Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						S/Sgt. Richard E. Denny was the engineer of B-17 42-39856. After bailing out he landed in the swamps of the Noordoostpolder northeast of Urk. Almost immediately after the landing he teamed up again with 2/Lt Russell H. Gecks (E0431), 2/Lt. Frank Deason (E0429) and T/Sgt. Clifton E. Hanley (E0432). As the evening approached, they walked to a town under construction - Emmeloord - but couldn’t find any inhabitants. They broke into a house and spent the night there. The following morning the proceeded their travels in southerly direction until they were stopped by a small canal, the Urkervaart. They then approached two men near a ferry who belonged to the Dutch underground. They took the door Americans, still in their flying suits, to Espelerbocht. After supper they were brought to the prospector barrack camp Marknesse where the four spent the night. The next morning they were given civilian suits. Deason and Gecks where then escorted to the house of the Family Kingma in Vollenhove. Hanley and Denny were housed not far away, also in Vollenhove. From here they went by train to Meppel where they stayed between 11 and 15 April and were helped by the underground organization of Peter van der Hurk. From there it went to Zutphen where they stayed in the house of Gerrit Rietberg. Because of German searches for manpower, Denny and Gecks hid then for a few days in Warnsveld. It is unknown where Deason and Hanley were hiding. From these alternative hiding places all four turned back to Zutphen station for the trip by train to the south of The Netherlands. They got off the train in Maastricht and hid until 5 May in the bread factory of Albert Bekker. Together with Sgt. Donald S. Beckwith (E0417), 2/Lt. Carl I Glassman (E0427) and 2/Lt. Myrle J. Stinnett (E0428) (and  possibly a Canadian airman) they crossed the Dutch-Belgian border. Willem van Schaik (Loran) escorted them through the Sint Pietersberg to Belgian soil. Here they were handed over to a Belgian resistance organisation. 

The following weeks they hid in Bassenge (Eben-Emael), Roclenge, Slins, Herstal and the city of Liège. From there they were guided south to Fraipont. Helped by Allied secret services, the Belgian underground had now set up a number of hidden locations in the woods of the Belgian Ardennes west of Bastogne. The operation of setting up the secret camps and getting the evadees into these spots was named 'Operation Marathon'. The four Americans were in camps near Beffe and Porcheresse. Possibly Gecks did not liked it there and moved on south on his own, but he did not get far. He crossed the Belgian-French border at Bagimont and was in Gespunsart, just on the French side. Then he was a bit more south in Renneville and Fraillicourt, heading for the French city of Reims. Just north of Reims, hiding for retreating German troops he encountered the advancing US Army at Auménancourt-le-Petit on 30 August 1944. Flown back in England first week of September. The other three were liberated on 8 September 1944 in the vicinity of Liege:  Deason and Hanley in Prayon and Denny in Rocourt. Denny hid the last months, from 16 June on until the liberation of the area, in the house of family Desire Auger at 6 Rue de l'Eglise at Slins. 

Dick Denny passed away on 13 July 2008 at the age of 84.