The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-10-27

I Dolgeville, N. Y.
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 The Boomer Sooner" was flown to England from Indiana by Hash. It has participated in five glider tows and two paratroop drops, inc cluding airborne operations in Nor- mandy, southern France, and Hol- land, three air evacuations of wounded, and has made more than 30 freight flights. The plane was built in the Douglas plant in Long Beach, Cal, is equipped with fire eXtinguishers manufactured in Buff falo, N. Y, and propeller blades made in Hartford, Conn.
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 Officers and men stood huddled around Q fire, preparing their ra- tions, on @ windswept, rain-lashed Belgian airfleld when one suddenly turned and exclaimed: It's Erniel" Striding toward us, came tall, black haired It. Ernest w. Haagensofl, (l028 Willard avenue), Glendale, Cal. He was wearing an old and too small civilian gray coat held to- gether by wire instead of buttons over an Army shirt and patched pair of trousers.
 "When did you get back2"
 Haageson, Q Dakota pilot replied:
 Yesterday morning. The Dutch brought me through the lines into Q British sector where was turned over to Americans. Those Dutch underground people are real heroes. Christ, but they've got guts and they're clever, too, outsmarting the ferries constantly"
 From the Neutenant's pocket as he talked, dangled tooth brush which Q Red Cross worker had given him. Someone asked: where's the Cap, Bill, Humpy, Old Joe, Jim, and Pinkyp"
 Staring straight ahead, Haageson replied through clenched teeth: "They're all dead except the Cap. The Dutch brought him out, too. Those ferries and Dutch Nazis shot Pinky who was wounded in our crash landing, when he refused to talk. We dragged him as far as possible and as the Dutch under- ground tried to secure the means to move him, he was shot three times"
 Standing on @ muddy, cold air- drome somewhere in Belgium, we watched two groups of Thunderbolt P-47s form up and roar of into the northeast across the German from tier north of Aachen. They carried bombs which slid into German strongpoints through the slick, skip- bombing technique developed in the South Pacific. Twenty minutes later they returned to load up again and continue Q shuttle service.
 Two pilots explained that they had dive-bombed, reaching speeds of around 500 miles an hour before they pulled out and then side- Swiped their targets at rooftop levels, dropping delayed action bombs while laying down wither- ing machine gun fire. First Lieuten- ant P. M. Buckles, Santa Ana, Cal, said he had been on 7i missions and had never seen German plane in the air. His pal had just coin- pleted 72 combat missions over Ger many and only once spotted e Luft- waff: plane.
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 Every night since 1925, the fem. ish Belgian, Leon Degroote has sounded the last post" or taps from the British Empire forces which fought in and held the Ypres Sale lent, erected to honor the missing troops from denying the Germans the use of the Channel Ports, from 1914 to 1918.
 Degroote joined British forces after the Normandy landings, fought his way into Belgium, then, when Ypres was liberated late in the afternoon, he sounded taps that first night just as he had been doe ing except for the time of the Ger man occupation. Standing beside the partly rebuilt cloth hall or the Cathedral at Ypres at eight o'clock any night, 1t is one of the worlds most modest but most moving cere- monies to hear Degroote sound "the last post.'
 The memorial, which is pock- marked by the German shells fired while the enemy fled from Ypres few weeks ago, contains the names of more than 25,O00 British soldiers who are missing and certainly dead but never received a soldiers burial. Along the Menin road, nearly a half million Britons marched during the last war to become casualties. One plaque on the memorials walls simply states that 2,3S7 soldiers of all ranks of the New Zealand Expe- ditionary Force lie somewhere near by without graves.
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 It is strange the way in which one l battlefield Qyerlaps another. Down around Metz and Nancy. the present fighting IS occurring over ground still scared and still supporting the fore tifications of the other war. AS we drove in our jeep to within several miles ot Dunkerque, where the German garrison is besIeged, we passed by British and Canadian for- tifications and graveyards of the 1ast war which extend almost to the edge of the present battle field. 0~mD--0
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