A shot down Boeing B-17 (Flying Fort) near Hall

in the November days of 1944. Flight number 303BG359BS

At the time, I was in hiding with the Dolman Turfveen 't Leusveld family because the ground had become too hot for me elsewhere. Returning in the late afternoon from a KP exercise that had taken place under the guise of a first aid exercise under the direction of Dr. van Willigen (schooldoctor) I was greeted with the words "There is a surprise for you".

Opposite me in the twilight stood a rather strong man in green uniform. Be wary of green uniforms especially in those days. However, American airmen also wore green uniforms, English (blue-grey). It turned out to be 1st Lieutenant Jack T. Davis (hereinafter referred to as JTD for convenience) commander of a bomber, returning from a flight over Germany, had to abandon his tipsy plane after first ordering his 8 or 9 crew members to jump out.

Crew member Bader (more on this later) was killed.

Now the B 17 had had bad luck because at that time they were protected by one of the best long-range fighters of the war, the Mustang. Before that time and however heavily armed, they were extremely vulnerable, especially because the Americans flew by day.

The English who operated at night alone had about 55,000 "casualties" (losses) and that is almost twice as many as the city of Zutphen has inhabitants.

JTD, who jumped last, came down at Het Leusveld and got rid of his parachute. Knowing that the Germans were looking and none of the bystanders spoke English, he felt like a cat in a strange warehouse until Henne Dolman (who could converse with him in English) showed up and hid him in the woods. A brave act indeed. We decided to hide him in a straw heap. The Germans were still searching. We spent a few days there with him and what do you talk about with an American who, moreover, was not one of the most talkative. Mainly about the American Civil War and the names of the Northern and Southern Generals Lee and Sherman have often been talked about. We provided JTD with simple fare, which, polite as he was, he never refused. However, rye bread, for example, was later found under the straw. He looked well fed.

In the meantime I had made contact with my resistance group and saw to it that he was deported. And so it happened. We took him away late one evening in the pitch dark. We, that were Jan and Henne Dolman and the undersigned. To be prepared for everything, we had knives with us. There was a certain tension. JTD said to me along the way "I must relief myself" and I didn't understand or understand that. Desperate, he said softly, "I must go to the toilet." There were 2 or 3 dark figures at the agreed place. As was customary, not a word was exchanged and in the dark our American left (and if I'm not mistaken on the back of a bicycle) towards Eerbeek. I gave him my best wool sweater and that turned out to be a useful gesture.

JTD was later put on transport via the Imbosch with a group to reach the English lines over the Rhine (code Pegasus II). Unfortunately, the group was captured. Another group (code Pegasus I) did manage to cross the river. The sweater served us well as winter 44/45 was cold.

After the war, JTD reached America via France and a cordial exchange of letters ensued. Americans are sensitive and warm-hearted people. As is often the case, such correspondence fades in the long run. Until a few years ago I received a letter from the son of JTD via the post office Brummen (homage!). Like his father, he was an air force colonel and posted in The Hague. His father, he wrote, had died of a "suddenly stroke" on the golf course and would have loved to play golf with me because we had the same standard.

His mother also came over and I showed her a part of the Netherlands. The son has since left active service and now has a civilian job in the USA.

Now something about the crew member Bader who was a specialist in the field of radio/radar. To accommodate him as an extra man, a heavy machine gun was taken from the B17 and in that place he came to sit with his highly developed equipment. Unfortunately, he did not survive the jump and Commander Jack T Davis has always suffered from having to push him out of the plane. Bader was initially interred at the Roman Catholic cemetery Brummen and later reburied at Margraten. Stripped of all frills, this is the true story of the event and fairy tales about doghouse pilots do not occur in this case.

J.Bleeker