The Unabridged History of 439 Tiger Squadron Page 98

En route to the target there had been no flak opposition, but light flak posts around the bridge scored a hit on F/L J.A. Cote's aircraft (MN-375). With the glycol coolant leaking badly, Joe had to make a forced landing a few miles away. He called up on the R/T to say that he was all right, and his companions turned homeward "rueful at his absence, but optimistic about his safety especially since he speaks a little German and is quite crafty."

Webmasters Note (1) The actual aircraft flown in the above mission was RB-204 as noted in the Squadron's diary and mission reports for the 14 Jan 1945. Airframe MN-375 while flown by F/L Cote, had to be abandoned over Luxembourg because of fuel starvation near Nijmegen. See diary entry for the 28 Sep 1944.

A beautiful rendition of MN-375 by the famous aviation artist Walter Drohan. Copyright © Walter Drohan. Used with permission. You can see more of Mr. Drohan's work an his website CANADIAN AIR FORCES 'MUSEUM'

They had not misjudged their flight commander. For eleven weeks Joe dodged the enemy from one hiding place to another until British troops finally reached the area. When he crash landed in a field west of Ommen he saw people approaching and, unable to distinguish whether they were soldiers or civilians, he hurried away in the other direction. A farmer directed him to a wood where, after dark, two young men, members of the Dutch underground, took charge of him and led Cote to a farmhouse. For ten days he remained here, passing part of the time watching the activities of a mobile V.2 site that was located quite close to the farm. Joe reported that most of the rockets which he saw fired dived almost vertically to earth after they had reached an altitude of 1500 to 5000 feet. The roar would suddenly stop, the projectile would nose over, dive into the ground and, after an interval of ten seconds, there would be a great explosion. From the farm he was taken to Zwolle where he spent about a month, moving from one refuge to another. The underground then transferred him and several other evadees to a village, whence they moved again to Raalte. During this time Cote had been wearing civilian clothes, having left his uniform at the first hiding place. One of his helpers, a young girl, volunteered to retrieve his uniform which Joe then wore under his civvies. Early in March a young boy guided the party to Zelhem, about 25 miles to the south where the local underground leader arranged accommodation in a farmhouse. It was a curious situation as the evadees shared the house with a number of German soldiers billeted there.

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After about three weeks the Germans became "a bit of a strain" so the British, Canadian and American airmen in the group moved into the village. A day or two later Zelhem was attacked and largely destroyed by rocket Typhoons and the men had to find another refuge with a beekeeper. There they finally made contact with the advancing British forces early in April.

Webmaster's Note : The following info was supplied to me courtesy of Jan Harm ter Brugge of Amsterdam/Hessum, the Netherlands. "F/L Cote was brought to safety by Hendrik Jan Keizer from Dalfsen, a carpenter at the time. BTW Mr. Keizer is still very much alive, as is Anatole Cote and the two are still in contact with one another.

On the same day that F/L Cote went missing temporarily F/O R.H. Laurence made his last operational sortie on a weather recce. It was his 97th trip and marked the end of an outstanding tour. He had destroyed or probably destroyed four enemy fighters, twelve vehicles, ten locomotives and two balloons, and had damaged 22 MET, eight horse drawn vehicles, six barges and a ship. On dive bombing missions he had dropped 64,000 lbs. of explosives on enemy targets.
"One of the keenest types that one could meet", Bob richly deserved the D.F.C. that was awarded to him. ".... Throughout (his tour) he has set a fine example of skill and determination in pressing home his attacks on various targets..... He has rendered much valuable
and devoted service."

After the repulse of the German counter offensive in the Ardennes the British Second Army opened an attack north of Aachen, and for over a week the Typhoon wing was engaged on close support of the troops as they sought to drive forward to the Roer. No. 439's first mission, on 16 January, was to knock out
a German supply depot and divisional headquarters located in Waldfeucht, a small village about 20 miles north north west of Aachen. After Jack Sweeney had checked that the weather was fit for operations, Johnny Carr led a formation of eight aircraft loaded with 1000 pounders to the target."Every bomb landed directly on the target, most in the centre with a few on the outskirts of Waldfeucht."

S/L Crosby made a wide orbit over the village to view the damage and confirm that the attack was "most certainly a success." Low cloud, haze and a blizzard prevented the squadron from intervening in the battle again until the 20th when another close support job was carried out against Laffeld, where the Army had met stiff resistance. There was some delay in marking the objective with red smoke, but when it finally appeared the Tiffies made their attack, achieving "fair results" with eight bombs in the area and
four just outside. After bombing, the pilots strafed the village, damaging one vehicle. Some fires were seen. At first there was little flak; it increased in volume, however, and as F/O Jack Sweeney, the formation leader went down for his second strafing run a burst put his engine out of action. The other pilots saw him
glide to earth about two milesfrom the target and heard him report that he was O.K. and "starting to run." Apparently his pursuers caught Jack before he was able to go very far and sent him off to a p.o.w. camp. He had completed 38 sorties before the flak and barbed wire interrupted his tour. Jack had been scheduled to succeed Joe Cote in command of "B" Flight and two days after he went missing his promotion to flight lieutenant came through.

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