Photo: Muttart’s grave in Harlingen  (Photo courtesy of Pam Alexander collection)

July 28, 2017.  The story of WWII pilot Elmer Bagnall Muttart from Cape Traverse, who saved the Dutch village of Wons and his crew after being shot down in October 1941, touches the heart of everyone who hears about it.  For Pieter, it’s an especially relevant story, given his Dutch roots.  As he explained when this project first began, “I was born during the Hunger Year of 1944, when there was little or no food.  So many people starved to death.  The Canadians not only liberated us from Nazi rule, they saved us from starvation.”

The research into this story began in October 2016. Shortly after the first article about the project appeared in the County Line Courier, Ralph Muttart brought us a posting from 2011 on Flickr photo sharing from Harlingen, written by bed and breakfast owner Richard Merkx.  There was a photo of Muttart’s grave in Harlingen, and Merkx had written: “About 5 years ago, an English gentleman and his daughter came and stayed at our bed and breakfast ‘Het Kapiteinhuis’ in Harlingen.  His surname was (Flight Sergeant) Alexander and he was the navigator on the plane piloted by Mr. Muttart.  They were shot down by a German nightfighter over Harlingen 13/10/1941.  The whole crew could bail out because the pilot stayed with the plane until the last moment, thus avoiding crashing into the village of Wons and killing many innocent people.  We took Mr. Alexander to the Harlingen Cemetery to pay his respects, an emotional moment for him as he had wondered all his life where his Pilot had been buried.  According to the many people around Pingjum (where Mr. Alexander landed by parachute) and Wons, it was a heroic act by the Pilot that saved his crew and the citizens of the village.”

This was enough to get Pieter’s interest and he got in touch with Mr. Merkx, who in turn put him in touch with Pam Alexander, the daughter of the now deceased Mr. Alexander.  Then we learned that Muttart’s sister Helen was still alive, and contact was established with her as well.  We then learned of historians in The Netherlands doing research on the planes that crashed during WWII and Bauke Posthuma was kind enough to share some of his findings.  Pieter ordered a book from The Netherlands, a diary kept by schoolteacher Mr. De Boer, and published as “History of Wildinghe” in Dutch (Dutch title: ‘Van Wildinghe’s Historie’), in which he recorded the events of October 12, the night of the plane crash. It was like peeling an onion.  With each layer that unfolded in this story, it became clear that Muttart was a hero.

Next, the non-profit Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation in The Netherlands and the non-profit Tryon & Area Historical Society here on Prince Edward Island partnered to raise funds for a memorial plaque to be placed in Wons, The Netherlands in October 2018.

We hope you enjoy this very special fourth article that ran in July 2017, “The PEI Pilot Who Saved A Dutch Village” in the County Line Courier.    CLC July 19 p20 WWII Pilot Saved Dutch Village

Following the publication of this article, CBC PEI interviewed Pieter about Muttart and this project, and that’s the subject of the next blog entry.

If you have photos or documents you’d like to share, please email them to memorialtrail@gmail.com.  Comments or stories?  You can share them by email or by commenting on this blog.

© Daria Valkenburg

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