Joseph Marie Phillipe Bongaerts DFC, FC, OHK1
War hero and developer of the Groningen gas field
Jo Bongaerts and Karel Dahmen
grew up together at Roermond in the province of Limburg in the south east of the Netherlands near
the German border. They became good friends and were both students at
Delft University when Germany invaded the Netherlands. They escaped to
England aboard the Zeemanshoop and briefly served on Dutch merchant ships but their lives then took different paths.
Jo Bongaerts enlisted in the Marine Luchtvaart Dienst(MLD), the air force of the Royal Netherland Navy,
and trained as a pilot in the Dutch East Indies. On returning to
Britain he was retrained by the RAF as a navigator and served in
Mitchell B25 bombers with 320 Squadron. He was severely injured when
his plane crash landed on the 25 October 1943 returning from a raid on
a German airfield near Brest and was awarded the DFC. He told his son
that “I couldn’t let my friends go to war, alone!”
and after eight months in hospital and rehabilitation he retrained as
second pilot and returned to active service with 320 Squadron.
He took part in many operations in support of land forces as they
advanced through France and into the Netherlands, including the bombing
of the bridges over the River Meuse at his home town of Roermond.
Shortly after the liberation of the Netherlands he returned to Roermond
and married his fiancee Elly Wong, the daughter of the town's much
loved doctor. He ended the war as commander of the Gilzen Rijen airbase
between Breda and Tilburg. Lt J.M. Bongaerts DFC, FC, OHK1 was
discharged
from the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve on the 16 August 1947.
He returned to the University of Delft to complete his degree in civil
engineering and joined Shell who posted him to the Dutch East Indies as
a pipeline engineer withBataafse Petroleum Maatschappij. His
job took him to Java, Borneo and Sumatra and he lived with Elly in
Dutch compounds where the local staff helped her look after three
adopted children, two boys and a girl. When conditions became difficult
after Sukarno came to power Shell recalled him to the Netherlands in
1961 and made him General Manager of the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij(Netherlands Oil Company), jointly owned by Shell and Esso, just two years
after NAM struck gas in the province of Groningen in the north east
of the Netherlands. He spent the next twelve years developing the fieldsto
supply
natural gas to Holland and Western Europe. This key position made him
an important contributor to the economic developement of the Netherlands. He
was appointed as Director of Shell Netherlands in 1966 and retired in
August 1974 but continued to be called upon as an advisor to major
Dutch companies. He died at his home in Assen on the 26 December 1989.
But if you have not already done so you should start by reading the story of thevoyage of the Zeemanshoopand its rescue by HMS Venomous
Jo
Bongaerts was born on the 17 March 1915 at Venlo in the province of
Limburg in the South East of the Netherlands near the German border.
His father, Marie Elie Hubert Charles Bongaerts, was the engineer in
charge of the rolling stock of the
Netherlands State Railways.
The family moved to Maastricht, the capital of Limburg, and in 1918
Jo’s mother, Emma Bongaerts, died leaving his father to look after eight children, four
boys and four girls. In 1926 the family moved to Roermond, in the
center of Limburg, where Jo’s Uncle Albert, lived as a bachelor in a
spacious, rambling house. This kind man had already provided a home to
another of Jo’s uncles with his wife and two children and it now became
a household of fourteen, ably managed by the aunt, Maria Goossens.
When the children were of high school age he provided them with a room
on the second floor as a sort of club-room where they could meet their
friends. One of these was Karel Dahmen, four years his junior, who in
1940 would became his partner on the voyage of the Zeemanshoop to England. Karel has very fond memories of the fun they had in this room and in this hospitable household:
"We played cards,
talked a lot, listened to the gramophone and, yes, this was where we
learned to dance, and sometimes, when we could afford it, spent a
Sunday afternoon at 'The Dansant'
- Tea Dance. We belonged to the same tennis and rowing clubs,
not just for love of the sport but also because we enjoyed the social
side, like rowing on the River Meuse to one or other village where
there was a summer fair. And sometimes the whole gang of us went on
bike trips into Belgium or Germany, both frontiers being only some ten
miles from our town. Jo's
youngest sister was a dear friend as was Elly, Jo’s future wife. Elly
was the daughter of the much loved doctor Dolf (Adolph) Wong Lun Hing
and her lovely mother, Zus, who played beautifully on the piano."
After leaving school Jo studied civil engineering at the University of
Delft where he took a leading role in his student organisation and had
a close circle of friends. Three years later Karel Dahmen arrived in
Deft to study mining engineering and became part of Jo’s group of
friends which included several students from the Province of Limburg,
which helped Karel feel more at home. When the war started in 1939 many
of the students were mobilised and some came to the lectures in
uniform.
On the 10 May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands and on
the evening of the 14 May when they were having supper together in
Bongaert's "digs" above a grocery store in Delft they heard the radio
broadcast announcing the surrender. Karel said "let's go to England"
and Jo paused a moment and said "let me finish my egg first". Roermond
was already in enemy hands but he would be leaving behind his fiancee,
Elly Wong, as well as his parents. That was
their last meal in Holland. They cycled to Scheveningen, met two other
students, Harry Hack from Delft and Lou Meijers from Groningen,
and commandeered the Zeemanshoop for the voyage to England.
On arrival at Dover aboard HMS Venomous
the Dutch crew and passengers went by train to London and after a night
in a Salvation Army hostel the Netherlands
Emergency Committee at Dorland House offered them its assistance. Freddie Knottenbelt, the Secretary
of the Committee took a particular interest in the student crew of the Zeemanshoop. He arranged for them to stay at a b&b in
Putney and they visited him at his beautiful family home in Roehampton.
This was their first time in England and naturally they went
sightseeing in London. Jo thought they ought to change what little
Dutch money they had, about ten guilders between them, into English
pounds, shilling and pence and "when Jo has an idea he
wants to do it right away". He asked a policeman the way to the Bank of
England and after checking their newly issued Identity Cards (all
foreigners were suspected fifth columnists) he directed them to the
building that housed the greatest monetary empire in the world
...
"We saw a facade with Greek columns and Jo led us up the stone
steps to where an impressive doorman asked what our business would be.
When we said we wanted to change Dutch currency he guided us to a room
and told us to wait. A little later a be-spectacled
gentleman entered with a briefcase and we told him a little about the
voyage and answered his questions about the war before he asked how
much currency we wanted to change. When Jo told him he burst out
laughing. They were expecting a visit from some people of Shell who had
escaped with a lot of Dutch money. He explained that in this building
they really did not have any cash, they only handled documents, but he
was so nice as to phone an office of Midland Bank at the end of the
street and they accepted all our Dutch money." (Karel Dahmen)
Sir David Ross, the Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, where Maarten
Knottenbelt was a student, invited them to stay for two weeks and
get to know student life. Afterwards they worked as
farm labourers hoeing sugar beet in Oxfordshire to earn some money
before returning to
London where Jo and his friend Karel Dahmen, having failed to join the
remnants of the Dutch army or navy, became seamen on Dutch merchant
ships.
Jo Bongaerts joined the 1288 grt Prins Frederik Hendrik
as Assistant Engineer and sailed as part of an Atlantic Convoy to
Canada. He was promoted to full engineer on the return crossing. In September 1940 Bongaerts
enlisted in the Marine Luchtvaart Dienst
(MLD), the air force of the Royal Netherland Navy, and after two months basic training at RNMS Stuyvesant at Holyhead, Anglesy, was sent to
Morokrembangan, the naval air station at Surabaya in the Dutch
East Indies, where he began training as a pilot on the 15 January 1941.
Jo
Bongaerts and fellow trainees (left) learned to fly at the
Morokrembangan naval air station in American built Ryan PT-22 military
trainers Courtesy of Marc Bongaerts
After qualifying as a flying officer he returned to England in November
1941 and was posted to No 12 Flying Training School of the RAF at
Grantham (Spittalgate) where, surpisingly, the RAF re-trainined him to became a
navigator on American built Mitchell bombers with No.
320 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF which was formed from the personnel of
the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service (the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst or
MLD). Harry Hack, the "captain" of the Zeemanshoop was an engineering officer with Squadron 320. But before he joined his future squadron he had two months training in blind
landings in bad weather conditions at the Beam Approach Training
School, RAF Watchfield, and spent June and July 1942 at the School of General
Reconnaissance, Blackpool followed by six months at the Coastal Operational Training Unit,
Silloth. He was lucky to escape serious injury when the pilot crashlanded his Lockheed Hudson at Silloth.
Jo
Bongaerts' Hudson crash landed during training at RAF Silloth on the Sollway Firth, West of Carlisle Courtesy of Marc Bongaerts
It was not until the 18 February 1943 that Jo Bongaerts finally joined
Squadron 320 at RAF Bircham Newton, an important
coastal command station in West Norfolk. It was more than two years
since he began training as a pilot in the Duch East Indies which by now
was in Japanese hands. The Bircham Newton Memorial Project keeps alive memories of the airfield and the men who served there:
"There
were far too many visiting units flying from Bircham Newton during WW2
to mention them all by name. However, some early visitors will be
mentioned because of the heroics they performed and the losses they
sustained in the early years of the forgotten anti-shipping campaign
conducted against enemy convoys, ports and airfields across the North
Sea, particularly along the Dutch coast and Friesian Islands. This
campaign was conducted by 235 Squadron (flying Blenheims), 500 Squadron
(flying Ansons and Hudsons), 320 (Dutch) Squadron (flying Hudsons), 407
(Canadian) Squadron (flying Hudsons) and other squadrons."
320 Squadron moved to RAF Methwold on the 15 March 1943 but by the
end of the month was based at RAF Attlebridge, eight miles north west
of Norwich. On the 1 June 1943 it was reassigned to Second Tactical Air
Force (TAF) supporting the 21 Army Group by attacking enemy
communications targets and airfields. In August when the squadron
moved to RAF Lasham near Alton in Hampshire
and its operations moved from the Dutch coast to north east France.
Ground crew prepare a Mitchell B25 for a bombing raid in France Courtesy of Marc Bongaerts A Mitchell B25 on a bombing raid over France
Jo Bongaerts, the Observer Bomb Aimer, took this photograph from the glass domed front turret Courtesy of Marc Bongaerts
Jo
Bongaerts' plane was badly shot up on the 25 October 1943 during a raid
on the airfield of Lanveoc-Poulmic near Brest:
"The
lead plane FR162/W (carrying the commander of 320 squadron) received a
direct hit from AA-fire while flying over the target and exploded,
throwing the rest of the flight into chaos. Bomber FR162/L was also
hit, badly damaged and hurtled towards the ground but the pilot managed
to level out. Bongaert's plane (FR162/P) was also badly damaged by
shrapnel. Bongaerts was in the observation dome, which was shattered
and his instruments damaged. The plane was too heavily damaged to
continue the flight and drop its bombs and turned around back to the
UK. Bongaerts' knee had been injured and he wasn't able to free
himself and leave the icy cold observation dome. He put a make-shift
pressure bandage on the wound and a gunner called Hamelink came to
check up on him and put on fresh bandage, but couldn't free Bongaerts."
The pilot steered for the nearest airport, Perranporth in Cornwall. The
FR162/P made a near-perfect belly landing. Bongaerts was trapped and
had to be cut free with axes and then spent ten weeks in Truro Hospital
recovering from his injuries (he lost a knee cap).
Karel Dahmen heard that his friend had been
hurt in the raid, bought a bottle of Dutch gin and took the train to
Truro to visit him. On the 11 January 1944 he was transferred to the
RAF Medical Rehabilitation Unit in Loughborough where he spent the next
three months before returning to 320 Squadron at RAF Station Dunsfold
in June 1944.
Left: Jo Bongaerts being cut free from his Mitchel bomber after crash landing near Perranporth Right: Capt Roosenberg on left and Jo Bongaerts on right receiving their DFC These photographs from the Roosenberg family album were published in De operaties van 320 squadron by Nico Geldorf (2006) and used here courtesy of the author
The originals are now in the Netherlands Institute of Military History, The Hague
For the attack on Lanveoc-Poulmic, Bongaerts and Roosenburg (the
plane's captain) were awarded the DFC and were presented with it on
the 12 February 1944 by Air Marshall Sir Basil Embry (Air Officer
Commanding, No. 2 Group) in the presence of the entire 320
squadron.
His injuries prevented him from returning to his former position in the
turrett of the Mitchell B-25 as observer and bomb aimer but he told his
son Marc “I couldn’t let my friends go to war, alone!” In July 1944 he
began training flights at RAF Station Finmere as 2nd Pilot, sitting
next to the 1st pilot of the Mitchell bomber. Marc's description of his
subsequent service career is based on the entries in his father's Log Book:
"The
1st pilot, Cees Witholt, was a good friend of my father. They moved to
RAF Station Swanton Morley as part of 2 GSU (Ground Support Unit) on
the 18 July and got used to working together on training flights before being posted to 226
squardron at RAF Station Hartford-Bridge on the 30 July. Their first
flight from here was on 3 August in an Oxford and their first missions
were bombing targets on the River Dives at St. Pierre sur Dives in
Normandy on the 12th and 13th of August.
From then on they were kept very busy bombing targets in France and the
Netherlands. In August there were raids on Risle near
Brionne, Alons on the Seine, Celrmont and Rouen. In September they
bombed Abbeville, Givet, strong points near
Boulogne, road and railway links at Beveland in Zeeland (Netherlands),
the harbour of
Breskens in Zeeland, the gun batteries at Fort La Crèche near Boulogne
and military barracks near Ede (Veluwe, Netherlands).
On the 18 September he was posted back to
Squadron 320 at RAF Dunsfold with Witholt as 1st pilot and
Weysters and Bernett as crew members. They began operstional
flights on the 26 September, bombing Breskens in Zeeland and
Eemrich, Germany. On the 2 October 1944 they moved to Brussels
Melsbroek, and bombed Huizen near Arnhem, Angeren and oil dumps near
Amersfoort. The whole of 320 Squadron joined them at Melsbroek on the
17 October. The war moved closer to home for Jo Bongaerts on the 3 - 6 November when they
bombed the bridges at Venlo and Roermond where he was born and grew up.
That Christmas he and his old friend Karel Dahmen had a meal
together at the May Fair Hotel which had one of the best restaurants in
town:
"At the end of 1944, I was in London for business about transportation
of enlisted volunteers for the Marine Brigade. I was scheduled to
return
to Oostende on an LST (Landing Ship Tank). But the sailing was delayed
until after Christmas. At the Dutch Navy Headquarters I met Jo who was
also stranded in London. As it was Christmas Eve we decided to have
dinner together in one of the better restaurants in London, It being
Christmas Eve, the restaurant closed at 10 pm. By that time we had
finished our meal and paid the bill. The waiter said to us that after
the restaurant closed they would have a party in the kitchen with
the cooks and servers and invited us to join. It was a delightful
Christmas Eve party."
Marc continues the account of his father's service:
"320 Squadron had moved to RAF Station Swanton Morley on the 25
November and operational flights began on the 5 January 1945 with
raids on a communication
centre near St.Vith, and a road bridge at Zaltbommel in the
Netherlands. From the
6 February 1945 there were bombing raids on Zutphen, Emmerich,
Xanten, Kavelaer, Weeze, Nieuwkerk, Goch and on the rail junction near
Assen in the Netherlands, his future home. The crew of his Mitchell bomber were Witholt, 1st
pilot, Weyster and Jo Bongaerts as 2nd pilots and on later flights Smith, v.Dam and Merret."
Jo's
elder brother, Charles M.H.J. Bongaerts (1909-44), had married Karel
Dahmens sister 'Trees' (Theresa). In 1940 Charles was a reserve officer
in the Dutch army and during the five day war he fought on the so
called “Grebbe Berg Line”, that the Dutch army held to the very end,
repulsing heavy assaults from the German forces. Charles Bongaerts was
the head of the fire service in the coal mining area and this gave him
access to vehicles which enabled him to play a prominent part in the
underground resistance. They put up airmen in their home and
transported them south on the long journey to England via Belgium,
France and Spain. On one occasion Charles Bongaerts stopped a German
convoy and, claiming to be on urgent business, got a mechanic to repair
his vehicle while three American airmen were in the back. His group was
infiltrated in 1944, Charles was betrayed and died in a German
concentration camp on the 23 November 1944.
During
the winter of 1944-5 Roermond was under continuous attack from British
and American forces on the other side of the River Meuse. The town was
under continuous shell fire; people lived in their cellars and only
came out to find something to eat. German efforts to defend the city
were hampered by the presence of civilians and they were forcibly
evacuated but Jo's future father in law, Dolf (Adolph) Wong Lun Hing,
the much loved local doctor, insisted on staying with his family to
help the few hundred people who remained. Marc Bongaerts mother told
him that:
"the
family had been hiding all that time in the cellar of the house on the
Swalmer Straat. Almost at the end of the siege they were discovered and
the German army commander ordered them to be deported. But another
German officer told the commander that he would arrange it but he did
not do it. Instead he gave them food and let them stay.”
Left: 320 Squadron operating as part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF) bombed the Roermond bridge across the Meuse Right: Jo Bongaerts and Elly Wong together again in Roermond shortly before their marriage
Courtesy of Marc Bongaerts
Jo Bongaerts flew 57 operational sorties during his service
with 320 squadron. He returned home to Roermond to be told that his elder brother, Charles
M.H.J. Bongaerts (1909-44), a hero in the underground, had been betrayed and
died in a German concentration camp on the 23 November 1944.
Charles Bongaerts was married to the elder sister of his friend, Karel
Dahmen.
Jo and Ellie were engaged before the war began and she had been waiting
for him all these long years. On the 31 May 1945, one month after
Holland was completely liberated, the wedding took place in Roermond.
His friends in
320 squadron arranged a fly-by of three "Mitchells" with a
bomb load of flowers. One of the crewmen had travelled to Roermond to
signal when the bombers were to start their fly pass by firing a flare
when the married couple left the church. The first run over
the "target area" was not exactly successful, as one of the bombers
dropped its "bomb load" on a funeral procession. They were more
successful on their next run. Jo and his wife Elly were touched by the
efforts of his comrades.
On the 16 August 1945 320 Squadron was based at RAF Station Achmer
in Germany but in 1946 he was appointed Military Commander of Gilzen
Rijen,
one of the oldest air bases in the Netherlands, located between Breda
and Tilburg. The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) resumed operations
from the airfield in 1946, using it as a training base for pilots and
air traffic controllers. Housing was scarce and Jo and Elly's first
home was in a small timber building in the woods near the
airbase. Lt J.M. Bongaerts DFC, FC, OHK1 was discharged
from the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve on the 16 August 1947. In September 1947 he joined DSM, a large chemical concern which
had developed out of Dutch State Mines, the state owned coal mining
company, as a safety engineer. This did not suit him and in September
of the following year he returned to Delft University to complete his degree in civil engineering and
on graduating in 1952 he applied for a job at Royal Dutch Shell. At the
interview he was asked why he was still studying so long after the war had
finished and Jo disarmingly replied "well, you need that rotten little
paper, otherwise you get nowhere". He got the job and in June was sent to
newly independent Indonesia as an engineer with Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij,
initially responsible for building pipelines from inland oil fields to
harbours on the coast. His wife, the former Elly Wong, went with him. Jo
joined the management team responsible for finding new oil fields,
exploitation and distribution. His job took him and Elly from Java to
Borneo and Sumatra.
They adopted three children, Marc, Peter and Danielle. Jo's sister told Karel Dahmen that:
On
the birthday of one of these toddlers, he was given an enormous bowl of
ice cream. Jo had specified that the child would be allowed to
dig with his little hands in it, put it in his mouth and smear it over
his face, chair, table, wherever he wanted, so as to get the maximum
joy out of it.
One of Marc's earliest memories
was of life in the Dutch compound at Balikpapan on the south
coast of Borneo, the nice houses, beautiful scenery and friendly staff
who were like members of the family, "I remember one of the female
members of staff hurrying to fetch me from my room when there was
an an earthquake to take me to safety outside!" Two or three times a
year they returned home to the Netherlands or to Belgium on holiday.
Karel worked at Standard Vacuum Petroleum Maatschappy, the Dutch
affiliate of Stanvac Eastern, and their paths crossed once more when
they were both working in Sumatra.
Jo Bongaerts and Elly at the reception for the departure of his predecessor as General Manager of Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij in 1961 And at work in his office
When
Sukarno came to power in Indonesia life became difficult for foreign
companies and their employees. In 1961 Jo was transferred to Holland
and appointed General Manager of the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij
(Netherlands Oil Company), jointly owned by Shell and Esso. This was just two years
after NAM struck gas in the province of Groningen in the north east
of the Netherlands. The next twelve years were the challenge of a
lifetime as Jo and his co-workers developed this operation to supply
natural gas to Holland and Western Europe. He described this
achievement in an interview for an article published by In Het Viezier in 1980 fourteen years after his retirement:
“This
was the most dynamic period of NAM. Within a decade we built a
totally new industry with a team of damn loyal guys. There were periods
when we worked day and night. The Groningen gas field was a present
from Heaven. It became the basis of NAM’s present developments. It all
started in 1959 when an exploratory gas well was being drilled.
At a depth of about 3000 meters a gas containing formation was entered.
The first estimates were rather conservative; they talked about a
proven reservoir of 60 billion cubic meters. For that time this was
quite spectacular. Further drilling increased the reserves to 300
billion, 1000 billion and eventually to 2925 billion cubic meters."
The ‘culture’ of NAM before 1959 was that of an oil production company
and Jo Bongaerts' outlook was that of a typical oil production engineer:
We
were ‘oil farmers’ and at that time, nobody in Shell was much
interested in gas. It was just a damn nuisance if you hit gas when
drilling for oil. Our small team knew very little about gas production.
But our co-workers were enthusiastic – I could name a few such as Jan
Asselberg, Jan Uleman, Johan van Bethlehem and Dirk Prent. They did a
fantastic job. The people at Hudson Engineering in Houston also solved
a lot of problems. Special techniques had to be developed, such as for
removing the condensate out of the gas; problems having to do with the
enormous production capacity of these wells. Also – and that was rather
unique at that time - we started to drill multiple wells from one
location. This required only one central treating installation and also
reduced the amount of land needed to drill and produce gas from these
wells. During my time with NAM we installed 24 of these ‘clusters’, a
formidable achievement!
The 'Nederlandse Gas Unie’
was founded for the distribution and transportation of this natural
gas. NAM started to deliver into their system by 1963. We were
environmentally conscientious and always worked in close consultation
with the provincial government.
Left: Jo Bongaerts with the Governor of Groningen inspecting the first gas producing well on the 25 July 1963 Right: Queen Juliana visiting the gas field on the 22 June 1965 with Jo Bongaerts on right
In 1966 Jo was promoted to Director of Shell Netherlands, a post he
held until his retirement in August 1974. During his time with NAM, Jo
Bongaerts was also Curator of the University of Groningen, President of
Maartenswouden, the foundation for the care of the mentally handicapped
and a member of the Council of the University Hospital Groningen.
Jo and Elly spent their retirement at Assen in the province of Drente
in the north east of the Netherlands. His reputation ensured he was
frequently called upon to advise major companies including Philips and
Océ. Sadly, his wife Elly was diagnosed rather late as having Kahler
disease and died in 1985. Jo Bongaerts died on the 26 December 1989 at
Assen. His three children are doing well and have families of their
own. Marc has a son and a daughter, both at university, and Marc's
sister, Danielle, lives nearby in Breda with her daughter.
Jo Bongaerts service in the Royal Dutch Naval Air Service (RDNAS), is
based on his Logbook and the photographs sent to me by his son, Marc.
plus his official
service record supplied by the NIMH. The personal memories of his
friend Karel
Dahmen were invaluable. De operaties van 320 squadron (2006)
by Nico Geldhof is the best guide to 320 Squadron but English readers will enjoy The Flying Dutchman: An exciting true story of war in the air;
by Hans van der Kop (Patrick Stephens, 1985), a former Wing
Commander and a personal friend of Jo Bongaerts. Jo BongaertsRecord of Serviceis copied from his Logbook.
The account of his time with NAM developing the Groningen gas fields is
entirely based on an interview at his home in Assen published
by In Het Viezier in 1980.
Read about the lives of the other three student crew members of the Zeemanshoop Jo Bongaerts' close friend, Karel Dahmen, the medical student Lou Meijers and the "Captain", Harry Hack
The story of HMS Venomous is told by Bob Moore and Captain John Rodgaard USN (Ret) in A Hard Fought Ship Buy the new hardback edition online for £35 post free in the UK
Take a look at the Contents Page and List of Illustrations
Holywell House Publishing
88 Holywell Hill, St
Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 1DH, Britain
http://holywellhousepublishing.co.uk
Telephone: +44 1727 838595 contact online
Jo Bongaerts and Karel Dahmen
grew up together at Roermond in the province of Limburg in the south east of the Netherlands near
the German border. They became good friends and were both students at
Delft University when Germany invaded the Netherlands. They escaped to
England aboard the Zeemanshoop and briefly served on Dutch merchant ships but their lives then took different paths. 
For the attack on Lanveoc-Poulmic, Bongaerts and Roosenburg (the
plane's captain) were awarded the DFC and were presented with it on
the 12 February 1944 by Air Marshall Sir Basil Embry (Air Officer
Commanding, No. 2 Group) in the presence of the entire 320
squadron. 
When
Sukarno came to power in Indonesia life became difficult for foreign
companies and their employees. In 1961 Jo was transferred to Holland
and appointed General Manager of the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij
(Netherlands Oil Company), jointly owned by Shell and Esso. This was just two years
after NAM struck gas in the province of Groningen in the north east
of the Netherlands. The next twelve years were the challenge of a
lifetime as Jo and his co-workers developed this operation to supply
natural gas to Holland and Western Europe. He described this
achievement in an interview for an article published by In Het Viezier in 1980 fourteen years after his retirement:
