Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						F/Sgt. Frederick James (Fred) Haldenby was the pilot of Halifax LW433. The bomber was shot down by a nightfighter and crashed near Rucphen. Haldenby was one of the four survivors. He landed somewhere between Zundert and Rucphen and found a first hiding place in a barn of the family Theo van Hooijdonck at the road Rucphen-Zundert. As too many people in the area knew of Haldenby, he had to move as soon as possible to another hiding place. Van Hooijdonck contacted resistance worker Piet Hoekman of Zundert. He escorted the Canadian to the house of family Jaan Tax in Moeren (northwest of Zundert). After two days hiding here, Hoekman and another resistance worker, Wim van der Horst, escorted Haldenby, dressed as a farmer's boy, to the farm of Widow Katrien van den Berg-Kerstens, who lived with her seven children at a farm at Heidestraat B 307 (nowadays Grote Heistraat 30) at the outskirts of Wernhout. In his Helper File, Van der Horst reported the following about the translocation: 'I found him in a haystack in Rucphen, some days after he had come down. As he could ride himself, I disguised him as a farmer and lent a bike for him. I rode 20 metres before him, able to warn him, so that he could return to a point, fixed before. On the 10 k.m. traject we only met a troop German soldiers who were training on the road. In the farm of wed. [widow] v.d. Berg at Wernhout, where I was in hiding myself and where I had very safe shelter, I hid him for 4 days. Then I took him to the border where I handed him over to a group of the L.O. from Sprang, who would take him further to France.' Haldenby indeed hid here for about four days, from 19 until 22 June 1944. The family Van den Berg had transformed a food silo into a hide out, which was covered by a hay stack. A resistance group from Breda, led by Cor van der Hooft, took over the responsibility for Haldenby. He was taken over the border by members of Groep André from Sprang-Capelle and handed over to the Belgian resistance. By tram he reached Antwerp. What he didn't know by then was that the escape line he used was infiltrated by the 'Abwehr'. He was betrayed by René Van Muylem ('Alphonse') and his fake KLM-line. On 27 June he was arrested in Antwerp. Haldenby survived the war as a PoW. 

Fred Haldenby passed away on 8 August 2010 at the age of 86. 








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