Lt. Carl Spicer (E&E 285)

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From Michael Moores LeBlanc:
E&E 227 2 Lt Carl L. Spicer
It is know that Carl Spicer was guided from the north of the Netherlands by 'Tiny' Mulder, lady who would became famous and very highly decorated in the Netherlands, for the work she did in guiding many allied airmen from the Gronningen area to Holland in the south. She was never arrested.
In Paris, Spicer was sheltered within Germain Bajpai's Safe-house system. (See Evasion History)

The pertinent copy for Spicer, 'roughly' translated, is as follows:

Area: Friesland (Province), the Netherlands.
Date: 08/10/43.
Cause. Shot down n flames.

Recovered on 13 November, 1943, in Brussels by Mr Van Moorlegheim (of Group Erdry and then given over to the EVA collection service).

Spicer was 'identified' by EVA co-founder, 'UZH' Alphonse Escrenier (see Evasion history) and photographed by Mr Duchesene, a fellow many evaders will recall as " the man without a nose' (combat injuries) who photographed a very large number of EVA's airmen.

"The main body of text says:
" ... Spicer 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 13th 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. During the course of his stay in Brussels with EVA, Spicer 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.

" ... After about four days in this home, another American, Carl Spicer, who was also from the 100th Bomb Group, joined me. He had been assigned to the group after I had been shot down, so I did not know him, and for awhile, did not even trust him. On our last day in this home, the wife was called across the street to answer a telephone call. This was about noon. She came back very, very nervous and said that she was going to be investigated by the Gestapo for some activity prior to our arrival. Carl and I had all of our clothes on, including overcoat and were ready to depart at any instant. We waited all afternoon and evening, and at about 8:00 p.m. a group of men came to the house. There was a lot of talking, which we couldn’t understand. We cornered a middle-aged man and asked him what was happening. He said that a woman down the street had reported our host to the Gestapo for aiding Frenchmen coming back from Germany’s forced labor camps. We asked why we were not being taken away immediately and he said not to worry that the Gestapo would take a long time to get the investigation started. When we asked what would happen to the lady down the street, he replied, "Oh, I just shot her!"

As an interesting exercise in armchair detective work, I will leave it to the reader to determine in whose home these two evaders were staying when the 'murder of the collaborator took place' and who may have been the executioner most likely was. As a point of interest, other archive file records state the woman was not shot as was dramatically reported to Justice. Instead, it seems she was "given a push down some stairs and broke her neck (no order of events is given) ... a much more sensible solution if you think about it, as otherwise a bullet would have alerted the Germans to 'foul play', instead of allowing them to believe her death was the result of a simple domestic accident.