Report
Present, May 7 1945, I, commander Group C, Smit. P, had during our service on the Dam experienced the following facts and performed these actions.
Several minutes before 03:00pm suddenly some salvos were fired by the Germans, they were still present in the Grote Club, in the direction Nieuwendijk and Damrak.
Immediately I gave the men the order to take cover behind the pillars and lamp post before the Palace, all men followed that order at once.
After the second salvo of German side my group also opened the fire on the Germans. After a while the Germans stopped firing because two German officers passed the arena and went in the direction of the Grote Club.
I screamed to all my men to cease fire. I also did so to the men of the B-group because they were in my presence. Some moments later the shooting started again, to my opinion at the side of the Germans.
Once again I gave the order not to shoot and to wait for reinforcement. We fired not a single shot anymore. After this, it became also quiet on German side. Now and then you could hear a salvo from German side.
I went to the barbed wire barricade in front of the Grote Club and asked the Germans “What’s going on”. They told me that from the side of the Domestic Armed Forces still shots were heard from the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.
In sight of the Germans I placed my stengun against a lamp post and proceed unarmed through the German barricade into the Paleisstraat. Rifleman Beljaards(C-5) went armed, with me.
At the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal it wasn’t possible to see who fired. Civilians told that the shooting came from the roof. I ordered a civilian to look at the roof of his house but after investigation their was nobody. Suddenly a salvo came out of the alley which comes out on the back of the Grote Club.
This shot wounded my neck. In a house they bandaged the wound, a little later I went to the neighbourhood of the Dam. I met some of my men and with them we went to our meeting point.
All my men came unharmed out of this gunfight.
Totally 102 stengun bullets were shot by my group.
Amsterdam, May 7,1945
Commander Group C
Section 2 Districtreserve
P.Smit
Source:National Archive