Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						2/Lt. Billy B. Boyer was the co-pilot of B-24 42-52587 ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’ that collided in mid-air with B-24 42-29466 ‘Dark Rhapsody’ on March 23, 1944, and both planes crashed in the Boschwijde, a small lake to the east of Sint Jansklooster. Four crew members managed to bail out and Boyer, pilot 2/Lt. R.L. Garrett (E0410) and radio operator S/Sgt. B.H. King (E0411) also landed in the water of the Boschwijde. Three villagers, Wicher Roozeboom, Harm Jordans and Klaas van Benthem saw the men come down, jumped in a rowing boat and pulled the three Americans on board. The Dutchmen initially brought the airmen to the house of Jannes Ziel in Vollenhove. Jordens and Roozeboom stayed with the three Americans until Meindert Heidema, a 'chauffeur' of Marten Kingma, had arrived. Assisted by Jan Jacob Jelte van Kluyve, Heidema drove the men to the house of Kingma in Vollenhove where they stayed for two days.

On March 24, the fourth surviving crewmember of ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’, tail gunner S/Sgt. Charles P. Miller (E0412), joined them in the house of Kingma. Miller would stay at Kingma's house for several more days but the other three left on March 25 for Meppel. Here the resistance group of Peter van den Hurk looked after them. Boyer was brought to the house of Albert Nip in Woldstraat 30 in Meppel (according to other sources he (also) hid in the house of two sisters, Froukje Trijntje and Tina Wilhelmina de Vries at Prins Hendrikstraat 3a at Meppel). Boyer left Meppel on March 28 by train together with Miller and two other airmen: S/Sgt. O. Hooper (E0387), engineer of B-24 42-52175 and T/Sgt. C.F. Leone (E0331), engineer of B-24 42-7567 'Black Dog'. They were escorted by Joke Folmer and Roel de Jong (a member of Group 'Carl'). 

Folmer and De Jong brought the four airmen to the house of Carl Meeuwis, the leader of Groep 'Carl', who lived in the Paramaribostraat 137-I in Amsterdam. At this address they 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, Boyer, Miller, Hooper and Leone stayed at several addresses. Boyer, Miller and Hooper 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 Jacobus Pieter Bons in 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, van Cleef and Willem van der Heijden brought Boyer and Miller by train to Veghel. At the station, the two Americans were taken to the house of Gerard Wassenberg and from there to the house of the Otten family at the Kerkstraat 6 in Erp (the so called Pyama House).

On June 5, Boyer and Miller, escorted by Harrie and Antoinette Otten, cycled to Dinther. Here they were handed over to Cor van Laanen who brought the airmen to chaplain Woestenberg in Schijndel. Woestenberg took them together with a few others to the farm of Max Antonius van den Boogaard at De Stenen Kamer 9 in Schijndel were they hid for eighteen days. On June 29, the two were brought to the station of Schijndel by Theodorus Timmermans and handed over to Bim van der Klei from Oisterwijk. In the train to Boxtel they joined 2/Lt. Horace B. White (E0333), the pilot of Mustang 43-12264, and S/Sgt. Joseph P. McDonald (E0239), right waist gunner on B-24 42-7613, who had been hiding in Schijndel in the house of the van Mook family. Most probably, the four airmen were taken over by the Groep André at Sprang-Capelle where Peter Felix, one of the local guides of this resistance group, brought them to the house of Anthonius Wagemaker in Kaatsheuvel. Group André then tried to get the four airmen to Antwerp. Eventually Boyer was arrested in Antwerp sometime in July 1944 and spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft 1 Barth.

Billy B. Boyer passed away on 2 November 2004 at the age of 84 at Bellaire Place, Greenville, USA. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Greenville, Greenville County, South Carolina, USA.