‘Jedburgh’ teams were deployed on various fronts within the framework of operation Market Garden. These teams were named after the Scottish town of Jedburgh, where secret agents were trained. The trainees were from the British Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), the American Organisation of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) and volunteers from various European contingents in Great Britain. The ‘Jedburgh’ teams were trained in ‘silent killing’, sabotage, the use of explosives, guerrilla tactics and parachuting. [1] Each troop consisted of two officers (at least one being of American or British origin) and a radio-telegraphist. Finally, the teams were established to be dropped into occupied areas to gather information about German troop units and make contact with (local) resistance groups. [2]

By the summer of 1944 four Dutch officers – Lieutenant Arie Bestebreurtje, Captain Henk Brinkgreve, Lieutenant Jacob Groenewoud and Lieutenant J. Staal – had successfully competed their training and were assigned to a team with its own codename. [3] The team of the 27 year-old Lieutenant Groenewoud was codenamed ‘Claude’ which besides himself comprised two Americans: Lieutenant Harvey A. Todd and Technical Sergeant Carl A. Scott. Team Claude was given the order to accompany the 1st British Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden. The orders for the team were as follows: [4]

“The Jedburgh team, under command of the division commander, is responsible for the support of military operations with all the means made available by, and with the help of, resistance groups, and to advise on the reliability of these groups. At the same time they will pass on the division commander’s orders to groups of resistance men operating as units. They will pass on all information which comes in through the underground channels, or gather required information with the groups. Orders will be given to known resistance groups before the operation begins. Consequently, the leaders of groups within a 20 km radius of the area of operation will enter that area and make contact with the Jedburgh team.”

On 10 September 1944, when British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s plan for Operation Market Garden had been approved, Jedburgh team Claude was assigned to the headquarters of the 1st Parachute Brigade, 1st British Airborne Division. Shortly afterwards it became clear that Groenewoud’s team would be going to Arnhem on Sunday 17 September. [5]

Groenewoud’s deputy, Lieutenant Harvey Todd, came from the small town of Marion, Illinois, and was a year older than Groenewoud. Todd was a teacher when World War II broke out, and was called-up for military service a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. [8] On 26 June 1941 Todd reported in Chicago for service in the American army, and was given the rank of private. [9] Seeing that he had studied for four years he was permitted to follow officer training in 1942. After becoming a second lieutenant he joined the American paratroops. However, Todd didn’t remain long with the airborne and volunteered for the O.S.S. And so it was that he eventually became first lieutenant of Jedburgh team Claude.

Technical Sergeant Carl Scott was the youngest of the team, born in 1922 in Franklin County, Ohio. He was a baggage handler until he became a soldier and received training as a radio-telegraphist. Because he was looking for a special task he, like Lieutenant Todd, joined the O.S.S. [10]

Operation Market Garden would be the first assignment for Groenewoud, Scott and Todd.

The airborne landings on 17 September 1944 encountered little or no opposition and the Jedburgh team was quickly assembled. But the radio and a few pieces of equipment which had been dropped separately were still missing, so Technical Sergeant Scott was sent off to find them. The radio was absolutely essential for contacting the three other Jedburgh teams in the Netherlands. They had been deployed elsewhere within the Operation Market Garden framework.

Meanwhile Groenewoud and Todd organized some means of transport and spoke with inhabitants on the dropping zone and during the advance to Arnhem. Scott remained behind, searching in vain for the missing radio. One or two days later he tried to get to Arnhem to link up with Groenewoud and Todd, but by then that was impossible. [11]

Captain Groenewoud and Lieutenant Todd marched towards Arnhem with the headquarters of the 1st Parachute Brigade. Major Hibbert, the brigade major, later recalled the advance to Arnhem thus:

“At the dropping zone rendezvous I was so totally engaged in my efforts to get as many undamaged radios together in order to group the brigade and get the battalions on the way that, at that moment, I had no time to spare for the Jedburgh team. We took two Dutch civilians along with us as guides. One went with brigade headquarters and the other waited with Captain Cranmer-Byng [an officer from a re-supply and transport company] to get all means of transport to the bridge. I did not make a note of their names.” [12]

The situation for the British at the bridge was becoming very critical. The number of wounded was increasing at an alarming rate and supplies were running out. No additional reinforcements had arrived since the night of 17/18 September and the German attacks seemed to be getting heavier. That morning the defenders heard the cry “Whoa Mahomet” in the distance – signs that other battalions from the 1st Parachute Brigade were making furious efforts to relieve them. [18] Closer by it was really difficult to distinguish friend from foe, as Major Hibbert noted in his diary: [19]

“With houses changing hands during the day and the inadequate communications it was very difficult to discover which houses were being defended by our troops and which by the enemy. I am convinced we and the enemy suffered a number of losses through errors of this nature.”

Meanwhile Captain Groenewoud tried to make telephone contact with St. Elisabeths Gasthuis to ask if medical dressings could be brought to the bridge and if it was at all possible to accept some of the wounded. But the telephone line was broken. He heard from civilians in the cellar of the Rijkswaterstaat building that a doctor two streets away had a ‘phone. Groenewoud asked Lieutenant Todd to accompany him there. [20]

By the night of 20/21 September the defenders at the bridge had still not been relieved, and the lack of ammunition forced them to abandon their defensive positions. The remaining men who had been holding the houses on Eusebiusbinnensingel were divided into groups of ten, each group led by an officer. Todd was given command of the group that would be first to leave, [22] but before making their way to Oosterbeek they first had to inform Captain Miller in St. Eusebiuskerk about the breakout attempt. Miller was in charge of some soldiers from brigade headquarters who had reached the church earlier that evening. This attempt failed and Todd hid first in a tree and later in a workshop, where he was found by German soldiers on 27 September.

In early May he managed to escape from German captivity during a march to another POW camp in Germany, and on 4 May he made contact with an American patrol. After the war he was awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart for his part in, and wounds received during, the Battle of Arnhem. [23]

The date of Jacob Groenewoud’s death varies in diverse publications about the Battle of Arnhem. On his gravestone in the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek, on the monument in the Jacob Groenewoud Garden, in the Roll of Honour of the Battle of Arnhem and in the book Zwevend naar de Dood (Bussum, 1977) his date of death is given as 18 September 1944. However, in the report on Jedburgh team Claude compiled by Lieutenant Harvey Todd after his return from captivity in 1945, Todd states that Groenewoud died on Tuesday 19 September.

According to Major Hibbert this is far more likely than 18 September. Furthermore, Groenewoud was seen on 18 September by Eric Robinson, and Lieutenant Todd, who was with him when he died, was in the cellar of the Rijkswaterstaat building from 10 am onwards that day, being treated for his wounds.

The official date of death would therefore appear to be wrong.

On 22 September 1944 Major Tony Hibbert succeeded in escaping from the lorry that was taking him and other prisoners to a POW camp. He went into hiding in Velp and escaped across the Rhine near Wageningen on the night of 22/23 October during Operation Pegasus 1, a large-scale escape operation. Hibbert later recalled:

“I kept a diary after being taken prisoner at the bridge and was able to escape later. I made sure I did not use names and references, such as to the Jedburgh teams [they were top secret]. After the Operation Pegasus 1 river-crossing I was taken to a hospital in Eindhoven where, on 23 October, I was de-briefed by Major Airey Neave. I gave him a list of wounded in St. Elisabeths Gasthuis as far as was known at that moment, a list of brigade HQ personnel who had died, names of POWs and a large quantity of intelligence material that I had hidden in the hollow soles of my boots. I was flown to Lincoln Hospital on 25 October, where I began writing letters to 75 relatives of the brigade HQ staff who had died, been wounded or taken prisoner.” [24]

On 24 November 1944 Hibbert wrote a several-page report to the Dutch Military Attaché in London, H.J. Phaff. In it, or more accurately in a comprehensive letter, Hibbert described Groenewoud’s actions during the battle and the manner of his death. It was sent on to the War Ministry with the recommendation that Hibbert’s letter be passed on to Groenewoud’s relatives. The Ministry agreed with this suggestion.

British Lieutenant Colonel Carleton-Smith received the report at the same time and, in April 1945, sent a copy to Lt. Col. Dobson of the S.O.E. recommending that Groenewoud should receive an award. Eventually the report arrived at the Dutch Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten (BBO, Office of Special Assignments), the body which had recruited Groenewoud, and the three previously-mentioned Dutch officers for the Jedburgh teams. In early May Major General J.W. van Oorschot, head of the BBO, sent the report to the War Minister requesting a Militaire Willemsorde (Military Order of William) for Groenewoud. [25]

On 27 July 1945, the posthumous award of the Ridderkruis Vierde Klas van de Militaire Willemsorde (Knight’s Cross Fourth Class of the Military Order of William) was made to Jacob Groenewoud by Royal Decree (no. 30):

“By showing extreme courage and skill in the landing at ARNHEM on 17 September 1944 and, as commander of an infantry section, forcing an entry into a German Headquarters and seizing important papers which included plans to destroy ROTTERDAM and AMSTERDAM harbours. [26]

After returning from this venture and becoming isolated with other troops from the main force, he volunteered to try breaking through the virtually impenetrable lines in order to restore the broken communications. He was killed in the attempt.”

After the war Jacob Groenewoud was given his final resting place in the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek, grave 20-B-12.

In 1994 a grassy area at the corner of Oranjewachtstraat and Rijnkade was renamed Jacob Groenewoud Garden by the Arnhem council on the initiative of Piet van Leeuwen. The memorial placed there by the council includes a 25-pounder field gun aimed at the John Frostbrug, a piece of a propeller and a plaque on which is written a concise description of the Battle of Arnhem in English, Dutch and Polish.

This type of gun was not actually used at Arnhem during World War II. The 1st British Airborne Division used six- and 17-pounder guns, and 25-pounder guns were not used in April 1945, either. In spite of this, the Jacob Groenewoud Garden keeps fresh the memory of a Dutch officer who was actively engaged during the Battle of Arnhem and gave his life for his fatherland.