Posted on Sep 21, 2021
World War Two: The brothers who fled Nazi occupation by kayak
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Whenever Niels Peteri visits a beach, he thinks of his father, Henri. He was one of the "Engelandvaarders" who, on 21 September 1941, stepped back upon land having paddled across the North Sea from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands to join the UK's war effort.
Niels Peteri was a teenager when he first learned of his father's dangerous 56-hour voyage across the North Sea.
Like most of his generation, Henri Peteri spoke little about World War Two or his role in it.
Eighty years on from the crossing, Niels remembers how he was told the whole story in one go. It was, he says, a story of inauspicious beginnings, brotherhood and incredible bravery.
Niels Peteri was a teenager when he first learned of his father's dangerous 56-hour voyage across the North Sea.
Like most of his generation, Henri Peteri spoke little about World War Two or his role in it.
Eighty years on from the crossing, Niels remembers how he was told the whole story in one go. It was, he says, a story of inauspicious beginnings, brotherhood and incredible bravery.
World War Two: The brothers who fled Nazi occupation by kayak
Posted from bbc.com
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Kayaking
WWII World War Two
Germany
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."'He thought today was the day'
A keen university rower, the 22-year-old Henri Peteri had heard of fellow Dutchmen trying to escape to the UK by fishing boat.
He also knew that many had either been caught before reaching the coast or killed when Nazi coastal patrols sank their vessels.
But he had also heard of people managing to reach the UK from Scandinavian countries by canoe.
Might he too, he wondered, cross the North Sea in a craft far smaller than a fishing boat?
Henri talked his brother Willem into taking a chance.
He bought a folding German-made kayak in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam before the pair made their way to a guest house in the village of Katwijk, a village the brothers knew well because they had holidayed there previously.
As night fell, the brothers began putting the kayak together."...
..."'He thought today was the day'
A keen university rower, the 22-year-old Henri Peteri had heard of fellow Dutchmen trying to escape to the UK by fishing boat.
He also knew that many had either been caught before reaching the coast or killed when Nazi coastal patrols sank their vessels.
But he had also heard of people managing to reach the UK from Scandinavian countries by canoe.
Might he too, he wondered, cross the North Sea in a craft far smaller than a fishing boat?
Henri talked his brother Willem into taking a chance.
He bought a folding German-made kayak in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam before the pair made their way to a guest house in the village of Katwijk, a village the brothers knew well because they had holidayed there previously.
As night fell, the brothers began putting the kayak together."...
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