2/Lt. Howard Roy De Mallie was the pilot of B-17 42-102658 ‘Blanco Diablo’. On the 6th of December 1944, this ‘Flying Fortress’ was hit by flak over the target area and eventually crashed at the Ronduite between the Beulakkerwiede and Belterwiede. De Mallie bailed out and landed to the east of Staphorst in the Westhuizingerveld. Soon after he had landed, he came upon six young Dutch boys who provided him with civilian clothes. Next, one of the boys took him to the house of a man named Roelof who lived in Staphorst. The next day local resistance member Peter van de Hurk arrived at the house and brought De Mallie’s tail gunner, Loel Bishop (E0911) with him. After a second night in Staphorst, De Mallie and Bishop were taken by bike by Van den Hurk, his wife Mimi, Roelof’s wife and two other women (Mientje Nip and Jentien de Groot) to the house of Ms de Groot in the Weerdstraat in Meppel. In the night of 18 December, the Sicherheitsdienst entered the house and arrested De Mallie, Bishop, Peter van den Hurk, Mimi van den Hurk, Mientje Nip and Ms De Groot. The Dutch resistance members were heavily beaten and were soon to be executed. At Christmas night though, the resistance group of 'Ome Hein' (Jan Gunnink) raided the police station and liberated the resistance members. Unfortunately, De Mallie and Bishop weren't at the police station anymore by then. They had been taken to the local jail on 19 December, where they stayed for about five days. From there they were taken to a new location, a German military installation, where they spent several days in a cell again. Next, they were taken to a warehouse in a small German city, which was used as a collection facility for Allied prisoners. From there De Mallie and Bishop were taken to Dulag Luft in Oberürsel near Frankfurt. After three days they were moved by train to a regular PoW-Camp, Stalag Luft I where they were liberated by Russian troops in late April 1945. |
