Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						F/Sgt. Frederick Edward (Fred) ('Doc') Sutherland was the front gunner of Lancaster JB144. After bailing out he made a hard landing in a field in the Middendorpslanden, just south of where the Linderbeek joins the Regge. On the ground he moved in the direction of Hellendoorn. His progress was slow. It was already the night of 16 September before he reached the house of Family Schutten. He was let in, and later that night members of the family took him to the school principal, Mr Ter Brug, who was a member of the resistance. The next day he was put on the train in Raalte. Without escort he travelled to Baarn. He followed the same route as his navigator, P/O. Sydney Hobday (E0134) had done the day before. In Baarn Sutherland was picked up by Emmy Poldervaart ('Ries') and brought to Bert Kleisen ('Rudi') outside the station. After being questioned Sutherland was escorted by bicycle to the woods of Lage Vuursche, where the resistance had constructed an underground hiding place near the St. Elisabeth-hospital which they had name 'Het Duikje'. Here Sutherland met to his surprise Hobday again. 

Hobday and Sutherland hid for three weeks in the woods of Lage Vuursche. On 17 October 1943 they left by train. First it went to Scheveningen. Both airmen were escorted by Emmy Poldervaart. After spending the night here, they were picked up the following day by two men who guided them to Rotterdam. These two men were brothers: Henk and Christiaan Lindemans. The latter one was also known as ‘King Kong’, because of his fearlessness and daring character. Hobday and Sutherland hid several days in Rotterdam with the brothers Lindemans. Issued with false identity papers stating the two airmen were laborers of Organization Todt, they were put on the Chemin de la Liberté escape route. Christiaan Lindemans brought them personally to Paris. From the French capital they travelled by train to Toulouse. From there they left on 1 November 1943 to Lourdes. In a larger group and with the help of guides they crossed in two days the Pyrenees and managed to reach Spain. In the neutral country the two airmen travelled on to Gibraltar. Following two months of evasion Sutherland and Hobday arrived back in the United Kingdom on December 6, 1943. Frederick Edwin Sutherland died on 21 January 2019 in Alberta, Canada at the age of 95.