Submitting.
Ernie Holmes picture: supplied
Shortly after the fatal crash, a farmer’s daughter, Netje van der Heijden, found the brave pilot hiding. She took him to her parents home where her father, Fons, had a number of escapees in hiding. At immense risk to themselves, the family kept Mr Holmes sheltered until plans were confirmed to smuggle him to Spain.
But when he was reunited with his navigator on a carefully planned escape route, the pair were betrayed in Antwerp and subsequently taken to the prisoner of war camp StalagLuft III.
Mr Holmes spent the remainder of the war there before embarking on the infamous “Long March” to Lübeck from where he was repatriated.