While on sick
leave, he gets engaged to an English girl.
It is March 17 1944 when he reports back to
duty at 19 squadron, which operates out of
Gravesend now.
Maxwell
Bell in front of his Mustang III. (Picture
courtesy of Huub van Sabben)
He is a pilot officer now and much at the
squadron has changed. Almost all the pilots
are new faces to him and the spitfire has
been replaced by the American P-51 Mustang.
Maxwell trains hard to get his skills back
to par. On April 20 1944 he flies his first
operational mission since his return to the
squadron.
The next few months Maxwell flies numerous
combat missions. He manages to shoot down no
less than 4 German fighters during this
period. Maxwell is also involved in the
invasion as 19 squadron flies many missions
to support the ground troops in Normandy.
In august the breakout is achieved the the
Germans are routed through France to Germany.
A quick and chaotic retreat is the result.
Early september 1944,
19 squadron operates from the Belgian airfield of
Grimbergen (B60).
On 9 September
1944 a number of 19 squadron mustangs take off at
1245 from Grimbergen to fly an armed
reconnaissance mission in the Arnhem-Zwolle-Lingen
area. P/O Bell is one of them.
The armed
reconnaissance flight attackes several
locomotives, leaving three of them severely
damaged. The Mustangs, however, come under by
intense light Flak fire near Zutphen. F/S Abbott's Mustang
gets hit, explodes and crashes near the
bridge at Zutphen.
The mustang of P/O Bell is also hit. His
mates hear his distress call over the radio
and that he has to leave his plane. None of
them actually see him bail out. German anti
aircraft gunner see the plane, trailing
smoke, disappear behind some tress in the
direction of Hall. Shortly afterwards they
see a plume of smoke rising from that area.
P/O Bell manages to leaves his stricken
plane at the last moment. While bailing out,
he loses one of his flying boots. He lands
at the Pongeweg in Hall, close to where his
plane crashes. German motor patrols quickly
pick him up and take him prisoner. A
recently discovered German document of a
local AA unit states that a Australian
pilot has been taken prisoner.
However,
Maxwell Bell is not listed as PoW, but as a
MIA. For years after the war nobody knows
what has happened to him.
In the early 1990s. Huub van Sabben comes
across a document called:
“The Klarenbeek- case, the shooting of an
Allied airman (unknown)."in the British
National Archives.
Reading the
document by Capt. Frank Locke of
No.1
Team, Field Investigation Section, War
Crimes Group N.W.Europe, Mr. van Sabben
realizes that certain cases are mixed up in
here. This intrigues him and he starts his
own investigation.
Early september 1944, the
Feldgendarmerie-Kompanie of the 9th
SS-Panzerdivison “Hohenstaufen” is located
in Klarenbeek neer. This division is one of
two (the other being the 10th SS
Panzerdivision "Freundsberg") who are being
withdrawn from France after being in
continues combat in Normandy the previous
months. The are sent to Holland for some
rest and reinforcements. Later these two
divisions will play a decisive role in
Operation Market Garden.
During their
return from France, this unit takes under
wings a Canadian PoW, Stanley E. Cupps. He
was taken prisoner before but the unit
detailed to take him to a PoW camp, suffers
a broken down car. The SS units takes over
the prisoner in order to take him to a PoW
camp. That doesn't happen. Cupps remains
with his captors and ends up with them in
Klarenbeek. Cupps is detailed to do
household chores and even is in contact with
the local population.
Marinus Diks works as a farm hand at the
farm were the Feldgerdarmerie-kompanie is
housed. On September 1944, the Allied
airborne invasion of Holland, Operation
Market Garden, takes place and the unit is
sent to Arnhem to fight the British.
A few days after the unit has left, Marinus
takes a few cows to a meadow behind the
farm. There he discovers a fresly dug grave.
After some digging he finds a foot and some
burned clothes. Afraid that his find might
deliver him a similar fate when the Germans
find out, he doesn't tell anybody about his
find. He assumes that the man buried in the
grave is the Canadian Cupps who might have
beenkilled by the Germans. Cupps has also
dissapeared since the Germans left on
septemebr 17th.
Operation
Market Garden doesn't meet its objective and
Arnhem and Klarenbeek are not liberated
until April 1945. Shortly after, a Canadian
officer and the Dutch underground contact
Diks about the grave. The fieldgrave is
being opened so the authorities can conduct
their investigation. They find enough
evidence to start a investigation relating
warcrimes. On April 18, 1945, the remains
are reburied in the local Roman Catholic
churchyard, next to some SS men who have
been killed in the battle for Arnhem. In
September of 1945, the remains are once more
removed and this time reburied at Groesbeek
Canadian War Cemetery. At this time the
investigators assume that this is Stanley E.
Cupps. He is buried as Unknown, however, as
positive identification is not possible.
In March 1947 a more stringent autopsy is
being conducted on the remains. The doctor
conducting this autopsy comes to some
striking conclusions; The golden tooth that
Cupps had in his lovwer jaw, is missing. The
body misses one boot and the clothing appear
to be from a pilot. He also finds a
bullithole. This is not conclusive with the
fact that this should be Stanley Cupps.
In the meantime, Captain Lock finds an
eyewitness to the shooting. This appears to
have happened on September 10. This is not
in line with the 19th of September that is
on the gravemarker. Also "A Canadian
regiment" is written on the stone. Only in
1951 the name of Cupps is removed and
replaced by "Unknown Canadian Soldier".
After long and
intensive research, Van Sabben traces Mr.
Albert Verhoeve.
Mr. Verhoeve was originally from Rotterdam,
but went into hiding at a nearby farm. He
tells how just before the airborne landings
he has seen a shot down Allied pilot in the
village. He was being taken away by 12
German soldiers, six on either side of him.
What stuck in his mind is how tall the pilot
was; a head taller than his captors and he
seemed completely in control of the
situation. "He even put his hand in the air
when I told him:"Cheer up! The war is almost
over!", Verhoeve said. "They took the pilot
to a school or a bar called "Bello" in the
village. Later he was taken by truck out of
the village in the direction of Klarenbeek.
I remember that he was wearing just one
flying boot."
Severalpeople
have seen P/O Bell in Klarenbeek. A girl
testifies to Captain Lock how she witnessed
that the "English" pilot in the evening of 9
spetember 1944 is brought to a pub called
"Pijnappel", which the German used as their
local headquarters, to be interogated.
Ferdninand Wijn also volunteers information.
He testifies how he witnessed that the
Germans executed a male behind the farm
called "Woudhuis" around 18.00 on the 10th
of September. Another testifies seeing the
German dig a grave. Captain Lock tries to
find the Germans responsible for this crime.
He manages to trace some of the Germans who
were in Klarenbeek at that time. All deny
responsibility or blame fellow SS men who
have been killed. All, including a Dutch
symphatiser living at the farm where the
Germans stayed and where Maxwell Bell was
killed, escape prosecution by the Allies and
the possible deathsentencesses that were
given in similar cases.
In 1944, the Bell family in Australia
receive three telegrams in quick succession.
The first one to inform them that their son
Maxwell is promoted to the rank of Pilot
Officer. The second that he has been awarded
the DFC and the third that he has not
returned from a mission on September 9th and
has been reported missing.
P/O Maxwell Bell has been oficially been
missing in action since 1944. Thanks to the
persistend research and efforts of Huub van
Sabben, his grave was finally identified and
"an Unkown Canadian" turned out to be an
Australian pilot. Maxwell's brother and
sisters came to Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery
to visit the grave of their brother.
Brother
John and sisters Patricia, Diana en Mary at
Maxwell's grave (picture courtesy of
Huub van Sabben)
In
1992, P/O Bell's mustang is excavated. At
the crash site, they find his second flying
boot.
