He was found by the Dutch Resistance
after parachuting to safety and taken to Jachtlaan
134,Apeldoorn, the house of Ms Narda van Terswiga,(one of the
leaders of a resistance group called "Vrije group Narda")
and a Mrs Bitter-van-Noodaa.
In August he was to be joined by
Sergeant Robert Archer USAAF from Pennsylvania , a gunner on a
B17 Flying Fortress, who had baled out near Laren, several
kilometres east of Apeldoorn The resistance group was active
in helping Allied airmen and Jews and faking passes and the
delivery of food stamps. Both airmen were still in Apeldoorn
at the end of September when a Dutchman, William L’ecluse,
keen to avoid being called up for forced labour and unaware
that the two airmen were being sheltered by Mrs Bitter-van-Noodaa,
betrayed the section of the underground to which he and Mrs
Bitter-van-Noodaa’s son, Joop, belonged.
In the late afternoon or evening of
30th September, acting on information supplied by
this traitor, the Gestapo raided Jachtlaan 134, seizing the
two airmen who were in civilian clothes. They also found six
resistance members. Wim Aalders, Jan Barendsen, Reinier van
Gerrevink, Wim Karreman, Jan Schut and Hans Wijma. All were
executed the following day.
On the second of October 1944 the
eight men were moved to "Het Apeldoornsche Bosch" by
a company of NCO’s recruited from a Waffen-SS
Landesschutzenbattalion. Their bodies were left on the streets
of Apeldoorn with the label "Terrorist" around their
necks. Flight Sergeant Ingram’s body hung on the corner of
Deventer Street with Archer on the same street opposite the
post office. This was a clear reaction by the Germans to the
resistance in the Apeldoorn area
Also hiding in Apeldoorn at this time
were two other members of the crew W/O Craven and P/O
Blakemore.They were in hiding at Frieslaan 5,the home ofde
Vries,a chocolate manufacturer. They successfully evaded
capture.
Mrs Bitter-van-Noodaa was taken to Camp Ravensbruck
where she was to die on 6th January 1945
Narda van Terwiga who had also been moved to
Ravensbruck was freed by the Allied Forces on 25th
April 1945.
On October the 2nd 1969,a simple white
memorial stone was unveiled with the names of Sergeant
Zercher,Flight Sergeant Ingram and the the Dutch resistance
workers at Heerenloo inscribed upon it.
In 2008 Jan van Griethuysen came across a copy of the book
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stephenson at a local market
in Holland. Inside the cover of the book was a
certificate indicating that it had once been given to Kenneth
Ingram while he was attending school in Southhampton.
Incredibly, after writing a letter to the Portsmouth News
indicating his find and wish to return the book to Kenneth's
family, the book was returned to Kenneth's cousin just a few
months later.
Photos
courtesy of Michael Allman & Roger
Ingram, Jelle Reitsma, Teunis Nooteboom, Jan Kiezebrink.
Special thanks to “Footprints on the
Sands of Time” by Oliver Clutton-Brock, research by Linda
Ibrom.