Seven men aboard, and those who helped them

The people

A New Zealander at the controls, an Australian grounded by illness, five Englishmen between twenty and thirty — and the Haspengouw farmers, families and resistance people who took them in afterwards. Select a name for the story of that night and of the months that followed.

His turret failed over Hannover and Johnson sent him forward to the nose. Over Liège he was hit in the knee. He landed in a field north of Liège, right beside a German battery that kept firing, and lay a full night under a hedge in freezing fog. Ghislaine Toussaint, walking her dog along the lane, took him home and hid him for twelve days. Via Brussels, Bavay, Paris, the Pyrenees and Gibraltar he reached England on 17 January 1944 — his 28th operation. He served on as an air traffic controller and died on 22 December 1958, only 36 years old.

“I went up to her and said: ‘I'm an Englishman.’ She embraced and kissed me and took me to her house.”

Tom Hesselden, “Curly”, shortly after joining the squadron.

Tom Hesselden during his escape journey.

From: Halifax, England
Born: 07.11.1922
Outcome: Escaped to England

“Without the help of a very brave Belgian farmer I could never have begun a journey that ended in England in February 1944.” — Philip Pepper

The helpers and witnesses

Without them, no one would have made it home: the farmers, families and resistance people of Haspengouw and Liège who took the airmen in, hid them and passed them on — and the witnesses who saw that night from the ground.

Philip Pepper came down by parachute in a cold, muddy meadow at Widooie. Farmer Michel Paulissen took the airman into his home, where his burned hands and face were treated. Pepper stayed hidden there for several weeks, until the gendarmes grew suspicious. Through a nun — “Michou” — from Ter Hove castle he was then moved to a safer address. Pepper would later say it himself: without this brave farmer, his journey to England would have been impossible.

“Without the help of a very brave Belgian farmer I could never have begun a journey that ended in England in February 1944.” — Philip Pepper

From: Widooie (Tongeren), Belgium
Outcome: Hid Philip Pepper for weeks

Read the full details in the book