S/Sgt William Prince

14 Dec 1914 ◐ – ?

S/Sgt William PRINCE (3524270), Army Physical Training Corps, attached to 156 Para Bn

About: A staff sergeant of the Army Physical Training Corps attached to 156 Para Bn, Murphy's battalion, who escaped from the St Antonius hospital in Utrecht on 6 October 1944, the day Murphy got out of Apeldoorn, and was hidden at Utrecht, Langbroek, Wijk bij Duurstede and Amerongen. He marched with the Pegasus II column on 17/18 November, the night Murphy's party missed it, was captured, jumped from the train with Jack Lynch on 23 November, and reached the Canadians at Apeldoorn on 17 April 1945.

Unit or role: Staff Sergeant, 3524270, Army Physical Training Corps, attached to Support Company, 156 Parachute Battalion, by the Pegasus Archive (his page); "S" Company by H. van Remmerden's statement (his file, p. 2); "A.P.T.C Att 156 Bn" at Kew (WO 208/5426/19).

Where: 4 Oliver Grove, Hulme, Manchester, by J. H. Alberts of Langbroek (his letter of 1 March 1946, p. 5); "4 Olive Grove, Hulme, Manchester 15" on ten Wolde's form, "4 Olive-Grove" in de Geer's report, and "4 Olive Grove, Hulme, Manchester 15" in Maljers's statement (Maljers, p. 18; ten Wolde, p. 3; de Geer, p. 2).

Evidence: ✓ his own report, as the Pegasus Archive prints it; ✓ Noordman, pp. 191, 235–239; ✓ the Kew catalogue entries (WO 208/3327/3004; WO 208/5426/19); ✓ Sgt Shell's escape report, pp. 4–5, 9–10; the Dutch helpers' forms: de Geer's report, the Stuys' tables, Hagopian's list, ten Wolde, Joor, Jonkers, Schaeffer, de Jong, de Vries, Woltman.

Escaped with: Pte Jack Lynch, whose page has their escape together from his side.

The Pegasus Archive, from his great-grandson, has him born on 14 December 1914; in the Territorial Army, "Manchester Regiment Royal Artillery", from 7 April 1930; a winner, in 1933, of the 42nd Division novices' boxing championship at bantam weight, and a finalist the next year; transferred to the Army Physical Training Corps on 25 November 1940 and posted to the 65th and 60th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiments in the Orkney and Shetland defences in 1940 and 1941, and the 95th and 135th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiments in Scotland in 1942; sent to South Africa at the end of that year and on to the Middle East in January 1943, where he trained as a parachutist and was attached to 156 Parachute Battalion (the Pegasus Archive). ◐ No service record has been seen.

Arnhem. His report begins: "I was wounded by shrapnel in the leg at ARNHEM on 21 Sep 44." He was taken by truck to a hospital "about 10 miles away", and the next day to Utrecht, "where I remained until 6 Oct" (the report; the same in Dutch in Noordman, p. 235). His MI9 report entry at Kew has "Place captured: DZ Oosterbeek, 21 September 1944" (WO 208/5426/19). ⚠︎ Ten Wolde's form says the leg wound was from a bullet (see below).

◐ The Pegasus Archive prints "his report of the events that followed" under three headings, "1. CAPTURE", "2. ATTEMPTED ESCAPE" and "3. ESCAPE", which give Lynch as "S/P.G.(H) 3005" and Lt E. Davies as "S/P.G.(H) 3013" (the Pegasus Archive). Lynch's own report at Kew is WO 208/3327/3005 (the entry), so the printed text is very probably Prince's S/P.G.(H) 3004, WO 208/3327/3004, whose catalogue entry has him escape "from train en route from Netherlands to Germany" and contact "Allied Forces at Apeldoorn" (the entry). Noordman gives the same report in Dutch with names of his own added (pp. 235–239); where this page says "his report" it means the English text.

By this time I was a walking patient and a man from the Underground had made contact with me. I had been brought civilian clothes for eight men and had them hidden in my bed. He gave us instructions through a nurse (name unknown). We crawled underneath the hospital along central heating pipes, which led us to a garage.

— S/Sgt W. Prince · his report, "2. ATTEMPTED ESCAPE" · the Pegasus Archive

Ten minutes later a man led them off on a bicycle, and he was taken to a family in Utrecht for three days; "Sgt. SHELL, U.S. Army Medical Corps and Pte. LYNCH (S/P.G.(H) 3005) escaped with me. They went off together", and he left the clothing for the five other men with Capt Buck, the 156 Bn's medical officer. "On 9 Oct I was taken to another house, where I remained, receiving food and shelter until 17 Oct" (same). Noordman's Dutch has "acht overalls" where the report has civilian clothes, and names the second house "Mary Ries, Leidse Kade 93, Utrecht" (Noordman, pp. 235–236); ◐ that is the house of Maria Stuy at Leidschekade 93, whose own table has him (below).

The escape was organised by A. M. "Ad" Stuy of Utrecht, then 23, and his friends. His report of August 1945 says that a mechanic in the hospital named Dekkers made a hole in the outside wall of the cellar and hid it with potatoes, and that "The first day three men were liberated, with the help of Dr.Buck": one went to Baron van Dedem, who had to go into hiding the next day, so that "His guest was transfered to Mr.J.[F or T].Stuy and Miss M.Stuy Leidschekade 93 at Utrecht", and two to a Miss Dussenbroek; six more were got out the same way fourteen days later (Stuy's report, p. 8). ✓ Prince was the man at Baron van Dedem's and then Leidschekade 93: de Geer's report and the Stuys' own tables name him (below); Stuy's report names no one, and his own report names neither house. The other two went to Miss Dussenbroek's, unnamed by de Geer and Stuy; ✓ Shell's report has himself and Lynch there (p. 9), as does Miss Dussenbroek's own form (p. 7), and ◐ Hagopian's "Jack Qubak, RAF" beside Shell is a mangled Lynch (below). Stuy's form names "Bill PRINCE, Robert SHELL, Jack LYNCH" first among the men he freed, and his list of "the military wounded" begins "W.Prince" (his file, p. 3; p. 9).

To Doorn and Langbroek. H. van Remmerden, "George", fetched the three from Utrecht and took them to Doorn for a night with Jaap van Dijk, Dorpsstraat 22; they went on with "Dirk", Maljers, by Langbroek to the crossing at Tiel, which failed, stayed at a farm at Langbroek, and later went with four others to the Veluwe and a blacksmith's at "Walderveen" for "the unsuccessful crossing at Renkum", Pegasus II (van Remmerden's file, p. 2). His report has: "On 17 Oct, I joined up with LYNCH and SHELL and we proceeded to DOORN by bicycle, where we remained one night with a family (name unknown)", then "NEERLANGBROEK (17 km. S.E. UTRECHT) where we stayed with a schoolmaster (name unknown) for about five days", then back to Utrecht "about five or six days", three days at "WIJK BIJ-DUURSTEDE" and Amerongen "until 17 Nov" (the report). Noordman's Dutch adds three days at Overlangbroek before Neerlangbroek, and names the schoolmaster as Kees ten Wolde and the Doorn host as the burgomaster, Van den Bosch (Noordman, p. 236).

Wijk bij Duurstede and Amerongen. The Dutch forms fill in the Betuwe leg: the courier "Jetty", Mrs H. J. Cramer-Cornelis of Wijk bij Duurstede, had "Jack LYNCH and Bill PRINCE" from 31 October to 3 November 1944, from Ru van den Brink of Utrecht, who had them from ten Wolde at Langbroek (her file, p. 10; the lines are struck through on the form), and J. H. Alberts of Langbroek took the two over from her and brought them by bicycle to "Mr. C. Cornelisse, Rijnstraat, Amerongen", in October 1944 (his letter, p. 5). That is the house where Chris Cornelisse later hid Porter and Schjelderup. ⚠︎ Maljers's own note of 3 July 1945 gives other houses and another guide: "Bill, Jack and Bob" from Utrecht, got from "Jaap at Doorn", kept by Jonkers and "Ter Wolde, schoolmaster at Overlangbroek"; "Jack and Bill ‘dived’ also at Kramer's Markt 2 Wijk bij Duurstede"; and "Afterwards Jack and Bill went with Dirk to Hoogland in Amerongen, who later on took care of them" (p. 13; Hoogland family; below).

• Sgt Robert E. Shell, the American, told the escape at his interview of 7 November 1944 (escape report 2675, pp. 4–5, checked on the image). "S/Sgt (BILL) PRINCE, Pte (JACK) LYNCH" were among those who wanted out, and with Shell the only ones who went.
  • In the first attempt Shell and Capt Buck went back to the ward "leaving PRINCE and LYNCH down there trying to get the door open. They came up to us later saying they had succeeded"; the tunnel they followed was a dead end.
  • For the second, on the 6th, Buck stayed with new wounded and Cpl Jackson withdrew: "LYNCH and PRINCE agreed to make the escape attempt". They put on the overalls the hospital electrician had smuggled in (Shell has 7 sets, Prince's report clothes for eight men), carried empty boxes past the food store, hid in the tunnel under the boiler house and left the ward about 1700 to 1730.
  • ◐ Shell's typed report has the electrician's plan on "On 5 Nov 44". The escape was 6 October and Shell was back in British lines on 6 November, so the month is very probably a slip.
• Jhr. B.J.L. de Geer's report of 28 July 1945 has the first three freed at 17.00 on 6 October, with Hagopian waiting in the garden and de Geer, Stuy and A. J. Olij outside the gate with bicycles: de Geer took the first man to his brother-in-law, Baron van Dedem, Parkstraat 41; Stuy and Olij took the other two to Miss Dussenbroek (p. 2, checked on the image).
  • On the Sunday after, van Dedem told him of "the paratrooper W. Prince, S/Serg., 4 Olive-Grove, Hulme, Manchester 15" and asked him to take him elsewhere; he and Miss P. Stuy fetched Prince at 19.00 (the day is not given) and put him with her uncle J. T. Stuy and her sister M. Stuy at Leidsekade 93, where "Prince stayed in Leidsekade for 11 days, tried to learn Dutch and helped with everything" (p. 2).
  • When "difficulties arose with Miss Dussenbroek", de Geer took Prince from Leidsekade 93 to Miss Dussenbroek's and the three "were taken outside the town on the bikes of the mentioned insiders" (p. 3). He adds that the second group of six went out after a fortnight; of those, only the Englishman and the Scotch tank commander went to J. T. Stuy at Leidsekade 93, the American and the Dutchman to Mrs Mathijsse and two Americans to the Davidses.
• ✓ J. T. Stuy and Maria Stuy, Leidschekade 93, list Prince, Maria Stuy as "William Prince, S/sgt. no 3524270", hidden "8-18 Oct 44", and J. T. Stuij as "William Prince, 3524270 S/Sgt", "8-18 Oct 1944", both 11 days, received from and passed back to "B. de Geer"; the next lines are L. W. King and J. D. Wiseman, from 26 October (Maria Stuy's table, p. 7; Jacob Teunis Stuij's, p. 3; both checked on the image). 8 October 1944 was the Sunday after the escape, de Geer's Sunday.
• Alexander Hagopian, who organised the escape with the hospital electrician, lists "J.T. Stuy, Leidschekade 93 Utrecht, housed: William Prince RAF, J.D. Wiseman RAF, L.W. King RAF" (p. 9, checked on the image; the same in Dutch on p. 11). Wiseman and King are not of the first three, so it is one house across both batches; "RAF" is his label for the British.
• G. J. Dekkers, the electrician, of the Oudkerkhof, Utrecht (his file, p. 7, checked on the image):
  • "9 Evaders were released in the way, the first time 3, the second time 6 of them together." The names he remembered were "Bill Prince, Morrell, Caine (from London or Liverpool), the Dutchman Jansen from Hilversum, Bob Shell, Sgt. Moore".
  • On their way to their lodgings they all came to his house, and Jantje Laporte fetched them from there for the crossings.
  • ⚠︎ His form dates his first help "the 28th of Oct. 44".
• ◐ Johannes van Gemert of Utrecht, who furnished his overalls to nine paratroopers, was "their guide while going under the floors" and made false keys for the locked doors; his section 13 has "William Prince" among the nine, with no dates or helpers (p. 2; p. 3). Checked on the image; the Prince line is faint.
• ⚠︎ A typed report filed with Maria Stuy's form, unsigned (p. 5, checked on the image):
  • Van Gemert took "three men: William M. Moore, William Prince and Jack Lurch" to the cellar "In the evening of I8 October I944", and six more went on 26 October.
  • "In the second week of November I944, all the nine men involved were transferred by bike from Utrecht to Doorn" by F. N. van Dijk, marked with a cross, Miss J. Laporte and H. van Remmerden, all of Doorn.
  • Its first date and its first three disagree with Shell's report of November 1944 and with every other account (below).
• Shell has Prince "billetted elsewhere in UTTRECHT" until about 17 October, when "PRINCE was brought down to our house and the three of us were moved to DOORN", which is the Doorn of Prince's report on 17 October (escape report 2675, p. 9).
  • On the 18th Prince was "put up with a Mr. GARRETT" at Overlangbroek while Shell and Lynch stayed opposite the school, and by 21 October all three were with the schoolmaster at Neerlangbroek (p. 9).
  • ⚠︎ Noordman's Dutch of Prince's own report has the other arrangement: "Ik verbleef met Lynch en Shell bij een onbekende boer, die tegenover de school woonde" (I stayed with Lynch and Shell at an unknown farmer who lived opposite the school), for three days at Overlangbroek (Noordman, p. 236).
• S. J. F. Scholten-de Bruin, Oude Gracht 230a, Utrecht, cousin of Ru van den Brink of Utrecht, housed "two paratroopers" from the hospital for 5 days between two stays with van den Brink; her section 13 has "W. Prince, Engl., 26/10 [44], 5" and "J.P. Lynch, paratr." on ditto marks (p. 2; p. 3, checked on the image). ◐ This is the Utrecht week after ten Wolde's; how its dates fit the Langbroek ones is set out below.

◐ A helpers' account at Het Utrechts Archief tells of escapes from the same hospital in the same weeks: six men in workmen's overalls, waiting at the bottom of a lift shaft, taken out through a gate on the Rembrandtkade, and more three days later; its men stayed in Utrecht until January 1945 (Het Utrechts Archief 650/156). That fits neither Prince's report nor Stuy's. The name written in blue ink at the top of it reads "Ad Stru…" or similar, ◐ possibly Ad Stuy's; if it is his, his two accounts of the escapes do not agree.

Three Langbroek helpers list Prince, Lynch and Shell together on their questionnaires, so the leg through Langbroek is on record from the helpers' side as well as his.

• Kees ten Wolde, the schoolmaster, B 13, Langbroek (born Bergen op Zoom, 22 September 1910), by his form for the Americans (p. 3):
  • Line 1, "W. Prince (Bill), 4 Olive Grove, Hulme, Manchester 15": "1 en 2. geland bij Ede (Gld) op 17 Sept. 1944", hidden "October 1944, meer dan 2 weken", received from "Adriaan Maljers (Dirk van Langbroek) te Amerongen", passed on to "Ruth van den Brink (Ru), Homeruslaan - Utrecht".
  • Line 2, Jack Lynch, 56 Stanley Street, Fairfield, Liverpool 7, with no dates; the "1 en 2" on Prince's line takes Lynch with him to Ede.
  • Line 3, Robert E. Shell, Ardmore, Oklahoma, landed near Eindhoven on 17 September 1944, hidden October 1944 for "3 weken", received "zie boven" (see above), passed on to Maljers.
• ✓ Ru van den Brink of Utrecht is the man who, by Mrs Cramer-Cornelis's form above, had the two from ten Wolde before "Jetty" took them on, so the two forms fit.
• ten Wolde's English summary, 14 August 1945: the "3 allied evaders from report No. 00392 lodged during 12 days and nights with him, and one of them still 3 days longer", and they went away "via Dirk (00305)", Maljers; he was paid 75 guilders and fed them from his own store; and "He got a doctor who rendered medical help to Bill Prince, who had a wound in one of his legs from a bullet" (p. 8).
  • ◐ The three of report 00392 are these three: p. 3 is the only list of three in his form, and Mrs Cramer-Cornelis has "Jack LYNCH and Bill PRINCE (00392)" and ten Wolde as 00393, while N. J. C. Cramer's evaders "J. LYNCH+and Robert SHELL" are "see Jonkers No. 00392", so 00392 is Jonkers's report, which lists these three (Cramer-Cornelis, p. 10; Cramer, p. 5; Jonkers, p. 2).
• Jan Hendrik Joor, Doornscheweg 196a, Langbroek, born Kampen, 11 October 1903, a police sergeant (Wachtmeester) who wrote that he ran the transport of hidden Allied men with Maljers, covering it with his uniform and weapon, by his form of 15 April 1946 (p. 4). His section 13 has the same three: Prince landed 17-9-44 at Ede, "19-10-44", "2" days, received from "F.N. v. Dijk, Dorpsstr. 22, Doorn (shot)", passed on to "A. Jonkers, Brink 211, Langbroek"; Lynch and Shell on ditto marks, also 2 days (Shell's place Eindhoven) (p. 3).
• ◐ "F.N. v. Dijk" is van Remmerden's "Jaap van Dijk, Dorpsstraat 22": same address, and both say he was shot; the report filed with Maria Stuy's form also marks "Mr. F.N. van Dijk" of Doorn with a cross (p. 5).
• Arie Jonkers, Brink 211, Neerlangbroek, by his form of 14 August 1945: "From 19 Oct. till 21 Oct. 44 3 evaders lodged with Mr. Jonkers", who "were brought by Dirk and also taken away, to the schoolmaster at Overlangbroek"; the three are "W. Prince (Bill)", "J. Lynch (Jack)" and "R. Shell (Rob)" (p. 2, checked on the image). ✓ This is the house Joor passes them to, with the same dates.

He is not known to have met Murphy, but his path ran beside Murphy's: both were of 156 Para Bn, both got out of German hands on 6 October 1944, Adriaan Maljers guided both, and both were hidden at Amerongen (Murphy's side is on his page and Amerongen). On the night of 17 November 1944 he marched in the Pegasus II column that Murphy's party, coming from Harskamp, missed (Operation Pegasus II). His report of the march:

On the 18 Nov we were all given three rations of rum. We left about 1800 hrs and were proceeding to a point on the Rhine. During the night, a German sentry heard the party walking along and we were challenged. Not knowing the password, we could not reply. The alarm was given and after a few minutes silence, a few of us tried to gather our party together and made an attempt to carry on.

— S/Sgt W. Prince · his report, "2. ATTEMPTED ESCAPE" · the Pegasus Archive

• The assembly. "About eighty Allied personnel were assembled." All were given new British uniforms and went with Dutch guides, also in British uniform, "under the command of Col. WARRACK , A.D.M.S. and Major McQUIRE, second in command", to a wood where they hid the next day (same). Noordman puts the assembly in the Wolfswinkel family's chicken huts at Meulunteren and the day's hiding place by the Wekeromse Zand (Noordman, p. 236).
• The road. At the main Ede–Arnhem road a sentry "opened up with a sub machine gun and the party dispersed. Major McQUIRE, about nine other men and I, carried on in an attempt to find the river"; they hid in a wood at dawn, and "About mid-day we were found by German soldiers and taken to a transit P.O.W. camp at AMERSFOORT" (same).
  • His report does not say who else was taken. Noordman has Lynch and the American Werner Braun also arrested on the failed crossing (p. 191), and Lynch was on the train with him (Jack Lynch).
• ⚠︎ His report dates the march to the evening of 18 November, after a day hidden on the 18th; Ede's war history has the column leave for the Wekeromse Zand at three in the morning of the 17th and march on at five that afternoon (Ede manuscript, p. 45; p. 46). The same one-day disagreement runs through Murphy's party's accounts (Still open, item 16).

After three days at Amersfoort they were put on a train for Germany: "On the morning of 23 Nov LYNCH, three others (names unknown) and I, escaped from a train whilst in motion." They made their way to a farm near Apeldoorn (the report). Noordman names two of the three others as Lawrence McElroy and Robert Gelfand, who were Canadians of the RCAF (Noordman, pp. 187–188, 191, 235; Schaeffer's list, p. 5); the third was the American Werner Braun (Noordman, p. 191; Schaeffer's list has all three from 23 November 1944). His MI9 report entry at Kew has "Escaped or Liberated: train to Germany, 23 November 1944" (WO 208/5426/19).

• Maria Westerwoudt at Assel gave "William Prince, 1st Airborne Div" fourteen days (her file, p. 5); her daughter's recollections in Noordman have five men at the door one early morning at the end of November, McElroy, Gelfand, Bill Prince, Jack Lynch and Werner Braun, and Prince and Lynch there about seventeen days (Noordman, pp. 237–238; Maria Westerwoudt).
• ✓ Dr August Schaeffer Edler von Wienwald of Assel 6, "Gus", of the RVV, who housed men "in cooperation with Mrs. M.J.H. Westerwoudt", listed "Sgt. W. Prince, 156 Reg. Manchester" and "Pte. J. Lynch, 156 Reg. Liverpool", "escaped P.o.W.", hidden from 23.11.1944 for 14 days, received from Arnold van Zelst of Assel and passed on to "J.C. v. Oldenbarneveld, Kootwyk 2", with Braun, Gelfand and McElroy on the lines above (his form, p. 2; his list, p. 5, 18 January 1946).
• Dove Jan had "Bill Prince kroon- sergt. / Manchester" for 42 days in November and December, from her, before passing him to the underground for Laren (Dove Jan's file, p. 4). His report has him at the farm near Apeldoorn "until 23 Dec" (the report).

WO 208/5426/19 is dated 19 April 1945 and its "Escaped or Liberated" field reads "train to Germany, 23 November 1944": "Staff Sergeant, 3524270, A.P.T.C Att 156 Bn, Parachute Regiment, 1 Air Borne Division", "Place captured: DZ Oosterbeek, 21 September 1944", "Other names mentioned: Sergeant Dawson". The entry's date-of-birth field holds "1945 April 19", the report date, so it gives no birth date (the catalogue entry). Its former reference is "I.S.9.(W.E.A.)/1/502/3033"; the IS9 report WO 208/3352/3033 "has not survived" (the entry). Neither file is online; who Sergeant Dawson was is not known. Lynch's report, dated the same day, names a Sergeant Griffiths (WO 208/5419/40; Lynch's page). WO 208/3327/3004 is described above (His report).

His report goes on from Assel: on 23 December he and Lynch went by bicycle with two ladies to a house "in LAREN 17 kms S. of DEVENTER where we stayed until 27 Dec. On the evening of 27 Dec we went to another family in LAREN, where we remained until 17 Mar 45"; on 18 March to Hilversum until 2 April; on 2 April to "SWARTBROEK" until 7 April, then a few days at a small place they had to leave when a German quartermaster commandeered it, and back to Swartbroek until 13 April (the report). Noordman's Dutch puts the Laren of these months in North Holland and names the second Laren house as P. S. de Jong's, Raboes 4, the Hilversum one as T. J. de Vries's, Lage Naarderweg 39, and the last village as Zwartebroek (Noordman, p. 238). ◐ The distances in the report (Laren "17 kms S. of DEVENTER", Swartbroek "30 kms S.E. of EINDHOVEN") do not fit and are very probably the interviewer's glosses; the helpers' forms below put him in Laren and Hilversum in North Holland.

On 14 April they met Lt E. Davies, who "told us he was making his way to the front line", and went with him. They lost Lynch on the outskirts of Apeldoorn after trouble with the German police; Prince and Davies reached Apeldoorn at 0230 on 15 April and spent a night with "a family where Lt. DAVIES had previously stayed"; the next day they went to the canal where the First Canadian Army was fighting, "They got across in the morning of 17 Apr and we reported to an officer", and they went to Brussels and by air to the United Kingdom, meeting Lynch on the way to Brussels (the report). Noordman names the Apeldoorn family as the Woltmans of the Jachtlaan (Noordman, pp. 238–239).

The helpers' forms for the months in the north, from the other side:

• ✓ Anton Ligter, St Jansstraat 38, Laren, in a note of 18 January 1946: "Provided food, shelter, and Clothing for the following Allied personnel: John Patrick Lynch, Eng Para, 7 days; W. Prince" (p. 2, checked on the image).
• ✓ P. S. de Jong's form of 23 May 1945 lists "John PRINCE, MANCHESTER" with Lynch from 28 December 1944, "about 80 days", received from "T. LIGTER, St. Jansstraat, LAREN" (his form, p. 4).
• Mrs D. J. Faber, Berkenlaantje 1, Laren, has "Lynch", "Dec. 44", "+ 60" days, received from "van Oldenbarnevelt Kootwyk" and passed to "de Jong Rahoes 4", and "Prince" on ditto marks with "Blaricum." in his last column; she also names Ligter and de Jong, and "Piet Dekker, Farmer, Terschuur" (p. 3; p. 2, checked on the image). ⚠︎ Her "+ 60" cannot be a stay between Dove Jan and de Jong; it may be the whole Laren time.
• ✓ K. J. Kerseboom of the Valkeveenschelaan, Huizen (N.H.), by his form of 16 January 1946 (his form, p. 3; p. 4; the postcard, p. 2; checked on the images):
  • He had "Jack Patricks Lunz and Bill Prince, soldiers from Liverpool and Manchester", "wounded and taken prisoner. Escaped twice.", and "Sheltered for 14 days".
  • His table has them in "Jan '45", received from "de Jong, Blaricum" "by Herman Truder, Laren", and passed back to "de Jong, Blaricum"; his postcard to the Americans has the fortnight in "Januari 1944".
  • ⚠︎ Prince's report has no break in his time with the second Laren family, and only Kerseboom puts a de Jong at Blaricum; on Faber's form the line for Prince ends with "Blaricum." alone.
• ✓ T. J. de Vries, Lage Naarderweg 39, Hilversum, of the Hilversum branch of the underground, by his form of 1 February 1946 (p. 3; p. 2, checked on the image):
  • "William Prince S/sgd. Nr. 3524270, Paratrooper 1st Airb. Div.", "14th March - 3rd April", received from the "K.P. Communication Service, Hilversum by Ubbe Dalma" and "went with boys from the Underground to Terschuur on the 3-4-1945. They contacted with the British there in April by Apeldoorn. (according to messages by Prince from England.)"
  • The number is the one on his Kew reports. Lynch is on the next line on ditto marks with his number, 3768707.
  • De Vries names the family de Jong, "Raboes 8" [sic: 4], Laren, as the ones who sheltered the two for him.
• ◐ De Vries's Terschuur on 3 April is one day after the report's move to Swartbroek on 2 April, and may be the same stay under the name of the neighbouring village (the place-name atlas has not been checked). The message "by Prince from England" is our reading of the form: de Vries learned the rest from Prince after he reached England.

The Woltmans' own forms have him too. Jacob Dirk Woltman, of Jachtlaan 48, Apeldoorn, listed "PRINCE, W. S.Sgt. paratr.", landed "18-9-'44" at Oosterbeek, at his house for "4 days" under the dates "28-3-'45" and "14-4-'45", received from "himself" (he came on his own) and passed on to "Canadian troops." (his form of 31 August 1945). The family's list of the thirteen men they sheltered has "W. PRINCE S/Sgt." (the list), and the Americans' card "W. S. Prince Br Para", the rank read as an initial (the card, 17 January 1946). ◐ This is our Prince: the rank, the parachutist landed on 18 September, the photograph in the Woltmans' garden and his report all agree.

By the Pegasus Archive he stayed in the Army Physical Training Corps until his discharge in 1951, then re-enlisted in the Territorial Army as a gunner in the 465th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment (the Pegasus Archive). When and where he died is not known here.

The date of the escape. ✓ 6 October 1944, by his report and Shell's of November 1944 and de Geer's, made with Stuy (the report; Shell, pp. 4–5; de Geer). ⚠︎ The typed report filed with Maria Stuy's form has the first three out "In the evening of I8 October I944", as William M. Moore, Prince and "Jack Lurch", the six others on 26 October, and all nine taken to Doorn in the second week of November (p. 5); Dekkers dates his first help to 28 October (p. 7). Prince was at Doorn on 17 October and at Langbroek by the 19th by his report, Shell's, Joor's and Jonkers's, and the Stuys' own tables end his stay on 18 October, so those later dates do not fit him.

Doorn. His report has "a family (name unknown)" (the report); Noordman's Dutch of it names the burgomaster, Van den Bosch (Noordman, p. 236); van Remmerden has them "for one night with Jaap van Dijk, Dorpsstraat 22" (his file, p. 2), and Joor's form has them received from "F.N. v. Dijk, Dorpsstr. 22, Doorn (shot)" (p. 3), the same address as van Remmerden's. Shell's report has the night with "a man known as JAP (Mayor of DOORN …)" (p. 9): ◐ that fits Noordman's burgomaster and the first name in van Remmerden's "Jaap van Dijk", but the sources do not say whether one host or two is meant.

His days in Utrecht. His report: three days with a family, then "On 9 Oct I was taken to another house" until 17 October (the report). De Geer: fetched on the Sunday after the escape, 8 October, and "11 days" at Leidsekade 93 (p. 2). The Stuys' tables: "8-18 Oct", 11 days (Maria Stuy; J. T. Stuij). Shell: brought down to join the others about 17 October. ◐ The hosts' 8 to 18 October is two forms and de Geer against his report and Shell's, which have him joining the others on 17 October; Miss Dussenbroek's form has Shell and Lynch with her "till the 18th of Oct." (p. 7), the hosts' date, not Shell's; the move is a day out and the length of stay one to three days.

When he came to the Woltmans'. Woltman's form has "28-3-'45" above "14-4-'45" on Prince's line (the form). His report has him at Hilversum from 18 March to 2 April and in Apeldoorn only from 15 April (the report). The line above his on the form, Davies's, has a first stay from "19-3-'45" for 14 days and a second from "14-4-'45" for four days, "himself", to "Canadian troops"; Davies's own account has him with the Woltmans from 19 March to 3 April (Noordman, p. 246). ◐ The 28 March on Prince's line is very probably a slip. Davies also dates the meeting with Prince and Lynch a day earlier than Prince does: "Op 13 april ontmoette ik sergeant Prince en soldaat Lynch" (Noordman, p. 248), against Prince's 14 April.

Wijk bij Duurstede and Amerongen. ⚠︎ Three accounts, three routes. Mrs Cramer-Cornelis (Peperstraat 19) had Lynch and Prince from 31 October to 3 November from Ru van den Brink, and Alberts took them from her to C. Cornelisse, Rijnstraat, Amerongen, by bicycle (her file, p. 10; Alberts, p. 5). Maljers has Jack and Bill at "Kramer's Markt 2" and then taken by Dirk, himself, to Hoogland in Amerongen (p. 13). ◐ Markt 2, Wijk bij Duurstede is the address on N. J. C. Cramer's form, which has two evaders in the end of October, two days and nights, "by way of Dirk" from Utrecht and away "with Dirk to Amerongen", and names Lynch and Shell, not Prince (p. 5). Whether Prince was at Peperstraat 19, at Markt 2 or both, and whether Cornelisse's or Hoogland's house took him, is not settled; Prince's report has only "Amerongen" until 17 November.

The second group. Stuy's own report has the other six freed fourteen days after the first three (p. 8); the account at Het Utrechts Archief has the second escape three days after the first; the report filed with Maria Stuy's form has 26 October, eight days after its own first date (p. 5). The Stuys' tables put King and Wiseman at Leidschekade 93 from 26 October.

The leg wound. ⚠︎ His report has "wounded by shrapnel in the leg" at Arnhem on 21 September (the report). Ten Wolde's English summary (the interviewer's, 14 August 1945) says he fetched the doctor and that Prince "had a wound in one of his legs from a bullet" (p. 8). It could be shrapnel and a bullet in the same leg, but neither source mentions the other's, and they are not reconciled.

How long he was at Langbroek. ⚠︎ Ten Wolde: the three were with him 12 days and nights, one of them 3 days more, and his own line for Prince reads "meer dan 2 weken" (pp. 3 and 8). Joor: 2 days from 19 October 1944 (p. 3). His report: about five days with the schoolmaster at Neerlangbroek; Noordman's Dutch adds three days at Overlangbroek before it (the report; Noordman, pp. 236–237).

• ◐ Joor and ten Wolde passed the men to and from different houses (Joor to A. Jonkers, Brink 211; ten Wolde to Ru van den Brink in Utrecht), and Jonkers's form confirms his 19 to 21 October as a separate, earlier stay.
• Shell's report gives the houses: Prince with a Mr Garrett at Overlangbroek from 18 October, all three with the schoolmaster from 21 October, Prince and Lynch taken away on 28 October, Shell on the 30th (escape report 2675, p. 9).
• By those dates the three were with the schoolmaster for 7 days (Prince and Lynch, 21 to 28 October) and 9 days (Shell, to the 30th). Ten Wolde's 12 days (15 for one) fit only if he counted the Overlangbroek houses too, which the next bullet's dispute over where he lived would allow. Three days at Overlangbroek and five at Neerlangbroek, counted from 18 October, end on 26 October, the date on Scholten-de Bruin's line; Shell's 28 October for the two men's departure is two days later.
• ⚠︎ Where the schoolmaster lived is itself disputed. The report, Shell and Noordman put ten Wolde at Neerlangbroek; Jonkers (Neerlangbroek) says the three were taken from him "to the schoolmaster at Overlangbroek" (p. 2), and Maljers has "Ter Wolde, schoolmaster at Overlangbroek" (p. 13). Ten Wolde's own form gives B 13, Langbroek (p. 3).

Laren and Blaricum. The first Laren house is 4 or 5 days in his report, 7 for Ligter, and 60 in Faber's column; which of Ligter or Faber it was, if either, is not settled. Kerseboom's fortnight in January 1945, from and back to a de Jong of Blaricum, does not appear in the report, which has him with one Laren family from 27 December to 17 March.

How long he was at Assel. Westerwoudt has 14 days (p. 5) and Schaeffer 14 days from 23 November 1944 (p. 5); Dove Jan has 42 days in "Nov. Dec." (the form's year reads "45") (p. 4); the daughter's recollection in Noordman has about seventeen days; his report has the farm near Apeldoorn from 23 November to 23 December.

The Hilversum days. ⚠︎ De Vries has him from 14 March to 3 April, his report from 18 March to 2 April. That overlaps his last days at de Jong's in Laren, which by his report ended on 17 March.

When he came down, and Shell's division. ⚠︎ Ten Wolde and Joor both have him landing near Ede on 17 September 1944; the Woltman form has 18 September at Oosterbeek (Woltman's form); the Kew report has him captured on 21 September. Ten Wolde's line for Shell says "6e Am. luchtlandingsdivisie", where Shell's own report has the medical detachment of the 501st Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, and Prince's report "U.S. Army Medical Corps" (escape report 2675, p. 1).

Everyone, A to Z