Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the Netherlands during the German invasion of the Netherlands.
Winkelman was born in the Catholic city of Maastricht, but in a Walloon family that originally came from the Protestant Middelburg, Zeeland. His ancestors and their family were Liberal entrepreneurs and higher civil servants.
He was the youngest son and not easy to handle. At age 7, the family moved to Den Haag. After finishing the Higher Civil School (HBS) with the help of a boarding school, he went to the Royal Military Academy (KMA) in Breda. At 29 August 1892 he became a cadet-office at age 16. He was placed in an infantry regiment that should go to the East Indies, but after a year and a half his parents managed to place him in another regiment, that stayed nearby. On 11 August 1896 he finished his military education and became a second lieutenant. His first post was in Leiden, few kilometres from Den Haag.
The dates and ranks of his military career can be found in the sources. From 1902 till 1905 he followed the Hogere Krijgschool in Den Haag, needed for general staff functions. He ended the higher education with a study on logistics using trains for fast mobilisation. Since 1926 he promoted fast and steady in the higher ranks and his talents as an efficient organisator were recognised.
Early 1934, at age 58, two years for his retirement, Winkelman was passed for the function of Staff commander that came free when general Hendrik Alexander Seijffardt retired. The Minister of defence L.N. Deckers proposed general Izaak Herman Reijnders (27 March 1879, Onstwedde – 1966) for the function and Winkelman got a letter in which was suggested that he better could retire. He was bitterly disappointed, but accepted a pro forma promotion to major general with a good pension and left the army on 1 May 1934 after 42 years of service.
It were the years in which Nazi’s took over the power in Germany. The new Commander-in-Chief Reijnders realised that during a war between Germany, England and France, the small Benelux countries would become involved. The French had strong fortresses on the German border (Maginot Line), but not on the Belgian borders. Since February 1935 Reijnders pleaded intensely for a larger budget for military defence, but when in August 1938 the Dutch mobilisation started, much of from Germany (sic) ordered weapons and ammunition had not arrived. On 30 October 1939, one month after the German invasion of Poland, the retired Winkelman was called to arms as the Commander of the air defence of the region Utrecht-Soesterberg (decision made 21 Oct 1939).
For how this story ended: See the on-line sources. The for Winkelman important important dates can be found under events.
Personal
He was born as the youngest son of Julius Hendrik Winkelman (11 September 1832, Maastricht – 4 April 1918, Den Haag) and Charlotte Henriette Caroline Marceline Braams (9 October 1837, Rheden – 8 October 1929, Den Haag). His father was a civil servant and tax inspector of the Dutch government. They married 19 September 1861 in Wageningen and got five children: Laurence Caroline Winkelman (21 July 1862, Amsterdam – 27 June 1949, Den Haag). Cornelis Reinier Frederik Winkelman (1864, Amsterdam – 1 April 1871, Maastricht) died early. Eduard Henri Winkelman (22 August 1868, Maastricht – 28 July 1926, Den Haag) went to the Eeast-Indies. Anna Emilie Winkelman (30 September 1873, Maastricht – 17 April 1952, Den Haag) married Arnold Hermanus du Mosch (5 August 1863, Utrecht – 06 May 1938, Den Haag), a Jewish jurist and judge. Henri Gerard Winkelman (17 August 1876, Maastricht – 27 December 1952, Soesterberg).
As his parents were rather aged when he was born, he did not consciously know his grandparents Cornelis Reinier Frederic Braams (24 July 1804, Den Haag – 22 December 1865, Wageningen), a lawyer and mayor of Wageningen and his wife Caroline Henriette Louise Lady Hooft (3 May 1812, Loosduinen – 12 October 1859, Wageningen), a descent of the famous Dutch historian, poet and playwrigth Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. The liking out doors sports like hiking, biking, fencing and pistol shooting Winkelman had little affinity with poetry, but there was a link with Wageningen. The “agricultural” Wageningen University and Research Centre (1918) was a descent of the in his birth-year erected research institutes of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture (1876). During his life, Winkelman enjoyed growing crops in his garden after doing the military job. And during his imprisonment in Germany and Poland other rationed POW officers profited of his down to earth skills in crop growing. During his five years of imprisonment he could freely (uncensored) correspond about what was going on in his garden in Soesterberg. When he became after his forced retirement, the Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the Netherlands, he again would display a convincing down to earth attitude with regard to his men and his strategy, and the soldiers admired him for this. His fathers parents were Cornelis Winkelman (15 May 1787, Vlissingen -4 September 1867, Maastricht ) and Laurence Julie Sophie de Schwartz (19 December 1803, Maastricht – 15 June 1886, Maastricht). Only the last death he could have consciously experienced.
Henri Winkelman married on 25 September 1902 in Den Haag Arendina Jacomina Coert (26 February 1877 10 PM, Goederee – 15 January 1959 5 PM, Soest). They were engaged since 7 October 1900. Between 1903 and 1911 they had two daughters and two sons: Charlotte Henriette Caroline Winkelman (21 September 1903 11h30 AM, Den Haag – 14 September 1958, Den Haag) married on 10 September 1927 Johannes Weynandus Oostwoud Wijdenes (1900), a tobacco planter and went to the Dutch East Indies. They became POw’s. Anna “Anneke” Emilie Winkelman (1 May 1906 5 PM , Den Haag – 1952?) also went ti the Indies. Julius Lodewijk “Jules L.” Winkelman (19 December 1908 1h30 PM, Den Haag – 28 November 1991, USA) became a businessman in Shanghai, married a Jewish woman and was kept prison by the Japanese in 1944 and after the war went to the USA. Their youngest child Eduard Laurent Winkelman (ca 5-7 December 1911 with declaration of birth on 7 Dec 1911, Den Haag – 12 January 1931 8 AM, Den Haag) became a student, got depressed and committed suicide with a pistol in his parents house.
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