The Bedford Triangle by Martin W. Bowman

Author:Martin W. Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473849884
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2015-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Carpetbagger missions were flown in earnest throughout May. William G. McKee’s crew, for instance, flew seven night missions that month, all of them to France.

On the night of 28/29 May, Lieutenant Henry W. Wolcott III and the seven members of his crew in ‘Charlie’ in the 858th Squadron, failed to return from a mission to ‘Osric 53’ in Belgium. An eighth man, Lieutenant Carmen J. Vozzella, the navigator from Sam Goldsmith’s crew of the 859th Squadron, who was flying with Wolcott for navigational experience, was also lost. By 11 September 1944 all members of the crew, with the exception of Sergeant Richard G. Hawkins, the tail gunner, who was found dead on the ground at Aaigem, his parachute unopened, were back at Harrington. Wolcott and his crew confirmed that they had made three runs over the target but there was no evidence of a reception committee present. The Liberator had just swung around to begin its homeward journey, when it was suddenly attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf–110 night-fighter near Enghien. The Liberator received three damaging bursts but Wolcott managed to shake off the attentions of the night-fighter in some fierce avoiding action.

However, their troubles were not yet over. As Wolcott turned north, another sudden attack came from the side. Fifty calibre shells ripped through the right wing tanks, through the fuselage and through the navigator’s compartment where William G. Ryckman was. Violent fires broke out and it only took a few moments for Wolcott to realize that the aircraft was doomed.

All the crew baled out and, apart from Hawkins, landed safely. The group split up and headed their separate ways. Wolcott, who had landed in a Belgian wheatfield, was taken in by a Flemish family and remained there for two days before being taken to the village of Ninove to meet a Belgian White Army official. The Belgian escorted Wolcott to the Catholic University in Enghien where the American remained for four days, hidden in a priest’s room. At the end of this time Wolcott was taken to a farm, south of Enghien. There he discovered that there were eighteen Russians, who had escaped from forced service in the German Army, and also an American pilot. The next day Wolcott and the motley group left for other safe houses, having been warned that the Gestapo were only a mile away. Wolcott and the other American pilot were paired off with three Russians in a farmhouse further down the escape line. For three weeks they waited.

Then, one Sunday morning, 150 German troops surrounded the house. A traitor had talked. Warned in the nick of time, Wolcott hid in the attic in a secret hiding place under the floor boards. The Germans entered the house, searched it thoroughly and two of them even walked over the floor where Wolcott was hiding. The Germans finally left, taking the farmer, all the food and money they could find with them but without Wolcott and his comrades.

The farmer was released after two weeks but word of the American and Russian fugitives was becoming common knowledge.

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