Damiaen Joan van Doorninck
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Damiaen J. van Doorninck (29 August 1902 Vught, Netherlands - 24 September 1987, Mynachlog-ddu, Wales[1]) was a Dutch officer (lieutenant commander in the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve) and a prisoner of war in Colditz.
POW[]
In May 1940 he was aide de camp to the Dutch supreme commander, General Henri Winkelman. He refused to give his word of honour not to harm German interest and became a PoW. He was conversant in cosmography and advanced mathematics, and he lectured interested Dutch and British prisoners at Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle on both, in particular he taught geodesy to Pat Reid.
While in Colditz, he invented a device which, when attached to a micrometer, could obtain measurements accurate to within a tenth of a millimetre of any lock. He was therefore able to manufacture a key to fit any such lock in Colditz. He lectured other prisoners on how to use this device correctly, a course that lasted six months.
On 9 September 1942 van Doorninck and British Lieutenant Hedley Fowler were among the lucky few who escaped Colditz. Slipping with four others through a guard office and a storeroom dressed as German officers and Polish orderlies, they managed to make it out of the Castle. Only van Doorninck and Fowler reached Switzerland; the others were recaptured.
References[]
- ^ Van Doorninck genealogy Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine at Geneanet
- Foreword by D.J. van Doorninck to the Dutch translation of the book by Reinhold Eggers, Colditz, the German story, 1961, 1974 Dutch translation.
- Leo de Hartog: Officieren achter prikkeldraad 1940–1945; Hollandia 1983
External links[]
- 1902 births
- 1987 deaths
- World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
- Dutch escapees
- Escapees from German detention
- Prisoners of war held at Colditz Castle
- Dutch prisoners of war in World War II
- People from Vught
- Royal Netherlands Navy officers
- Royal Netherlands Navy personnel of World War II
- 20th-century mathematicians
- Dutch scientist stubs
- European mathematician stubs