On September 17th. 1944, twenty-two Dakotas participated in the first lift of 1st. Airborne Division to their landing zones around Arnhem, each aircraft bringing in a Horsa glider without loss. On the following day, sixteen of their aircraft brought in Horsas and emerged similarly unscathed, but the resupply flights of the following days cruelly exposed the slow-moving transport aircraft to enemy fire, and 233 squadron lost three Dakotas on Wednesday, September 20th., and another two days later. 

“…Flight Officer Michael Tony Ades (152189) KG 399 was shot up by flak at 4.000 feet and came down near a dynamite factory at Voorheide (Arendonk), Belgium, near the Dutch border. He and his second pilot Flight Sergeant George Kenneth Dorville (1398078) were killed and buried by men of the 2nd. Bn. The Monmouthshire Regiment near Arendonk, but later re-interred at Valkenswaard War Cemetery. The remainder of the crew survived; Flight Officer Frederick Stephen William ‘Fred’ Dyer (417820), RAAF and Flight Sergeant Hickey, AFM, evaded capture and arrived back about a week later but the four air despatchers were taken prisoner. One of them Driver George Woodcock, of 799 Airborne Company, died on February 27th. 1945 as a prisoner at ‘Stalag 12A’ and is now buried in the Berlin War Cemetery, Brandenburg, Germany, a special plot for those who died when prisoners of war”. 

“All the supplies were dropped and a course set by navigator Flight Officer Frederick Dyer, but just afterwards they were hit by flak and a Focke-Wulf FW190 at 4.000 feet and caught fire. Flight Officer Michael Ades decided to try and crash land but before he could do so the aircraft became a mass of flames with both engines on fire, so Frederick Dyer and Flight Sergeant John Hickey, the wireless operator, bailed out”. 

“Frederick Dyer landed at Hooge Mierde, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, and hid his flying kit in a drain, a farmer nearby took him and Hickey, who landed nearby, to his farm. From September 22nd. to October 2nd. 1944, they were hid in a barn and nearby woods, the farmer, Mr. H. Valckx, and his family, brought them hot food and drinks three times a day. On October 2nd. 1944, the British overran the area and they were helped by ‘B’ Squadron, of 53rd. Reconnaissance Regiment, to Brussels. John Hickey from Lancaster had been awarded the ‘Air Force Medal’ in 1944 for his work in training before D-Day; it said yes as a wireless operator he had been an excellent example to other people on the squadron. Frederick Dyer came from South Australia and was 23…” 

Fred Dyer in Brussels, October 4th. 1944 

“Our dress was a little unorthodox to say the least.
 I was wearing grey trousers, khaki jacket, red scarf and no cap!”            

                                                                                                  (Fred Dyer)

The red scarf supplied by the Valckx family at Hooge Mierde as a disguise
(National Archives of Australia) 

Fred Dyer was born on August 1st. 1921 at Adelaide, South Australia. He was an apprentice sheet metal worker at W.J. Rawling (a tinsmith and iron monger business) when he enlisted in the RAAF on July 18th. 1942 with the service number 417820 and mustered as a navigator. 

He received basic training at schools in Australia (mainly in South Australia) and rose to the rank of temporary sergeant before embarking for further training in Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. Just before his departure from Brisbane he married Martha, who settled in Ethelton where his parents also lived. 

Arriving in Canada in May 1943, he was attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force and continued his training, advancing from Avro Ansons to Lockheed Hudsons before converting to Douglas DC3 Dakotas with 31 Operation Training Unit (OTU). He completed his Canadian training in November 1943 with the rank of flight sergeant and transferred to England where he continued his training at 107 OTU and was eventually assigned to 233 Squadron (RAF Transport Command) in late June 1944, with the rank of pilot officer. Based at Blakehill Farm, Wiltshire, 233 Squadron had operated on D-Day, towing gliders and carrying troops from the 3rd. Parachute Brigade they also flew over twenty resupply flights later that day. 

Pilot Officer Dyer was one of the replacement crew for those who were casualties on D-Day and the days following. The squadron was used for casualty evacuation from the beachhead, before flying 37 sorties on the first two days of the Battle of Arnhem on September 17th./18th. 1944 and 35 supply missions. On September 21st. 1944, while on a supply flight in Dakota KG-399 to drop oil and mortar bombs in front of the Hartenstein Hotel at Oosterbeek in the Netherlands, Dyer’s plane was hit by flak over the drop zone (but only received light damage) and was strafed by a Focke-Wulf 190 on its return to England. 

This started a fire which took hold on the port wing and fuselage. Dyer and wireless operator Flight Sergeant Jack Hickey baled out at about 800 ft (approximately 243 metres). They landed in a forest clearing and, after being fired on, ran until they reached a Dutch farm house. The Dakota crash-landed 3.5 kilometres from Hooge Mierde, about 110 kilometres to the south west of Oosterbeek, very close to the Belgian border. Dyer elaborated on his story years later: “One shot came through the cabin just in front of Mike’s feet and out through the top of the cabin.” The Dakota was carrying four army personnel to push the load out as well – although he did not see them, they jumped out after him, and were captured. By this time “the forward part of the fuselage had been enveloped in flame…the pilots were trapped and died of burns near the crash”. 

After Dyer and Hickey landed, they heard rifle shots, some hitting the trees near them but it quietened down and they hid to make a plan. They decided to put themselves at the mercy of the Dutch and walked to a nearby farm occupied by the Valckx family. The family (which included eleven children) put themselves at great risk by hiding and protecting the airmen. They hid Dyer and Hickey in their barn, fed them a meal of bacon and eggs and clothed them. Dyer noted that “as I had been working in my shirt-sleeves, my jacket was left in the aircraft, so the eldest daughter gave me a pair of old overalls and a red woollen scarf “. The airmen hid in the barn or in the woods in the daytime and slept for much of the first two days. Theys pent twelve days hidden by the Valckx family, by which time it became obvious the Allied advance from Normandy had stalled. 

On October 3rd. 1944, they decided to walk to British lines, accompanied by two Dutch guides. They had only reached the nearest village when they spotted an armoured car patrol from the 53rd. Reconnaissance Regiment, ‘B’ Squadron and hitched a ride with them to Reusel, 8 kilometres to the east, where heavy fighting had been in progress for four days. The next day they were in Brussels; two days later they were back in England. 

Dyer’s parents were notified when he went missing, but not his wife Martha, who was told by his father (they lived two minutes’walk from each other). It was another seventeen days before they found out he was safe, on October 9th. 1944. Dyer was promoted to flying officer just prior to returning to Australia in December of 1944; he transferred to the reserve and was discharged from the RAAF on August 15th. 1945.