Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						Sgt. Tom (‘Moose’) Masdin was the wireless operator of Halifax NA514 that was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed at the Groote Heide near Nistelrode just past midnight on June 17, 1944. After bailing out he landed south of Uden in a muddy field, minus one boot that he lost when his parachute had opened. He was cold, wet and sore with a head wound and an injured foot. He huddled under his parachute for several hours because it was raining very hard that night. At dawn he buried his parachute, consulted his escape map and decided he was in Holland. After an elderly lady had declined to open her door for him on Sunday morning, he finally found refuge when a young boy did open the door for him.  The boy, Lamber Rutten, age 14, looked at his tunic, saw `Canada´ on his uniform, and cried `Vlieger´ [aviator]. Lamber gave first aid to Tom and when his parents arrived home from church, they provided him with a proper meal and bandaged his very sore ankle. They then contacted the Dutch resistance. 

It didn’t take very long before two men arrived at the Rutten home and asked Masdin various questions to confirm that he was not a spy or an `infiltrator´. They suggested to hide him in the hayloft as a German patrol was close by. Masdin fell asleep in his hiding place and was awakened around 2 PM, and provided with civilian clothes. He then cycled with an escort about 5 kilometres to the farm of Marius Goyaerts at Loosbroek.  He stayed at this farm for several days before being taken to the Heesters family in Schijndel. Via Moergestel he travelled by train to Tilburg and while on the way there, he was joined by two American airmen: 2/Lt. Robert G. (Bob) Donovan (E0399) and 2/Lt. William T. Weeks (E0403).

Just before Tilburg they were told that it would not be safe to get off at the station there, so they jumped out of the train. They quickly entered a forest and hid themselves for two days in an underground shelter set up by the resistance. From here the three airmen were taken to the house of the sisters Blanche and Louise Pirotten in Tilburg. Blanche, a member of the Dutch resistance, was involved with an escape line from southern Holland to nearby Belgium. Eventually the three airmen cycled the relatively short distance to the border area, accompanied by a Dutch guide.  Due to bad timing, they arrived late and their guide had to leave them. Meanwhile their Belgium guide did not show up. 

Desperate, the three airmen decided to cross the border on their own. After crossing the frontier, they met a Belgian lady who spoke a little French as did one of the Americans. She helped the three evaders by giving them the address of someone they could contact in Aarendonk. There, Tom Masdin stayed for about 10 days with a baker, a man called Geerts, while the two Americans stayed with another family. Eventually they were brought to Antwerp where Masdin was separated from Weeks and Donovan.

He was taken to a house in Antwerp where he joined a young RAF evader by the name of Jeff Gasgoine.  While they stayed there, they were visited by two men who questioned Masdin and Gasgoine separately.  The type of questioning aroused the suspicion of both airmen because their visitors ased a lot of questions about their stays in Holland and Belgium.  The men left but returned the next day to take Masdin and Gasgoine on their `journey to freedom´. Instead, the car took them to the Antwerp prison where they were arrested on July 23, 1944. From Antwerp, Masdin was taken to Dulag Luft Oberursel and he ended up in Stalag Luft 7 Bankau. This camp was evacuated on January 19, 1945 and the inmates had to march to Stalag Luft 3A Luckenwalde where they arrived on February 8. This camp was liberated by the Russian Army on May 3, 1945, liberating some 20.000 allied prisoners of war.