Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						T/Sgt. Clement F. Leone was the engineer of B-24 Liberator 42-7567 'Wacky Donald' that was shot down by German fighters and crashed at 'De Baalder' in Hardenberg on February 24, 1944. Five crew members were killed in the crash. Leone and four others managed to bail out in time but were captured by the Germans after their landing. On their way to the Hardenberg police station, Leone managed to escape, after which he hid at the house of Jan Hendrik Seigers at Wolfskuil 1, Ommen. Early in April, he was joined here by S/Sgt. Odell Hooper (E0387), the engineer of B-24 42-52175 ‘Portland Anne’.

On April 28, they were picked up by a certain Tony Brons from Amsterdam. This was probably Jacob Pieter Bons who took both airmen by train to Amsterdam where they were brought to the house of the leader of Group 'Carl', Joop Meeuwis who lived at the Paramaribostraat 137-I, Amsterdam. The same day they were joined by two crewmembers of B-24 42-52587 ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’, co-pilot 2/Lt. Billy B. Boyer (E0409) and tail gunner S/Sgt. Charles P. Miller (E0412). At this address they also met Lt.Col. David Alford (E0284), who had just arrived from Vorden via Zwolle and next went in hiding at the address of the Goedkoop family.

While in the Dutch capital, Hooper, Leone, Boyer and Miller stayed at several addresses. Hooper, Boyer and Miller for instance, hid for four days in the house of Mary Lipp-van Winkel in Haarlemmermeerstraat 116 in Amsterdam and, together with Leone, they stayed for one night in the house of their guide to Zwolle, Jaap Bons, at the Witte de Withstraat 82-I in Amsterdam. At a certain moment, Hendrik van Cleef took the four Americans by train to Gerrit van der Born, aka ‘Tony’, in Amersfoort but due to unknown circumstances Van Cleef took them back to Amsterdam. On May 24, 1944, the four men split up with Boyer and Miller travelling by train to Veghel and then onwards to the so called Pyama House of the Otten family at Kerkstraat 6 in Erp.

Hooper and Leone stayed a bit longer in Amsterdam but on June 6, also left by train for Veghel. They were escorted by Van der Heyden and Van Cleef as well and all four cycled then, accompanied by a member of the Otten family, to the house of the Otten family at Erp. The next day Van der Heyden and Van Cleef returned to Amsterdam while the airmen cycled, escorted by Antoinette and Harrie Otten, to Dinther. Here Hooper and Leone were taken over by Cor van Laanen who brought them to the van Roy family at the Molendijk 17 in Schijndel. After ten days the airmen were brought by Bim van der Klei to a Groep 'Andre' member, Piet Felix. He took both Americans to the house of the widow Adriana Wagemakers-Loonen in Kaatsheuvel. After fourteen days, Piet Felix brought the men across the Dutch/Belgium border. Hooper and Leone made it to Antwerp but were arrested there on July 13, 1944 and Leone most probably spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft IV Gross Tychow.