successfully, thanks to the rubber gloves and socks. We afterwards learned, on his return, that he had conducted van Bergen to a small village called Moll, and then had sent him on his way alone.
Anxiously we waited for news. Each week contact was established with the cafe owner or ‘letter box’ in Antwerp, which was connected to our tuyau at the frontier by means of a courier. At the end of the third week, Oram brought us the first news, in the form of a train-watching report from a post at Ilerent, just outside Louvain, on the Louvain–Brussels line. It was written in indian ink on the typical service papier pelure , fine tissue paper, so that the courier could hide the report in his hat band, lining of his clothes, shoes, or elsewhere, in case he was stopped and searched on his way from the letter box to the frontier. In addition to this report there was word from van Bergen that he was trying to mount other posts, but that it was difficult, as he had not only to find the right men, but also persons who had houses overlooking the railway line. Shortly afterwards, he established another train-watching post at Louvain on the Liège line. We were now getting all the traffic passing through Louvain, since by subtraction we could get the traffic along the relatively unimportant Louvain–Malines line.
The reports came through regularly for four months. Van Bergen wrote hopefully of friends at Ghent, who had promised to mount posts there. I was much pleased, for some of our other organisations had just started sending out their first reports, andgradually the network was spreading. Suddenly we heard that our courier from Antwerp to the frontier had been arrested. Later, from another Antwerp agent, whom we had asked to investigate the affair, we found that the owner of the cafe who had acted as letter box or contact man, had also been caught. We never heard from van Bergen again. After the Armistice, on my arrival in Brussels, I discovered that he had been shot, together with our two Antwerp men and the men who had been working for him in Louvain.
What led to his arrest, I was never able to find out for certain. It was obvious, however, that since neither van Bergen’s nor the Antwerp frontier courier’s identity was known to the letter box, nor that of the courier to van Bergen, the German Secret Police must have delayed making an arrest until they had followed all the active threads of the organisation. I am of the opinion that van Bergen himself was probably the first one to be caught. Well dressed, and with the obvious appearance of a gentleman, his association with the railwaymen whom he employed as train-watchers, and with the Antwerp cafe owner, who catered chiefly for boatmen in the poorer quarters of the city, may have attracted attention. We had advised him to secure an intermediary to reach these men, and to content himself with directing and keeping in the background, but he had probably not heeded our warning. A German agent may have followed him or his courier to the letter box, and there seen him handing over the reports. The Germans had probably proceeded, according to their usual method, to seize anyone making any contact whatever with an agent whom they had under suspicion. Our problem was that of the kidnapper trying to collect money from the relatives of his victim, withthe police looking on. We were never able to solve this problem completely. All that we could do to avert the Frankignoul catastrophe and the complete stoppage of information coming out of Belgium was to follow our cumbersome plan of having a dozen organisations functioning at the same time, each group being entirely independent of the other in every detail, from the train-watching post right into Holland.
After the war, in Brussels, I met a priest from Ghent, belonging to the order of the Petits Frères, who told me that he was the man from Ghent about whom van Bergen had written. He had already established two train-watching posts
Anxiously we waited for news. Each week contact was established with the cafe owner or ‘letter box’ in Antwerp, which was connected to our tuyau at the frontier by means of a courier. At the end of the third week, Oram brought us the first news, in the form of a train-watching report from a post at Ilerent, just outside Louvain, on the Louvain–Brussels line. It was written in indian ink on the typical service papier pelure , fine tissue paper, so that the courier could hide the report in his hat band, lining of his clothes, shoes, or elsewhere, in case he was stopped and searched on his way from the letter box to the frontier. In addition to this report there was word from van Bergen that he was trying to mount other posts, but that it was difficult, as he had not only to find the right men, but also persons who had houses overlooking the railway line. Shortly afterwards, he established another train-watching post at Louvain on the Liège line. We were now getting all the traffic passing through Louvain, since by subtraction we could get the traffic along the relatively unimportant Louvain–Malines line.
The reports came through regularly for four months. Van Bergen wrote hopefully of friends at Ghent, who had promised to mount posts there. I was much pleased, for some of our other organisations had just started sending out their first reports, andgradually the network was spreading. Suddenly we heard that our courier from Antwerp to the frontier had been arrested. Later, from another Antwerp agent, whom we had asked to investigate the affair, we found that the owner of the cafe who had acted as letter box or contact man, had also been caught. We never heard from van Bergen again. After the Armistice, on my arrival in Brussels, I discovered that he had been shot, together with our two Antwerp men and the men who had been working for him in Louvain.
What led to his arrest, I was never able to find out for certain. It was obvious, however, that since neither van Bergen’s nor the Antwerp frontier courier’s identity was known to the letter box, nor that of the courier to van Bergen, the German Secret Police must have delayed making an arrest until they had followed all the active threads of the organisation. I am of the opinion that van Bergen himself was probably the first one to be caught. Well dressed, and with the obvious appearance of a gentleman, his association with the railwaymen whom he employed as train-watchers, and with the Antwerp cafe owner, who catered chiefly for boatmen in the poorer quarters of the city, may have attracted attention. We had advised him to secure an intermediary to reach these men, and to content himself with directing and keeping in the background, but he had probably not heeded our warning. A German agent may have followed him or his courier to the letter box, and there seen him handing over the reports. The Germans had probably proceeded, according to their usual method, to seize anyone making any contact whatever with an agent whom they had under suspicion. Our problem was that of the kidnapper trying to collect money from the relatives of his victim, withthe police looking on. We were never able to solve this problem completely. All that we could do to avert the Frankignoul catastrophe and the complete stoppage of information coming out of Belgium was to follow our cumbersome plan of having a dozen organisations functioning at the same time, each group being entirely independent of the other in every detail, from the train-watching post right into Holland.
After the war, in Brussels, I met a priest from Ghent, belonging to the order of the Petits Frères, who told me that he was the man from Ghent about whom van Bergen had written. He had already established two train-watching posts
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