Book cover of Take Men on Board! The Dutch WW2 Escapes to England by Borre Winckel
Book cover of Take Men on Board! The Dutch WW2 Escapes to England by Borre Winckel

The Book Cover

In February 1944, five young Dutchmen set out to escape Nazi-occupied Holland across the North Sea to England. Their journey was the culmination of months of preparation and the courage of a remarkable network of people who risked their lives to help them. Based on nearly eighteen years of research, Take Men on Board! reconstructs their true story—and what happened after they reached freedom and continued their fight against Nazi Germany.

Five Dutch Engelandvaarders in their small boat on the North Sea shortly before their rescue by the RAF in February 1944

The five men moments before their life-changing encounter

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Portrait of John Osten, one of the five Dutch Engelandvaarders in the 1944 North Sea Escape
Portrait of Hein Fuchter, one of the five Dutch Engelandvaarders in the 1944 North Sea escape

John Osten

Hein Fuchter

Portrait of Flip Winckel, one of the five Dutch Engelandvaarders in the 1944 North Sea escape
Portrait of Henk Baxmeier, one of the five Dutch Engelandvaarders in the 1944 North Sea escape

Henk Baxmeier

Flip Winckel

These are the five men at the center of Take Men on Board!—the Engelandvaarders whose preparation, collaboration, and 1944 North Sea escape shape the story.

Portrait of Edzard Moddemeijer, one of the five Dutch Engelandvaarders in the 1944 North Sea Escape

Edzard Moddemeijer

The Rescue Film

Captain Arthur Jackson Hardy filmed the five Engelandvaarders being rescue from the North Sea by RAF High Speed Launch 185.

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American bombers overhead during Big Week in February 1944, while the five Engelandvaarders were making their North Sea escape

The Americans

German and Dutch warning sign in the occupied Dutch coastal zone stating that unauthorized persons would be shot without warning

The Germans

A Japanese officer's sword presented to Flip Winckel during the formal Japanese capitulation ceremonies on Java after WWII

The Japanese