Five Brothers and a War

May 10, 1940

When explosions and anti-aircraft artillery began so early in the morning, the citizens of Den Haag were startled awake. The van Pelts dressed quickly and joined many others, looking very worried, in the street. Shortly thereafter, the sirens had come to a temporary stop, as had the explosions and artillery. Fourteen-year-old Kees and 11-year-old Bertus, as only boys of that level of maturity could think to do, decided to grab their bicycles to check out the action. They thought that the Germans had been rebuffed, and had left again. The other thought they had was that the Germans had come to undertake reconnaissance of the area, and had then left again. So they wanted to go to see the anti-aircraft weapons. They bicycled in the direction of the artillery, but were not able to get too close, so they instead went to the dunes of Kijkduin, less than a kilometer away. From the highest dune around, they had a perfect view of the activities. A few moments after taking up their observation post, a burning Dutch fighter plane crashed onto the beach. Rushing to where the plane had gone down, they saw the most terrible scene that was forever burned in their minds. The plane was engulfed in flames and no one was able to get close enough to help, so they witnessed a human burn to death. Their youth had just been stripped away as they were introduced to the horrors of war. Shaken up, they headed back home, deciding to stay inside. But a short time later, the sound of airplanes again rekindled their curiosity. This time they ran through Leendert’s middle-floor home office and onto the balcony facing the Margrietstraat, and therefore the North Sea. The Luftwaffe was now attacking the anti-aircraft guns they went to see earlier. The Stuka dive-bombers, with their howling siren-like noise were bombing and strafing those guns. The noise from the attacks and counterattacks at the three airfields was constant, and at times, deafening. One of the explosions sounded even louder than the others, to the point that Kees was frightened and quickly stepped back inside to his father’s office. A split-second later a 1 inch casing from a cannon shell slammed into the very spot he had just vacated, knocking out a chunk of concrete. That was a little too close for his comfort, so he tried to be more careful and less exposed for the rest of that day. Word that the Germans were disguising themselves as Dutch civilians spread throughout the nation, so a quick test was undertaken to determine if a person was Dutch or German. The name for the adjacent seaside town of Scheveningen was chosen as the test, because the word, while simple for the Dutch to pronounce, was almost impossible for a German. Even a reasonably well-educated German would likely not have seen the word before, or if they had, they would not have spent any effort learning to properly pronounce it. As a result, their pronunciation would have started with the “Sh” sound rather than “S” followed immediately by the Dutch gutteral “g” sounding like a person clearing their throat. The rest of the name has a certain cadence when it is said by a Dutch person that is also difficult for a foreigner to deliver without a little practice.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

Page 304