Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Evaders


Evader chart: E0987
SGLO Date crash Aircraft
T5481 01-04-45 Spitfire
MilRank First Name(s) Name
W/O. Johannes Cornelis van Roosendaal
Milregnr. Nationality Born
1692496 Dutch
Returned Y/N Evader Fate Date Captured/Liberated Place Captured/Liberated Escape Line
Yes ESC 13 Apr 45 Meppel -
Evader Story
						W/O. Johannes Cornelis Van Roosendaal was a Dutch fighter pilot of 322 Squadron. On 1 April 1945 he was tasked to fly an armed recconnaissance over the occupied part of eastern Holland. During this mission his aircraft was hit by flak and Van Roosendaal had to crashland his Spitfire near Warnsveld. Shorlty after he was taken prisoner. The Dutchman was transported to Meppel where he was interrogated. From there the Germans put him on transport by train to (first) Zwolle. When Van Roosendaal and his guard, an old German soldier, got off, he slipped away under the wagon to the other side and then dissapeared in the darkness. After a few hours he reached the railwaybrigde over the IJssel River. He observed the bridge for a while, but saw no activity. He then decided to cross. When he was on the middle of the bridge someone shouted out of nothing: 'Halt!'. Moments later he was captured again.

He now was transported to the Luftwaffe-airfield of Havelte. Here he met two other Allied pilots: 2/Lt. Kenneth Elton Foster of the USAAF and F/Sgt. H.W. Rohde (E1070) of the Norwegian 332 Squadron. In the late evening of 5 April the three airmen managed to escape after they had cut two iron bars from the cell with a file Foster possessed. They eventually ended up at the farm of Family Buitenhuis in Nijeveen, who gave them food and shelter for two days, from 6 until 8 April.  The family also contacted the resistancce. On 9 April they moved to the farm of G. Wildeboer also at Nijeveen. Here they hid until 12 April. In this period Foster was examined by a doctor and Wildeboer also 'went through the German lines' to get the prescripted medicine. On 13 April the three airmen managed to contact Canadian troops at Meppel.


						
Source(s)
* National Archives, Washington, EE-2958
* Erwin van Loo, ‘Kat en muis spelen met de bezetter. Van Roosendaal wist zich twee keer aan gevangenschap te onttrekken’ in: De Vliegende Hollander LXI (2005) nr. 4, page 22-23