241408 Sgt.Mjr. Augustinus Hermanus Geertman MC,British Army 5th Btn. Coldstream Guards from:Lijmbeekstraat 113, Eindhoven My father, Guus Geertman, crossed the Channel from Holland to England with three friends in 1943 in a small boat that they had laid their hands on. As university students in the city of Tilburg, with their university closed down by the Germans, they wanted to join Dutch resistance members in London and go back to Holland to help the Dutch people.
In London they got separated from each other and my father ended up with the Coldstream Guards, fighting in Belgium and Holland in 1944/1945.
He received three Dutch Gallantry Awards for his service from Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina about a year after the War. HRH Prince Bernhard, the later Queen Juliana's Queen's Consort, who was very active in the War, had a great part in this.
One of the funniest stories my father used to tell us, was that after a serious battle in Belgium, they got bunked up with American soldiers. My father told us: "These guys had a huge stack of cigarettes!" My father, being a heavy smoker all his life and of course not have any during his service up to that moment, traded his, as he called it, Enfield MK side-arm for a pack of cigarettes with an American Officer. (No name unfortunately, I don't think he ever knew who he was.)
The next day, resuming the battle, he picked up a side-arm from a dead German officer and continued to fight. I guess he just could not resist his desires that evening.
My father was reunited with just one of his friends after the War. They finished university together in the honour of the other two who did not make it.
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