Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						F/Sgt. Kenneth Herschel Callender Ingram was the flight engineer of Lancaster LL840 during a bombing raid on the synthetic oil plants at Scholven-Buer, north of Gelsenkirchen, in the heart of the Ruhr Valley in the night of 21/22 June 1944. Homeward-bound, the aircraft was intercepted and shot down by a night fighter and crashed at Oenerbroek near Oene. Two members of the crew were killed. Two others were taken prisoner, while Ingram and two others - F/O. J. Craven (E0571) and P/O. E.J. Blakemore (E0570) - managed to evade capture. Ingram landed near Emst and was soon after picked up by the Dutch resistance. He came in the hands of Reinier van Gerrevink who took him to Apeldoorn. According to a report of 
A.J. Kliest of 10 July 1945 (see Helper File NAID: 28671106) Ingram found a hiding place with in the house of Mrs Alida Johanna de Bree-Van de Kogel and her English speaking daughter with the same forenames (Alida Johanna de Bree jr.) at Badhuisweg 121 in Apeldoorn. He stayed here 55 days. From here he moved to Mrs Annie Alberta de Vries at Jachtlaan 168, also in Apeldoorn. It was probably here that he (was) joined (by) American Sgt. Robert Zercher (E0467), the ball-turret gunner of B-17 ‘Karen B’. After some more hiding addresses (possibly family Hendrik Nicolaas de Vries at Boschweg 12 at Apeldoorn) Zercher and Ingram were hiding with family Gerard Veeneman at Eerste Wormenseweg 141 at Apeldoorn for about eight days, before they moved to Mrs. Juliana Bitter-van der Noordaa at the Jachtlaan 137. When they were here everything went terribly wrong. On September 30, the Narda resistance group was rounded up by the German Sicherheitsdienst. They were also looking for Joke (‘Joop’) Bitter, member of ‘Narda’ and son of Juliana Bitter-van der Noordaa. As Joke Bitter wasn’t at the raided address, the SD went to his mothers house at the Jachtlaan 134. Instead of Mrs. Bitters son, the SD found Ingram and Zercher. Both airmen were taken to the SD headquarters at the Van Rhemenslaan 9 in Apeldoorn, together with Juliana Bitter-Van der Noordaa. The SD knew that the two men were military and therefore they had to be treated as prisoners of war, but this did not happen.

In the night of 1/2 October, the airmen were taken to Het Apeldoornsche Bosch, together with six members of the Dutch resistance: Wim Aalders, Jan Barendsen, Reinier van Gerrevink, Wim Karreman, Jan Schut and Hans Wijma. Here they were all executed by a firing squad of NCO’s, recruited from a Waffen-SS Landesschutzen-Battalion. Their bodies were dispersed in the streets of Apeldoorn with the sign 'Terrorist' placed upon them. The body of Zercher lay in the Deventerstraat, close to the intersection with the Hoofdstraat. The body of Ingram was also placed in the Deventerstraat but close the bridge over the Apeldoorns Kanaal. Ingram and Zercher were buried at the Heidehof cemetery in Ugchelen. Afterwards, Bob Zercher was reburied at the American war cemetery Neuville-Condroz (Neupré) in the Belgian Ardennes while Ingram still rests at Heidehof in Plot 4, Grave 299.