Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						Sgt. William H. (Bill) Rye was the right waist gunner of B-24 Liberator 41-28932 ‘Ramblin Wreck I’. The bomber was shot down by German fighters on the return flight from a bombing mission to Vechta airfield. Rye managed to bail out and landed in a field at the Leiweg near Giethoorn. He started walking in southerly direction towards Giethoorn and eventually made contact with the resistance. He ecventually ended up in the house of Willem Hol at Oosterhoek 81 in Steenwijkerwold. Here he met another member of 466BG (but from a different aircraft), T/Sgt. Fred J. Gerritz (E0636). Rye and Gerritz would remain in hiding with the Family Hol until the liberation of the Steenwijk area by Canadian troops on 13 April 1945.