Britton, Arthur Verdun, born 27-02-1916, in Southend-on-Sea Unitary Authority, Essex, England, 
the son of a Dutch father and a French mother. In the early 1900s, the family lived in Essex and his father, Arthur Schrynemakers, owned a cinema. Arthur’s sisters were born while the family lived in England and he was also British by birth. In the 1940s, the family was living in Brussels and when Germany invaded Belgium, Arthur Schrynemakers arranged for his family to escape to England while he remained in the country. He told his wife, who was French, and their three children, a son and two daughters, who were born in England, to flee to England. The son, also known as Arthur Verdun joined the British Army. 
He dropped the name Schrynemakers and went by his middle name of Britton. He was first assigned to guard duty at Windsor Castle. He appears in the following photo on the left. 
Arthur enlisted into the Grenadier Guards as Arthur Britton (his middle-name) and was soon on duty at Windsor Castle. But when it became known that he spoke German, Dutch, and French as well as English, Arthur Verdun Britton was assigned to Field Security.
MI11, or Military Intelligence, Section 11, was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, 
part of the War Office. During the Second World War, MI11 was responsible for field security: protecting British military personnel from enemy agents and “fifth columnists” amongst civilian populations, in theatres of war. As such, MI11 assumed a role formerly assigned to the Field Security Police (which had itself replaced the British Army’s Intelligence unit before the First World War). Section 11 was disbanded after the Second World War.
Shortly after D-Day, Sgt. Britton and his men arrived in France. They were the first British troops in Lille 
and were mobbed by the happy Frenchmen, as you can see the photo 
He and his men were hoisted up and carried on the shoulders of the crowd to the best hotel.
Next stop was Brussels. There he was given a brief leave so that he could see his father, with whom he had had no contact for four and a half years. It was only then that Schrynemakers learned that his wife had died during the war. 
Britton is shown with his father, Arthur Schrynemakers, and two other British soldiers in front of Schrynemakers’ home. The man on the far right has been identified as Arthur Alan Smith. Note the celebratory flags on the front of the buildings.
After Britton’s leave in Brussels came the Belgian Ardenne where he was responsible for checking the identity of American soldiers to make sure they were not Germans attempting to infiltrate the American lines. He is shown below at the far left in the Ardenne in December 1944. Thanks to the research of Jean-Marie Schrynemakers, the woman in the photo has been identified as Josephine Fivet, known as Fina, born in Yvoir, Belgium, 10-02-1924. 
On 22-5-1945 Britton and his men were manning a checkpoint at the Bremervorde bridge in west Germany. “It was five o’clock in the afternoon” related sergeant Britton “when a group of ten men crossed the bridge at Bremervorde where I was on duty.Three of them were brought in for questioning by Britton, who examined their documents. One in particular, going by the name of Heinrich Hitzinger (misspelled in the arrest report as Hizinger)
, raised Britton’s suspicion.Arthur arrested all three and turned them over to his superiors. The following arrest report was provided to me by Britton and has been reproduced in several publications. Both reports appeared in Album Souvenir, 1942-1972, published by the Amicale des Milices Patriotiques du Front de l’Independance de Schaerbeek.) Arthur Britton was the Sergeant of the Intelligence Corps – British Army during the World War II. On 22-05-1945, he thus luckely arrested Henrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler’s deputy. 
who had camouflaged himself with an eyepatch.to prevent recognition. During interrogation by the British officers, Hitzinger/Hizinger finally admitted to his identity: “I am Heinrich Himmler.” Shortly thereafter, he committed suicide, 
using a cyanide capsule hidden in his mouth. After that arrest, the newspapers mentioned. Arthur a modest man who didn’t want fame or talk about the War. Arthur was a kind and honest man.
Heinrich Himmler was buried in a unknown grave in the woods of the Lüneburg Heide, and the grave was always a secret grave, as the people around the funeral kept it a secret..
Death and burial ground of Britton, Arthur Verdun.
Arthur after the war lived a quiet life and died 12-06-2003 (age 87) in Broadstairs, Thanet District, Kent, England. and is buried at Margate Cemetery Margate, Thanet District, Kent, England, Section Garden of Rest – Plot 6590. Manston Road, Margate CT9 4LY, United Kingdom. Arthur had three children with his beloved wife, June and four grandchildren who miss him deeply everyday.
Leave a Reply