Hans Larive

After the Dutch capitulation, all officers were required to give their word of honour not to take part in any hostile activities against the Germans. About 60 officers including Larive, and one rating, refused, and were sent to German POW camps. The first was Oflag VI-A in Soest, Germany, where Larive made his first escape attempt in October 1940. This attempt brought him near to Singen, close to the Swiss border, where he was arrested. Convinced that Germany would soon win the war, the interrogating Gestapo officer arrogantly showed Larive how he would have crossed the Swiss border without problems. Larive later passed this valuable information on, and many Dutch and British prisoners used the "Singen route" to enter Switzerland.[2] After this escape attempt all Dutch POW's were moved to Oflag VIII-C near Juliusburg, but after another successful escape by two officers they were all moved again in July 1941 to the maximum security camp (Sonderlager) Oflag IV-C at Colditz.[2]

Colditz Castle, prison camp (1945)

At Colditz all Dutch escapes were coordinated by the Dutch escape officer Captain Machiel van den Heuvel, 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 Larive and Lieutenant Francis Steinmetz hid under a manhole cover under the cover of a rugby scrum. 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, Conrad Giebel and Oscar Ludwig Drijber.[3]). At Leisnig Larive and Steinmetz took a train to Nuremberg 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 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 and the two men were taken off[4] and arrived in Gibraltar on 4 November. They then sailed to England aboard the submarine HNLMS O 21 and arrived in London on 17 December 1941.[5]

In March 1942 Larive was assigned to command of the Dutch Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 203, part of the Anglo-Dutch 9th MTB Flotilla. Later the 9th Flotilla became wholly Dutch, and Larive commanded it from October 1942 until October 1943. He then became the Senior Officer of all Dutch MTBs (commanding the 2nd and 9th MTB Flotillas) until 16 September 1944, with the rank of Temporary Acting Luitenant ter Zee 1ste klasse.[6] The Dutch MTB service was disbanded on 5 September 1944, and its personnel were reassigned to "Port Parties", operating in liberated areas of the Netherlands. Larive then became head of the Dutch Naval Press Agency MARVO (Marine Voorlichting Dienst), a post he held until leaving the navy on 1 July 1946.[2]