Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Evaders


Evader chart: E0296
SGLO Date crash Aircraft
T3412 15-02-44 Halifax
MilRank First Name(s) Name
F/Lt. Patrick Baring Oates Ranalow
Milregnr. Nationality Born
130989 British Kensington, Middlesex, England, 21 April 19
Returned Y/N Evader Fate Date Captured/Liberated Place Captured/Liberated Escape Line
Yes EVD 25 Jun 44 Switzerland
Evader Story
						F/Lt. Patrick Baring Oates Ranalow was the navigator of Halifax LV861. During a bombing mission to Berlin the bomber of Ranalow was shot down by a night fighter. Ranalow managed to bail out and landed at 11 PM in a field at about 'twelve miles north-east of Deventer'. He was almost immediately captured by a German patrol, who had surrounded the field and took him on foot to a post two kilometers away. At 7 AM the following morning Ranalow was taken in an army lorry towards the town of Deventer. In the outskirts of the town he jumped from the lorry, raced for a nearby wood and hid there until dusk. In the evening (16 February 1944) he skirted the edge of the town and approached an isolated house where he was hospitably received. He eventually ended up in the home of family Ankersmit at the Platvoetsdijk. Mr. Ankersmit had a friend in the resistance in Heerlen, probably Giel Bensen, and offered to escort Ranalow to this area. Ankersmit brought him by train to the house of Hendrik F. de Boer (Akkerstraat 9 at Hoensbroek). After half a day Ranalow was escorted by a neighbor, Frederick C. de Wittpuyt (Akkerstraat 5 at Hoensbroek), by car to family J.H.C. Janssen at Schaesbergerweg 133 at Heerlen. He arrived here on 31 March 1944 and remained here fifteen days. He at his turn handed Ranalow (with the help of Bensen) over to the resistance group of Major Symons ('Groep Blok'). Ranalow moved from Heerlen/Nuth to the Belgian border with the help of Mathieu Edelhausen. Paulus W.A. Landman helped him across the border. He ended up - probably - in Hasselt. From there he went to Liege where he was helped by the resistance group around Joseph Drion. On 13 April Ranalow came in the hands of Elisée Delaite, communal secretary of Rienne. She arranged that he and five other airmen, among them P/O. R.G. Hoare, [rank unknown] D.R. Murphy, F/Lt. C.P.H. Grannum, F/Sgt. J. Quinn and a certain Foster, found a hiding place in the house of Désiré Paquay.

On 26 or 28 April 1944, Paquay, assisted by Roger Warin, escorted Ranalow, Foster, Hoare, Murphy, Grannum and Quinn to a certain Arnould in Corbion, very close to the Belgian-French border. Ranalow and the others crossed the border a few days later in Paul Frelet's van in which they were transported from Corbion to Sedan in France. Here they were handed over to a certain Charendal. No details are available from the rest of Ranalow's flee to Switzerland. It's only known that he crossed the French-Swiss border on 25 June 1944. He left this country a few months later, on 16 September and finally arrived back in England on 6 October 1944. After he had returned to England, Ranalow resumed his operational career and was shot down during a bombing mission to Hamburg in the night of 8/9 April 1945 (in Lancaster NG440 of 35 Squadron). Ranalow died of his sustained wounds on 10 April 1945 in a German hospital. He is now buried in Becklingen Cemetery, near Luneburg in Germany.







 
						
Source(s)
* Alan W. Cooper, We act with one accord (place? 1998), page 168
* 'De piloot in de kersenboom' in: Nieuwsbrief Historische Vereniging Dorp Diepenveen en omgeving, nr. 25, oktober 2011, page 4
* https://www.evasioncomete.be/franalopb.html
* NIOD, 896, Willemsen, W.J.M, inv.nr. 2, 'P.B.O Ranalow' National Archives, Washington, Helper Files, NAID: 286650463 - NAID: 286645221 - NAID: 286692841 - NAID: 286652511 - NAID: 286670665 - NAID: 286637107 - NAID: 262452945 - NAID: 286664402