Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						2/Lt. Frank P. McGlinchey was the bombardier of B-17 42-30818 ‘Salvo Sal’ that due to severe battle damage crash landed just north of Lippenhuizen on October 8, 1943. McGlinchey bailed out before and made a fair landing, but his parachute caught in overhead telephone lines. A few farmers, who had been working nearby, removed his parachute from the telephone lines and hid it for him. Next a man in uniform, maybe a forester, helped him over two small canals and then pointed him in the direction to go. After he had walked about five minutes in that direction, he noticed a fellow crewmember ahead of him. For some reason that man started to run away from him and McGlinchey started to follow while waving. When he got nearer the man stopped and he recognized 2nd Lieutenant Carl L Spicer (E0150), the navigator on his Fortress. When they got together, Spicer told him that he first thought that he was being followed by a German soldier. Together they walked in a southerly direction and noticed an elderly farmer working in a field. He gestured to them to lie down and shortly afterwards, a car with two German soldiers passed them. Continuing their walk, they came upon the banks of the Tjonger river and followed it westward until they came at a bridge. A women cycled towards them there and when they made it clear they needed help, she told the airmen to wait there, and she would return with civilian clothing. Spicer and McGlinchey waited for about an hour and then decided to continue their walk.

When the dawn arrived, they looked for a place to hide for the day. They left the road and crossed a field to a farm. There they sat down behind a hedge and waited if someone would show up that could help them. A man and a dog came out of the farm and when the airmen approached him, they asked for help. The farmer, Martinus Bakker, didn’t speak English but took Spicer and McGlinchey inside and his wife prepared breakfast for the hungry and thirsty airmen. Thereafter, they were taken upstairs so they could get a decent sleep. Later that day, Bakker went to teacher Douwe Feenstra in Steggerda who was also member of the local resistance. Feenstra spoke English and he came with Bakker to the farm. When the Americans had woken up, they came down where Feenstra was waiting for them. He had a lengthy talk with the men to make sure they were genuine and then told them the resistance would help them. Furthermore, Feenstra thought it better that Spicer and McGlinchey stayed at his place, so they came with him when he returned home. On the evening of October 10, the airmen were collected by the resistance from Wolvega who had found a hiding address for them. Johnny Bosscha and Egbertus Woudstra arrived at Feenstra’s house around 22.00, bringing bicycles with them. The foursome cycled to Wolvega where Spicer and McGlinchey were taken to the reformed church. There they hid in the attic while the sexton, Jan van der Meer, looked after their well being. Pieter Wybenga, one of the key persons in the Frisian Resistance and who lived in Drachten, stayed in Wolvega at the time the airmen arrived there. He was informed about them and asked some members of his group to find proper hiding addresses for Spicer and McGlinchey in Drachten. But first Tiny Mulder, a courier for the resistance and fluent in English, had to interview the airmen. McGlinchey and Spicer told her about the mission and their plane, and they mentioned their captain, William McDonald (E0148). Mulder then told them she had spoken with him some hours earlier. In the meantime, Henk Metzlar had arranged separate hiding addresses for the airmen so they could be collected. Ms Mulder and the two airmen walked to the border of Wolvega where an old taxi was waiting for them, driven by Paulus Paulusma with Metzlar beside him.

Their first stop was at the house of the parents of Ms Mulder where McGlinchey would go in hiding. He and miss Mulder got out of the taxi and Spicer went to a separate hiding address. While the Americans stayed in and near Drachten, their onward journey was prepared by Klaas Maring (alias: ’Klazinga’). Maring ran his own resistance group around Drachten and was also contact person in the north for doctor Joop Kruimel from Utrecht. Kruimel (alias: Ome Joop) was active in the Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers (LO) around Garderen, a peaceful village on the Veluwe. The LO was the National Organisation for help to Persons in hiding. Kruimel ran an escape line for pilots from Friesland to the Veluwe and from there to Brabant and then across the border into Belgium. Spicer left his hiding address near Drachten on November 11 for his journey to freedom. McGlinchey left the Mulder family a few days later when he and Ms Mulder collected McDonald from his hiding address at Jan Mulder on November 16. Together they left Drachten by tram for Heerenveen and there took the train to Ermelo. At the station there they were met by Dr Kruimel and Dirk Eskes (alias ‘Alex’). The wife of Dirk Eskes took care of Ms Mulder while Kruimel and Eskes brought the two airmen to 'Villa Roodkapje', a safe house at the Arnhemse Karweg in Putten. From this address they went to Elbert Bos and then to Thijs Foppen, both in Staverden. On November 19, Dirk Eskes collected McGlinchey and McDonald from Foppen and took them to his house in Nieuw-Milligen. Here they stayed until December 9 when they were collected by Kruimel who took the airmen to his house in Staverden. Early in January 1944, Kruimel brought both airmen to the address of Klaas van Oord in Hollandse-Rading. Here they stayed for three days and were then collected by Machiel Rombout (alias; ‘Rob Kooymans’) who took them by train to Breda. There they went to the pension of the widow Neeltje Ueberfeldt-van Vliet (“Ma”) in the Spoorstraat 48a. This address was also Rombouts headquarters when he became leader of the LO district West Brabant in September 1943. From here McGlinchey and McDonald went to stay at the address of Cor van der Hooft in the Nachtegaalstraat 12 in Breda. On the 8th of January, Paul Reybroek and Gerardus Wassenberg came to Breda, collected the two Americans at the Nachtegaalstraat and took them by train to Best. From Best they cycled to Paul van den Broek in Nijnsel where the airmen stayed here for 4 days. Next, they stayed for two days at Willem Habraken, also in Nijnsel. On the 14th of January, Reybroek brought McGlinchey and McDonald to the house of the Otten Family at Kerkstraat 6 in Erp. They stayed for five days in the ‘Pyama-House’ and then moved on 19 January to the Vermeeren family in Sevenum.

On the same day, January 19, Wiel Houwen and W. Crijns from Helden came by car to Sevenum and took the airmen to Bernard Martens in Helden. A few days later, Houwen returned and drove the Americans by car to Roermond. Houwen handed them over to Remko Roosjen who brought McDonald and McGlinchey by train to Jacques Vrij (alias: 'van den Brink') at Maastricht. Vrij in turn took the men to Harry Hoenen at the Sint Lambertuslaan 48 in Maastricht where they stayed for some days. Here they were joined by P/O. John McLaughlin (E0264) who made an emergency landing with his Hawker Typhoon near Helenaveen on January 14, 1944. On January 22 they were joined at this address by four American crew mates, Norman Elkin (E0254), Harry Kratz (E0255), Clyde Mellen (E0256) and Walter Snyder (E0257). The seven airmen stayed here for some days and were then collected by Tony Gielens who took them across the Dutch/Belgian border near Caberg.

Once in Belgium, they were taken over by the Dutch-Paris escape line who brought them to Brussels. They stayed for one day at the Rue Franklin while J.P. Bol prepared their forged doucments. At the end of the same day, the group left Brussels to arrive in Paris on the 29th of January. They were brought to the basement of a laboratory in the Rue Lhomond. Later that day a second group arrived that had arrived earlier in Paris and had stayed for a few days at the Huitema farm outside Paris. This group consisted of George Watts (E0145), Philip Brown (E0179), a Sergeant Harris and crew mates Victor Ferrari (E0191), Nicholas Mandell (E0192) and Omar Roberts (E0193). On January 30, Campbell Brigman and Harold Boyce, crewmembers of B-17 42-39759 that belly landed near Hirson in northern France, joined the group and brought the number of evaders to fifteen.

McLaughlin was the first of the group to leave Paris for Toulouse on 3 February, travelling together with 8 ‘Engelandvaarders’, Dutch men trying to get to England. Late in the afternoon on February 4, the remaining airmen were taken in small groups with the Metro to Gare d’Austerlitz with the exception of Victor Ferrari. He stayed in Paris for medical treatment and would join another group some weeks later. From the Gare d’Austerlitz, the 13 airmen and their guides took the night train to Toulouse. Having arrived there the men had breakfast at Chez Emile and next took the afternoon train to Saint-Girons. From this little town some went by taxi and others by bus to Mane where the group assembled in a shepherd's hut outside of Arbas. Their number had risen to 26 and consisted of airmen, Engelandvaarders and some others. At 22:00 on February 5, they left for the crossing to Spain, led by passeurs Treillet and Marot. During the night it started to snow, making the going even harder, and early in the morning the passeurs led the group to a shepherd's hut for a break. Later that morning the weather improved and under a clear blue sky, the passeurs decided to leave the Col de Portes d’ Aspet. Passeur Treillet was the first to leave the hut around 10 o’clock and went ahead to scout. When the group started to leave the hut to follow him, Treillet spotted a pair of dog ears belonging to a German mountain patrol lying in ambush. He shouted a warning and eleven men scrambled up the mountain to hide, being fired at by the Germans. The German patrol then descended to the hut on ski and arrested the remaining 15 men, McGlinchey being one of them. A bus arrived on a nearby road and took the arrested men down to Foix where they were divided in civilians and airmen. After interrogation the airmen were sent to Pow camps and McGlinchey ended up in Stalag Luft I at Barth, where he was liberated by the Russian Army on April 30, 1945.