B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-30360 / Lady Millicent

History of
B-17 42-30360 / Lady Millicent

B-17 42-30360 / Lady Millicent Details

Our mission was to bomb an airfield near Osnabruck, Germany, and shortly before we reached the initial point, two of the motors failed. Another engine was knocked out by flak, so I baled out all the crew in Germany with the exception of the co-pilot. The co-pilot and I stuck with the ship and crash landed just across the border in Holland, about four kilometers from Emrick, Germany.

We fired flares into the plane, until it started burning fiercely. We soon contacted a friendly Dutchman who arranged our journey to Belgium. I last saw Lt. Glassman in Liege. He left that city with an RCAF and an RAF flier to make his way to France.

We were taken by a Dutch Underground man to an old barn where we hid for 8 days. Then we were taken by train to Maastricht, where we remained 10 days. On May 4 we were guided across the Holland-Belgium border by an Underground worker. He took us through an old mine which has an entrance in Maastricht and which extends almost all the way to Liege, Belgium. We were told that the mine was 18 Kilometers long. All the Dutch art treasures were stored in the mine, along with enough food to feed 70,000 people. A huge store of weapons and ammunition was kept in the mine. I noticed that huge ovens had been installed in the mine to feed persons who were hiding from the Germans. Some paintings on the walls were marked with the year 1497.

We were told this was an old cement mine. There were thousands of passages in the place, and one could not pass through it without a guide for fear of becoming lost.

The Dutchman who guided us through the mine said his father-in-law was named Von Ledt and lived in London.

2Lt. Myrle J. Stinnett
Pilot, B-17 42-30360 ‘Lady Millicent’

Source: Escape & Evasion Report No. 1975

B-17 42-30360 / Lady Millicent Crew