We boarded the boat that would sail us through the Biesbosch.

During the tour we also enjoyed the beautiful nature and the silence in the Biesbosch.

The Biesbosch consisted of a maze of creeks, pilot whales, forests and waters. It was a difficult accessible area, where you could easily get lost. We saw that when we sailed through that beautiful nature reserve. As a result, this area was an excellent hiding place for people in hiding in the Second World War during the war. The Germans were afraid to enter the area and the actions they carried out had little effect. When the Biesbosch came to lie between the lines of the Germans and the Allies at the end of the war, many 'crossings' were carried through the area by brave people, where important people and information often reached the Allies. Here the first resistance against the German occupier began. A number of people spread across our country called on the population via chain letters to show symbolic and open resistance against the Germans. These 'Geuzenberichten' stimulated many Dutch people to protest and they refused to comply with all kinds of German measures, especially those relating to the Jews. In the course of the war the resistance grew to an underground army, and many who were threatened and persecuted by the occupying forces were helped, protected and cared for by resistance people, and were able to go into hiding with other people.

Albrecht Group

During the cruise our guide told exciting stories about the events in the Biesbosch. He told about the Albrecht group, among other things. This resistance group gathered information about German troops, airports and weapons depots. The espionage reports were sent to the headquarters in London via a transmitter in the Biesbosch. To get all these reports together, we worked with couriers, who brought the information to the central dispatch point in the Biesbosch by train and bicycle from all over the country. From this point on, the information was distributed further. Because of bombing, train strikes, checks and the decommissioning of ferry services, that courier work became increasingly difficult. This made it almost impossible to reach the sending station in The Biesbosch. In September 1944, the station was moved to Rotterdam from The Biesbosch.

Crossings

In the winter of 1944-1945 the front ran through the south of the Netherlands. The Biesbosch was also on the front line. Brabant, Limburg and Zeeland were liberated. Zeeland only after heavy battle to make the Scheldt navigable for ships with war material that were unloaded in the port of Antwerp. But north of the big rivers our country was still occupied. Due to the failure of operation Market Garden (Battle of Arnhem from 17 to 25 September 1944 the Allied offensive struck and the Netherlands remained occupied for the entire winter of 1944-1945 by the Germans, who practiced a true terror.) It was the winter of war. The German SD fiercely hunted the resistance, but the resistance was also getting tougher, while knokpegs were attacking distribution offices to obtain coupons for people in hiding and families of striking railway workers, since at the beginning of Operation Market Garden, the Dutch government had called for an overall strike by the Dutch Railways, and attacks were also carried out on German soldiers, which led to reprisals by the occupying forces.

There were cross routes:

1. Sliedrecht - Nieuwe Merwede - Amer -> Lage Zwaluwe (15 km):
This route started at the port of Sliedrecht through the Hel lock to the Huiswaardsloot,
then the rowing boat was towed over the Overtoom and through de Nieuwe Merwede to the port of Lage Zwaluwe.

2. Werkendam - Biesbosch - Amer -> Drimmelen (13 km):
Over land from Werkendam to Bruine Kil, further on by rowing boat through Bruine Kil over Steurgat, along the polder Pauluszand through Nauw van Paulus, in the direction of  Spijkerboor, over the Amer to the port of van Drimmelen.

We were told about Piet van den Hoek, one of the most important crossers in the last war year in The Biesbosch. In total he made 37 times a connection between occupied and liberated Holland along a route of about 18 kilometers
squeezed past hostile posts and patrolling German schnellboote. We have the book written by him Biesbosch-Crossings 1944-1945.

Cornelis Pieter (Piet) van den Hoek (Leerdam, 7 June 1921 – Werkendam, 12 February 2015) was a Dutch resistance fighter. Van den Hoek was one of the few knights of Militaire Willems-Orde.
IIn 1942 he was arrested and taken to a labor camp in Cologne. During his leave in November 1943, he went into hiding. He found shelter on an ark in the Biesbosch, where three others were already in hiding. Proviand they received through the resistance organization Ordedienst (OD). He joined the resistance and joined the 'De Partizanen van de Biesbosch'. He became one of the 21 line-crossers and made 37 crossings, transferring people, messages, goods or medicines.
After he was arrested again, he was sent to the Waterloo labor camp in Amersfoort, where he arrived on foot with 42 other prisoners. He escaped from the camp, walked back to Drimmelen and regrouped as a line cross. In 1993 Piet van den Hoek described the work of the line-makers in 'Biesbosch-Crossings 1944-1945'. On his initiative, a monument in Werkendam came in 1989 to commemorate the crossers and their work. He died at the age of 93 in Werkendam.

Arken were often used in the Biesbosch to house reed and bee cutters. Although of course it was not too spacious to stay, it was still better than the whale chain in which the barges have to stay. In an ark you could burn it relatively warm in the winter, had less trouble with rats and with high water your stay was floating instead of being flooded. In the Second World War the arks were hidden deep in the Biesbosch for the Germans and served as hiding places for resistance fighters and people in hiding.

Another resistance hero was Pieter de Koning. He worked at a dredging company in Papendrecht, but in the winter he worked in the pilot whales of the Biesbosch. He traded the wood. He has worked in China to work on the construction of a port in Shanghai. Back in the Netherlands, he married Wilhelina in 1911. It set up a barrage trade and had leased large pilot whales in the Brabant and Dordtse Biesbos and worked with his sons. As a result, they knew this area like no other, which came in handy when it comes to bringing people to safety in the winter1944/45.
The war broke out and soon Pieter de Koning realised though times were ahead. He tried to help where it was possible. He provided hiding addresses for American and English pilots and parachutists, together with members of the Koning family that also provided courier services and provided food for people. He provided hiding addresses for American and English pilots and parachutists, together with members of the Koning family that also provided courier services and provided food for people.
These dangerous journeys could only be carried out by strong people who were familiar with the pilot whales in the Biesbos, the Merwede and the Nieuwe Merwede because of their work. Who had grown up with it and were used to rowing. Everything depended on the correct use of ebb and flow, in case of a wrong estimate and you could get stuck on the way and there were still the dangerous current at the cribs. The whole family De Koning became involved in the crossings. The eldest son Flip de Koning and his younger brother Cees de Koning, then 17 years old, often led the many dangerous journeys. As if by a miracle they were never caught by the Germans.

Pieter de Koning's fisherman's house is still there.

We saw these newspaper clippings from 1991 about Pieter de Koning.

The Biesbosch was an ideal area for people in hiding because of the tidal water, mud flats, islands with bushes, reed buntings, pilot whales and polders. Those who did not know the area easily got lost and those who knew the way could apparently disappear from the face of the earth. Soon people in hiding came into the area. They were often housed in an ark of the barrow workers. The first Dutch military who refused to surrender as prisoners of war. In 1943 the number of people in hiding increased because many young men refused to work in Germany. Together with a small number of Jews, with people who were wanted for their resistance activities and with shot pilots, they found shelter with farmers or on one of the arks that lay in the area. Farmers were warned about impending raids via the Biesbosch post office on the Kievitswaard. Because of the set up alert service these messages also reached the people in hiding on the barges.

Since 1943 General Hackett had the command of 4th British parachute brigade. During Operation Market Garden he landed with his brigade on the Ginkelse Heide on 18 September 1944. On 24 September 1944, the day before 'Operation Berlin'  was to start, he was seriously wounded in his stomach. He was admitted to the Elisabeths Gasthuis in Arnhem and survived the operation. After ten days he was then kidnapped by resistance man Pieter Kruijff and he went into hiding. He was cared for four months by the De Nooij family in Ede. When he recovered sufficiently, he cycled through the snow to Sliedrecht on 30 January 1945. With a false identity card, he was brought to Holland by line-crossers via the Biesbosch as Mr. van Dalen. He arrived in Lage Zwaluwe on 5 February and returned to his wife two days later.