Aircrew Association - Scottish Saltire Branch
Library Reference Number: 142
Hortense Daman Clews
Many aircrew members of Allied Air Forces shot down over Europe during world war 2, had good reason to thank the number of helpers who guided them to safety, and in some cases arranged at great personal danger, the aircrew member's return to U.K. It would have been virtually impossible to find out names or personal details of those persons at that time, such was the strength of security necessary to prevent any links being broken within the successful chain or work of the secret undercover organisation jeopardised. Many of those 'helpers' were women.
However, due to one of those ladies marrying a British serviceman after the war was over, and coming to live in Staffordshire, her personal history came to light which led to her invitation to become an Honorary Member of the Aircrew Association. It is fortunate that Hortense was delighted to accept membership, as I, along with most former aircrew members, had never before gained personal accounts from a female member of an escape organisation where firm security during wartime had forbidden personal details or background to be discussed.
Despite suffering from after effects of harsh treatment and torture in German concentration camps (described later) Hortense approached her membership of the Aircrew Association with the same determination she had shown before, in looking after 'her boys' as she had described all those she had helped in grimmer circumstances. She became a symbol of the aircrew comradeship created in wartime by tirelessly working for the ACA and attending aircrew re-unions in Canada and Australia as well as attending reunions to speak to 'her boys' in U.K.
It was by attending a series of Aircrew Association Reunions in several venues in UK during the 1990s, that I was fortunate to hear Hortense relate some of her experiences, and privileged to have additional conversations with her when she described further details of her wartime activities. Sadly, Hortense Daman Clews died on 18th December 2006, and I intend to record some of her recollections in our website library, as a tribute not only to Hortense, but as a mark of respect to all the 'ladies of courage' to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude, and who have received little recognition by perhaps deciding to retain their anonymity.
Hortense Clews was born on 12th August 1926, and as a 13-year-old Belgian schoolgirl she joined the Belgian Army of Partisans as a courier. Her brother Francois, a returned prisoner-of-war, was already involved with the partisans, and had assisted in the escape of British servicemen who perhaps being wounded, had become separated from their Units in Belgium and without help would otherwise have been taken prisoner by the Germans.
Until October 1942, the local population around Louvain had given little support to the more active partisans, until on that date Germany announced the call-up of young men to work in factories supplying the Nazi war front. This gave rise to a change in attitude, but it was still a highly dangerous situation fraught with risk of being betrayed to the Gestapo for being involved in undercover activities.
For a young schoolgirl to be deeply immersed in anti-German operations under the nose of the Gestapo constantly on the look-out for partisans and spies, seemed to be such an unlikely scenario. Perhaps appearing in this most unlikely role was the secret of her success, for Hortense apparently revelled in the excitement of outwitting the Germans. In relating some of those incidents, she would delight in explaining how by the use of her apparent innocent, youthful appearance, she would win the sympathy and approval of those investigating her movements.
A great deal of her courier work involved conveying important documents from one agency to another, or transporting items such as small bombs, explosives or grenades. She explained her greatest asset in this work (in addition to her youth) was the ongoing excuse of making customer deliveries from her mother's grocers shop. This was carried out on her trusty bicycle fitted among other things, with a goods carrier fitted to the front of her cycle. In the bottom of the carrier basket would be the precious `secret cargo' with groceries spread out on top concealing the items concerning the real purpose of her journey. On being stopped and interrogated, Hortense's ability to win over her interrogators by cool, teenage, stimulating chat, was the means of saving her life on numerous occasions.
Hortense described one example which she explained occurred in similar fashion frequently at different locations. On being stopped and asked to empty her basket for examination, she kept cool and opened a conversation about how scarce eggs were these days. Lifting two eggs from the top of the basket, Hortense said to her interrogator "I seem to have two extra eggs today, would you like them for tomorrow's breakfast. I must rush off home now as Mother will worry if I am late." and off she sped on her bicycle unharmed to live another day.
Using her teenage personality and youthful charm on another occasion, Hortense was returning home by train carrying a parcel of partisan secret documents. Stopping at one station the train was boarded by German Security Police intent on examining all passengers' luggage and parcels. Walking along the corridor away from the police, Hortense told a German officer she was feeling very sick. So convincing was her story, that the German officer offered her a seat, told the police not to bother examining her parcel, and gave her a lift in his car from Louvain railway station. Fortunately, Hortense asked to be dropped off some distance away from her home, for it was more than likely that her parents would have Allied aircrew members concealed in their house awaiting an escort guide.
On another outing, Hortense was returning to her village with a bulky sack of explosives draped over the rear wheel of her bicycle. Looking extremely suspicious with such an ungainly load, Hortense was about to be stopped by a German patrol, when a companion following at a safe distance behind her, opened fire with a pistol and distracted attention away from the fleeing Hortense who had once again evaded capture.
As time passed, Hortense became involved in a wider range of operations, and was fully aware of work being carried out to assist Allied aircrews reach safety or return to UK. Her fellow residents also became more involved and in Spring 1943, partisans destroyed about 300 wagons containing thousands of gallons of fuel in the Louvain rail marshalling yards. Needless to say, German patrols and Gestapo activities intensified at this time.
As if she had not already done enough by starting as a 13-year old schoolgirl courier, Hortense went on to play an extremely vital role in helping Allied airmen. In this hazardous and highly risky occupation, it was difficult to state the exact number of Allied airmen she helped to rescue; but Hortense recalls that among the total number, 36 of those were British whom she helped to escape the clutches of the Nazis. As well as continuing to risk arrest daily in acting as a courier delivering information and weapons to military personnel, also escorting Allied airmen through escape routes, Hortense and her parents placed themselves in unbelievable danger by harbouring Allied airmen in their home. With the Gestapo all around, and unable to trust anyone, the risks to her and her family were enormous. By 1942 Hortense was in direct liaison with the resistance head quarters in Brussels.
Hortense's patriotic life full of danger and excitement came to an abrupt end on 14th February 1944. With the growing number of partisans now being involved, it was almost inevitable that some would be arrested, and some would weaken during interrogation and betray others by giving names. Succumbing to torture, someone named the entire Daman family who were arrested, subjected to interrogation and vicious cruel beatings for an entire month in trying to extract more names of fellow partisans. She had to watch her mother and father being beaten and she suffered three broken ribs when a chair was broken on her back. Her brother was not caught during the raid. Hortense was separated from her parents and then tortured and interrogated as a terrorist in a Belgian prison.
It was not known whether it was a deliberate attempt to free Hortense, when an Allied Air Force bombed the marshalling yards at Louvain close to the Little Prison in Lovain which held women prisoners. In any case, the prison was badly damaged and Hortense was moved along with her mother to a different prison, and from there to Ravensbrock concentration camp in Germany, while her father was sent to Buchenwald. All three members of the family suffered considerably from ill-treatment.
Named a terrorist and sentenced to death without trial, Hortense described to us her horrific treatment given by her German captors. She described details of being forced to undergo experimental surgery and sterilisation to examine ways of preventing contamination of pure Aryan stock. She also stated she narrowly avoided losing one of her legs, as she was forcibly held down while she was injected in the thigh to bring about gangrene. This produced the German's intention to amputate her leg, but another German doctor for some reason decided not to proceed with the amputation. This situation developed into a long and painful recovery in regaining the use of her saved leg.
She spent 18 months in the camp before it was liberated by the Russians at the end of the war. During this time she was used as a human guinea pig forced to take part in medical experiments for a post-war plan of compulsory mass sterilization of undesirable elements of the population. Despite being subjected to this inhuman and barbaric treatment, Hortense fulfilled her ambition to have children sixteen years after her marriage. She met her future husband Sydney Clews, a British soldier, the day she arrived back in her home town of Louvain after being freed.
Obviously, Hortense's chosen youthful, patriotic but highly dangerous fife-style in assisting the Allies had been on a daily knife-edge. She was daily open to the threat of interrogation, arrest and despatch to a concentration camp. But when describing her experiences to us in the 1990s, she expressed no regrets for her eventual fate, but still expressed her distaste for Germany and firmly believed it was right to oppose the evil activities of the Nazi regime.
Hortense's brother Francois had evaded capture and traced his father to Buchenwald at the end of hostilities; while about the same time Hortense and her mother returned from Sweden to where they had been hurriedly taken by the Swedish Red Cross. With the defeat of Germany, the priority at that time of confusion being to evacuate inmates from concentration camps as quickly as possible from the horrific conditions prevalent in Nazi Germany.
For her service to Allied Forces, Hortense was appointed as a Knight of the Order of Leopold 11, the Belgian Croix de Guerre and the Medal of Resistance. She also became a Freeman of the City of London, and a Freeman of Newcastle under Lyme, her adopted town. Other Honours were bestowed by the Belgian and USSR governments, and one in which she took great pleasure; attending meetings as an Honorary Member of The Aircrew Association.
Although co-author of the book "Child At War," Mark Bles (1990), which she brought along and discussed with us at aircrew meetings, Hortense was reluctant to talk about her wartime experiences at her adopted home town in Staffordshire. Residents stated she was extremely caring for her children the German medical experiments tried to make her incapable of having. She worked as a hospital volunteer, but suffered in later life from concentration camp injuries, and was understandably less inclined to recall those painful memories. It was therefore a privilege to have heard some of her experiences at first hand, and a great honour to have met this `Lady of Courage' whose work in assisting Allied aircrew in times of grave danger should never be forgotten.