Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

						F/Lt. Marie Joseph Anatole Côté was the pilot of Typhoon RB204. On his 57th and last mission before being posted on rest, the fighter bomber of Côté was hit by flak during an attack on the V2 launching area at Hessum near Dalfsen. Côté was forced to crash-land his Typhoon west of the Middenweg near Dalmsholte, community Dalfsen. After he had contated the resistance, the Canadian pilot came in the hands of a Alexander (Sam) Baud from Leiden who by then was staying in 'Vechtkamp Dalfsen'. He 'delivered' Côté together with G. Baarsma to Hendrik van  Leusen at Aalshorst D 17 in Dalfsen. The Canadian stayed here for one day and was then picked up again by Baud and Baarsma. They brought the fighter pilot then (probably) to Dirk Jan Keizer jr. at Welsum K 19 in Dalfsen. These Dutchmen belonged to the resistance group Raad van Verzet (RVV). Côté would remain here for eight days in hiding. After this period he was handed over by Geert Baarsma and Ms. Anna Gesina Jacoba (Coosje) Greven (also members of the RVV) to 'a member of the underground of Zwolle'. They walked the whole distance of twenty kilometers. Greven and Baarsma also made the return trip by foot. In Zwolle Côté probably first hid a period in the house of Jannes de Jong at De Genestetsstraat 56. He probably joined here an American airman: 2/Lt. Richard P. Fuller (E0913). From here the two moved to the house of A.H.A.Ch. Huiberts at Hertenstraat 38 at Zwolle. This was on 1 February. They remained here until probably 23 February. One or two nights before, they were joined by' a Scottish and English airman', Sgt. H.H. MacFarlane (E0804) and F/O. C.D. Lucas (E0803). They had been hiding on a boat near Hasselt. The four were taken by bicycle to a holiday cottage at Ommen aan de Vecht by three resistance workers: Teunis Werner Kiffers, Hans Krom and Eduard Martinot. 

After about a week the four wanted to try and reach the Allied lines.  Probably also F/Lt. O.G. Korpela (E0802) joined the party is this period. Kiffers, Krom and Martinot offered to help. They would escort them from somewhere halfway along the canal between Deventer and Raalte. Because the three helpers were late they rode immediately to the Snippelings-bridge. But the four airmen never arrived there.. After the failed attempt to cross the Rhine the five ended up at Zelhem where they came in the hands of Ale Jorritsma at E 208 in Zelhem. in the following weeks the five moved - sometimes together, sometimes in twos or threes - to several addresses in the village. Joh. H. Reussink (NAID: 286682950) wrote after the war a detailed report about the whereabouts of the five in the ultimate weeks before the liberation. The five were joined in this period by two other airmen: 1/Lt. J.R. Stevens (E0904) and 2/Lt. S.E. Johnston (E0901). They hid in this period with family J.H. Reussink (Palmberg A 147 at Zelhem), family Ale Jorritsma (E 208 at Zelhem), E.J. Oosterink (A160 at Zelhem), family A. Rijnders (B-102 at Zelhem), family Berkelder (A228 in Zelhem), Joh Buunk (Zelhem), familyu Hemink (Meene at Zelhem) and family Brekveld (Ruurlooscheweg at Zelhem). Stevens and Johnston left in the last days before the libeartion for Winterswijk, but the other five - Côté, Lucas, McFarlane, Fuller and Korpela - were liberated in Zelhem on 1 April 1945. Via Eindhoven they returned by Dakota to England. 

Marie Joseph Anatole Côté passed away on 16 January 2010 at the age of 92.