Hagelaars, Visser, Van Creveld, Knijff

2 Dutch troop 10IA Cdo. Poona, India, April 1944. Photo courtesy of the Dutch Commando Museum and Jack Bakker who adds "The man in the back and on the left is A.J. Hagelaars. He was a member of the bodyguard of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and he was killed on the 5th of October 1944 near the village of Geffen which is in the south of Holland and the place where he was born. The circumstances under which he was killed are a bit vague. One story has it that he was on some sort of secret mission with some other commandos and the other story says that he was out on his own. Anyway he got killed and is now buried at the cemetery in Loenen, which is a cemetery where military personnel may be buried if they or their family do so wish. A street is named after him in Geffen.
The man in the back on the right is P.A. Visser.
The man sitting on the front on the right is Bill Knijff who originally came from Canada and wasn’t very fluent on Dutch. After the war he went back to Canada.
The man sitting on the left is A. van Creveld. He, like Hagelaars, was one of the bodyguards of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. The photo was made in Poona, India, in April 1944. Van Creveld was a Jew which sometimes made it a bit difficult to put him into action as they were afraid what might happen to him if the Germans would get him."

Posted by Pete R.