Private AMB Roozeboom, No 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando

Though the Dutch Troop suffered heavy casualties with several of its members being wounded or taken prisoner of war, their losses in killed, compared to the Britis forces at Arnhem, were light, with only two dying in action. One, Private Hagelaars, was shot by the Germans after Arnhem when, on 5 October, he tried to visit his parents near Den Bosch when the area was still occupied by the enemy. The other, Private Bakhuys Roozeboom, was killed in action while attached to 1st Airborne Division… he was with the Divisional Commander and worked from the Divisional HQ at the Hotel Hartenstein in Oosterbeek. On 19 September two volunteer guides were called for to help try and get a patrol through to the bridge at Arnhem. Two Dutch Resistance fighters, Jan Diepenbroek and Hendrik Beekhuisen, immediately stepped forward.”. 

One of the two Dutch Resistance fighters, Hendrik Beekhuisen, was quoted in an article “August F.M. Bakhuys Roozeboom, the forgotten Commando of Arnhem, 1944”, published in 1980 by Major A L J van Viet of the Military History Section of the Royal Dutch Army Service Corps:

“We had to put on British uniforms. We got hand grenades and ammunition for our rifles. There was also an interpreter with us as we could hardly speak any English. This was a young soldier with a green beret. His name was Bakhuys and he took us outside to the jeep with a British major and four soldiers. With eight men on the jeep, legs hanging outside, the Major at the steering wheel, we drove towards the bridge. Near it we were shot at from both sides, but were not hit. After 400 metres we saw a high-sided vehicle coming towards us. We stopped and took cover on both sides of the road. We forced the driver to stop. It was a German Red Cross ambulance with two soldiers. The Major did not like the situation as, of course, Red Cross vehicles were protected by the Geneva Convention. Then one of us opened the back of the ambulance and found it was full of ammunition and weapons, so we took the Germans prisoner. Bakhuys told us that the Major had decided to go back as we were surrounded by Germans, but we would try to get the ambulance back to Oosterbeek. On the way back the ambulance was stopped by a German patrol, but the Major drove his jeep at them. Then about ten Germans started shooting at us from the bridge with automatic weapons. Bakhuys was throwing hand grenades while the Major was driving. Suddenly I realized that Bakhuys was sinking in between the Major and I without a sound. It was a miracle to me that we were still alive. We stopped in Oosterbeek near a church which had been turned into a hospital and the Major and I looked to see where Bakhuys had been wounded. We soon saw that he had been hit in the head and must have died immediately”.  (repeated in Dear, 1987: 30).

Among these brave fighters was August Ferdinand Marie Bakhuis Roozeboom, one of the first commandos to give his life since the establishment of No.2 Dutch Troop. On the evening of September 19, 1944, Bakhuis Roozeboom departed from Hotel ‘Hartenstein’ with British paratroopers and Dutch resistance fighter H. Beekhuizen in a Jeep. Their mission was to make contact with the parachute battalion at the Rhine Bridge in Arnhem. Despite their determination, their attempt failed, and they had to retreat towards Oosterbeek. During their retreat, they managed to capture a German Red Cross vehicle, which unexpectedly turned out to be filled with weapons.

It was en route, near the overpass west of Arnhem, that the Jeep came under heavy fire. Bakhuis Roozeboom, standing between the driver and the passenger, bravely defended his comrades with a Tommy gun and grenades. But at that critical moment, he was struck and fell mortally wounded. The remaining members of the group succeeded in bringing the Jeep back to Oosterbeek, where Bakhuis Roozeboom was buried in the garden of Hotel ‘Hartenstein’.

After the war, Bakhuis Roozeboom was buried as ‘Known unto God’ at the War Cemetery in Oosterbeek. It wasn’t until 1996 that his exact burial site could be located. On May 5, 1997, in the presence of fellow fighters from No.2 Dutch Troop, tribute was paid to Bakhuis Roozeboom. His grave was visited with great respect and reverence, and on that day, his comrades and the public said goodbye to a brave hero.

As a lasting tribute to his courage and sacrifice, the training camp where all commandos receive their basic training is named after August Bakhuis Roozeboom.