The Detailed Evasion and Escape of Lowell Isaac Creason

USAAF B-26 Marauder Radio Operator

This is presented because it contains one of the more detailed descriptions of a successful escape. One is struck by how many different individuals were involved in the complex operation of returning Allied crews to the UK, and how fraught with dangers it was for the members of the Resistance who willingly risked their lives to preserve the honour of their country and do their bit to hit back at a ruthless and hated oppressor.

We salute the heroines and heroes of the French and Spanish Resistance!

Lowell Isaac Creason / 37138269

Born August 3, 1919

Died February 5, 1986 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Unit: S/Sgt, USAF 322nd Bombardment Group (M), 449th Bombardment Squadron (M): radio operator

Aircraft: Martin B-26B-30-MA Marauder Serial #41-31948 Registration Coded: PN/K,

Incident: shot down by Flak January 14, 1944 during an attack on V-1 weapons sites at St Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France. Crashed south of Gravelines, Nord, France. Evasion Duration: 3 months. Happened in France, Spain.

Crash Site: Landed 2km from Lederzeele, Pas-de-Calais, France.

Duration of Escape: 3 months. France and in Spain.

Pilot: 1st Lt. Samuel A. Walker Jr. DFC O-791258 AAF PoW (Stalag Luft 1 Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.)

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. James D. Pearson O-670598 AAF PoW (Stalag Luft 1 Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.)

Nav/Bombardier: 2nd Lt. Paul L. Wolff O-732477 AAF - Evader (Escape & Evasion 1166)

Radio Op/Gunner: T/Sgt. Lowell I. Creason 37138269 AAF - Evader (Escape & Evasion 616)

Engineer/Gunner: T/Sgt John J. Perhart Jr. 35283295 AAF - PoW ( Stalag Luft 4 Groß-Tychow, Pomerania, Prussia now Tychowo, Poland (Moved from Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug on 28th May 1944. Moved to Wöbbelin near Ludwigslust and then to Usedom near Swinemünde))

Gunner: S/Sgt Edward J. Riegelhuth 19064145 AAF - PoW ( Stalag Luft 4 Groß-Tychow, Pomerania, Prussia now Tychowo, Poland (Moved from Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug on 28th May 1944. Moved to Wöbbelin near Ludwigslust and then to Usedom near Swinemünde))

Gunner: S/Sgt. William J. Brogle 35377490 AAF - Evader (Escape & Evasion 1567)

Report on Escape

The crew report on the loss of this device loss: MACR 1748. Escape & Evasion 616.

The Marauder took off from Andrews Field, Essex at 09:30. One minute after the bomb run, the plane is hit by flak. The intercom is inoperative and the pilot rang the alarm bell.

All crew members managed to parachute out and land safely.

The pilot, 1st Lt. Samuel A. Walker Jr. was captured, as well as the co-pilot 2nd Lt. James D. Pearson, the dorsal gunner T/Sgt John J. Perhart and rear gunner S/Sgt Edward G. Riegelhuth.

Besides Lowell Creason, two other men succeeded in escaping: Bomb Aimer Paul Wolff and ventral gunner S/Sgt William J. Brogle, who usually flew with another crew (he will remain hidden in the Pas-de-Calais until liberation in September 1944 - see Escape & Evasion 1567).

Lowell Creason, on his 28th mission, jumped from 12,500 feet (4200 m) via the bomb bay behind Wolff and Walker. The co-pilot Pearson is standing behind him when he jumps. Creason is seriously injured in his ear when opening his parachute and he also loses his escape kit in the fall. He landed in a ploughed field and then takes off his parachute. Three young French men gather around him, one of them puts the parachute in a bag while the other two lift the rest of the equipment and lead him to a hiding place in the bushes, where he remained throughout the afternoon.

B-26 Marauder

They bring him food at night, and one of his helpers leads him in and after cycling leads him to a hut where he finds at Lederzeele his teammate Paul Wolff and Wayne Greer and Walter Satterfield, two members of the crew of B-26 #42-31880 from the same squadron, fell a few kilometers away.

Emile DEGRAEVE, farmer and local representative of the Resistance, arrived at the hut bringing them food. DEGRAEVE will then arrive with a nun who heals the wound in Creason's ear. By the next evening, the four men in DEGRAEVE's care are restored and are conducted to another house in the village to see Sgt Daniel Mertes, also of #41-31880, whose legs are paralyzed.

The day before dawn, the five escapees are guided to a large farm 2 km from Lederzeele in Vasseur, where they remain for two days. News then reaches them that Mr. and Mrs. DEGRAEVE and their two daughters were arrested shortly after the departure of the airmen they had hosted. Ms. DEGRAEVE and her two daughters were freed after a week, but Emile DEGRAEVE was still being detained when Creason left the area.

The five airmen are then led to a farm where a Belgian, his wife Mary and Cyril's brother lived (Mertes cites the 'MILLS VAN?' but it's unclear what is meant). Vasseur and the owner of the farm contributed to the costs involved in hosting the escapee airmen. On 8 or 9 February, Sylvia (23 years, 160cm, blonde, blue eyes, knowing very little English) and two other young women arrive from Paris and take Creason, Satterfield and Wolff by truck to Saint-Omer.

We find traces of Lowell Creason in the files of French officers of the 'Comet' Escape Line that helped, including PLEHIERS and Gaston and his wife Hattie CAGNARD of 4th Street Victorien Sardou in Saint-Omer, where they are being harboured. The same sources indicate that Creason and Paul Wolff then went with PLEHIERS with two Madeleine DUMONT guides who take them to Paris in February 1944: Marie-Andrée COLUMBUS ('Yvette', living in Paris 5 Rue Champfleury to seventh with his stepmother Madeleine DUMONT) and Louise Lenoir (single, a designer at 36 Rue Erard Paris XII). In its report of activities, Gaston PLEHIERS' information calls Creason 'Greason Larvoll' and mentions four other airmen.

The report indicates that Creason from Saint-Omer and the group took the train to Arras then another to Paris. At this point, Creason spends a night in the apartment of a priest and the next day is led by Sylvia to, first a photographer, then Madame OF VILLATTE where he remained for seven days, four of them sick in bed.

Sylvia comes looking to lead them to her own apartment in the eastern part of the capital. There they lodge for five days before Sylvia guides them to the apartment of the two sisters 'Malaprade' (these are Genevieve and Jacqueline Maleprade) near the Bois de Boulogne (file Françoise BOURCART states it precisely as at 9 Street Civry Paris XVI). They are both schoolteachers (the Institute Sevigne, according to BOURCART) and they host Creason for nearly a month's stay during which several members of the organization will see them. In late February, a brunette, 1m55, brown eyes, just informs them that the head of the organization and most of the members of the network were arrested. Thereafter, Creason learns that the brunette was also apprehended, and also, apparently, Sylvia.

Miss Maleprade then immediately makes contacts with some friends according to Creason which contains the names in his report, noting that he is not sure of the spelling of their names. So he quotes Francis 'GROVE', his wife 'Louise', their two children, Andrew and Jacqueline 9 years 13 years. He states that BOSQUET is running a major printing work and has friends in Stuart's Dress Shop in Remley House, near Piccadilly, London. The report is that Francis BOUCHY (the real name of 'Grove' in Creason's report), printer at 147 Boulevard Saint-Michel, tells us that Françoise BOURCART, guardian of unmarried children, housed Creason for a night with her at 70 Rue Assas, Parix 7th Arrondissment. She had been looking at the sisters with Ms. Maleprade BOUCHY (Suzanne DELRIEUX). In his paper, Creason says he saw workers working on the construction of a tunnel at the corner of Rue d'Assas and Rue Guynemer.

About 8 or 9 March, leads Creason in BOUCHY near the Luxembourg Gardens, and later learned that he had hardly left the apartment of Maleprade when the Gestapo had burst in there. The two sisters were arrested but quickly released after a fruitless interrogation. As the report states, Creason stayed with Paul Wolff until March 9, but without the name or evoke from his statement on February 8-9, one might think that Wolff has followed the same path until at that time (?)

BOUCHY provides new clothes and false papers for Creason and on March 23, there arrives home a woman named 'AUBERY' 1m75, about 35/40 years old, brunette, thin, bespectacled, the head of another network. She takes Creason to the apartment of Mrs. Jules Henri, near the Place de la Concorde, where she asks Creason to verify the identity of Pederson who is there. This is the S/Sgt Arnold O. Pederson, dorsal gunner of B-17 #42-37946 of 452nd Bomb Group who was shot down 8 February 1944 from which Pederson is the only member of the crew who managed to escape. Note that in the report Pederson, Escape & Evasion 615, the date is questioned by the AUBERY because Creason says 25 and not 23 March ...

Creason spent two days at Mrs. Jules Henri, described by Pederson as a big brunette, married to a French diplomat in the U.S. and then being a student at the University of Paris. At the end of his stay with Mrs. Henri, a young girl then picks Creason to drive in another part of the city and give him to a young man who comes up to Creason with coffee. Pederson said that the date is March 28 and the girl in question is named PAULETTE, whose sister, her husband and herself had hosted Pederson and another escaped, T/Sgt Archie R. Barlow (the only one to escape from B-24 #42-7635 of 44th Bomber Group, shot down Jan. 21, 1944 - and discharged by Marie-Odile network to the Pyrenees and Spell April / May 1944 - Escape & Evasion 687)). Pederson says PAULETTE sister and daughter of the owner of another cafe where PAULETTE works, Pederson bring this other to the cafe, where he sees and meets Creason, Lt Lathrop (see below), F/Lt David Goldberg (RCAF Spitfire pilot shot down in MJ356 in March 8, 1944 - discharged to the Pyrenees in April 1944 by the network Françoise Marie-Louise DISSARD - GSP 3319/1910) and SqdLdr Robert Gordon Crosby (RCAF Typhoon JP446 shot down January 3, 1944 - discharged to the Pyrenees in April 1944 by the network Françoise Marie-Louise DISSARD - GSP 3319/1908).

The report states Creason and the other four take a train to Toulouse and that from that moment the story of his escape is the same as that of Lathrop, Pederson also noted that in his report. Creason's own report concludes by stating that the organization is in dire need of civilian clothes and especially shoes to fit the escapees.

Lt. Neil H. Lathrop is the pilot of B-17 #42-30386 of the 305th Bomb Group shot down on 7 January 1944. Reading his escape report (Escape & Evasion 613) tells us that the coffee date is the headquarters of the network 'Françoise' Marie-Louise DISSARD mentioned above. We take what he tells from the start of the five escapees to Toulouse their guide is a young student at the University of Toulouse, wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his head. Arrived in Toulouse, they take a railcar to Montesquieu, then a bus to St-Girons where they stay eight days in a barn at the foot of the Pyrenees. On the seventh day, they were joined by John Watson Smith (who Lathrop had met before, a British citizen, born in South Africa and wanted by the Gestapo for helping another airman escape).

Lathrop did not specify how they were guided through the Pyrenees, but we find some details in the report of 2nd Lt. Michael L. Smith (pilot of the P-47 #42-76337 of the 366th Fighter Group on 17 March 1944 - Escape & Evasion 614).

Smith reports that on arrival on a farm in the hillside, he met Lathrop, Pederson, Creason, Goldberg, Crosby and F/Lt Watkins (P/O William E. Watkins, pilot of Typhoon JR309 shot down February 13, 1944 - GSP 3319/1909). These men set off on the night of April 7th through the Pyrenees. After 6 hours of walking, they met with another group, the guide promises to go find one of the men that the group Creason had to abandon who apparently started to go back home owing to injury.

Escape Route for Lowell Creason and Others: January - April 1944

On April 8, they reach the top of a steep mountain and down the other side, but a fierce storm complicated their advance. Especially, says Smith, as one of the Canadians was practically walking barefoot and Goldberg and the American bomber aimer were in serious trouble. [In his report, Creason noted that during the first night in the Pyrenees, Lathrop almost brought one of two Canadians on his back across the mountain. He added that at some point, David Goldberg slipped on the ice on a rock and Lt. Smith was just able to grab him and prevent him falling into the abyss.]

The men took refuge in a valley where they spent the night, during which their guide abandoned them. Therefore, the group of Smith and Creason separated from the other group - guided apparently by a Frenchman and a Belgian This second group of seven escapees then returned to St Girons and Toulouse with these guides. Creason, Smith and others as their little group continued to grow, with a guide from a new 'organization' making the journey with them, apparently the group was familiarizing itself with the route.

The group with Creason was on the backside of the mountain and coming through, reached Pallaresa. Their guide confirms with them while they are indeed both in Spain and leads on beyond Port Salau where they spend the night of April 9 in the home of a Spanish friend of the guide. The next day, the group walks along the river and reaches Esterri Àneu where their guide hands over to his younger brother who works with them until Escaló.

The Escapist reports do not provide the identity of the guides, but the name Creason appears in a list of seven airmen found in the papers of SOLDEVILLA Jaume and his wife Generosa (nee CORTINA), working in Catalonia for the Belgian network Jean and the local network François. A report states Creason was guided by Jaume through the Pyrenees to Spain.

The escapeés stayed there with another brother of the guide, while their initial guide travelled to Barcelona to contact the British Consulate. On April 22, a truck arrives in the front of which sits a Spanish artillery captain. This will take them to Barcelona where they arrived on 23 April. The consul gives 200 pesetas to each escapeé, as well as civilian clothes and they are accommodated in various houses and hotels in the city.

Creason confirmed in his report that he arrived in Spain on April 10, 1944, and reached Gibraltar on the 28th via Madrid, where he is met by the U.S. Consulate with Lathrop, Pederson and Lt. Michael L. Smith. He left Gibraltar by air on May 4 to arrive the next day in Bristol, England. He is interviewed on the same day in London by IS 9.

Lowell Creason died 5 February 1966 at the young age of 66 and now lies at rest at Crown Hill Cemetery in Excelsior Springs, Missouri USA

Crown Hill Cemetery: Resting Place for Lowell Creason

Grave Marker for Lowell Creason

Note: This has been developed partially from a text which was a translation of a translation and as a consequence, it has sometimes been difficult to find the precise meaning of a phrase, hence the somewhat stilted English. Corrections and additional information from AircrewRemembered Senior Editors.

• Allied Losses Database for Marauder #41-31948

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt