T/Sgt. John F. Byers was the flight engineer of B-24 Liberator 42-7533 on a bombing mission to Münster on December 22, 1943. Homeward bound, the tail section was badly damaged by German fighters and the plane eventually crashed near Den Ham. Byers managed to bail out of the stricken bomber but struggled to open his parachute because he had snapped it on upside down. He nonetheless descended alive in a plowed field between Bergentheim and Marienberg but hurt his knee during the landing. Almost immediately some Dutchmen helped him and brought the airman to the farm of Geert Salomons where he was hidden under the hay in the barn. Although a German search party visited the farm soon thereafter, Byers wasn't found. After dusk he was brought by bike to the house of Willem van der Sluis in Bergentheim. After a short while there, Arie Speelman took the American airman to the station of Hengelo where he was handed over to Alphons Gerard.
He stayed in Gerard’s house at the Dennebosweg in Hengelo probably until December 26 (other sources indicate that this was 24 December). On this date, Gerard escorted Byers and two other Americans, S/Sgt Irvin Sumpter (E0234) and S/Sgt. Royce McGillvary (E0233), to Echt where Harry Tummers took care of them. He brought Sumpter and McGillvary to the house of Joseph Halbeek, while Byers was escorted to the farm of the Housmans family at Ophoven 1 between Echt and Roosteren. In the evening of January 7, 1944, Sumpter and McGillvary also moved to this address. The next day, a food inspector of the Centrale Controledienst (CCD) (re)visited the farm but he didn’t notice the evaders. Sumpter and a Russian refugee were taken to the house of Sjang Peters in Roosteren. A few days later, Canadian P/O. Allen Leonard Merkley (E0240) turned up at the farm of the Housmans family.
On January 14, 1944, Tummers took Byers, McGillvary and Merkley by a car of garage company Turlings to Geulle. Here Tummers handed the airmen over to countess Monique Bissy and Toke Spierings from Rekem. These two women escorted the three airmen near Smeerkaas across the Dutch-Belgian border and took them to the house of widow Saldon in Mechelen-aan-de-Maas. The next day, they moved from this address to the house of Florent Biernaux in Hasselt where Byers, McGillvary, Sumpter and Merkley 'regrouped' before they left for Brussels on January 17 by train.
The four airmen hid for several weeks in the Belgian capital but were eventually arrested. John Byers being the first when he was arrested by the SD on March 25. He spend the remainder of the war in an unknown Stalag Luft PoW camp. |
