Hill | Raymond Jesse
Biography
Son of Alfred Jesse and Evelyn Ruth Hill, husband of Joan Mary Hill and father of Jenny Stone, born Hill.
Raymond Jesse Hill takes off on Saturday 14 October 1944, the day Overloon was liberated, in a Taylorcraft Auster I, serial number MT142, from a hastily constructed airfield near Sint Anthonis. Lieutenant Hill belonged to 658 Squadron, which had only been formed in 1943, in support of English artillery. Its first deployment was on 6 June 1944 during D-day.
The English pilot had to locate German artillery positions between Overloon and Venray. On his way to that area, the low-flying Hill sees Annie Nabuurs between Overloon and Westerbeek, who enthusiastically waves to him with all she has. He waves back. After his mission, the 24-year-old Hill flies again over the farm where the then 17-year-old Annie lived. A few moments later, he is shot out of the sky. Hill did not survive, leaving behind a wife and his daughter Jenny, a few weeks old.
The plane appears to have been shot down by its own artillery. It crashes burning not far from
Duivenbos campsite. In this area, the number of downed aircraft is very high. An area of 5
km2 contains at least 4 crash sites, 3 of which have been defined through soil surveys. The search for Lt Hill’s plane is still ongoing.
Annie Nabuurs keeps a diary, describing how she became an eyewitness to this dramatic crash just above her farm. How she happily waved in the apple orchard at the pilot, who was flying so low, she saw him wave back. And moments later the loud bang and fireball in the sky followed by black debris crashing down in the apple orchard.
She describes how some time later, a priest knocked on their door to be allowed to cut some dahlias for the grave of the pilot who had just died, waving at her only recently. Overwhelmed by emotion and grief, Annie and her family accompany the priest to a spot in a nearby meadow where Lieutenant Hill is temporarily buried by a group of Royal Air Force soldiers.
The whole event stayed with Annie throughout her life, even when she emigrated to Canada and hoped that one day she would be able to tell relatives of Lieutenant Hill how she was involved in the last moments of his life.
This meeting took place years later via an online video connection, when, after a long search by Leo Janssen of Werkgroep Vliegtuigcrashes en Noodlandingen WOII in Boxmeer and Sue Eynon, Hill’s daughter Jenny was found and put in touch with Annie in Canada.
The Hill family visited the grave at Overloon War Cemetery in the 1960s and 1980s. Annie also returned to the Netherlands several times and visited Lieutenant Hill’s grave each time.
