Operation North Pole – 1942-43

I am currently writing a book about Operation North Pole which took place between 1942 and 1943, during the course of the Second World War. It is a story of bravery beyond belief. A story of young men and women, dropped behind enemy lines in German occupied Holland, unwittingly walking right into a trap, because not only was it known that they were coming, but so was the time, date and location of their arrival. Out of a total of 54 British Secret Service agents, many of whom were Dutch, who were captured, 47 of them were executed. Back home in the UK, British intelligence did not know that the information they were receiving from their agents was worthless because those sending the messages on the captured British radio sets, were not British agents, but members of German military intelligence. the problem only came to light when two of the agents managed to escape from the camp they were been held in, and made their way back to England. But rather than returning to a hero’s welcome, they were disbelieved, arrested and thrown in prison, because they were believed to have become double agents. They were eventually believed and released. In 1953, Herman J. Giskes, who had been a wartime Lieutenant-Colonel in the German army, and head of German counter-intelligence in occupied Holland, had a book published which backed up the two escapee’s story.