived in Hindeloopen from 1981 until his death in 1993. In this town, there is <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="Hyperlink SCXW237666070 BCX0" href="https://www.4en5mei.nl/oorlogsmonumenten/zoeken/4442/hindeloopen-monument-voor-peter-tazelaar">a bronze statue</a> in his memory.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here, near the Nannewiid, Tazelaar and Faber hid on the cabin yacht 'Paliter' at the end of the war, not far from where they were dropped on the night of 1 to 2 November 1944.&nbsp;

Around Lake Nannewijd

Sites and stories along the route

Arms drops in Friesland - Haskerhorne

Gaele Visser

Double battle at Scharsterbrug

Richard Jung

Emergency landing of a Hawker Typhoon

Joure junction

Valuable cargo