Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						2/Lt. Owen Larrimore Mayberry was the co-pilot of B-17 Flying Fortress 43-37955. During a bombing mission to Hannover the bomber was hit by flak over the target area. On the return leg the whole crew jumped north of Deventer. Shortly after the B-17 exploded in mid-air and crashed in the hamlet Tjoene near Diepenveen. All ten crew members survived, but only Mayberry and the bombardier, Sgt. T.E. Roblee (E0907), managed to evade capture. After bailing out at pretty low level, Mayberry landed in a ditch full of water between Olst and Wesepe. Soon after several curious Dutchmen approached him. Two of them, Henk ten Have and a gamekeeper urged them to distance themselves whil Mayberry hid in a nearby forest. Mayberry hid himself for the rest of the day. In the evening the gamekeeper and a certain 'Ben' returned and took Mayberry to the house of Herman Middel where the American changed into dry clothes. Mayberry was then taken to a chicken farm where he spent the night and the following day. He then moved to the house of Zus Smolders and Johanna Bake at F186 in Olst where he met Sgt. Roblee again. They remained here some days (probably from 27 November until 3 December), before moving to the farm ''t Holtermans' of Antoon (Toon) Santink at E70 (Hengforden) in Olst. Also here they hid only a few days (between 3 and 6 December) before moving on, now to the house of family Braunis Veenendaal at Hengforden Hoenlo in Olst, close to castle Hoenlo. After about two weeks Mayberry and Roblee left for a long ride of about 60 kilometers to the farm 'het Somsenhuus' of family Bernard and Dora Prinzen and their nine children in IJzerlo. Here they joined three other airmen: Mosquito pilot F/O. Francis Humphrey (Frank) Dell (E1042), and P-51-pilots 1/Lt. Joseph F. Davis (E0871) and 2/Lt. R.F. (Bobby) Brown (E0870). In February two other airmen joined: P/O. James Alexander Strickland (E1045) and (the wounded) W/O. I Charles Otto (Chuck) Huntley (E1047). In the second half of February 1945 there were a total of seven airmen hiding in the hayloft of family Prinzen.

The seven airmen were involved in a dramatic incident at 'De Bark'. In the evening of 25 February, they got the message that the resistance group had taken prisoner four German 'Fallschirmjäger' at 'De Bark'. Now the leaders of the group Jan Ket and Henk van 't Lam wanted to execute them. Dell and the others (according to the autobiography of Deel) tried to persuade them not to kill the Germans. The Dutch resistance men couldn't be persuaded though and hanged the four Germans. To cover up the execution they put the four Germans in their Opel car and let it explode with some dynamite, thus simulating the result of an air strike. After this dramatic incident the seven airmen hid for the rest of the night in a grain store on the Aalten-Dinxperlo road. Despite the great risks the airmen were allowed the next night to return to the farm of the Family Prinzen. The Germans weren't fooled. After finding the car they realized that their four men had been put to death by the resistance. They at once set about reprisals and took 46 'Todeskandidaten' from the Kruisberg jail in Doetinchem to a field near where the car had been found. On 2 March 1945, after digging a large hole, they were all shot. Nowadays the spot is known as Rademakershoek where a memorial can be found.

During the last weeks before the liberation the farm of family Prinzen housed not only the seven airmen but also a platoon of German soldiers. They did not leave until just before the liberation. In the morning of 29 or 30 March Bernard Prinzen came to the hide out in the barn and told that the enemy military had left. Soon after they were able to contact an armored car of a Guards Regiment. They were free again.