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archieftoegang 528, inventarisnummer 27, pagina 26

Milwaukee Flier to Be host
to Dutch Who Aided Escape
Miss Annemie Franken and her
brother, Jan, will arrive in Milwau-
kee Wednesday from their home in
Tilburg, Holland, to spend a month
at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John
B. Coleman, 4455 N. Frederick av.
The visitors were friends of Capt.
John B. Coleman, jr., of the United
States 8th air force during World
War II.
Behind that simple paragraph is
the story of a friendship built on
great courage under the great pres-
sures of war. It
is the story of a
young Milwau-
kee flier, shot
down by Ger-
man antiair-
craft fire, who
was shielded
from Nazi
troops by a suc-
cession of Hol
land under-
ground stations
and who finally
lived a month in
Tilburg as a
member of the
Franken family.
He had a Dutch
name, wore Dutch clothes, and even
had a Dutch identification card.
Nazi officers were billeted in the
house next door, and German sol-
diers searched the Franken home
while he was there. With the help
of the Franken family, he escaped.
And when the British finally wrest-
led Tilburg from the Germans, he
was free to return to Milwaukee.
John Coleman, jr.
"Must Stay a Month"
Coleman and his parents began
writing to the Franken family as
soon as mail communications were
reopened. Out of that correspond-
ence developed the Colemans' invi-
tation to their Dutch friends. And
now young Coleman is to introduce
his young Dutch friends to his par-
ents. With understandable senti-
ment, the senior Colemans have in-
sisted that the Frankens must stay
at least a month, since that was the
time their son spent at the Franken
home.
Capt. Coleman, a graduate of
Shorewood high school, enlisted pri-
or to Pearl Harbor while he was a
sophomore at the University of
Michigan. He was one of the 8th
air force's “hot” fighter pilots. He
flew 87 combat mission over Eu-
rope before returning to the United
States on leave. At his own request
he returned to combat duty again.
On his fourth flight of this sec-
ond tour of duty his plane was rid-
dled by "flak" over Hamburg, Ger-
many. He nursed the damaged
plane across the border and then
parachuted to Holland soil.
Taken to Monastery
Coleman landed a half mile from
barracks in which German occupa-
tion troops were stationed, but a
farmer came to his aid immediately.
The two hid Coleman’s army cloth-
ing and equipment in a haystack.
The farmer then carried one piece
of clothing at a time from his home
to the farm building where Coleman
hid.
After a short time he took Cole-
man into his house, but almost at
once a German searching party ar-
rived, hunting the flier. Coleman
scurried out the back door as the
Nazis pounded on the front. That
was the first of his escapes.
From the farm he was taken to a
monastery, where Catholic broth-
ers hid him overnight and then
helped him to reach another station
along the "underground railway."
There were two more stops before
he reached Tilburg. There the
Franken family became his pro-
tectors.
Nazis Next Door
Nazi officers were billeted next
door. German boots pounded the
street many times each day, and for
a month Coleman never left the
Franken house. When it was
searched, the family hid him, fear-
ful that his lack of knowledge of
their language would betray him.
He had to use an army Dutch-Eng-
lish language guide—and of course
he could not thumb through it for
phrases if a Nazi officer was ques-
tioning him.
Finally the British came and
Coleman was free to leave. On Nov.
5, one month after he was shot
down, his parents here received his
cable:
"Capt. John Coleman ecstatically
announces he is no longer missing
in action."
And now two of the persons who
made it possible for him to send
that message will be guests of Cole-
man and his parents.
4 Augustus
's Morgens om 8 uur op en kwart voor negen naar
de kerk. Daarna rijden we naar een boerderij
buiten Chicago waar we 's middags picknicken.
Na 't eten maken we met de lui daar een
tocht per jeep, zoals je 't wel eens op de film
zag; heuvel op heuvel af, door sloten en
kuilen enfin echt Amerikaans. Af en toe wel
wat gevaarlijk maar enig. Het is een reuze
farm met paarden, koeien, marmotten etc.
We treffen ook een piloot die in Holland was neer-
geschoten in Maart '44, daarna weggeholpen
werd naar België maar een maand later
in Luik werd gepakt er tot mei '45 in
duitse gevangenschap was. We zijn tegen negen uur
weer thuis en liggen om 10 uur in bed.