Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						T/Sgt. Raymond E. (Bud) Swick was air gunner on B-24 Liberator 42-52332 that was troubled by engine problems on a bombing mission to Braunschweig on March 15, 1944. Attacks by German fighters were too much and the pilot told his crew to bail out, the aircraft finally crashing at Den Hulst near Nieuwleusen. Swick descended in an open area between Nieuwleusen and Ommen, close to a young farmer who was working on the land with his horse. The farmer took him by the arm and made it clear to the American that he had to hide himself for the Germans. Together they walked to a nearby forest and the farmer urged Swick to hide himself there. Around 19:30 in the evening, the farmer returned and together they walked to a farm where the airman stayed in the barn for two nights. His presence was reported to the resistance group of Jan Seigers who arranged further transport. During his stay in the barn, a doctor from Ommen visited Swick and removed a piece of shrapnel from his foot.

On March 17, Jan ter Horst and Geert Schoonman escorted the airman to Enschede. In this town, he found a hiding place in the house of Mini Schreurs, the girlfriend of Ter Horst, at the Lipperkerkstraat 140. He stayed here for about a week and then went to the house of Roelof Kloek in the Bloemendaalstraat 36 in Enschede for a few days. On March 26, he went to the Horstman family who lived at G57 in Hupsel, a hamlet near Eibergen where he joined S/Sgt. M. Cech (E1106) who had been waist gunner on B-17 42-31025. On May 3, Piet Alberts from the KP Enschede escorted both airmen back to Enschede. They slept for one night in the house of Alberts at the Kottendijk 80 in this town and were then brought to the house of H.H. ter Kuile at Slaghekkeweg 18 the next day. Although they enjoyed their stay in the forest of the De Hoge Boekel estate, they had to there leave soon. On May 11, Wim Hop escorted the two airmen to the bookshop of Wietse Louwes at the Deurningerstraat 223 and 4 days later, Louwes took the Americans to the tobacco shop of Louis van het Reve at Hengelosestraat 186. In the second half of June, Swick and Cech were taken to the woods between Beerze and Stegeren where they joined two other American airmen: T/Sgt. Robert F. Pipes (E0472) and S/Sgt. Hugh F. Heafner jr. (E0471). There also was a Jewish rabbi and a young Dutchman named Jan. They dubbed their new hiding place Camp Eisenhower. On June 29, a B-17 was shot down over the forest. Two of the gunners, S/Sgt. Harold L. Chapman (E0578) and S/Sgt. Stuart E. Bouley (E0577), descended close to the camp and joined the other evaders. But due to the risk for German search parties, the men decided to evacuate Camp Eisenhower immediately.

The rabbi and Jan made their own way and the whole night, the six Americans followed a railway track and the following morning they arrived at the station of Mariënberg where they met railway worker Gerrit Bannink. Here the group split up with Pipes and Heafner staying with the Bannink family for the next days. Bouley and Chapman went in hiding with the Smeek Family at the Kloosterdijk while Swick and Cech found a hiding place in the house of Geert Salomons in Bergentheim. On July 20, the six airmen were collected from their different addresses and taken to the 'De Bruinhof' farm of the de Bruin family at the Steendijk 1 in Beerzerveld. During the day they hid in a secret compartment in a haymow. On the 27th of  February 1945, the farm was raided by 'Landwachters' and in the ensuing firefight and melee the airmen managed to flee unharmed. Pipes returned to the station in Mariënberg where he hid with the Bannink family for a second time. Cech and Bouley first went to the Smeenk family and then further to Lesker family at the Witteveenseweg in the Weitemanslanden, northeast of Almelo. Heafner and Chapman hid in the neighbourhood of the ‘De Bruinhof’ farm. Eventually, Swick ended up with the Rutgers family in Vroomshoop, where he hid from March 2 till March 12. From there he went to the Meegers family in Heeten where he was liberated by Canadian troops on April 9, 1945.