Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						2/Lt. Lieudell Ernest Bauer was the bombardier of B-17 Flying Fortress 42-37867 'Berlin Ambassador'. During a bombing mission to Brunswick, the B-17 was shot up by fighters over Germany and eventually crashed at Berkum near Zwolle. Four crew members didn't survive. Five others were taken prisoner. Bauer was the only one who could evade capture for several months. After bailing out he landed very close near the crash site. Bauer was wounded at a leg. He was picked up by Jan Post. He declared after the war. 'The plane, in which Bauer fell down after an air fighting in the immediate neighborhood of my earlier address, Berkum Veldhoek D 118 at Zwollerkerspel. Bauer came down at a distance of 100 m. I found him in the bushes where he was hidden. Curious neighbours, who saw it too, came hurrying on but I kept them away because of the Germans, who were coming already. I distract[ed] two N.S.B policemen, who asked me where the pilot had come down, so that I could warn the 'Groene' (resistance group OD 'de Groene') and transport the pilot with the help of 2 co-operators to 'Groene's' house (Zwolle) when it was dark. Bauer was taken to the house of family Hendrikus Dirk Jan Beernink at Harculostraat 6 at Zwolle. This family hid him for seven days. Probably also the English teacher Hendrik Wijburg (Groeneweg 15 in Zwolle), Johannes de Groot (Molenweg 289 at Zwolle) and Hendrik-Jan van Dijk (Berkum Veldhoek D 118) were involved. After a week the American was handed over to Johan Gelderman ('De Hulst' in Oldenzaal). He most probably took him to the house of his fiancée. baroness Wendeline Elisabeth van Leeuwen-van Boetzelaer at Keizersgracht 537 (or Keizersgracht 717) at Amsterdam. Gelderman was executed on 4 September 1944 at Kamp Vught, while Beernink was shot at Zwolle on 8 February 1945.

After hiding here from 8 January 1944 he was joined here after almost four weeks by another American on 1 February, 2/Lt. Albert Stern (E0245). After two days, on 3 February, Van Boetzelaer escorted the two to Rotterdam. At the Claes de Vrieselaan 101 she handed them over to ‘agent v/d Werf’ (synonym for Roovers) of IS Rotterdam. He probably escorted the two to the house of his father: Johannes F.W. Roovers at Snellinckstraat 21 at Rotterdam. What happened then is unclear. In ‘the spring of 1944’ Bauer and Stern hid for about thirty days in the house of C.A. (Cor) van der Hooft at Nachtegaalstraat 12 in Breda. Van der Hooft was the leader of the Breda underground. From here they moved most probably to the Maastricht area where Groep ‘Vrij’ to care of the two. Stern and Bauer were helped over the border, probably near Maastricht, by R. Luyckx. They were in company of probably S/Sgt. Cecil W. Brown (E0203) and S/Sgt. James V. Newton (E0262). The four were escorted to Meeswijk by Henri Beckers, a Dutchman who lived in Lanaken. Beckers handed them over to members of the resistance group ZERO (leader Albert Geeraerts). The next day a Zero-member, Charles Geeraerts, escorted the four to the tavern 'Oud Antwerpen' at the Gaucheretstraat in Brussels. From here they moved to a safe house of the Dutch Paris Line at 19 Rue Franklin, were they joined five other Americans - 1/Lt Henry Dow Steele (E0270), 2/Lt. James Russel Settle (E0269), 2/Lt. Robert Frank Anderson (E0267), 2/Lt. Leopold Leo Flores (E0268) and Sgt. Paul O. Welch (E0271) - and a Dutch officer. At a later moment they got also the company of a New Zealand navigator, F/Lt. Mervyn Ryburn Breed (E0285). In the morning of (probably) 28 February the German Feldpolizei (GFP) raided the safe house and arrested the ten airmen and several others. After they had been lined up in the garden of the house, the GFP transported the ten airmen to their headquarters at Rue Travesière. After several harsh interrogations (Anderson was beaten for information over a bombsight) they moved to Sint Gilles prison, before going on transport to a PoW camp in Germany.