The silent war : glimpses of the Dutch underground and views on the Battle of Arnhem

"The author attempts here to give a cross-section of the activities of the Movement and also his own first hand observations on the Battle of Arnhem. The Martens family watched the bright parachutes of the Allies dropping through the air to the sound of the waiting German guns, and sheltered the Arnhem refugees. Allard Martens gives a very vivid picture of what it was like in Holland during the German occupation: the paralysis of transport, the starvation, the mass deportations and arrests, the gas ovens and the gallows. But in spite of terrible reprisals the Dutch Resistance derailed trains, seized food cards, organised escape routes for Allied soldiers. Young mothers used their prams to transport Sten guns, girls distributed the illegal newspapers that helped to keep the spirit of a country alive." —Book jacket