Shot down on B-17 # 42-3439 of 96th Bomber Group / 413th Bomber Squadron. MACR 1018. Engineer Frank Killarney landed in parachute near Erp, Holland. He quickly reunited with his Navigator William Doherty and both were helped by Dutch underground member Richard van Nunen. He brought the two airmen to Zijtaart and made them hide in some bushes until evening. Later that day, other people came to fetch the airmen who were first sheltered by Harry Otten, in the village of Erp. On 23 October, they were guided to Sevenum and then to Maasniel where they were helped by Mathieu Pollaert and were sheltered by the family of Gerard ("Sjra") Gorris. From there, helped by J.F. van Eerdewijk, they arrived in Tilburg where they stayed at the home of Jacoba (“Coba”) Pulskens, Diepestraat 49. After a few days there, they had to leave hurriedly as the Germans were on the trail. They were on their way to Antwerp, Belgium when they were both arrested in Tilburg on 5 November 1943.

Note :

About midday on 7 July 1944, Jacoba Pulskens, aged 60, was arrested at her home by a commando group of the Gestapo (German Secret State Police). She was then sheltering 3 RAF airmen who were having a meal with her. Dressed in civilian clothes, the three airmen rushed to the back door, but a German soldier shot them on the spot with his machine gun. They were F/O Jack S. Nott, from New South Wales, Australia; F/L Ronald A. Walker from Lancashire, England and F/O Roy E. Carter, from Ontario, Canada. Their bodies were cremated 3 days later in the concentration camp at Vught, 20km NE of Tilburg. They have thus no grave and are memorialized at the Runnymede Memorial near Windsor, Surrey, England.

Jacoba Pulskens was deported to Ravensbrück, a concentration camp for women. In February 1945, she died in the gas chamber. According to survivors she voluntarily took the place of a mother with children hoping that her gesture would have saved their lives.

See the Geyer crew page at http://www.aircrewremembered.com/gallery/index.php?/category/5