The last veteran of the Belgian SAS has died aged 97, marking the loss of another living link with the second world war in Europe.
Jaak Daemen, a founder member of the Belgian SAS, which was created in 1944 to carry out sabotage and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines, died earlier this month.
He helped liberate the Netherlands and capture Karl Dönitz, the German admiral who created the U-boat fleet and briefly led the Nazi regime after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.
Daemen was the last of the Belgian SAS regiment, veterans charity the SAS Circle of Friends wrote on its website, announcing his death. “He always said freedom doesn’t come for free,” his son Marc told Het Nieuwsblad. “You have to fight for it sometimes.”
Daemen was 16 when war broke out in Europe and quickly signed up to the Belgian resistance in his home town of Leopoldsburg in Flanders. The teenager was active in the “secret army of Leopoldsburg”, delivering pamphlets and explosives to blow up bridges, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
He remained active for two years, but went into hiding after three of his comrades were betrayed to the Germans. In 1944 he escaped to Britain and joined the newly created Belgian Special Air Service Squadron, better known as the 5th SAS.
The Belgian SAS, part of the British SAS Brigade, brought together men from all walks of life, including cycling champions, lawyers, teachers, three barons and a circus acrobat. The regiment was led by Captain Eddy Blondeel, who had just finished advanced studies in dentistry in Chicago when war broke out.
“The common point was a sporty background and a strong character,” said Pierre Muller, a historian at Belgium’s War Heritage Institute. Even the training – conducted in Malvern and the picturesque countryside of Warwickshire was dangerous – several men died learning to become parachutists in the precursor to the Belgian SAS.
The British government was initially reluctant to allow the Belgian SAS to fight on Belgian soil. According to Muller, the British government feared that the presence of men in uniform could provoke a premature uprising of the Belgian population before it was possible to defeat the Nazis. So the Belgian SAS began its first mission in Normandy, where they were dropped behind enemy lines in July 1944 to meet the French resistance.
In April 1945, Daemen took part in Operation Larkswood, where Polish and Belgian troops recaptured the north-east Netherlands, with the aim of encircling German forces in the west of the country.
Daemen’s unit was sent deep behind enemy lines with instructions to take the bridge at Veele, a village east of Groningen. Their orders were to use heavy fire to push the enemy back, swim through the Mussel canal and then clear a passage allowing other troops to follow. One squadron had no protection from enemy fire.
After a night under heavy attack from hidden enemy troops, they took the bridge, but three men would die from their wounds and others were injured. “My father felt it was his duty to serve his country. He wanted his children and his descendants to live in freedom,” his son told the Flemish newspaper.
The Belgian SAS would go on to take part in the liberation of Belgium and were the first troops to arrive in Nazi Germany from the west.
After the war Daemen was involved in training troops in the Belgian colony of Congo, and later worked for a travel company. His family discovered belatedly that he continued to work as an undercover intelligence officer, involved in conflicts between Mauritania and Morocco and in the Balkans.
With the return of peace, the Belgian SAS – not universally popular with more hierarchically minded Belgian officers – was reintegrated into the Belgian army under a new name. Over the years it went through various iterations, eventually in 1993 becoming the Special Forces Group, which retains the maroon berets and SAS motto (in English) “who dares wins”.
Muller, the historian, said there was no sign of interest in the second world war waning, but suggested commemorations would evolve as there were fewer people who could directly speak of the war. “We are today, for historians as well, at a turning point because these are the last memories available from those who experienced the conflict.”
He added that the invasion of Ukraine, with its millions of refugees who can testify to the horrors of mechanised fighting, showed that war was “a phenomenon that can return any day”.
