Evaders
SGLO | Date crash | Aircraft | |
---|---|---|---|
T3104 | 19-11-43 | Halifax | |
MilRank | First Name(s) | Name | |
Sgt. | Stanley | Munns | |
Milregnr. | Nationality | Born | |
1814550 | British |
Returned Y/N | Evader Fate | Date Captured/Liberated | Place Captured/Liberated | Escape Line | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | EVD | 14 Jan 44 | Whitchurch, England | Comet Line |
Evader Story |
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Sgt. Stanley Munns was the only nineteen year old rear gunner of Halifax LK956. On the return flight from his seventh bombing mission the aircraft was hit by flak (according to others sources a night fighter). The bomber crashed near Son. After bailing out Munns landed six miles southeast of Nuenen at about 7.45 PM on his back at a dry dyke (which was probably a ditch). 'I had made a perfect landing', he remembered later. He hid his harness, parachute and Mae West in a ditch and immediately started walking in westerly and northerly direction using his compass. He mostly crossed through fields and now and then walked on a stretch of road. Munns reached Nuenen at about 2 AM on 20 November. He hid himself on top of a haystack and fell asleep. He remained in the hay for the rest of the day, observing the nearest farmhouse at the outskirts of Nuenen. In the evening he went to the farmhouse. The owners gave him a meal, but made him clear, although they didn't speak English, that he couldn't stay. After about ten minutes he left. He now went in the direction of Eindhoven, having seen signposts to the city. As his uniform and boots were still wet, he decided to approach another farm. This was probably the farm of Petrus J. Kuyten at Wettenseind C117 in Nuenen. They let him in and gave him a glass of milk and some food. They also warned a man who spoke English who arrived after about two hours. This man couldn't help him personally but went to fetch another person from a neighboring village. This man, a former Dutch Army officer, took Munns to another farm house as he could not stay on the farm because of the presence of some children. The next day, 21 November in the afternoon two resistance workers arrived on bicycles to bring him civilian clothes which included a light raincoat, a razor and bicycle for his use. They then set out for the nearby town of Eindhoven. On arrival at a house his identification was assured through an interrogation. Then he became instructions to walk to a church nearby. Here a priest handed him a train ticket. With a guide he then - probably on 22 November - travelled to Roermond. After arrival on the station in Roermond he was escorted to the house of Johannes Huysmans at Kapellerlaan 84. He hid here probably from 22 until 29 November 1943. On 29 November a man guided him to another house - probably the house of Frans and Mies Verbruggen at Minderbroederssingel 27 - where he joined four other airmen: P/O John C. Mattey (E1030), 1/Lt. Robert Sheehan (E0188), P/O. N.J. Matich (E1029) and S/Sgt. Chester A. Lisiewski (E0177). On the same day the five were taken by train to Weert. From the station Munns, Matich and Sheehan walked to a small house for the night and the following day. Then two Dutch policemen gendarmes (Marechaussees), one of them being probably the Marechaussee Frans van Riel, arrived and accompanied the three airmen on bicycles to the Belgian border opposite Hamont in Belgium. They spent the night and part of the next day in the ‘gypsy type caravan’ of Harry and Trien Semler and their two children. In the evening the two gendarmes returned and escorted the five airmen on foot over the border. On Belgian soil the airmen were handed over to Belgian gendarmes or customs officers who escorted the five to an isolated house of a wine seller where they spent the night. This was possibly the house of Frans Wijnen in Hamont. The next day they probably moved on to the house of Louis Vrolix, also in Hamont. The following day - 2 December - they arrived in Neerpelt. Here Matich and Munns found a hiding place in the house of shoemaker Bert Spooren. Sheehan went to the house of his brother Michel. On this location he probable also met 2/Lt. Paul E. Gregory (E0218). In the following days they were also given false identity cards. Probably on 6 December Munns, Matich and Sheehan left by train for Antwerp. After a short stay here they moved on to Brussels. Munns would hide in the Belgian capital for several weeks, from 6 December until 20 December. On this date Jules Dricot escorted Munns and an unknown American, possibly Arthur Horning, via Ath, Leuze and Doornik to a little town at the Belgian-French border, possibly Rumes or Erquennes. At around 8 PM a young feamale guide, Henriette Hannotte de Rumes, picked them up and took the two to a village where they spent the night. Here they met two other Americans, one of them being E.F. Kevil (E0153). The other must have been Art Horning (E0161). The next day, 21 December, two female escorts, probably Amanda Stassart and Odile de Vasselot, guided them on the train to Paris. Munns and Kevil went to the apartment of Raoul Touquet and Lucienne Prioul at 16 Rue Henri Tariel in Paris-Issy-les-Moulineaux. Here they joined two other airmen; T/Sgt. T.B. Wiggins (E0172) and 2/Lt. T.B. Applewhite (E0189). On 26 December the four airmen left. On this date they 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 Basque 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. 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. Four days later, Munns arrived back in England by plane. |
Source(s) |
* Richard Townshend Bickers, Home Run: Great RAF Escapes of World War II (chapter 8) * The National Archives, London, WO 208/3317/1698 * J. Bussels, De doodstraf als risico. Pilotenhulp in Belgisch Limburg 1941-1944 (without place 1981), page 293-298 * https://www.evasioncomete.be/fmunnsst.html * https://www.eindhovenfotos.nl/4/Vrijbuiters.pdf |