Almost 40 years
after the publication of the acclaimed Dutch version of the book, known
Dutch historian and author Hans Onderwater MBE recently finished
‘JOURNEY TO THE HORIZON’, the epic story of Escape and Evasion during
World War Two. This time he did more research, ably assisted by retired
New Zealand police officer Brian Lissette, whose late uncle is one of
the airmen mentioned in the book.
‘JOURNEY TO THE
HORIZON’ tells the story of three fighter pilots and two Lancaster crews
who were shot down by the Germans. It follows them on the run, hiding,
in captivity and in some cases in death. They were Britons, Canadians,
New Zealanders and Americans. Five of them met in Paris while being
guided by members of the Comete Escape line, others evaded in different
ways. Some endured the harsh life in a POW-camp, while in one case an
airman even ended up in Buchenwald concentration camp. Those who died
now rest at various cemeteries in France.
The
main character is Donald Kenyon Willis, an American pilot who fought
with the Fins against the Russians in 1940, then joined the Norwegian
Naval Air Arm against the Germans, escaped to the Shetlands, joined the
RAF as one of the first Eagle Squadron pilots, until he joined the
USAAF. After the war and a spell as a base commander in Austria and
Germany he became a test pilot in JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off)
experiments from Wright-Patterson Air Base in Ohio.
Donald Kenyon
Willis was an American furniture maker and a whiskey smuggler, who
decided that he should volunteer to help the Finnish people in their
fight against the communist Soviet Union. He sold his car, booked a
birth on a freighter to Tornioon in Finland and offered his services as a
pilot in the Finnish Air Force. After a brief training he flew Bristol
Bulldog biplanes in a reconnaissance role over the frontline near the
Lake Ladoga area. When the Finns surrendered, he fled the country at the
end of March and arrived in Kirkenes a few days after the German
invasion of 9 April 1940 had taken place. Having received documents from
the Norwegian embassy in Finland he reported to the Norwegian army and
was quickly accepted as a crewmember on a Heinkel He115 floatplane of
the Norwegian naval Air Services. When things went wrong, Willis
followed his pilot Hans-Andreas Bugge and flew to the Shetland Islands
to save the aircraft from German requisition. For w while the Norwegian
He115s were used by SOU for covert missions from Malta. Willis followed
his Norwegian friends to Canada. He returned the Britain and became a
Spitfire pilot in one of the American Eagle squadrons and stayed until
the Americans entered the war. Willis then joined the 4th Fighter Group.
In April 1944 he participated in a P38 raid against Gutersloh airfield.
After his aircraft was hit, he force-landed at Oud-Gastel in Holland
behind a football pitch where a match was being played. Some of the
supporters took him to the pitch, gave him a raincoat and a cap and when
the Germans arrived, chasing all the supporters from the field, he too
left in a hurry. After staying with a Dutch family, he wandered across
the Dutch border until he reached Antwerp and was spotted by someone who
was connected to the Comete Evasion and Escape line. After a long
journey Willis and his four allied companions crossed the Pyrenees
during the night before D-Day, thus becoming one of the last five airmen
to evade capture. After D-Day all Allied aircrew were told to stay
hidden until their allied friend has arrived. Interestingly all the
aircraft Willis flew while with the RAF and USAAF were called Ridge
Runner, which is the name for an alcohol smuggler. His fellow evaders
were two Americans Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas H. Hubbard and 2nd
Lieutenant Jack Cornett and Britons Pilot Officer Len Barnes and
Sergeant Ron Emeny.
In the book Onderwater and
Lissette also write about the sometimes dreadful experiences of the
fellow crew members of Barnes and Emeny, after their two Lancasters
crashed in France. In the course of the research Hans Onderwater
followed the same evasion route, meeting the helpers who risked their
lives, crossed the Pyrenees on foot with the Basque guide of 1944 until
he too reached Gibraltar. He visited Stalag Luft 1 Barth on the Baltic
coast and Stalag Luft 3 Sagan in Poland, Buchenwald near Weimar and
Ravensbrück near Berlin. He visited the five airmen or their families
and corresponded with other people who dealt with the evaders. During
the last forty years he interviewed over 100 people who were in some
major or minor way connected to the airmen and their experiences.
Brian
Lissette, being a police officer in New Zealand, got in touch with Hans
in 2017 and managed to find relatives of all airmen involved in the
story of the two Lancaster bombers. Himself being a relative of the
pilot of one of the Lancasters, he followed an amazing trail, which
ended at the grave of his uncle Warrant Officer Leslie Lissette, who
stayed behind the controls of his burning Lancaster until the living
members of his crew had successfully jumped. When it was his turn, the
aircraft was too low for him to be able to take to his parachute and
Skipper Lissette died in the aircraft.
The book is a rare example
of intense research by two determined men, who visited each other and
became friends. The book is the result of mutual interest, friendship
and a quest for the truth and an attempt to give credit to the airmen as
well as to those who helped them. The book must be read to be able to
understand the experiences of the often very young airmen, the
resistance members who played a deadly game with the Germans and their
collaborators, and the families waiting for many months to know the fate
of their loved ones.