Sgt. John Patrick O'Leary was the bomb aimer of Halifax DK257. On the return leg from a bombing raid to Aachen this bomber was shot down by a night fighter. Two crew members perished in the crash and are still missing. Four others were taken prisoner. Only O'Leary managed to evade. He probably landed in the Dutch-Belgian border area, unknown is where exactly. About the first three days of his evasion no information is available yet. He contacted members of the resistance in Moll in Belgium a few days after the crash. O'Leary: 'About 17 July 43 I lay down on the roadside near Moll. Amongst several people who approached me was a man who spoke broken English and who told me I could get assistance to get to SPAIN. He directed me to a shrub, where I would meet a friend half an hour after dark. I went there and the man met met me and took me to his house in MOLL, where I stayed 4 days.' This man Jozef Felix Kerstens who lived at Veldstraat 15 in Mol. After about four days, on 23 July, O'Leary was escorted to Gingelom by train (possibly escorted by Jean Wouters from Jeuk). Here he stayed in the house of Jean Londoz, his wife and their children, a daughter and their son René, at (Grote) Steenweg 113 for nine days. On 31 July (or a few days later) O'Leary left Gingelom. Escorted by a schoolteacher from Landen he went by train to Brussels. Before or on this trip to the Belgian capital he met the New Zealander Sgt. R.A. Hodge, the wireless operator of Stirling BF530 that was shot down on 3/4 July 1943 near Diest in Belgium. After arrival at Brussels Georges Dupont took the two to his sister's house by tram. They stayed there until August 3, when Dupont took them into his home at 36 Avenue de Fairen (?) until August 19. Two days before, on 17 August, O'Leary and Hodge were joined by another airman: Sgt. E.A. Bridge, rear gunner of Halifax EB 209 that was shot down on the night of 13/14 July 1943 near Marche-en-Famenne. The three were now taken to a house in the suburbs of Brussels where they remained until August 21. On this date they moved to the house of Victor Savalie at 121 Clos des Hortensias in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe. They remained here until August 31.
The three then moved to an assembly center in the house of Hélène Camusel at 160 Rue Marie-Christine in Laeken. Probably on 9 September O'Leary and Hodge left for Paris via Mons. In the French capital both airmen were probably separated. O'Leary was taken by Maurice Grapin to Dr. Louis Guyot at 50 Rue de Rome in Paris VIII. He would remain here for about six days. On September 15, Grapin picked him up again and took O'Leary to the station. Here the airman was introduced to a woman 'with dark glasses' and an American airman, 1/Lt. F.X. Harkins, bombardier of B-17 42-3306 that was shot down on 15 August 1943 over France. The female escort guided the two by train to Bordeaux. From this city Jean-François Nothomb guided O'Leary and Harkins on 16 September to Dax. From there they cycled to Bayonne. In this town the two airmen stay in Sutar at Jeanne Mendiaira's Larre inn, a little south of Anglet, or in Bayonne at Pierre Arrieumerlou's house. The day after, 17 September, O'Leary, Harkins, Nothomb and a young girl who spoke English very well, moved on to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. On the evening of the 18th, a certain 'Louis', a mountain guide, took them to Spain. After crossing the Pyrenees they ended up in San Sebastian where O'Leary and Harkins stayed four days in the house of Federico Armendariz (2nd floor of 3 Calle de la Marina in San Sebastian, near La Concha, San Sebastian beach). Then a diplomatic car took them to Madrid, where they stayed another six days. O'Leary arrived in Gibraltar on 1 October. He left Gibraltar by plane on 6 October 1943 and arrived in Britain the next day, where he was immediately interrogated by MI9.
John Patrick O'Leary died in 2018. He is buried in Hope Cemetery in Ottawa, Canada.
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