Francis Steinmetz
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Francis Steinmetz (20 September 1914 – 2 January 2006) was an officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy who escaped from
Oflag IV-C Oflag IV-C, often referred to by its location at Colditz Castle, overlooking Colditz, Saxony, was one of the most noted German Army prisoner-of-war camps for captured enemy officers during World War II; ''Oflag'' is a shortening of ''Offiziersla ...
,
Colditz Castle Castle Colditz (or ''Schloss Colditz'' in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the r ...
, a German
POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
camp, during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, making a "home run" to safety.


Early life

Steinmetz was born 20 September 1914 in
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
, Dutch East Indies and entered the Dutch Royal Navy in September 1932. After periods on various boats he was posted to the submarine service. He was captured in 1940 in Amsterdam by advancing German forces. Initially sent to a prison camp at Soest, Germany, Steinmetz was then transferred to a POW camp Silesia. He refused to sign a German parole saying he would refrain from any hostile act towards Germany and was transferred to Sonderlager IVC, at Colditz Castle.


Escaping Colditz

At Colditz all Dutch escapes were coordinated by the Dutch escape officer Captain
Machiel van den Heuvel Machiel van den Heuvel (7 May 1900, Haarlemmermeer – 29 June 1946, near Bandung) was a Dutch army officer. As a prisoner-of-war in Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, Germany, during World War II, he served as Escape Officer for the Dutch POWs, a ...
, known as "Vandy" by the British. Van den Heuvel quickly recognised the possibilities of the exercise park and soon had his first escape plan ready. On 15 August 1941 Steinmetz and
Hans Larive Etienne Henri "Hans" Larive, MWO, DSC and bar, (23 September 1915 – 28 December 1984) was a Dutch naval officer during World War II. He escaped from the prisoner of war camp Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle in 1941, and spent the rest of the wa ...
hid under a
manhole cover A manhole cover or maintenance hole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, an opening large enough for a person to pass through that is used as an access point for an underground vault or pipe. It is designed to ...
under the cover of a
rugby scrum A scrummage, commonly simply known as a scrum, is a method of restarting play in rugby football that involves players packing closely together with their heads down and attempting to gain possession of the ball. Depending on whether it is in rug ...
. Lieutenant Gerrit Dames then created a diversion by cutting a hole in the barbed wire fence, before allowing himself to be caught, shouting to imaginary escapers to run, so that the Germans would think that the missing officers had already escaped. Larive and Steinmetz hid for several hours. The cover was fixed with a heavy bolt, which Van den Heuvel had replaced with a fake made of glass. Once it was dark the two men forced the manhole cover open from below, and replaced the now broken glass bolt with the original one. They then made their way out of the castle. (This escape method was repeated on 20 September 1941 by two other Dutch officers, C. Giebel and O. L. Drijber.). At
Leisnig Leisnig ( hsb, Lěsnik) is a small town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the state of Saxony in Germany, 50 kilometers southeast of Leipzig. History A settlement in this location was first mentioned in 1046. The town features Mildenstein Ca ...
Steinmetz and Larive took a train to
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
where they waited for their next train in a nearby park. To avoid attracting unwanted attention, they pretended to be a courting couple, with Steinmetz pulling a blanket down over his shorts so it looked like a skirt. They crossed the Swiss border on 18 August 1941. Under Swiss neutrality law they were not allowed to leave the country, so the Dutch Legation provided false papers describing them as sugar planters on their way to Cuba. They travelled on a sealed train in which neutrals were able to pass through France into Spain. At
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
they boarded the neutral ship, ''Isla de Teneriffe'', sailing for Havana. The ship was intercepted by a Royal Navy cutter in the
Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
and the two men were taken off and arrived in
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...
on 4 November. They then sailed to England aboard the submarine HNLMS ''O 21'' and arrived in London on 17 December 1941. After interrogation by the British, Steinmetz served on motor torpedo boats, taking MTB 222 to the West Indies. He later commanded Dutch motor torpedo boats in the Far East.


Post-war career

After the end of the Second World War, Steinmetz returned to Holland and served at the naval training camp at Hilversum. In December 1950, he commanded the minesweeper ''Boereo'' in
Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdo ...
, before returning to the naval training centre at
Voorschoten Voorschoten () is a village and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a smaller town in the Randstad, enclosed by the cities of Leiden, Wassenaar and The Hague. The municipality covers an area of of whi ...
. Steinmetz later commanded the minesweeper ''De Bitter'' and the frigate ''De Zeeuw'', before joining the Dutch Ministry of Naval Affairs. His final ship was the destroyer ''Limburg''. After retiring, Steinmetz worked for
Ole Anderson Alan Robert Rogowski (born September 22, 1942), better known by the ring name Ole Anderson (), is an American retired professional wrestler, referee, manager, and promoter. Part of the Anderson family, Anderson was a founding member of the influen ...
in Denmark, making fan impellers.


Family

Steinmetz married twice, first in 1946 to Regina Henrietta Noren (until her death in 1974); and then Peggy George, who predeceased him. He had one son during his first marriage; and two step-daughters by his second.


References


External links


Jewish POW's at Colditz - from the Jewish Virtual Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinmetz, Francis 1914 births 2006 deaths Dutch escapees Escapees from German detention Royal Netherlands Navy officers Royal Netherlands Navy personnel of World War II Prisoners of war held at Colditz Castle People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies