🇳🇱🇬🇧He landed on a Nazi-occupied beach with a tuxedo hidden beneath his rubber suit. Then his partner splashed him with cognac. Peter Tazelaar was 21 years old. His cover was a party guest who had lost his way. His real job was espionage. Before dawn on November 23, 1941, the Dutch agent came ashore at Scheveningen after crossing from England. Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema helped him out of his waterproof suit and sprinkled liquor on his lapels. Tazelaar headed inland, dressed for a night out in an occupied country. Almost immediately, things went wrong. On a tram, he paid with silver coins the Germans had already withdrawn from circulation. People noticed. Later, while waiting for a train, the elastic supporting his concealed Colt .45 broke. The pistol hit the station floor. He picked it up and hid it beneath his coat. Despite those near disasters, Tazelaar continued his mission: establishing contact with England and arranging clandestine evacuations. In January 1942, German arrests wrecked an attempted pickup on the same coast. Tazelaar and fellow operative Gerard Dogger escaped by hiding in the freezing sea. Both eventually reached England again, traveling through occupied Europe, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. The man in the tuxedo survived to return on another mission. Share Peter Tazelaar’s story. Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for extraordinary lives behind WWII.