with SOE when the details of Englandspiel became known to them. They were ordered to do so by the Dutch Prince Bernhard, and a fresh start was made in mid-to-late 1944 under new leadership at SOE. Twenty-five well equipped and trained sabotage teams of two Dutch agents each were parachuted into the Netherlands. However, engendered by Englandspiel the British distrusted the Dutch resistance which prevented it from having an impact in Operation Market Garden, the unsuccessful offensive by allied military forces in the Netherlands in September 1944. The spearhead of the British forces, the First British Airborne Division, was ordered not to cooperate with the resistance. Had it not been ignored, the resistance would have been helpful in providing badly needed intelligence and communications to the division which had to be withdrawn from the battlefield after heavy losses. Conspiracy theories in the Netherlands alleged that a traitor in SOE caused the Englandspiel and that Dutch agents were sacrificed to conceal allied plans for an invasion of the Netherlands. "For many, it was simply impossible to fathom how the devastation caused by das Englandspiel could have been the result of stupidity and ineptness." The contrary and more accepted view of M.R.D Foot is that “the agents were victims of sound police work on the German side, assisted by Anglo-Dutch incompetence in London." Agents During the Englandspiel the following agents (amongst others) were dropped in the Netherlands: 28 August 1940: Lodo van Hamel, sent to Oegstgeest in South Holland. 5 July 1941: Aart Alblas, dropped near Nieuweschans in Groningen, arrested 16 July 1942. 6 November 1941: Huub Lauwers and Thijs Taconis, dropped near Ommen in Overijssel. Lauwers was arrested on 6 March 1942, Taconis on 9 March 1942. 9 December 1941: Wim van der Reijden, sent to Scheveningen, arrested on 13 February 1942. 23 February 1942: Evert Radema and E.W. de Jonge, sent to Katwijk aan Zee, Radema was arrested on 29 May 1942, De Jonge on 22 May 1942. 28 February 1942: Gerrit Dessing, dropped near Ermelo in Gelderland, returned via Brussels to England on 2 September 1943. 27 March 1942: Nol Baatsen, dropped near Kallenkote, east of Steenwijk in Overijssel and immediately arrested 29 March 1942: Jan Molenaar and Leo Andringa, dropped near Holten in Overijssel; Molenaar was injured and committed suicide (by pill), Andringa was arrested on 28 April 1942. 29 March 1942: Gosse Ras and Han Jordaan, dropped