From Michael Moores LeBlanc:
E&E 283 Lt John K. Justice.
It is known that Justice was helped by Mr. Van den Top, in Stroe, the
Netherlands.
In Paris, Justice was shelter within Fernande Ominus' Safe-house system.
The pertinent copy for Justice, 'roughly' translated, is as follows:
Area: Barneveld(?), the Netherlands.
Date: 10/10/43.
Cause. Battle damage - loss 4 engines.
Recovered on 12 November, 1943, in Brussels by Mr Van Moorlegheim.
"The main body of text says:
" ... Justice was recovered in Holland towards the middle of October 1943.
He was brought to Brussels by Smit (Karst Smit) and the taken to the home of
Mme Chabot and Mlle Ambach by Mr Van Moorlegheim, who then conferred him to
Mr Escrenier. Mr Escrenier and Mr Spilliaert guided Spicer to the home of Mr
Spilliaert, where he was identified (interrogated & certified to be an
allied airman) and photographed. Following this, he was escorted by Mr Hoste
to the home of Mr & Mme Olders, who sheltered him from the 12th to the 16th
of November, 1943. Mr Hoste and Mr Spilliaert then guided Spicer to the home
of Mr & Mme Rouffart, who sheltered him for the 16th till the 18th of
November. After this, Mr Hoste and Mr Spilliaert guided Spicer to the home
Mr and Mme Sacotte, who sheltered Spicer from the 18th till the 24th of
November. Mr Hoste and Mr Spilliaert returned him to the home of Mr & Mme
Rouffart where he lived from the 24th till the 26th of November, on which
date, he was guided to the home of Mr & Mme Depaye who kept Spicer till the
3rd of December 1943. Justice was visited on many occasions by Mr Matthys.
On the 3rd of December, 1943, Mr Matthys gave Spicer over to a delegate of
Mr Michiels for evacuation by the Comete Service.
*See
John K. Justice story - The Raid On Munster.
Helper background:
'Pitou' Ernest Van Moorlegheim, leader of Group Erdry, was a police
commissioner in Brussels. He was a decorated army veteran of the '18 Day
War' with a heroic citation for action under enemy fire. He has a long
record of intelligence service work and help given to allied airmen. He was
a member of the SOE Bravery Group and co-operated with a resistance group
known as ARM. The ARM group had it's origins in help givn to Israelites and
other refugees but soon found themselves handling evading airmen brought to
them by Fiat-Libertas, as well as the fist few airmen handled by Comte
Belgium's new leader, 'Jean Serment' Yvon Michiels. About the 24th of
August, 1943, 'Pitou' and his group, narrowly avoided being caught up in the
snares of the notorious arch-collaborator, Prosper de Zitter in the summer
of 1943, when it was learned that man managed had managed to intercept and
trap most, if not all of the ARM groups airmen on the false 'Captain Willy
Jackson Line'.
From that point onward, Van Moorleghem went on to feed the airmen he
recovered, mostly men coming down from Holland, into the hands of the EVA
Group. They, in turn , passed the airmen on to the Comete Line. This new
arrangement worked very successfully until the 14 of November, 1943, when
the Germans finally succeeded in arresting one of the Erdry group's guides,
'Willy' Schmidt and T/Sgt Nello Malevasi of the 385 BG at the Dutch-Belgian
frontier. In turn, this led to the arrest of the Erdry group's young
Brussels guide, Lotty Ambach, who was waiting for the delivery of the
American airman but who was met instead by an Abwehr agent. Altered by these
dangerous development and knowing he would have to flee for his life, Van
Moorlegheim took a chance and, perhaps burdened by guilt of having taken on
a mistress, 'Pitou' decided to spend one last night with his bed-ridden
invalid wife to say good bye before he left. It was a delay of only a few
hours but it was too long for him. The Germans raided the home early on the
morning of the 15th of November and Ernest was arrested. He was executed at
Bayreuth, on 29 November, 1944. Age 29. Willy Smit also died in Germany but
details are unknown. Lotty Ambach and her mother Mme Chabot survived the
concentration camps. Many other members of the Erdry group in Brussels and
members of the connecting feeder group led by Karst Smith in Holland were
also arrested and some of these good folks never returned home. Karst Smith
escaped immediate arrest and went into hiding. He continued with resistance
activity until early March 1944 when he was arrested in Paris while helping
to establish a new escape line. He survived the war. He was one of the very
first to be betrayed by 'King Kong' Chris Lindemans, who would rise to
infamy as a kind of Benedict Arnold ... a brave resistance figure who, under
terrible personal pressure and in very dramatic circumstances, would became
a notorious German agent and betray many resistance members. Some people
believe he was responsible for the Allied disaster at Arnheim in Septmber of
'44. He committed suicide while in an Allied prison hospital. |
