Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Evaders


Evader chart: E0885
SGLO Date crash Aircraft
T4659 07-11-44 Typhoon
MilRank First Name(s) Name
F/O. Adrian Godfrey Davies
Milregnr. Nationality Born
136839 British 1 Jan 1922
Returned Y/N Evader Fate Date Captured/Liberated Place Captured/Liberated Escape Line
Yes EVD 17 Feb 45 Lage Zwaluwe Pegasus II / Biesbosch Crossing
Evader Story
						F/O. Adrian Godfrey Davies was the pilot of Typhoon PD506. While attacking a train between Nunspeet and Wezep in the afternoon of November 7, 1944, the engine of his ‘Tiffy’ was hit by Flak near Mullegen. Flying pretty low, he had just enough speed to pull up and make a down-wind landing in the polder between Zalkerbroek and Voskuil. He got out unharmed and next set fire to his fighter. He then left the scene and managed, more by luck as he stated later, to evade the German cordon that was set up to make him prisoner. At dusk, Harm Hendrik Boeve, a farmer who lived at Zalk A-148 in Zalk, found Davies hiding in a haystack on his land. Boeve provided him with something to eat and then contacted a member of the resistance: wachtmeester (Sergeant) Pieter Weidenaar (Zalk A 70) of the Dutch Military Police, post Zalk. He collected, together with his collegae Telstra, Davies and took him to his house. He remained here for two days before Wridenaar escorted him to A. Schoonhoven at Kamperveen B 27. After a day and a night at this address, the Englishman moved the house of policeman Gerard van Heerde at Zandweg Ib at Oosterwolde, who handed the airman immediately over to Gerrit Jan Boeve at E 95 in Oldebroek, head of the local resistance. Randall hid here for two days, before he moved to esquire Henk Baud who was hiding himself at Huize ‘Old Putten’ at Ostendorp. From here he moved to the house of Mrs. Grietje Docter-Scholten at H 11a (Rijksstraatweg) at Elburg, where he remained for about ten days. He received here food and sigarettes from Mr. D. Scholten (Oostendorp H40). From this address Davies moved back to esquire Baud at Huize 'Old Putten' at Oostendorp. On November 17 Baud brought him to a barn of the farm of the van Norel family at the Stoopschaarweg in Doornspijk.

The barn was the meeting place for in all some eighteen Allied military, most of them Airborne troops who had fought at Arnhem and were going to participate in the Pegasus II escape operation. Only the son of the family Van Norel was aware of the ‘unofficial guests’. The plan was that the group would be picked up by a truck there the same night, November 17, but the truck didn’t show up. Early in the morning of November 18, the eighteen men were transported to different hiding addresses. At the beginning of the evening the truck arrived but at Huize ‘Old Putten’ near Oostendorp. The eighteen men were assembled here in a hurry from their different hiding places. All men were given a shovel when they boarded the truck as if they were Organisation Todt-workers. After an adventurous ride of about an hour the truck stopped, and a man escorted them to another assembling point for Operation Pegasus II. However, they had arrived too late at the meeting point and therefore they missed the main group. They then left as last party and while on their way, they heard machine gun fire from up front. An advance party had run into a German sentry and a firefight had started. The guides of the resistance ordered the party into a thick forest to wait there. In the afternoon, after a night in the cold, a farmer turned up with stew and Dutch gin (jenever). In the evening of November 19, a horse drawn cart appeared as promised and took the group to a barn on the land of J. van Essen at the Westerhuisweg in Harskamp. The group of men stayed there for some days and were then informed they would be split up until the next escape attempt. 

On November 26, Eb van Omme, member of the resistance in Kootwijkerbroek, took Davies and F/O. Frank W. Batterbury (E0835) to the farm of the van den Brand family at the Wesselseweg near Kootwijkerbroek. Because the family already had nine ‘Arnhem’ refugees staying with them, the airmen were hidden in the haystack. For the first four weeks, they were only allowed to leave the haystack between 7 o’clock and 9 o’clock in the evening to come to the kitchen. Thereafter, they were allowed to walk in the farm yard between certain times to get a bit more exercise. The weeks go by like this and on January 21, 1945, Davies and Batterbury moved to the ‘De Valk’ farm of Jacob Bol and family near Barneveld. Here they join F/O. J.A. Goggin (E0838) who had arrived here on November 20, 1944. Unfortunately, the farmer found his farm not safe enough anymore and the three airmen left the same day to another farm, three kilometres further down the road. Here they temporarily joined three American airmen because they left here on January 23. Eb van Omme and a certain ‘Carel’ then cycled with Davies, Batterbury and Goggin to Nijkerkerveen. Davies and Batterbury ended up on the farm of W. Van de Kemp at the Schoolstraat F147 while Goggin went in hiding on a farm nearby.

In the afternoon of February 9, a guide named ‘Willem’ took Davies and Batterbury to a farm near the Apeldoorn-Amersfoort highway. Around half past five, ‘Frans Hals’ collected them there and brought them to a crossroad where both airmen were handed over to two other guides. These guides brought the men to a cabin near ‘Huis te Maarn’ where they were joined by lieutenant Brian Carr, a British paratrooper who had escaped from the Germans in the aftermath of Pegasus II. In the evening of February 11, the three men were escorted to Schalkwijk where they spent the night. They left early next morning and at 9 o’clock in the morning they crossed the Lek River. On the other bank they were brought to the house of Klaas Heijboer, the leader of the local resistance group, at Nr 64 in Groot-Ammers and they stayed there for two days. On February 14, the three men proceeded their journey and cycled to Molenaarsgraaf where they spent the night in the house of reverend Klaas Dekker. The next day, sister Hans (Heine van Leeuwen) and Pete’s brother (Jan Visser) escorted the men to the house of the van Woerkom family at the Rivierdijk 486 in Sliedrecht, the departure point for the Biesbosch escape route. In the evening they were joined here by Boyd, Lockett and Low with whom Batterbury had ‘travelled’ before. The first attempt to cross failed because their transport didn’t show up at the dike of the Nieuwe Merwede. The men returned to their hiding addresses and the next evening tried again. This time, captain Coates was waiting for them at the dyke and took them by boat to Lage Zwaluwe where they arrived as free men at a quarter past seven in the morning of February 17, 1945.

Adrian Godfrey Davies passed away on 18 January 2009 at the age of 87.

						
Source(s)
* National Archives, Washington, Helper Files, NAID: 286639352, 286717900, 286687101, 286706654, 286639347, 286651289, 286658888
* Wolter Noordman, Ondergedoken op de Veluwe. Geallieerde militairen en hun deelname aan operatie 'Pegasus II' en ontsnapping via 'Biesbosch' (Kampen 2010), page 292, 374, 399-403, 453, 482.