From Dutch to 'Dutch': A Country Shows Its Gratitude

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Source: Washington Missourian on-line edition
05/27/2005
From Dutch to 'Dutch': A Country Shows Its Gratitude
By Karen Cernich

Sixty years after Allied forces liberated the Netherlands, a young Dutch girl reached out to shake the hand of U.S. Army Air Corps S/Sgt. Duthiel "Dutch" Borcherding as he rode through the streets of her town earlier this month in a parade honoring the veterans. It was her way of saying, "Thank you," to a soldier who helped save her country from Nazi control.
The girl wasn't alone. Throngs of young children showed their enthusiasm for the Allied veterans, said Borcherding, Washington.



"All of the kids would run up to me to shake my hand or give me a high five," he remarked. "Then if the parade stopped for a minute, the moms and dads would take a picture of the kids shaking my hand."

[Hanno Spoelstra]

The elderly people who lived through and can remember the horror of World War II expressed their gratitude as well.



"In (the town of) Putten, when the parade went by the nursing homes, the old people were all lined up in chairs along the curb waving and yelling," said Borcherding. "They would come up to me, shake my hand and say, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you did for us.' "



The experience was just as moving for Borcherding and his wife, Delores, who accompanied him on the trip.



"Quite a few times the wife and I had tears in our eyes," he said, "especially during a memorial service they held.



"I wish every veteran would have had this experience," he added. "To be thanked over and over by young and old as we passed by was unbelievable."



Borcherding's wife, Delores, echoed his feeling.



"It was very emotional," she said. "I cannot believe how grateful these people are after 60 years, and how they have taught their children and grandchildren not to forget!



"In all of the different homes we were in, they all would embrace us and say, 'Thank you, thank you!' The people were just so wonderful."



Borcherding was the only American veteran who took part in Holland's 60th anniversary celebration. The rest were Canadian veterans.



It was the Canadian Army that liberated the Netherlands May 5, 1945, Borcherding noted. American troops were in France and Germany, he said.



Germany surrendered May 7, and VE (Victory in Europe) Day was observed May 8.



Borcherding was invited to be part of the Dutch celebration because of a special connection he has with that country. It began Jan. 30, 1944, when the American B-24 Liberator bomber he was aboard crash-landed in a Dutch farmer's field.



Captured by Germans



The American bomber was on a mission to Brunswick, Germany, to bomb a munitions factory. The plane was operating from Station 104, Hardwick, England, the base of the 93rd Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force during World War II.



The bombing mission experienced heavy anti-aircraft fire as it approached the target, Borcherding said, and one of the bombers lost two engines, probably due to damaged oil lines.



The plane left formation and flew 300 miles at low level on two engines and was over the Zider Zee in The Netherlands when a supercharger failed on another engine, he said. With only one engine in operation, the pilot made a 180-degree turn back toward land.



The bomber skipped the tops of some trees in a forest, then slipped through three fields, crossing several large ditches, before coming to rest nose down and tail up in a Dutch farmer's field, said Borcherding.



Outside of bumps and bruises, none of the 10 crew members was injured, he noted, but six were captured by German soldiers just hours after the crash and the other four managed to reach the Dutch Underground and make their way back to England.



Of the six captured airmen, two escaped when they were on a train being taken to a prisoner of war (POW) camp, said Borcherding, noting an American fighter plane strafed the train, knocking several cars from the tracks. The two Americans managed to hide from the Germans and also reached the underground. They arrived in England in July, five months after the crash.



The other four captured Americans -- which included Borcherding -- were taken to various POW camps in Germany and held until they were liberated in late April 1945, 15 months after the crash landing.



Today Borcherding is the only soldier from his crew still living.



Correspondence

Leads to Friendship



In the late 1980s, Borcherding received correspondence from Jaap (pronounced Yap) Vermeer, a resident of Nijkerk, Holland.



Vermeer is a member of the Dutch Historical Military Conservation Group and also of the Air War Study Group in The Netherlands, which consists of 300 members working in cooperation with the Dutch Air Force. He was looking for information on the Jan. 30, 1944, bomber crash in his country, said Borcherding.



Vermeer and Borcherding continued corresponding and in July 1992, Borcherding and his wife traveled to The Netherlands and spent a week with Vermeer and his wife, Yefke.



Vermeer took the group to the farm where the bomber had crashed more than 48 years earlier. The owner of the farm, Jan van Burgland, witnessed the crash as a 12-year-old boy. He showed them where the plane first hit the ground and where it ended up -- three fields, several ditches and a small canal away. He had marked the site with an American flag.



In the years since that '92 trip, Vermeer and Borcherding have remained in contact. Last year Vermeer sent Borcherding photos of a 1942 Dodge WC-51 weapons carrier he had restored to mint condition.



More than just restoring the vehicle, Vermeer painted it with details of the crashed 1944 bomber.



The front bumper reads, "8AAF, 93rd BG and 328 SQD" (squadron) -- all symbols the crashed bomber carried, said Borcherding.



On one door is "Station 104, Hardwick," the base from which the 93rd bomber group operated out of England.



Under the windshield is "Ted's Traveling Circus," the nickname of the 93rd in honor of Col. Ted Timberlake, the group commander.



Just under the left front headlight appears "Dutch," in honor of S/Sgt. Borcherding, according to Vermeer.



On the back of the vehicle is stenciled, "Pistol Packin' Mama," the plane's nickname. This was not the only "Pistol Packin' Mama," as this appeared on other Army Air Corps bombers, both 24s and 17s.



A large American flag that flies on the vehicle was purchased by Borcherding last year from a store in Washington and sent to Vermeer. He requested a 3- by 5-foot American flag with an American eagle on the mast, said Borcherding.



Borcherding also sent Vermeer an 8th Air Force cap and a number of 93rd Bomb Group magnets supplied by Magnet Inc. of Washington. Several of the magnets are displayed on the jeep and Vermeer also has given some to his friends in the vehicle restoration group "Keep Them Running," which specializes in all of the damaged American equipment left in Holland after World War II.



The "Keep Them Running" vehicles have appeared in parades for D-Day, VE-Day and The Netherlands Liberation Day.



Vermeer told Borcherding, "We will never forget what the Americans did for us in liberating Holland."



Liberation Celebration



When the time came for Holland to observe the 60th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis, Vermeer invited the Borcherdings to come be a part of the event, which was to include several parades.



Borcherding initially declined the invitation, but Vermeer didn't give up. He continued to send Borcherding information to encourage him to come until the American agreed.



The Borcherdings took part in two of the three parades held to celebrate their freedom. One parade lasted four hours and went through seven towns -- Hoogland, Hooglanderveen, Hoevelaken, Terschuur, Zwartebroek, Nijkerkerveen and Nijkerk. The second parade was in the town of Putten.



A total of 62 restored vehicles from the "Keep Them Running" group were in the parades. All of them were restored American World War II vehicles, said Borcherding -- jeeps, weapons carriers, ambulances, trucks, even a tank.



"They were fitted with rubber tracks instead of metal so they wouldn't tear up the streets," he noted.



During the parades, Borcherding, of course, rode in the weapons carrier Vermeer had restored and painted in tribute to the crashed B-24 bomber crew.



In addition to Borcherding, other veterans who took part in the ceremonies included five or six groups of Canadians (with 30-40 in each group) who had served in the Netherlands at different times over the course of World War II.



At one point in the celebration, Borcherding gave a speech, which was paired with a speech given by a Dutch official, Bert de Graaf.



"When you hear the experiences of people who lived through World War II, like Mr. Borcherding's story, it leaves a deep impression," de Graaf told the crowd.



"Then you know for sure, this must never happen again! . . . At all costs, here in The Netherlands or anywhere else in the world we have to prevent a repeat of what happened in the years '40-'45."



The Borcherdings were in Holland from May 1-11. They met many grateful people and toured some of the country's jewels -- a 79-acre tulip garden in Deukenhof, a crash museum in Lisse devoted to crashed aircraft from World War II, and a memorial garden in Putten honoring more than 600 members of the Dutch Resistance who were sent to Nazi concentration camps in October 1944 -- only 59 men returned.



"We heard a lot of different stories while we were there," said Borcherding. "The Dutch people are so appreciative of what the Americans and Canadians did, and it showed in the parades!"