F/O. William J. Caselton was the navigator of B-24 42-95080 ‘Super Wolf’ that crashed near Valthe in the province of Drenthe on 16 February 1945. After bailing out, he landed near the crash site and was found by A. Lampe, the local commander of the Marechaussee (Dutch Military Police) in Nieuw-Weerdinge. Caselton stayed at his home for one night. The next day Lampe brought the airman, together with his colleague Homburg, to teacher Raap in Nieuw-Weerdinge. At this address he stayed in hiding for five days. When it became unsafe at this address, he was moved to Ter Apel where he hid in the house of a teacher of the HBS, Roorda. In the night of 17 on 18 March, the German Sicherheits Dienst (SD), assisted by Landwachter Jan Alssema, raided the house and arrested Caselton, Roorda and his son Koos. First, they were brought, together with some other men from Ter Apel, to the barracks of the Marechaussee (Dutch Military Police) in Stadskanaal. Caselton was sent - via Stadskanaal and Groningen - to a PoW Camp near Lubeck where he was liberated on 7 April 1945 by the Russians. Roorda was brought to the infamous Scholtenhuis, the local headquarters of the SD in the center of the city of Groningen and was finally taken to the Huis van Bewaring, also in Groningen, where he was liberated by Allied troops, half April 1945. His son Koos ended up in the Huis van Bewaring in Hoogezand where he was liberated on 13 April 1945 by Canadian troops. |
