Special credit for the original research on the fate of “The Wild Hare” and its crew must go to the late Paul Pouwels of Elshout, The Netherlands. Mr. Pouwels researched and wrote two articles for the regional newspaper, Brabants-Dagblad, on the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the destruction of “The Wild Hare.” The English translations of the two articles appear on the next two pages.
In addition, Mr. Pouwels was of tremendous help to me in my research. On what must have been at least three occasions he picked me up at the train station in Den Bosch, twice to see the places that were important in Tom Applewhite’s story–the villages of Hedikuizen, Well, and Bokhoven. On another occasion, he took me to the Marechaussee Museum in Buren to see the special exhibit in honor of Karst Smit. He was a source of invaluable information, including correspondence from Eugene van der Heijden listing the airmen the Smit-van der Heijden line helped and the civil defense police report on the arrest of the members of the crew of “The Wild Hare.”
The two articles by Paul Pouwels are as follows:
1. “Flying Fort Crashed Near Dussen,” (“Vliegend Fort verongelukte bij Dussen”), Branbants Dagblad, Lanstr/Heusden-A, 10 November 1983, p. 4.
2. “Pilot Savers from Well See American Again; Meeting Again After Half a Century in St. Louis” (“Wellse pilotenredders zien Amerikaan terug”), Brabants-Dagblad, Bommeler-Waard, 2 June 1993.
WWII Netherlands Escape Lines 