Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Evaders


Evader chart: E0412
SGLO Date crash Aircraft
T3545 23-03-44 B-24 Liberator
MilRank First Name(s) Name
S/Sgt. Charles Philip Miller
Milregnr. Nationality Born
37221024 American 17 Sep 1917
Returned Y/N Evader Fate Date Captured/Liberated Place Captured/Liberated Escape Line
No EVD-POW Jul/Aug 44 Antwerp, Belgium -
Evader Story
						Sgt. Charles Philip Miller was the tail gunner of B-24 42-52587 ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’ that collided in mid-air with B-24 42-29466 ‘Dark Rhapsody’ and crashed near Sint Jansklooster on March 23, 1944. Four crew members managed to bail out and after Miller had come down, he found a hiding place with Jacob Boes in Barsbeek, a hamlet to the south of Sint Jansklooster. The next day he was brought to the house of Marten Kingma in Vollenhove where he joined the three other survivors of ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’, pilot 2/Lt. R.L. Garrett (E0410), co-pilot 2/Lt. Billy B. Boyer (E0409) and radio operator S/Sgt. B.H. King (E0411). 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. Miller was taken to the station of Meppel on March 28 where he left for Amsterdam 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 the resistance Group 'Carl' from Amsterdam. 

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, Miller, Boyer, Hooper and Leone stayed at several addresses. Miller, Boyer 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 Miller and Boyer 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, Miller and Boyer, escorted by Harrie and Antoinette Otten, cycled to Dinther. Here they were handed over to Cornelius 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 Miller was arrested in Antwerp sometime in July or August 1944 and spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft 4 Gross Tychow.

Charles Miller passed away on 30 November 1988 at the age of 71. He is buried at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Weston, Platte County, Missouri, USA.						
Source(s)
* H.B. van Helden, De lijst van Haeck. Een overzicht van de hulpverlening aan geallieerde bemanningsleden en ontsnapte krijgsgevangenen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Hardenberg 2017), page 263
* Frans Govers, Pyama-House. Ontdekkingsreis door het uitgebreide netwerk van de pilotenhulp tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog: 1943-1944 (Uden 1992), page 83-85
* Oorlogsmuseum Overloon, Boekje Piet Felix, Groep André
* NIMH, The Hague, List 'Ondergedoken piloten te Erp (Fam. Otten)'