Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						2/Lt. Thomas Beasley (Tom) Applewhite was the bombardier of B-17 42-30795 'The Wild Hare'. The bomber was damaged over the target, Münster, by flak and eventually disintegrated in mid-air after fighter attacks. It crashed near Eethen-Waspik. Applewhite managed to bail out in time and landed on his back in a meadow near Hedikhuizen but he 'didn't remember anything from a few seconds' because he lost consciousness. He came by while some men were carrying him to a farmhouse. He asked the people around him if they were 'Dutch', but they thought he meant 'Deutsch'. Only after a while he understood that he was indeed in The Netherlands. Applewhite asked for a doctor who arrived soon after and examined him at his slightly injured left leg. The doctor urged him to start running from the vicinity. Applewhite: 'I ran for about half a mile until I was out of breath'. He came to a bridge over a canal but didn't dare to cross it. He walked on and soon encountered two men on bicycles who told him to return to the bridge. When he came to a brick house near the bridge (over the Groenendaalse Wetering?)  he was soon surrounded by lots of people. 'I tried them to go away. I had no success in dispersing them.' A girl managed to send away their countrymen. Meanwhile Applewhite crossed the bridge and walked 'quite a distance' to 'a solitary outbuilding in the fields'. Applewhite entered this stable and encountered three farmers. 'I was not certain whether they were all right, but I said 'Americano', and they jumped up excitedly and started talking'. After darkness the farmers left, but soon after one returned with another man and gave Applewhite civilian clothes. This 'other man' was probably Peek de Noo. He lived in Well (at Heust C 2) at the other side of the Maas River and saw Applewhite descending at his parachute. He rowed to the other side of the river and after darkness he rowed him to the northside of the river and took him to his house. Applewhite remained here for two days, until 13 November.

On this day Applewhite was escorted first to Bokhoven. Here he was handed over to two other guides (one of them being Fons Raaijmakers from Vught) who escorted the American to the tavern 'De Jonge Hertog' between the villages of Oisterwijk and Moergestel. From here another person, Jan Naaijkens took Applewhite to the home of Eugène van der Heijden in Hilvarenbeek. Later that night Applewhite was guided by the marechaussee (Dutch gendarme) Albert Wisman to a cabin in a chicken coop near the farm of Adrianus de Bruijn near the Dutch-Belgian border on the estate De Utrecht: the hiding place of five students: Dick Los, Jan de Koning, Jan Wolterson, Jan Oudemans and Jan van Dongen (Los and Oudemans were absent at that moment). After spending the night here Applewhite was taken across the border by Eugène van der Heijden on 14 November and guided to Weelde. Here they hid their bicycles near tavern 'Segers' and took a bus to Turnhout. From here they went by tram to Antwerp and finally they took a train to Brussels. After the reception in the house of Elise Chabot and Charlotte Ambach in Brussels-Ixelles, he moved - via the 'processing center of EVA at The Fishmarket (Prosper Spillaert and Yvonne De Rudder) to the house of Family Arthur Schrynemakers. The American bombardier hid here for 34 days, from 16 November until 19 December 1943. On this date he was transferred to the apartment of the nurse Yvonne Bienfait. Here he met another airman, T/Sgt. T.B. (Jockey) Wiggins (E0172). On 23 December Jules Dricot guided Applewhite and Wiggins from Brussels to Blandain, the last stop before the French border on the railwayline to Lille. Via the house of Dr. Henri Druart, where they received a false French ID and food. From here they were taken over the border by Amanda Stassart ('Diane') to the dairy farmer and mayor of the French village Camphin-en-Pevele, André Dewauvrin. Here they spent the night in the hay in his cow barn. The next day Stassart escorted the two to Paris. After arrival in the French capital, they first went to the house of Stassart's mother, Louise Stassart and from there Applewhite went to the apartment of Elizabeth Buffet until 26 December. (According to other sources Applewhite and Wiggins went to went to the apartment of Raoul Touquet and Lucienne Prioul at 16 Rue Henri Tariel in Paris-Issy-les-Moulineaux where they joined another airman: Sgt. Stanley Munns (E0197)).

On 26 December Applewhite, Wiggins, Munns and a fourth airman, S/Sgt. Elton F. Kevil (E0153) took a train to Bordeaux. They travelled separate with their own escort. From Bordeaux they went - also by train - to Dax. From here the four airmen cycled to Bayonne. In the night of 26/27 and 27/28 December, they slept in the Larre Inn of Marthe Villenave in Sutar, a suburb of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. On 28 December Jean-François Nothomb escorted the four to Ustaritz, where they met four smugglers who were to take them over the Pyrenees. Munns, Applewhite, Wiggins and Kevil walked the first night for six hours and then halted at the first farm on Spanish soil. The next day they were collected by two other Baskian guides. They proceeded their travels through the mountains and halted at another farm to spend the night. The next day, 31 December, they were picked up after a short walk by a car who rode them to San Sebastian. After a night in the coastal town, they travelled to the British embassy in Madrid. After five days in the Spanish capital (1-6 January), the four airmen went to Sevilla where they boarded a Norwegian ship, the 'Lisbeth', that took them to Gibraltar. They arrived here on 10 January 1944. Seven days later, Applewhite arrived back in England by plane. He was the last evader who successfully used the Smit-Van der Heyden Line. With the arrest of his crew member T/Sgt. Nello Malavasi (E0190) in Turnhout on 15 November 1943 the line was rounded up by the Germans.