Heimen van Esveld

De Glind 29 Aug 1891 – ?

Heimen van Esveld, farmer, Dwarsgraafweg 5, Kootwijkerbroek

About: A Kootwijkerbroek farmer who hid fourteen Allied evaders from October 1944 to March 1945 and lodged about thirty in all. Among them was Bernard Haller of Murphy's party; his list also has a James Branford and an S. Walsh, seven days each (◐ Murphy's companions).

Unit or role: Farmer (landbouwer on his marriage record and his daughter's death record). On his questionnaire of July 1945 his movement is the L.K.P. and his military rank "sergt." (p. 7); the Americans' action report of 16 October 1945 sums him up as "Transit centre. Sheltered approx. 14 evaders" (p. 13). He received his men from "Joop and Dick", ◐ very probably Joop Piller, the resistance man, and Dick Kragt, the agent dropped in 1943, who ran the evasion work together; the file gives no surnames, and the American summary's "both of whom had been parachuted into Holland" (p. 6) does not fit Piller, who was in hiding in the Netherlands and not dropped: his own statement has Kragt, not Piller, dropped in June 1943 and taken to Piller's house, where "wij hem in onze schuilplaats onderbrachten" (we put him in our hiding place) (Piller, p. 17; his list, p. 8).

Where: Dwarsgraafweg 5, Kootwijkerbroek, in Barneveld municipality, on his own forms, the American recommendation and the British helper index (p. 7; p. 3; the index). The evaders and other helpers place the farm at Essen, by Barneveld (below).

Evidence: ✓ His helper file with the Americans, US National Archives 286705634 (questionnaire, list, summary); ✓ the British helper index; ✓ his King's Medal (the catalogue entries); ✓ his birth, marriage, his father's death and his wife's death (civil records); ◐ the reports of the men he hid, among them Frank McNaught's to MI9 (McNaught) and Charles Ramlow's to the Americans (Ramlow, p. 10); Boeree's Kroniek van Ede (p. 202); Noordman, p. 271; De zwarte herfst, pp. 210, 212 and 273.

✓ Heimen van Esveld was born on 29 August 1891 at De Glind, in Barneveld municipality, the son of Hendrikus van Esveld, a farmer of 46, and Geertruida van den Top, 32; the birth was entered in Barneveld's register as deed 170, on 31 August 1891 (the index entry, Gelders Archief; the registration date is in the record's data; the register scan has not been opened). His own questionnaire of July 1945 has "B'veld 29-9-91" and the British record 29 September (p. 7; below). ✓ Ede's population register has his card too, with the same birth, "29 Augustus 1891, Barneveld Gld", the Nederlands Hervormde church, his father as Hendrik, born at Barneveld in 1845, and his mother as Geertruida van den Top, born at Ede on 31 December 1858; it puts him at Ede, "de Valk 2", from 18 December 1903 to 3 January 1905, and then back at Barneveld (the card, front; the record).

✓ His father died at De Glind on 5 June 1903: Hendrikus van Esveld, 58, farmer, born at Barneveld, the son of Heimen van Esveld and Gerritje Roelofsen, with Geertruida van den Top named as his "(ex-)partner"; the 1891 birth record and the Ede card have her as Heimen's mother (the index entry, Barneveld deaths 1903, deed 53). Heimen was eleven. The card's move to Ede followed in December 1903.

He was a farmer (landbouwer) of 35 when he married Janna Goorhuis, 29, of Ede, daughter of the farmer Gerrit Jan Goorhuis and Jannigje van de Kraats, at Barneveld on 5 November 1926 (the marriage, deed 96). ✓ Barneveld's death register has a daughter of theirs, with no first name in the index, born and died on 15 September 1936 (the index entry, deed 101). In July 1945 he had seven children, aged 17, 16, 15, 13, 12, 9 and 7, and gave his wife's name as Janna van Esveld-Goorhuis (his questionnaire, p. 7).

◐ A Barneveld Knokploeg man's helper file may touch his farm in September 1944. The American summary of 22 June 1946 for Johannes Roskam says that, having "had to dive under in September 1944", he "found shelter in the farm of Mr. H. van Esveld, Essen (Grade 5)"; "This seems to have been the start of his pilot-work", done with Joop Piller, "Dick" and others (Roskam's file, p. 4; image-checked). Roskam's own questionnaire of 21 June 1946 lists first among the helpers he knew "H. van Esveld farmer Essem. Veluwe Veeverloskundige." (H. van Esveld, farmer, "Essem", ◐ very likely Essen, misspelt, Veluwe, cattle obstetrician) (his form, p. 5, read on the image; the handwritten original is p. 2). Roskam's own words in De zwarte herfst (1984), on the paratroopers he and Piller's people picked up and lodged with farmers, include "Ik zat toen bij Van Esveld" (I was then at Van Esveld's) (Dekkers and Vroemen, p. 273). ◐ Very probably Heimen: Essen, Piller and Dick all fit, though neither source gives a first name and the summary's "Grade 5" is not the 3 of the British index (below).

From about 15 October 1944, after Arnhem, he took in airmen and soldiers from "two British agents, both of whom had been parachuted into Holland to direct and implement evasion activities" (American summary, p. 6), who appear on his list as "Joop and Dick" (p. 8). He also kept a "passage-post", where men passing through got a bed for a night or two:

Van Esveld sheltered a total amount of 14 men. This was from 15th Oct. 1944 till the end of March 1945. These were sheltered resp. 3 weeks till 4 months. Personaly details are not sufficiently known, as the diary that van Esveld had kept about that is taken away by the Canadians. Further van Esveld had a so called passage-post. Allied personnel, who were passing through, got lodgings there for 1 or 2 days. They were brought and collected by Joop and Dick. van Esveld looked after a total amount of about 30 men.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Heimen van Esveld · note on his questionnaire of 17 July 1945 · p. 9 · the archive's copy

His questionnaire adds: "On one occasion acted as guide for ten men. Fine man and good patriot" (p. 7). The men he could name, with the days each stayed, all "from Joop and Dick" (p. 8; the fair copy, p. 12):

◐ Frank McNaught, a paratrooper, wrote the fullest description of the farm for MI9 in March 1945, under the name "ESVHEILT". From about 21 October he and the American sergeant De Santis ("DECENTIAS") were taken by bicycle from an office at Lunteren "to a farm at KOOTWIJKERBROEK (575968)", whose family he gives as "father and mother and two daughters and five sons, the eldest …, a boy of 17, and the youngest …, a boy of six" (McNaught; the children's names are left out here):

Here we lived in a room constructed in a haystack about 500 yards from the farmhouse. This room was made with supports inside the stack and was about 10 ft wide by about 6 ft high. To enter one simply pulled out sufficient straw and crawled in. Each night ESVHEILT would come himself to see that the entrance was properly concealed from the outside. Our breakfast and mid-day meal were brought to us, generally by the farmer himself, and our evening meal we took in the farmhouse.

— MI9 · Pte F. McNaught, 11th Parachute Battalion · IS9/WEA/1/290/2385 · March 1945 · the report

• When they arrived, Maj. Hugh Maguire "was living with the family", and then joined them in the haystack; on 23 October "DICK and JOOP" visited them. McNaught learned from Maguire that "preparations were being made for an evacuation of another large party", and about 11 November Maguire left them, saying someone would come for them at the appointed time (same).
• "During the first few days of November" two more joined the hide-out, "the co-pilot and navigator of a Fortress crew, Lt. Charlie (surname unknown) and Lt. Norris (surname unknown)", shot down in a Berlin raid about seven months before (same).
  • ◐ Charles Ramlow and Noyes Richey, who are on Heimen's list, are the probable pair: Richey's card in the Americans' list of evaders has him "With McNAUGHT (IS9(WEA)/1/290/2385 - British) in November 44" (the card). ⚠︎ The dates do not fit: Ramlow's own report has them at Goorhuis's, Essenerweg, from 14 October to 15 November and at Esveld's only from 19 November, after McNaught left for Pegasus II on 17 November (below).
  • ⚠︎ Ramlow's own helper chronology has the two of them at Goorhuis's, Essenerweg, "from 14 October to 15 November 1944", and at Esveld's only from 19 November (Ramlow, Appendix C, p. 9, OCR, read on the image, and p. 10); his narrative has them leave Barneveld on 15 November. That does not fit McNaught's early-November haystack (below).
• At about 17:30 on 17 November "DICK" came for them, and "after saying goodbye to our good friends, the ESVHEILT's", they walked to the assembly point for Pegasus II (McNaught).
• ◐ ESVHEILT is very probably Heimen van Esveld: the farm is at Kootwijkerbroek, the family has seven children, as his form does in July 1945, De Santis and McNaught are on his list, and the men came and went through "Joop and Dick". McNaught gives no first name.

◐ Two other accounts of the farm were written down forty years on, in De zwarte herfst (1984). Harold Reley, a 2nd Battalion signaller (◐ the Harold Riley of Heimen's list, though the Pegasus Archive's gloss on McNaught's report has Riley in J-Section, 1st Airborne Divisional Signals, not the 2nd Battalion), had hidden at Arnhem and Velp and then near Apeldoorn:

With two Americans we could hide at the Van Esveld family's farm, where we stayed about two months. Every other day Henk Brunekreef came to bring us food. There we also met John Haller and Bob Peatling. The Van Esveld family helped some fifty Allied servicemen.

Dutch originalMet twee Amerikanen konden we ons verbergen op de boerderij van de familie Van Esveld, waar we ongeveer twee maanden zijn gebleven. Om de andere dag kwam Henk Brunekreef ons eten brengen. Daar hebben we ook John Haller en Bob Peatling ontmoet. De familie Van Esveld heeft wel vijftig geallieerde militairen geholpen.

— Harold Reley · Dekkers and Vroemen, De zwarte herfst (1984), p. 210 · the extracts

Bob Peatling, another 2nd Battalion signaller, met Reley, Haller and Dick Kragt there; the book calls the farm the "doorgangshuis" (transit house) of some fifty Allied airmen, and has him describe the hide:

There stood a big haystack, with a space in the middle as big as a good-sized room. The entrance was camouflaged with branches. We slept there, and there I could talk properly with Dick Kragt, who spoke very good English. As an intelligence man he could not do much, for he had lost his radio.

Dutch originalDaar stond een grote hooiberg, met middenin een ruimte zo groot als een royale kamer. De ingang was met takken gecamoufleerd. Daar sliepen we en daar kon ik aardig praten met Dick Kragt, die heel goed Engels sprak. Als inlichtingenman kon hij niet veel beginnen, want hij was zijn radio kwijtgeraakt.

— Bob Peatling · Dekkers and Vroemen, De zwarte herfst (1984), p. 212 · the extracts

There was one man too many, and Peatling went on to a family at Achterveld (pp. 212–213).

The Gemeentearchief Barneveld holds photographs, not online, of him, of his house and of the haystack where Allied soldiers hid after Arnhem, and one of a reconstructed hiding place under a sheepfold at Essen, taken from Lipmann Kessel's book Surgeon at Arms, which its catalogue marks "(bij Heimen van Esveld?)" (at Heimen van Esveld's?) (the catalogue entries).

• ✓ A helper at Kootwijkerbroek, Brunekreeft. The note on the form of Hendrik Brunekreeft of the Hulstweg, 17 July 1945, says he "has given lodgings to 14 men during a long time", "in turns at H. van Esveld, Dwarsgraafweg 5 and by him", the names being on Van Esveld's questionnaire (his form, p. 4; image-checked). The same fourteen as Heimen's own count; ◐ very probably the "Henk Brunekreef" who brought the men food every other day in Reley's account (Dekkers and Vroemen, p. 210).
• ✓ Goorhuis, Essenerweg. Gerrit Jan Goorhuis of Essenerweg 74, Kootwijkerbroek, born at Ede on 3 January 1899 (his form, p. 6), lists Lt Noyes Richey and Lt Charles Ramlow, "end Sept.", 50 days each, received from and passed to "Joop and Dick" (his table, p. 7). ⚠︎ Ramlow's report has the same two at his house from 14 October to 15 November, not from "end Sept." (Ramlow, p. 9, OCR).
  • Ramlow's own report names his host after Pegasus II as "H. ESVELD (brother-in-law of GOORHUIS), BARNEVELD" (Ramlow, p. 10).
  • ◐ Born in 1899, this Goorhuis is not Janna's father of the same name, a farmer at Ede in 1926; that he was her brother, which would make Heimen his brother-in-law, is our reading, and no source gives his parents.
• ◐ The Harskamp men. Boeree's chronicle of Ede (1947) has van Dijk and van Beek (◐ Willem van Dijk and Martinus van Beek) take "Tommies bij Tini Kreunen in Otterlo" to Rap at Harskamp "en naar H. Esveld in Kootwijkerbroek" (Tommies from Tini Kreunen's at Otterlo … and to H. Esveld at Kootwijkerbroek), undated; that this H. Esveld is Heimen rests on the initial and the place (Boeree, p. 199, read on the image; Willem van Dijk; Marten van Beek).
  • The same page has the seven Tommies, taken from Ooilander's farm via Baron Mackay's and a hunting lodge in the Otterlo wood, "verdeelden … over de boeren van Westeneng (Esveld, van Braak, Veldhuizen, Rap, van Ee en anderen)" (spread over the farmers of Westeneng): an Esveld at Westeneng, not shown to be Heimen (Boeree, p. 199).
  • Van Beek's own list of those who sheltered pilots and paratroopers ends with "H. Esveld Essen by near Harskamp", which has the same limit (his form, p. 2).
• ◐ Two men the Sunday after Pegasus II. Boeree, on the days from "Zondagmorgen 18 November": "Piet en Rinus kregen bericht, dat er twee man bij R. van Ginkel in Harskamp waren gekomen, zij konden daar niet blijven, zij werden gebracht bij Esveld in Essen" (Piet and Rinus were told that two men had come to R. van Ginkel at Harskamp; they could not stay there and were taken to Esveld at Essen) (Boeree, p. 202, read on the image). Heimen by the place only; Boeree names neither man.

Murphy is not known to have been at the farm, and nothing in Heimen's file names him. Haller was, and the list has a Branford and an S. Walsh who were very probably his companions.

Pegasus II, 17–20 November. McNaught, by his report, left the ESVHEILT farm for the march at about 17:30 on 17 November (McNaught); Ramlow's report has "On 15 November Lts. RAMLOW and RICHEY left BARNEVELD" for the rendezvous (Ramlow, p. 4). Bernard Haller, the glider pilot of Murphy's party, had been at Heimen's briefly before it: in 1951 "vertelde mevrouw Van Esveld me dat zij in de korte periode voor Pegasus II, toen ik ook even bij hen was, getroffen was door mijn sterke vermagering" (Mrs Van Esveld told me that in the short time before Pegasus II, when I was with them briefly too, she had been struck by how thin I had become) (Noordman, p. 271).

◐ When the crossing failed, the help for the men left in the woods was found at the farm of Boeree's "H. Esveld", very probably Heimen's. On the Monday (◐ 20 November, as Noordman dates it; Boeree's own anchor, "Zondagmorgen 18 November", was a Saturday) the Harskamp men reported to Frans Hals at Kootwijkerbroek that 36 men were left, 24 needing help at once, and "Zij gingen naar H. Esveld in Kootwijkerbroek, waar zij Eb van Ommeren vonden, die bereid was, die avond de 24 man uit het bosch te halen" (they went to H. Esveld at Kootwijkerbroek, where they found Eb van Ommeren, who was willing to fetch the 24 men out of the wood that evening) (Boeree, p. 202, read on the image; Eb van Omme). ◐ That wood is very probably where Murphy's small party had waited with the twenty, and the 24 very probably include the larger party Tex Banwell stayed with when Murphy, Hardy and three others left at three in the morning of the 20th: Noordman has the party left behind in the woods fetched on the evening of Monday 20 November by Eb van Omme and Gerrit van Ee with a horse and cart (Hardy; Noordman, pp. 284–285).

◐ The dug-out, 23 November. Murphy spent 20 to 24 November in a dug-out near Roekel with Hardy, Branford, Haller, Walsh and five more evaders (Hardy, who names only "JOHN" and "the other Paratrooper"; Walsh; Noordman, pp. 280, 285). Boeree writes that on the Thursday (◐ 23 November, counting on from Noordman's Monday 20 November; Boeree gives no date) "bracht Bettink nog 2 man uit het hol bij Rap, samen met de beide anderen werden zij naar H. Esveld onder Essen getransporteerd" (Bettink brought two more men out of the hole to Rap; with the other two they were taken to H. Esveld at Essen) (Boeree, p. 202). "The hole" is ◐ very probably the dug-out by Van Vemden's house (J. van Vemde); Boeree names none of the men, and Hardy and Murphy left on the morning of the 24th, not to Essen.

Haller, Branford and Walsh. By Walsh's report the party split on 25 November and Haller, Branford and Walsh spent a week at a house in the Valk area; on 1 December Gerd took the three to his own house, and the next day Haller "was taken to another address in this area" (Walsh). McNaught found Haller at the ESVHEILT farm when he came back on 2 December (McNaught). Haller's own account does not date his return:

After Branford, Walsh and I were separated from each other after the failed operation Pegasus II, I went again to Heimen van Esveld in Kootwijkerbroek and stayed there the whole winter. I remember that it was very cold that winter and that, with Harold Riley and Frank McNaught, I even skated on a pond on New Year's Day.

Dutch originalNadat Branford, Walsh en ik na de mislukte operatie Pegasus II van elkaar gescheiden werden, ging ik opnieuw naar Heimen van Esveld in Kootwijkerbroek en ben daar de hele winter gebleven. Ik herinner me dat het die winter erg koud was en dat ik samen met Harold Riley en Frank McNaught op nieuwjaarsdag zelfs op een vijver geschaatst heb.

— Bernard Haller, in Noordman, Schuilplaats de Veluwe (2019), p. 271 · the book

Heimen's own list bears him out: Haller for 84 days, with Riley and McNaught (p. 8). ✓ So does a third helper: Marten Schoemaker of the B.S. (his form, p. 3, OCR), who passed Haller on at Amerongen: his enclosure says that before that Haller "had been staying at van ESVELD at ESSEN (Gem. KOOTWYKERBROEK)" (Schoemaker's enclosure, p. 7). Haller's own winter, house by house, is on his page.

The same list has James Branford and an S. Walsh for seven days each. Branford and Sam Walsh were with Murphy until Hardy and Murphy left the Roekel dug-out on 24 November, by Hardy, and Walsh's party split into two threes on the 25th, by Walsh (◐ the two are not shown to be one event, though Walsh refers the reader to Hardy's report for "the story of my movements until 25 Nov", "the same except for one detail"), and went on together with Haller (Walsh; Hardy). ◐ This S. Walsh is very probably Murphy's companion: he stands beside Branford and Haller, Evert van de Braak, the farmer Walsh's own report names, gives his Walsh the same Darnall, Sheffield address (Van de Braak's file, p. 5), and McNaught's report has "Pte. WALSH", with Walsh's own MI9 report number, join them at the ESVHEILT farm on the night of 7 February 1945 (below). The file gives no dates, so which seven days the list means is not known.

◐ The night of 17/18 November. By Walsh's version, Banwell, Haller, Murphy and Walsh spent that night at "a house at approx. posn 560984 (Sheet 2)" (Walsh). That reference falls on the Plaggenweg, Kootwijkerbroek; McNaught's for the ESVHEILT farm, 575968, falls on the Wesselseweg, about 2.2 km away, and today's Dwarsgraafweg 5 is about 4.8 km from the first and 2.8 km from the second (our conversions, good to about 300 m: the converted references). So by the references the house of 17/18 November was not the ESVHEILT farm. Heimen's name in the account is discussed under Settled; the night of 17/18 November is told on Pegasus II and Roekel.

• ◐ Ramlow. Ramlow's report has him sheltered by "H. ESVELD (brother-in-law of GOORHUIS), BARNEVELD … and two other evaders from 19 November to 15 December 1944", and then by Evert Braak at Lunteren (Ramlow, p. 10). Heimen's list gives Ramlow 28 days; 19 November to 15 December is 26.
  • Its narrative has him back in Barneveld after the ambush, "arriving there three days after Lt. RAMLOW had left to cross the Rhine. They stayed in the same house in BARNEVELD until 15 December" (p. 6, read on the image).
  • "The same house" reads most naturally as the Barneveld house he had left on 15 November (p. 4), which his appendix gives as Goorhuis's (below).
• ◐ McNaught's return. McNaught, cut off after Pegasus II, came back on 2 December, brought by the courier Puk, "to my old home with the ESVHEILT's, who welcomed me with open arms". He found Riley, Haller, De Santis and "Lt. Charlie" there, and "Another 'compartment' had by this time been constructed in another hay stack to accommodate the 'growing family'" (McNaught).
  • While there he acted as an armed guard on the dropping zone during "the two 'drops' arranged by DICK" (same).
  • About the end of January De Santis and Lt Charlie "were moved to another address as the ESVHEILT's were finding it difficult to provide food for such a large number" (same).
  • A member of the underground called Jan was living in the house (same).
• ✓ Walsh's night, 7 February.
  • Walsh's report: on the evening of 7 February he went to Gerd's birthday and "Instead of going back to BRAAK'S that night I stayed with Pte's. McNAUGHT … and RILEY … who were living at a farm near GERD's place" (Walsh). Gerd is Gerrit van Ee, by Noordman from Van Ee's pocket-book (Noordman, p. 304).
  • McNaught's: at about 14:00 on 8 February Jan told "RILEY, myself and Pte. WALSH … (Report No. IS9/WE/1/295/2386) who had joined us the previous night, to get ready to move", and the three cycled to Barneveld to meet Dick, "leaving Sgt. HALLER behind" (McNaught).
  • So the farm of 7 February is the ESVHEILT farm, ◐ Heimen's. Walsh and McNaught reached safety on 7 March 1945 (Walsh; McNaught; more on Sam Walsh).
• ◐ An American's report. Sgt Albert Maffei, a waist gunner of the 384th Bomb Group whose B-17 was hit by flak on 22 January 1945 (his report, p. 1 and p. 9, OCR only), lists "Mr ESVELD, ESSEN through BARNEVELD" (his E&E report, appendix, p. 10).
  • What it says: "Furnished food and shelter 20 Feb to 29-30 Mar"; he "Ate every other day at another farm near by", name unknown, "but ESVELD knows it and also 'DICK' knows who it is"; about 52, "7 children, aged 10 to 18"; separately "An American sergeant was evading here. Name unknown."; and "Lt FERRELL left here about 23 Mar". Item C of his list is "ESVELD-ESSEN, BARNEVELD, HOLLAND. Farmer. Housed and fed me. (22 FEB - 26 MAR 45)" (p. 17, read on the image).
  • ◐ Very probably Heimen: Essen, Dick, seven children, Ferrell (35 days on his list) and the meals at a second farm all fit, though Maffei's ages differ from Heimen's, who was 53.
  • Lt Jack Ferrell's own report lists "ESVELD, first name not known. BARNAVELD-ESSEN": about 50, "Had wife and 7 children. Farmhouse was made of stone", food, shelter and tobacco from 20 February to 20 March 1945 (his E&E report, appendix, p. 8).
• ◐ De Santis's own account.
  • On his return home De Santis wrote out his helpers in pencil on 26 April 1945, among them "Hyman van Esveld, Barnveld Essen. Provided food and shelter for 2 months" and "Evert Braak Suntern", four months, which we read as Lunteren (his RAMP return, p. 122).
  • The Americans' card for him repeats it, and adds that he was "With McNaught … from 11 Oct 44 until DeSantis left with Lt Ramlow about the end of January 45(?)" and was "Last seen approx [3] Dec 44 at farm of ESVELD with RAMLOW" (the card, image-checked).
  • ◐ "From 11 Oct" is the day McNaught's report has him set off for Eevid van Dam's, where De Santis was living, and be arrested on the way; the report first has the two of them travelling together on 21 October, so the card's date is probably the planned move, not the day they met (McNaught; Frank McNaught).
  • Heimen's list has De Santis for 112 days; two months is shorter, and neither says when he came and went, so the two are not reconciled. Evert van de Braak's own list has "Sgt. David Desantis" from 5 December until 17 April, liberation (his list, p. 5), which fits neither.
  • The same card has "Evert Braak" for 4 months, Evert van de Braak.

His diary of the men he hid was taken away by the Canadians (p. 9). He gave two overalls, a pair of shoes, a bicycle and three tyres, and the office considered that "he should get 2 overalls and tires" (p. 9). The cover of his American file has "Grade 3", with "check for downgrading" in faint pencil and a struck-through "Downgraded to 4" (p. 1).

✓ The Medal of Freedom. The recommendation of 2 September 1946 says he sheltered the airmen "in his home for periods varying from three weeks to four months" and "was also in charge of a relay station" (p. 4). The Americans awarded him the Medal of Freedom with bronze palm for "October, 1944 to April, 1945" (General Orders 266, 25 September 1946; p. 16; the citation, p. 18).

• He was invited to receive it at the Indisch Instituut in Amsterdam on 21 November 1946 and wrote back on 6 November that he hoped to be there (invitation of 24 October, p. 15; his reply, p. 14).
• Three papers report the ceremony with his name among the decorated: the Nieuw Utrechtsch Dagblad of the day itself, under Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm, with the American military attaché presenting to "ruim 50 Nederlandsche burgers, z.g. piloten-helpers" (more than 50 Dutch civilians, so-called pilot-helpers) (21 November 1946); De Nieuwe Nederlander, among the 52 (22 November 1946); and the Nijmeegsch Dagblad, which prints only the Gelderland names and has the ambassador, Stanley E. Hornbeck, presenting (22 November 1946).

✓ The King's Medal. The British gave him the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom, for service from October 1944 to April 1945; the MI9 record has him born at Barneveld on 29 September 1891, as his form does (WO 208/5457/163, 27 April 1946; WO 208/5275/2482, BM/4190, "Heiman Van Esveld"; the catalogue entries). The Nijmeegsch Dagblad of 7 July 1948 announced that the ambassador would present the medals at the Binnenhof on 8 July, with "Heimen van Esveld, Kootwijkerbroek" among the Gelderland names (7 July 1948); no report of the day itself has been found. The British helper index gives him grade 3, one of 61 in the country by the hosting site's count (index; the site's notes).

His wife Janna died at Barneveld on 28 April 1963, aged 66; the index of her death record names him as her "(ex-)partner", which does not say whether he was then alive (the index entry). Haller went back in 1951 and spoke with Mrs Van Esveld (Noordman, p. 271, above). No record of Heimen's own death has been found (Open Archieven, searched 21 October 2026). ◐ The Gemeentearchief Barneveld dates its photograph of him (GB00334) 1958–59, a catalogue date for a picture not seen (the catalogue entries).

• His birth. The civil index has 29 August 1891 at De Glind, in a deed entered on 31 August, and the Ede card the same day; his own form and the MI9 catalogue entry have 29 September, at Barneveld (the index entry; the Ede card; his questionnaire, p. 7; the catalogue entries). ✓ 29 August: a birth on 29 September cannot be in a deed of 31 August, and the MI9 entry follows his own form. ✗ 29 September. The year and the farmer father agree everywhere, and De Glind is in Barneveld municipality. The register scan would close it.
• His wife's age. His form has her 45 in 1945; the marriage record has her 29 in November 1926 and her death record 66 at her death on 28 April 1963 (the records). ✓ So she was about 48 in 1945; ◐ the form's 45 is a slip.
• Where the farm was. His forms, the American recommendation and the British index give Dwarsgraafweg 5, Kootwijkerbroek (p. 7; the index); Roskam's summary, Schoemaker, Maffei, Ferrell, De Santis and Van Beek have Essen, and Boeree both "in Kootwijkerbroek" and "onder Essen" (Boeree, p. 202). McNaught's map reference falls on the Wesselseweg, about 2.8 km from today's Dwarsgraafweg 5 (our conversion: the converted references). ⚠︎ Whether the numbering of 1945 is today's, and which road the haystacks stood by, is not settled.
• Which farm Walsh slept at on 7 February. Noordman, from Gerrit van Ee's pocket-book, names the address as "Heimen van der Ende" (Noordman, p. 304). McNaught's report puts Walsh with them at the ESVHEILT farm that night, and Heimen van Esveld's list has Walsh, McNaught and Riley. ◐ Heimen van Esveld's.
• How long Walsh stayed. Heimen's list has seven days (p. 8); Walsh's and McNaught's reports have one night, 7/8 February. ⚠︎ Not reconciled: the seven days may be another stay, with Branford, that neither report mentions.
• Whose Walsh.
  • Murphy's Sam Walsh was from Leicester: Joop Migchelsen's list has "WALSH, Samuel - 35 Jarrom [?] street, Leicester" (Migchelsen's file, p. 3), and the Pegasus Archive has him born in 1918 and "from Leicester" (Walsh).
  • Heimen's list gives "Darmall Sheffield" (p. 8) and Van de Braak's "8 Nakin place Darnall / Sheffield" (Van de Braak's file, p. 5).
  • The American summary of Heimen's file puts "S. Walsh" under RAF (p. 6), though it does the same for Haller, a glider pilot, and Walsh was a private of the 156th Parachute Battalion.
  • ◐ So the identification rests on the company he keeps on both lists, and on McNaught's report, which gives the Walsh who came to the farm on 7 February the report number of Murphy's Walsh.
• Where Ramlow and Richey were in early November. McNaught has "Lt. Charlie" and "Lt. Norris" join the haystack "during the first few days of November" (McNaught); Ramlow's report has him and Richey at Goorhuis's, Essenerweg, from 14 October to 15 November and at Esveld's only from 19 November (Ramlow, p. 9, OCR; p. 10); Goorhuis's own table has "end Sept., 50 days" (p. 7); Heimen's list gives Ramlow 28 days and Richey 5. ⚠︎ Not settled: ◐ the identification of Charlie and Norris with Ramlow and Richey stands on their roles and Richey's card, against Ramlow's own chronology.
  • Richey's card also has him, with Paulk and Ragsdale, "with the group of ninety evaders that tried to cross the Rhine in November, and were captured by the Germans in the ambush" (the card). ◐ If that is right, his 5 days on Heimen's list fall before Pegasus II, which bears on McNaught's "first few days of November" against Ramlow's appendix, and the appendix's "two other evaders" with Ramlow from 19 November cannot include him.
  • ◐ Ramlow's report also has him and Richey leave Barneveld on 15 November for the Pegasus II rendezvous near Otterloo, where "all the evaders assembled" (Ramlow, p. 4), the march McNaught joined on 17 November, so Richey's "with McNaught … in November 44" may mean no more than that. Ramlow's report does not name McNaught.
• Whose house Ramlow went back to. Ramlow's appendix has H. ESVELD sheltering him and two others from 19 November (p. 10); his narrative has the three reach Barneveld and "stayed in the same house in BARNEVELD until 15 December" (p. 6), which reads as the house he had left on 15 November, and the appendix gives that as Goorhuis's, Essenerweg (p. 9, OCR). ⚠︎ The report does not agree with itself on whose house it was; the appendix's "brother-in-law of GOORHUIS" may be what joins them (above).
• When Ramlow left. Ramlow's report has him at Esveld's from 19 November to 15 December and then at Evert Braak's to 11 February (p. 10); McNaught has "Lt. Charlie" moved from the farm about the end of January, and De Santis's card has De Santis leave "with Lt Ramlow about the end of January 45(?)" (McNaught; the card). Evert van de Braak's own list has Ramlow from 5 December (his list, p. 5). ⚠︎ Not settled; ◐ Ramlow's dates are his own.
• The farmer in the airmen's reports. Maffei and Ferrell put him at about 52 and about 50, with seven children aged 10 to 18 by Maffei; in 1945 Heimen was 53 and his children 7 to 17 by his own form. ⚠︎ Both write that the farmer had been an Olympic athlete in 1916, Ferrell "1916 Olympics champion in 1500 meters run" (Ferrell, p. 8; Maffei, p. 10): there were no Olympic Games in 1916, and nothing else held says he ran.
• His grade. "Grade 5" in Roskam's summary (p. 4); grade 3 on the cover of his own American file, with a downgrading to 4 struck through (p. 1), and grade 3 in the British index (the index). ⚠︎ The summary's 5 is not explained; his own file and the British index agree on 3.

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