Theo Dobbe (“Hans”)

∗ 19-03-1901 Amsterdam † 05-09-1944 Dieren, gem. Rheden (43)
- Initial resistance - Knokploegen (K.P.) - - Limburg + -

Photo: Oorlogsdoden Nijmegen 1940-1945 [2]

In his civil profession, Theo Dobbe was a chief representative and active throughout the Netherlands. In the southern part of the country he became the organizer of the LKP, the umbrella organization of the Knokploegen (K.P., battle groups). [1]
He operated in 1943 and 1944 from Arnhem and Nijmegen and from early 1944 from Nijmegen set up Knokploegen in the Southern Netherlands, including the KP-Nijmegen. [2]
Dobbe and part of his Nijmegen knokploeg turned their attention increasingly to tracking down and liquidating (potential) infiltrators and traitors. The initiative for this had come from Jan Hendrikx, who had already established an investigation center in Nijmegen.
... which in the spring of 1944 resulted in the establishment of a special group, the Knokploeg Opsporing (K.P.O.) [4]
That unit was also called Opruimingsdienst (Clean-up Service).
He was not among the fallen who lived in Limburg and is therefore not listed on a wall of the provincial resistance memorial. But both J.W. Hofwijk and Fred Cammaert mention his important role in their respective chapters about the Knokploegen in Limburg. [3][4]

By Royal Decree of September 11, 1951, No. 21, entered in the Register of Knights of the 4th Class of the Military Order of William [5]

…for having distinguished himself in battle by outstanding acts of courage, policy, and loyalty, persistently fighting the enemy occupier with great vigor and ingenuity and in all fields of underground resistance during the period from May 1940 until his heroic death in September 1944, which acts greatly benefited the Allied war effort. In particular, through the following acts, often with imminent danger of death.

Already shortly after the surrender of the Netherlands in May 1940, he and five others succeeded in obtaining arms and ammunition in Naarden.
On May 14, 1941, an enemy camp in Amsterdam was blown up with teletype and signal equipment, killing several enemy officers.
After his arrest in Amsterdam on November 24, 1941, and his transfer to the Willem II barracks in Utrecht, he managed to escape in a very daring manner, and although he was sentenced to death in absentia in December, he continued the resistance undaunted;
In August and September 1942, he set fire to bogs or vehicles loaded with sod in the Veluwe to prevent the enemy from camouflaging his airfields;
After forming a Knokploeg in Nijmegen in mid-1943, he and other illegal groups persistently sabotaged enemy transports in all possible ways and, from June 1944, provided coverage by carrier pigeons from the Mookerheide for the benefit of the Allied war effort; he also helped Allied pilots escape across the border.
Finally, when he tried to escape shortly before his execution, he snatched the pistol of one of his guards, whereupon the escort immediately opened fire on him and he was mortally wounded.

Hof

“Hans”

Erelijst 1940-1945

Wikimedia

Footnotes

Landelijke Knokploegen, LKP, Wikipedia • Nederlands
Oorlogsdoden Nijmegen 1940-1945
Het Grote Gebod Deel 1 hoofdstuk 2: J.W. Hofwijk, Knokploegen in Limburg p. 593
Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
7. De knokploegen en de geschiedenis van de stoottroepen tot de zomer van 1945, p. 761-824
Militaire Willems-Orde, Wikipedia Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português
De Militaire Willems-Orde, Sijthoff Pers, ISBN 90-70682-01-X
Erelijst 1940-1945
Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
Wikipedia NL: Theo Dobbe