Paratrooper in the St. Maartenspolder

From 'Threatened, Occupied, Liberated. Bosschenhoofd and Hoeven in the Second World War'

On 5 November 1943, a flying Fortress crashed near Wouw from the English base Bungay belonging to the 446th Bomber Group. The plane burned down completely. One of the crew members landed with his parachute in the St. Maartenspolder in a drainage ditch adjacent to a plot of farmland on the Kokseweg. After some time, one of the German soldiers found the airman with his parachute in the ditch. The Ortskommandant took him to Oudenbosch. Only one crew member of the Flying Fort was killed. The other nine were made prisoners of war.

Thé de Kroon recalled the following from this event:

"One time a paratrooper came down near the Hoefbaantje. Someone who knew English well spoke to him. Through ditches, the paratrooper fled to the forest near the Poldersdijk. Later, Germans came with a car to watch our barn. They had probably seen everything happening from a lookout in Oudenbosch."

Jac de Rond told:

"It was Friday morning. I was ploughing on a plot in Kokseweg. Three horse heads suddenly looked up. On the piece of land next door, a paratrooper was falling from the sky. The parachutist raised his hand. Upon landing, he had put a hole in his parachute so as to be on the ground faster. The parachute went fluttering and tore open further. On landing, the parachutist injured his leg. Many people from the polder came to watch. An hour after the charge, the Germans were near the landing site. The group consisted of four Germans and two gendarmes. They approached me and my father. 'Who ploughed here?", they asked. I said I had been. Then I had to go with them to point out exactly where. Father would watch the horses. They asked if I had seen anything. I said no, just other people. Then the gendarme discovered fresh footsteps in the land. He also saw two buttons of a parachute cord. He then pulled the parachute out of the ditch, whereupon the slightly injured parachutist emerged. He was searched all over. The parachutist was arrested. I had to carry the parachute to the Kokseweg. The other day I was ploughing there again. The Germans came back with another interpreter and asked about weapons and papers of the paratrooper. I knew nothing."