1/Lt. Virgil Henry Jeffries was the pilot of B-17 42-30603 'Las Vegas Avanger'. After engine failure on the return flight the bomber was attacked by fighters and eventually crashed at Doniaga. Four crewmembers didn't survive. Of the other six, three were taken prisoner. Three others could (initially) evade capture: Jeffries, 1/Lt. T.R. Mc Galliard (E0199) and 1/Lt. J.H. Moon (E0201). The three airmen landed close to each other near Doniaga, got together and then started running to the east to find some cover. Farmer Auke de Jong saw the three airmen crossing the Wielwei. They then ran through his garden and eventually hid in the reed of a little lake called 'De Wiel'. Shorty after German military arrived on the scene and asked De Jong if he had seen the airmen. Although guns were pointed at him, he directed them into the wrong direction. Jeffries, McGalliard and Moon remained in the reed until darkness, before they proceeded their travels in easterly direction. Shortly after they came across a first obstacle, the Sint Nykster Feart. They managed to cross it, like they did with a lot of farmland ditches, getting very wet and dirty. Eventually Gosse van der Molen found the three at the hamlet Heide, north east of the village of Sint Nicolaasga. The three airmen, cold, tired, dirty and hungry, were hiding in a ditch near his house. Van der Molen took them to his house and gave them a meal and dry clothes. Van der Molen didn’t speak English, but he knew that a son of Jelle Folkerts Jellesma, a farmer who also lived at de Heide, had worked in the USA before the war and did speak English very well. After Jellesma´s son had talked to the airmen, it was clear that they were Americans who had been shot down earlier that day.
It was now about 7 PM and it was decided that the three would be transferred to the farm of family Jellesma. They were allowed to stay for the night but not any longer because the Germans were still searching for them. Very early the next morning, at around 3 AM, Jellesma showed them the way to the east and guided them across the bridge at Scharsterburg. Jeffries, McGalliard and Moon walked until duskand they hid somewhere between Scharsterbrug and Oudehaske. They remained here for the rest of the day (27 November). After sunset they started walking again. The walked all night until 4 AM in the morning when the three Americans noticed a small light at a farm just outside the village of Oudehaske. It was decided that Moon would approach the farm and ask for help. When Moon entered the farm the sons of farmer Jelle Bakker - Hendrik and Jan - were busy milking the cows and were very surprised. Both youn Dutchmen didn't speak English but understood that Moon and his comrades needed help. Jan left in a hurry the farm to fetch the headteacher of his school at Oudehaske, Riek Attema, to ask him for help. Soon after Jan Bakker returned with Attema and his son Johan, who spoke English as well. Meanwhile Jan and Hendrik Bakker supplied the Americans with dry clothes, food and place the sleep in the hayloft. The two sons decided not to tell their father about the three ‘guests’ in the hayloft. They did inform another brother though. This was Jouke Bakker, who was already married. He could get free food, without using coupons, from a store in Oudehaske. Jouke Bakker and his wife cooked meals for the three airmen and then brought these on a car pulled by a horse and hidden between the hay, secretly to the farm of his father.
The following days the son of Attema visited the three airmen almost every day. He brought them English books and told them about the developments of the next steps of their escape back to England. Meanwhile Riek Attema discussed the case with veterinarian Harm Steven Hofkamp (Burgemeester Falkenaweg, Heerenveen). Hofkamp was a key figure of the resistance in Heerenveen and had contacts with other resistance groups in the province of Friesland. Hofkamp contacted a colleague veterinarian, Douwe Rijpkema, of the resistance in Drachten, who had some experience in helping pilots. Hofkamp asked Rijpkema if he could help to find a new save house for the three Americans and get them on their way to the south. Hofkamp also arranged new shoes and civil clothes from a certain Steenwijk and Van der Kam respectively, who had a shoe and clothing store in Heerenveen. Furthermore false ID cards were arranged and pilot helper Tiny Mulder visited the three to interview them and to explain them about the next phase of their escape. On 11 December 1943 at 6 AM, Moon, McGalliard and Jeffries, were brought to the tram station of Oudehaske. Guided by Tiny Mulder, Bienso Woudstra and Jilles Zijlstra they took the tram to Drachten. Mulder, Woudstra and Zijlstra were members of a pilot helper group from Drachten led by Kornelis Vermeulen. Especially for Zijlstra it became a trip to remember: he sat in the tram between one of the Americans and a Luftwaffe-officer. Nonetheless they reached Drachten without incidents. From here th three went to different hiding addresses. Jeffries stayed for a day at the house of Jilles Zijlstra at Drachtstercompagnie. The next day he was brought to the farm of Foppe de Haan at Lawaaiwijk 2, also in Drachtstercompagnie. Tiny Mulder took Moon with her to the house of her father Jan Mulder at Moleneind NZ 182 in Drachten. He stayed here until 6 December. On this date Tiny Mulder and another female guide from Drachten, Nel Bolleman, escorted him to the farm of Siebren van Velden at Zuiderheide 3, just outside Drachten. Bolleman took care of Moon when he stayed at the farm of Van der Velde. Moon stayed here until 17 December. On this day he was brought back to the house of Jan Mulder by Tiny Mulder and Nel Bolleman. The third airman, McGalliard, was after arrival in Drachten handed over to reverend Eise Gerrit Buitenbos (Opeinde B13) and doctor Johannes Siebinga (Opeinde B27). These two resistance workers brought him to the farm of Reinder de Vries (Opeinde B92). He stayed here until 17 December 1943. On this day Tiny Mulder came to the farm and took McGalliard to the house of her father to pick up Moon, and from there the three went to the tramstation at Drachten. Here they met Jilles Zijlstra who had picked up Jeffries. The five travelled went by tram to Leeuwarden. At the train station of Leeuwarden Moon, McGalliard and Jeffries were handed over to Hermance van der Wall-Bake (“Rita”) and Jacob Le Poole (“Jaap”). They escorted the three airmen by train to Utrecht. Here they spent the night at the house of Johan David Koert and his spouse Wilhelmina Koert-Karels at F.C. Dondersstraat 45. The next day they left again and travelled by train to Amsterdam. On the central station of the Dutch capital Gerard van Bree awaited them. What they didn't know was that Van Bree was a Dutchman who worked for the SD in Amsterdam. He brought the four to Rubbenstraat 26 (2nd floor) in the southern part of the city. The four Americans tought this was their next hiding place on their way to Spain. In fact it was their final destination. It was the apartment of Herbert Gottlob Felix Oelschlägel, the Kriminalsekretär of the SD Einsatzkommando which was based in a former school in the Euterpestraat, nearby. In this apartment the three were arrested and became PoW´s.
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