This would confirm the Ophoven crash. Besides this is how it is listed in Chorley too. Gilze is about 50km north of Ophoven . the Bussum one is Flak and the third one out of range in Danemark. It must admit that Baake is intriging me, could he be the one who crashed at Gilze that night after his two claims? He got one near Arnhem and if you draw a line from his first claim to Limburg you get through Gilze , so he may have attempted to return there after having been hit, or wasn't he hit that night?

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Just took a break...fingers cramping! Just quick note here...I am going to type every word out (total transcribe). He describes every detail...

2 ME-100's in set, one he hit and saw 2 parachutes come out of it before it went down.

As soon as I get to the end of the part where he is done with the description of the air fight and landing I will send that before I continue transcribing the rest.
Jo Ann

Skipper your fingers are sticky man ..............

JoAnn what can I say except what I have recorded, the German LW nf's operated alone and true each other at times could be seen at a distance from another and witnessing attacks and downings, there was literally too much danger in attacking by twos or more as collision could occur, if anything where this did happen was with single engine day turned night fighters in JG 300, 301 and 302 with their limelight during summer/fall.winter of 1943 with the aid of searchlights and their light patterns in Wilde Sau and Hell nacht missions. I for one will be interested in "his" text of the air battle.

Granted Luftwaffe but as well as RAF records do have gaps it is obvious

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E ~

Erich,

I understand...I will hurry on this today!

Jo Ann

I know it's weird I got many multiple postings without even have finished my answer and I never actually clicked the enter key, it took me a while to delete the gremlins, I wonder what happened

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how bizarre ............. back to Baake as you asked if he was shot down, the answer on that is no. He really should of been flying the He 219 this night but it went ot CO Streib. Baake was flying the Bf 110G-4

here is the crew of 12./NJG 1 that crashed in Holland :

Oberleutnant Eberhard Gardiewski, wounded
Unteroffizier Heinz Bärwolf, wounded

werke nummer of the aircraft was 5343

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E ~

interesting considering Jo ann mentionned two chutes. This would match with a route that would go from England to Holland then south east towards Gilze and north east Belgium wherethe Wellington met his fate. If the Gardiewski crash was downed minutes before 1am it would fit this pattern. It does not prove who shot the Welli down , but it would show its final route.

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Skipper I am not following you on this one ........... as well as not having the crash time, wish I did ~

No wonder ;some of my keys did not type,

Considering 3 ME-110 were downed, one by Flak and one in Denmark ,that means only one remains. Besides the two chutes would be the two survivors spotted by the Wellington crew. I will see if I can find times

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yes of course, but it is also that possibility we have two crewmen bailing out and no record of time nor crash of the Bf 110G on file. slim but still possible

think your PC might have the plague

don't worry about my pc, it's brand new and I had a conficting driver to remove and reinstall, I think it's okay now.

allow me a few minutes to check for ME -110 losses

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Okay...my uncle is a talker, thank goodness, but my fingers are tired!!!!

I don't know how much help this will be... Now remember that My uncle was found by Giesbert Dexters from Eisden and if you look further back in my posts it tells the information on Bailey, where he came down.

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We took off RAF, East Moor, our home base, on June 11, 1943. I guess we probably got air born around 11:00, 10:30, something like that. And we didn’t have any problems crossing over the British coast and the Yorkshire coast, Britain. We crossed the North Sea and crossed the Dutch coast and around the town of Ejmuden, that’s E-J-M-U-D-E-N (Ijmuiden). This is a town right along the Dutch coast, near the North Sea. Our target was Dusseldorf. The south end of the Ruhr Valley. That is on the east side of the Rhine River. We were routed over right along the Dutch, Belgium border and Belgium, I mean Holland, I’m sorry, it has a little tail that comes down in there. So you have Belgium, Holland and Germany, all right together in there. Well, we got over a turning point and dropped a flare over the turning point. We had come up on that flare and we got jumped by 2 fighters, 2 Messerschmitt 110 fighters. First one set us on fire. He fired before I did and he set us on fire. The second one came in on his attack and I got him. He went down. Then the first one came back. The first shot I made, I missed him clean. I didn’t even come close to him. I never fired at the first guy that came in. You got to remember that these aerial combats are about 5 to 8 seconds. They are just super fast. You got to react fast and fire. Of course you have a lot of problem in it. You got to aim, you got to estimate the range, you’ve got to decide how much deflection to put on, that is how far lead the other aircraft and all this has to be done right now. In addition to that you got to order up evasive action for your pilot. Now this is not daylight operations. This is night, completely different. Daylight operations, the Americans did. They flew formations so they didn’t have any evasive actions. They couldn’t weave the way we did. And from the time we crossed the Dutch coast, all the way to the target and all the way back we cork-screwed, this way. They call that weaving. Of course the idea behind it was to make the other guys problem greater. You know, the anti-aircraft and also the fighters. Anyway, Like I say, we were on fire and the set of the first guy came back, I’m sure it was the first guy because they never set more than 2 on you together, you know it wasn’t a wolf pack like submarines or anything like that. But anyway, Now that’s at night, they did that in day time against the B-17’s, the B-24’s. In fact there was one raid, the raid out of Shwinesburg (Schweinfurt), a B-17 and B-24 raid. The Germans sent 1100 fighters after them. 1100 of them, can you imagine! Now we would usually we would, go all the way into Germany and all the way back home again and never see another aircraft. Although there were hundreds of aircraft around us. We were in a Bomber Stream and we bombed in raids. So many aircraft that your timed on target and your (Field or fuel I couldn’t understand) team would be from 0105 to 0115 which is a 10 minute period in there and that would be the time that number 6 Wave, which we would be in, is to go across the target. Now they, a lot of these procedures were modified, changed and totally different as the war wore on. That was what was going on when I was flying. And anyway, we were on fire, I saw 2 parachutes open behind my turret before that second guy came back in. And I think that was the bomb aimer and the wireless OP bailing out. Now everyone else in the crew was up in the nose. I was in the tail and I’m 50, 60 feet away from these people. So anyway they, I saw those 2 chutes open and then that second guy came back in. I think Bill Bailey, the Navigator, bailed out about that time because when he got back to England, he reported me as going in with the aircraft, because he says when he bailed out there was gunfire in the tail turret. And he never saw any parachute after that. Now of course, I bailed out after that. He didn’t know that. So he reported me, he put his opinion as I went down with the aircraft. So that’s when they come up with the missing, believed killed in action. Now that’s what the Causality Report said. Because when I read it years later in a place called Stansmoor

(Please forgive my typos and I haven't yet gone back over to get the correct spelling of places...I'm tired!)

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(MS?), which is in northern London, RAF Causality Records Office. It’s all still there. It’s probably is to this day. But anyway, the name of the farm, the guy that owned the farm that the aircraft crashed on, that was in there. They gave me, when I got to Dulag Luft, which was the interrogation camp, the Germans issued me American Army uniform. The reason was the United States was shipping these uniforms in through Switzerland and there was just a lot more of us than there was British. Even though the British uniform was better for POW’s because it was heavier, much warmer, a thick wool. The American was a nice looking service, was a good looking uniform but not particularly warm. But any rate, I bailed out, backing up a little on that, the aircraft was on fire and my Skipper called me on the intercom and he says, “Pat, What’s it look like back there?” And I said “We’re breaking up Skipper.” You see, this is a fabric covered aircraft. It wasn’t covered in metal like the rest of them. The only fabric covered aircraft, bomber aircraft, in the war probably. Well anyway, there were other reasons for that fabric. Anyway, it had to do with the construction of the aircraft, the weight of it and so on. But any rate, we’re on fire, Skipper calls me, says “What’s going on?” “What’s it look like?” and I said “We’re breaking up.” And this was pieces of fabric that was on fire, that was coming off the aircraft, the right side of the aircraft, the starboard side. That would be my left because I face the rear. So when the fighter hit us, he hit us in that wing and that fuel tank and that side of the aircraft. And also up the side of the fuselage. So there was quite a bit of damage in that area and the left side of my turret was slightly damaged, not that bad. But any rate, He says “Jump.” He says “You better get out.” So I said “Ok” and I said “Are you getting out?’ He says “Yeah, I’m ok.” I said “You got your Sutton (MS?) harness?” Now this is the, the seatbelts that hold them in. A British service put out that company by the name of Sutton (MS?), so they refer to it as a Sutton (MS?) harness. It all comes together with a pin, right here. You pull that pin out and the whole thing falls away. And Americans didn’t have that kind of a system. So I says, “You got your chute?” Now the pilot’s chute is stored behind his seat. There’s a little bucket there that it sits in and it’s got bungee cord over the top of it to keep it from flying around. He says “Yeah, I’m ok.” So I says “Ok.” Well since my turret had been damaged by gun fire, I, we could have power and I didn’t know how badly damaged that turret was. We had a crank, because if you lost power, you had a crank down here behind us that we could crank the turret around so (?) beam. Your drill for bailing out of the rear turret, you reach behind you and slide the doors open, reach into the aircraft and get your seat pack. It’s about that long and probably that wide and about that thick. It’s all packed into this thing and it’s got 2 rings on the back of it. And they fasten into 2 big D rings on your parachute harness. Well you grab this thing and you snap it on and the rip cord is right over, a little gadget about yeah long, just over the top of the pack. And of course, when you pull a rip cord, what your actually doing is releasing a thing called a Pilot chute, which is a little parachute, oh a couple of feet wide, and there’s springs in it and as soon as it comes out of the pack, the springs pull it open. And that’s what pulls the parachute out of your pack. The pilot chute, that’s really what you activate when you pull that rip cord. And anyway, I didn’t know how badly the turret was shot up so I figured, well I better not try and put it on the beam with hydraulic power because I don’t know if I got any hydraulic power and I better not try and crank it around because I don’t know how badly shot up the side of this thing is. It’s a big ring gear in there that could have been busted up. So I figured my best bet was to leave the turret centralized, pointing directly to the rear, and go into the aircraft. Open the doors and the doors were ok. They functioned fine. And I was a little worried about that. Because they could

Page 3

have been smashed up too. I was in another aircraft at one time when they were. I was trapped in a burning aircraft and that was in Exeter on the south coast of England. We’ve been laying mines in Brest Harbor and that one we got tangled up in a German battle ship (?). Nothing like picking out a bully, you know. The surface to ground and they fired at us, but we didn’t know what was in there, and they shot and banged us up real good but we managed to stumble back to the south coast of England and crashed and burned up the airplane. Well I got trapped in the turret and my Skipper came back in to the burning aircraft and pulled me out for which he got a decoration, by the way. He got the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for saving a life on the ground. And a, the only one in my Squadron that ever had. I found this out in later years. I saw a listing of all the decorations for that Squadron, for that 429 Squadron. That one Conspicuous Gallantry Medal and that was it. But any rate, like I say, I came back into the aircraft, picked up my chute, snapped it on. And just over the turret on the right side of the aircraft, what’s known as the Diamond hatch and it’s a hatch, you know to get out of the airplane, you know maybe, probably 2 foot wide, and it’s right in the curve of the aircraft. You know it’s like a diamond in there. Actually it’s square because it was on the corner. Well over this Diamond hatch there’s a, the hatch itself is actually pared into the outside of the aircraft and then there’s a handle on it. And there’s some latches that hold it in. There’s also some sticky tape around it like, you know, so you don’t’ have too much drag. And over the top of it is plywood, like a little plywood board, if you like. Which was to say was slightly wider than that, that went over it. But that was not very heavily pinned down inside the aircraft. And you’re suppose to grab hold of it and just pull it off. Then throw it aside and reach over and twist that handle. And when I reached down for that thing the whole thing came apart in my hands. It just broke right up. It had been shot up. The next thing I did was reach down and grab that handle, and that handle came right off in my hands. So I didn’t know whether I was going to get out of that dog gone thing or not. Well, I kicked with my right foot and sure enough, when I kicked it, it went out, the whole hatch opened up. And of course the hatch itself just took off, you know it’s not attached to the aircraft. That’s gone. And my foot went outside and the slip stream from the aircraft peeled my boot off. So I pulled my foot back in, now I got one boot. That’s a big help. So anyway, I snapped the chute on, went through that hatch and I’ve heard all kinds of people talk about how when you bail out, you’re suppose to wait 5 minutes or the count to 10 or some other non-sense. Well of course, no, the theory behind it is that your chute wouldn’t catch on anything protruding from the aircraft. Well, that’s not going to happen anyway in a free-fall chute. Now it very well might with a paratrooper because he uses a static line. You see, when he bails out his chute totally opens right below the aircraft. He can get snagged. But bailing out with a free-fall chute, you’re not going to because your gonna fall and your gonna be probably 100 feet from the aircraft before this Pilot chute pulls much of anything out of it. Well they figure it takes approximately 900 feet, no 90 feet, I’m sorry. You should fall approximately 90 feet in order to deploy your parachute. So if you fall 100 feet, if you’re 100 feet in the air, you probably would get away with it. On the other hand, if your 80 feet in the air, you probably wouldn’t. But anyway, that’s theoretical and no one’s worried about that. So anyway, just before we got hit, just before we got shot up, my Pilot had asked for alteration and course because of this flare we were coming up on. The change in course. He asked the Navigator for that and the Navigator gave it to him and he also gave him the altitude. Now that I really don’t know why to this day, why he included the altitude in that because that really didn’t have anything to do with that change in course. But

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anyway, our altitude was 22,000 feet. Now we were briefed to fly between 20 and 25,000. We had a 5,000 foot envelope that we were to fly in. So anyway, as I said, I got out. Now I was sitting there in the chute, in the air watching this parachute play out of there with my head over the pack and when this thing finally develops there’s a pad about that big on the back end of this pack. About so long and maybe so wide. Well this whole thing is ripped loose and this pack winds up over your head. And of course the risers go up from that pack. Everything fastens into that parachute harness that you’ve got on. So it suddenly occurred to me that, you know that pack is going to come out of there in free-flow, and I started to pull my head back and I didn’t quite make it. And that pack hit me on the point of the chin and made a bruise right along the left side of my face, like that. So I was bruised all across there. Now I didn’t get a nose bleed. I didn’t hit the nose. I didn’t break it but I had a fat lip, I tell ys. The left side of my lip was pretty bad. So anyway, I went down. Now on the way down I picked up some shrapnel. Fact I had 34 pieces of shrapnel in me that they dug out after I got on the ground. Well, now this was no big atrocity in that the Germans were not specifically firing at me because you don’t fire at somebody in a parachute. That you don’t do. A guy in a parachute is pretty harmless. So you know, you leave him alone. But I bailed out right out over this flare and of course the Germans put a lot of stuff around these flares so they could see them as well as we could and they knew that a bunch of our aircraft was coming in and making a turn there. So they put a lot of flak up around the flares, you know for whom it may concern. Anyway that’s what happened to me. I came down through that and that’s where I picked up the shrapnel. Well, when I got on the ground, I landed right in the back of a man’s back door. A farm house in Belgium. And there was a small tree, life a dwarf tree, oh maybe 20 feet high, just behind his doorway and my chute went over that tree. So when I hit the ground, I didn’t hit it too violently, because that took up some of the shock. I hit the ground pretty good because you’re falling 900 feet per minute and you know you slam into something it’s pretty substantial. Anyway, now there is different sized parachutes, this was a 28 foot chute that I was in. And the 28 foot is the size of the canopy. It is 28 feet across the canopy. There is a 32 and a 34 foot chute and I really don’t know why the difference but anyway that’s what I had, the 28 foot. It was silk. It was not nylon, because nylon hadn’t really gotten in the game yet. So anyhow, like I said the chute went over the tree and I hit the ground fairly, I hit the ground hard enough to injure the nerves in this part of my leg. In the upper left thigh. And even to this day that is still prickly. And the reason I hit on the left side was because my left boot that had gone off, I’m sorry it was my right boot and I was trying to favor my left leg because that was barefoot. So I landed heavily on the, on that one and injured it. It was the right foot. I was favoring the right foot on landing on the left one. In our Escape and Evasion training back in England, they had told us that when you get on the ground, you’ve got to get rid of your chute (or suit?), your parachute, your chute harness, and anything else you may want to get rid of. In warm weather you get rid of your fur and in cold you want to keep it with ya.


In another 10 minutes of the interview he talks about looking for the fire and he sees the glow at about 10 miles away...he doesn't say what crash it was but i'm guessing it was his Wellington. I will work on continuing the transcription after some rest!

Jo Ann

this is a fascinating testimony. It seems we are getting very close . The correct spelling of the dutch town is IJMUIDEN which is on the Dutch coast near Amsterdam. You may try an experience. Take a map, draw a line from Ijmuiden to Düsseldorf and yo uwill roughly get via Gilze Rijen ( South of the Netherlands) and Ophoven (Belgian Limburg province). Besides this is not far from Liege. This should give you the route of the Stream. However the parachutes your uncle saw wee probably the ones of his own crew.
Also the other Operation he mentions at Brest is possibly the bombing of the Prinz Eugen . There is a nice thread about this ship on the forum and I have posted some exceptionnal pictures of the Prinz Eugen crew graves from my collection

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Skipper,

I told you he was detailed! I'm not even half way through it yet and this interview was cut short. The one that he did for the Veteran's Project is 8 hours long! In the mail as we speak! I am so excited to watch it. But scared of the transcribing of that! I will make correction also. But he spelled it that way so I will add it in (). Sunday I'm headed to the book store to get some maps. Good idea. Visualize it!

I have to admit something....When I did the interview, I wanted to learn about the Underground, Camps and such. I did not know then how exciting and interesting the air war part was until I learned a great deal here from you guys. I am learning about the geography, aircraft, people and so much more. I can appreciate my Uncle even more so and the people involved in his whole story. Thank you and to everyone here.

Jo Ann

Give me a few days to rest my poor fingers and I will have more. This is being sent with copies of his papers also to the archives.

Ijmuiden was a stategic defensive place that was also part of the Kamhuber line. It was a place where the Flak had an alert service that would report informaton about bomber streams to nightfighter ground stations. There were also many Batteries along the coast as it was a place where Bombers usually crossed the Dutch shore line. It remained in Gemran hands unti V.E. Day.
Glad you got caught in the thrill of your uncle's story, it is fascinating , especially his as it is not common that an airman traveled so far in occupied Europe and ended up in Buchenwald . There were many escapers, several others dozens ended up in Buchenwald, but if I am correct your uncle's story is the first time I hear about a Buchenwald inmate who had previously escaped from a Stalag and traveled through half of Europe .

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Skipper,

I sent off to the National Archives of London, a request for a record. I should be getting an email back within a week. Depending on how extensive (pages) it is whether I can get copies by email. They only allow 20 pages that way. I have a list going on what reports to request. The reports will help.

In talking with my Uncle we haven't even touched base yet on questions about the camps or Buchenwald.

I do want to ask him if there was a possibility that the 2 parachutes were his crewmen. He could have missed seeing the third one that bailed out. (Nicholson and Horton were together when they got arrested in the Comete Line. Bailey went alone with Lucien Collin-Comete and made it out.)

I am hoping that I will get some information from the Eisden Historical Society.

I sent a message and asked about Pilot E.C. Ellison of the Wellington.

Jo Ann

That sounds excellent, the Archives probably have your uncle's 1945 return report. That would be a valuable asset.
Another question. Is your uncle aware that there is an ex-KLB inmates airmen vet association? I don't know whether he would like to get in touch with these vets or not . I know a few of them, they are all brave men. They are doing a lot so that their ordeal won't be forgotten.

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Skipper,

I know he belongs to certain Associations, some meet weekly and some yearly and that's on my to do list to ask. After he got out of the RCAF..I think in 1947 he joined the US Air Force and went to Korea and Viet Nam retired in the 1970's. So I'm not sure what Associations. I do have a list of awards/medals that he received but I need more information from him as to what dates. I need to learn more about these! Also on my to do list!

My list is getting longer....

Jo Ann

ex-KLB please remind me...The men from 1944 that went to Buchenwald?

Jo Ann

Yes I will send you the info via email.

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Erich and Skipper,

I think you might be correct about my Uncle seeing his own crewmen's chutes. I still will ask him and see what he says. I got the following this morning from Robert Dexters:

Walter J. Mullaney. The first days…

11-12/06/1943:
During the night of 11-12/06/1943 the Wellington bomber “G for George” was shot down in the neigbourhood of Ophoven.
Mathieu Van Esser saw 4 parachutes coming from the skies. He found one of them: William Bailey. He had no idea where the other airman went.

13/06/1943:
In the early morning of 13/06/1943 (Whit Sunday – a holliday in Belgium) Gisbert Hubert Dexters, making a walk in the fields of Eisden, found a wounded, military dressed, man, hidden in a hay stack, not so far from the Zuid-Willemsvaart-Canal. He realized he had to do with an allied airman. They changed a few words? Did they give each others their names? However G.H. Dexters told him to stay where he was. Later on he would come back to guide him to a safe address. Immediately he went to Dr. Albert Dexters to tell about his meeting. In the late afternoon farmer Lenssen, G.H. Dexters and Dr. Albert Dexters went back to the meadow where Walter Mullaney was hidden. On their way to a safer place G.H. Dexters walked about 100 meters in front of the two men and Walter Mullaney. It was a risky trip because they had to pass by the house of the Eisden war- burgomaster Paul Lambrichts where the German Feldgendarmerie was a regular guest. ( the house of this pro-nazi burgomaster was situated just in front, at the other side of the road Lanaken-Maaseik, of the house of Dr. A. Dexters).

It is not clear which house they entered: the house of Dr.A. Dexters? The farm of Mr. Lenssen a few hundred meters further along the road? Can you ask your uncle if he has some memories of the place where he had to change clothes and his wounds were nursed by Dr.A.Dexters? Can he also give a more detailed description of the “kitchen” and the other persons looking while he was nursed
In the Dexters family the story goes that the clothes of the airman (Mullaney and others) were gathered in metal boxes and burried in the garden in the back of the house. Until this moment I was not able to check this story.

However, Mullaney could not stay in the house of Dr.A.Dexters, nore in the house of G.H.Dexters. (think of the nazi-burgomaster at the other side of the street.) Mullaney left for Mr. Lenssen’s farm to wait for more help. The difficulty was passing the garded bridge across the Zuid-Willemsvaart Canal, out of this dangerous zone into the safer Eisden-Cité (= Eisden-Tuinwijk, a residential quarter where the coal-miners lived)
During the same night Mullaney was moved out. Farmer Lenssen, Fred Kertens and Mr. Jeurissen guided Mullaney across the Zuid-Willemsvaart Canal to Eisden-Cité into the house of Fred.Kertens (Accacialaan 2) where he spent the rest of the night.

My mother, Eliza Wijnen, told me this story. It is possible that some details are incorrect.
Years ago Dr.A.Dexters told me that G.H.Dexters, some day guided “a pilot” directly to the Lenssen farm where “the pilot” was hidden in a small barn. When Dr. A. Dexters entered the barn to examine him, “the pilot” was so in panic that he took his gun and would shoot down the doctor. Was this Mullaney, or was it another airman? Please ask your uncle.
It is not clear how Walter Mullaney could be found in Eisden and not in the neighbourhood of Ophoven? The distance between Ophoven and Eisden is at least 20 kilometers. Did he bail out as first man? Did he walk, wounded, from Ophoven towards Eisden? It would be interesting if we could find the flight-map of the Wellington bomber or some report made by the German pilot who shot the plane.

13/06/1943:
Next day Walter Mullaney left Eisden for his new destination: Heppeneert, a very small hamlet (only 10 farms spread between the meadows and fields at the banks of the Meuse-river) of Maaseik.
The 28 years old Albert Gielen lived with his father and two sisters in one of the Heppeneert farms. After the German invasion in 1940 he became an active member of the Reistance. In 1941 he helped over 60 French POW’s on their way back home to France.
Albert Gielen was an experienced key-figure in the escape lines. Together with the other members of the line (Jean Mobers – Pierre Van Dinter – Mrs Salle Coolen – Theodoor Florquin – Mrs Gertrude Moors) he had helped almost 50 airmen to escape.
Mullaney passed the night at Albert Gielen’s house. But there was a big problem.
At the moment Albert Gielen did not know where he had to deliver Mullaney. Normally Mullaney had to continue his voyage via Gertrude Moors (Dilsen). Albert Gielen felt there was something wrong with the line. Albert Gielen and his friends were not sure that the old way was still safe enough. Was the line infiltrated by traitors? They hesitated and decided to use another possibility.
His friend Jean Mobers guided Mullaney (14/06/1943) to the Collaris and Biernaux families in Hasselt…
This same day (14/06/1943) arrived Horace Horton and Edwin Nicholson in Heppeneert at Albert Gielen’s farm… (see: the first days of Nicholson and Horton.)

A few days later,(18/06/1943): Gertrude Moors (Dilsen) arrested by the Germans;
19/06/1943: Albert Gielen, Pierre Van Dinter, Henri Huysmans, Mombers Jean arrested by the Germans…
You can image that the helpers in Eisden were very frightened…when they heard that their friends in Maaseik were arrested.
The Eisden-group did not give up: they continued their work. In 1943 and 1944 they were able to help 19 airmen. After the war Dr. A. Dexters explained it as “We just did what we had to do: we did our duty!”


I know my Uncle walked for quite a distance before he was found and that will be in the next part of the transcribed interview that I did with him.

My fingers are rested...now I need time!

Skipper,

Email sent to you.

Jo Ann

I found an article on Albert Gielen with a picture!

http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=br19mfli

He was arrested right after my Uncle stayed at his home with his family. Thank goodness he made it through but so tragic what he must have gone through.

Jo Ann