Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						S/Sgt. James Reese Anslow was the radio operator of B-24 Liberator 42-52506 during a bombing raid to Berlin on 29 April 1944. This Liberator was hit by flak on leaving the target area and eventually crashed at the Elspeterweg near Uddel. The whole crew, including Anslow, bailed out in time and he landed safely in the forest near Vierhouten. Several Dutchmen had seen Anslow descending and approached him when he was on the ground. He told them he wanted to try to evade and in return they suggested that he should hide in a nearby forest until darkness. Anslow did what they told him: he ran to the forest, dug a hole and covered himself with leaves. Around midnight he started walking and did so until dawn and he then hid himself in a haystack. When the evening had fallen, he continued his flight and having come upon the Apeldoorn Canal, turned south. At dawn of May 1, he hid himself in a barn of the farm of the Buitenhuis family at the Kanaal Noord 288 in Apeldoorn. Later that morning he presented himself to Mrs J. Buitenhuis, the farmers wife, when she entered the barn.

The Buitenhuis family contacted the local resistance and a local doctor arranged civilian clothes before Anslow moved to the house of Cornelis Dirk Jansen and family at the Handelskade 14 in Deventer. After about fourteen days he left the Jansen family, together with Albert Bavouzet, a Frenchman who had escaped from a PoW camp in Germany. Escorted by a girl, they first travelled by train to Zwolle where they hid for two days in the house of Gerard Bruggemeijer at the Oosterlaan near the station. From Zwolle, the two moved to a wooded area near Ommen, called ‘De Wolfskuilen’. Here they hid with seven other men from a local resistance group. With a stolen German army truck and clothed in German uniforms, Anslow and a part of the group travelled to country house ‘De Snippert’ of the Blijdensteijn family at Losser. Here Anslow met another Frenchman: Herve Clerc or Hervie Clerce Ravel.

Both men travelled by train from Enschede to Tilburg and then crossed the Dutch-Belgian border on foot. Bypassing Poppel they walked in the direction of Turnhout but before reaching this town, they asked for help. They were taken to an air raid shelter in a garden where they stayed for about three days. Thereafter they hid for some days with a lady who ran a trucking business. She arranged a truck that took both men to Dottingies on the Belgian-French border near Roubaix. From here they cycled to Tournai and crossed the border into France without incidents. They cycled on in the direction of Paris and arrived in Soissons on June 3, 1944, where they found a hiding place on a farm. They stayed here until June 26 and then cycled in a southerly direction, arriving in Villefranche-d’Allier where they stayed in a Maquis camp for about two weeks. On July 14, they left this camp and met a British Jedburgh-team near Meyac around July 17. Early in September, Anslow and ten other American, British and Canadian airmen in the area travelled to Limoges that was already under control by the French resistance. On September 9, a RAF Hudson flew Anslow from a local airfield in Limoges to England. He was finally back. Less than a month later, on October 3, 1944, he left for the United States.

After the war Anslow worked as a chemical engineer for Tenneco and Exxon-Mobil. His war memorabilia are displayed at the Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, Georgia. James Anslow passed away on 9 September 2006 at the age of 82 at Houston, Harris County, Texas. He is buried at the Confederate Cemetery, Alvin, Brazoria County, Texas, USA.