F/Sgt. Donald Keith MacGillivray was the bomb aimer of Halifax LK956. On the return leg from a bombing mission to Bonn the Halifax of MacGillivray was hit by flak over the target area and again near Aachen. After losing further height the pilot gave the order to bail out. Macgillivray landed at about 7.45 PM on ‘the edge of the perimeter of the aerodrome of the N.W. outskirts of EINDHOVEN’. He saw no Germans around. His parachute was stuck in barbed wire. Macgillivray got out of his harness and left the parachute and harness on the landing spot. After trying three times at different places, he eventually managed to climb over a fence and leave the aerodrome. After hiding for a little while in a trench he set off with the help of his compass in south-westerly direction. He walked across fields until he came to a road on which he proceeded. He reached a farmhouse after a while and was allowed inside by -probably- the farmer’s son. Macgillivray spent the rest of the night here in a bed on the attic and was given an overall, civilian cap and a pair of shoes the next morning. The family also showed him the best route: along the canal to Tilburg.
At 6 AM he set off again and walked to the Wilhelmina Canal. Although he lost his way several times, Macgillivray eventually reached Best. Here he found a signpost which gave him the indication where to go. At 5.30 PM he reached Tilburg and walked to the station. There were many Germans around and - although he entered the station twice - he couldn’t find an indicator showing train departures for Turnhout for where he had been advised to go after Tilburg. The busses that left at the station where full of Germans so he considered it too dangerous to get on one of them.
Macgillivray now decided to walk to Turnhout. He found the main road and continued his travels. He had to walk slowly because the shoes that he had been given were ‘full of nails’. Even before the airman had gone clear of Tilburg he met a man standing before his house. Macgillivray approached him with the word ‘RAF’ and was immediately let into the house and was given ‘some ginger ale and water’. Meanwhile the man fetched another person with a dictionary.
Macgillivray spent the night in the house. The next morning - 21 November - the airman his host and son escorted him to a farm at Goirle. First, he became an address in Poppel, but shortly after it became clear he couldn’t go there because of several arrests in this area. He therefore crossed the Dutch-Belgian border north of Poppel by compass. Because he was too early for a train, he had to catch Macgillivray walked through the village of Weelde. At about 10.30 AM two young Belgians passed him by bike. They then stopped and asked, ‘are you English?’ When he confirmed, they took Macgillivray to a farm nearby where they contacted underground workers. From here he was escorted by tram to Antwerp and from there by train to Brussels on 23 November. For more than a month he stayed at several addresses in the Belgian capital. On 27 December MacGilllivray and an Australian airman, P/O. N.N. Parker, were escorted by Jacques de Bruyn by train to Mons and from there to Beaumont, close to the French border. Here they met another airman, F/Sgt. C.J. Billows, and an English agent, Patrick Laming.
The day after they left Beaumont with two guides, Albert Mattens and Amanda Stassart, and crossed the border on foot. Om French soil they took the train to Maubeuge. From there it went also by train to Paris. Here they went to the furnished room of Mattens at 123 Avenue Philippe Auguste in Paris XI. From here Parker and MacGillivray were guided by Fernande Phal to 17 Rue Pixérécourt Paris XX (Ménilmontant). Here they hid until 1 January 1944. On this date Jacques le Grelle and Rosaline Therrier escorted them to Bordeaux and from there on to Dax, where they met up with two other airmen: P/O. N.J. Matich (E1029) and F/Lt. Albert Pepper. From here the four airmen and their escorts cycled to Bayonne and from there to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Here the group stayed one night at 25 Avenue de Cambo in the suburb of Sutar, at the Larre inn. On the evening of 3 January, they left for the Spanish border via Ustaritz. They are accompanied by two guides. On 4 January, after five hours walking, MacGillivray, Billows, Pepper and Matich arrived in Spain and reached a farm (Jauriko borda) at one kilometer from the border. At 11 AM the men left and ended up later that day on another farm (Mortaleneko borda, near Erratzu), where they spent the night. Eventually they arrived on 6 January in San Sebastian. The next day a consular car that took them to Madrid. From here MacGillivray travelled to Gibraltar. He arrived back in the United Kingdom on 14 January 1944.
|
