K for King

John Mahoney and James ‘Jim’ Cockriel both landed near the farm of Dermaut in Ingooigem-Vichte. They were spotted by a young student, Roger Dubois, who spoke English very well and stayed with them in a forest till nightfall. At that moment, German soldiers were still patrolling the area.

They left the forest and went to the house of Michel Vandenbroucke. It was a family with three young children. At first the man of the house was amazed when seeing two Yankees in front of his door. Without hesitating and at risk of his life and that of his family he took Mahoney and Cockriel in. From that time on, the three children had two new ‘big brothers’. That same evening, a priest was called in, to talk about the situation. The attic was made up for the new inhabitants and they had a nice view on the surrounding fields, so they could see what was happening outside. The two crewmembers both stayed there for several months. Sometimes they stayed in the church of Ingooigem together with the priest, Jozef Rathé.

Mahoney and Cockriel heard about the landing in Normandy, and they wanted to help as well in the fight against the Germans. They joined the Secret Army of Waregem (Zone III)(Pictures above). Beating heart of the organization was a farm called “Le Grèbe”. The resistance knew that the English troops were closing at a fast rate and the Secret Army was ordered to come out and attack the Germans. On 5 September 1944 they already captured Germans and put them in the College of the Holy Heart.

People had seen English troops and everybody thought that the Germans were gone. They started partying and soon the first victims fell. Henri Lebbe, Adolf Cannie and 6 other civilians were killed by retreating German soldiers. This was the beginning of a lot of misery. The 712th German division wanted to stop the Allies at Anzegem at all costs.

The Secret Army knew if it stayed in Waregem, the civilians wouldn’t be safe at all. Therefore they decided to go back in the morning of 6 September 1944 to a forest called “Spitaelbossen”. One of the patrols around the forest included Roger Vansteenbrugge, Jozef Duthoy, Marcel Windels, Daniel Delmulle, Mahoney and Cockriel (see pictures above). They were looking out for German soldiers and also English troopers to inform them about the situation in Waregem. It was around 17.00, raining and a bit colder than usual, when their patrol heard rattling noise. They were glad to see an English tank and reconnaissance vehicle.

They stopped and from than on hell broke lose. The tank was hit by an 88mm Pak and almost at the same time they were under fire of an automatic gun. The resistance tried to run away but were captured in a few minutes further in the fields, they were surrounded! After a body ckeck the Germans found a gun and a young German officer wanted them to be lined up and executed all of them. Only Cockriel and Delmulle survived the execution and found refuge in the farm next to the place they were shot. The day after they were brought to the hospital in Waregem with an ambulance of the Red Cross where they were looked after. Two days later, Cockriel was already in Brussels. From the English troopers, Harold Hoyle and Leonard Williams didn’t survive the attack.

Till today they are still remembered, together with Walley Loosveldt, the two English troopers, Leonard L. Williams (44th Royal Tanks), Harold Hoyle (15th Recce) and American John F. Mahoney.

                     Marcel Windels                       Jozef Duthoy                   Roger Vansteenbrugge