Tucker's Troopers

Lincoln State Journal 

Monday 25 September 1944

Private becomes general overnight

WITH U. S. AIRBORNE TROOPS IN HOLLAND, Sept. 22. (Delayed). (fP). Overnight Pvt. Theodore Bachenheimer became a general and leader of an army of 300 Dutch partisans. German-speaking Bachenheimer of Fullerton, Calif., parachuted into Holland and wandered into a town near the German border on a personal re-connaissance. The nazis held the town when he entered and continued their hold on it during most of the next day, but Bachenheimer quickly made friends with the Dutch and organized his own army which was armed with captured German weapons. The army called itself "The Free Netherland army" and insisted on dubbing Private Bachenheimer "Kommandant." He set up headquarters in a steel factory, which is patrolled by sentries with Dutch army helmets and orange brassards—almost like the war department in Washington.

Girls Keep Records.

Down one corridor in a glassed-in room pretty girls of high school age type rosters of the Dutch volunteers and keep records. There is an enlistment office for volunteers and a large room where scores of quislings and other persons of dubious sympathies are kept under guard. The floors of the buildings are spotless and the typewriters click constantly. Records are neatly filed away and the whole place is run with smooth efficiency. In Bachenheimer's headquarters he has a situation map showing where bands of Dutch patriots are engaging the enemy. He knows the names and addresses of local collaborators, and the location of explosives stored by the enemy.

Girls on Bachenheimer's staff drive cars on official business and to transport the wounded. They also prepare and distribute meals. Under his supervision new German bicycles are given to citizens needing transporta-tion. So important is his work that another parachute trooper has been assigned to maintain communications between Bachenheimer's headquarters and a U. S. regimental command post.

High ranking American and British officers seeking information or guides are frequent callers. Bachenheimer was born in Germany 21 years ago but was naturalized ten years ago and has been killing Germans in Sicily and Italy. He fought at Anzio.