TAKE MEN ON BOARD!: The Dutch WW2 Escapes to England.

Borre Winckel was born in The Hague, The Netherlands, and has lived most of his adult life in the United States. He is the son of Philip Winckel, one of five young Dutchmen who escaped Nazi-occupied Holland across the tempestuous North Sea to England in February 1944. Their crossing became the only successful Dutch sea escape to England that year.

Inspired by his father’s wartime experiences, Winckel devoted nearly eighteen years to researching what became far more than a family story. British and Dutch archives, wartime intelligence records, private family collections, unpublished manuscripts, photographs, personal correspondence, and interviews with participants and their families gradually revealed a largely forgotten chapter of Dutch World War II history.

The result is Take Men on Board! The Dutch WW2 Escapes to England . While many “Engelandvaarders” reached England by making the long and hazardous journey overland through Belgium, France, Spain, and Portugal, the book focuses on the far less documented attempts to escape directly across the North Sea. It traces successive attempts and failures, changing plans, personal connections, and hard-earned experience as an increasingly capable escape system gradually took shape.

That network is one of the central stories of the book. More than one hundred people, from widely different walks of life, became involved at various stages—some taking substantial risks over long periods, others providing a single crucial piece of assistance. They offered shelter, transportation, introductions, information, equipment, boats, and places to hide. Their individual contributions reveal how an extraordinary undertaking depended not on one heroic act, but on the accumulated courage and resourcefulness of many.

The men who attempted these crossings were not simply trying to flee the war. Reaching England meant an opportunity to continue fighting it. What became of them after their escape forms another part of the story, carrying the narrative beyond the North Sea and into the wider war.

A public Facebook page dedicated to Take Men on Board! extends the book with more than 400 photographs, documents, maps, and additional material organized chapter by chapter. It serves as a companion archive for readers wishing to explore the people, places, and events in greater depth.

Borre Winckel and his wife, Kay, live in Southern California, where he continues to research, write, and preserve the history of the Dutch Engelandvaarders.