I contacted our local news paper “the NewsKlok” for a short article on the Queen-City to be published.
In this article information is asked about the crash of the Queen-City and its cargo.
It was published in the release of July 9, 2008.
Following story is the translation of the article as published:

Peter van der Linden
With special thanks to: J de Vries

                           RESEARCH ON THE QUEEN-CITY

Oisterwijker Peter van der Linden is doing research on the circumstances a American glider, the Queen-City crashed on 18 September 1944  in the agricultural area kerkhoven in Oisterwijk.
He is trough channels in contact with relatives of the crew killed in this crash, buried in Oisterwijk and later relocated to the American cemetery in Margraten .


During WW2 on 18 Sept 1944 a glider crashes in Oisterwijk.
It was a victim of German FLAK in Oisterwijk.
The glider crashed in the kerkhovensestreet en was partly destroyed.
On board was a crew of 4 occupants and cargo, a jeep.
Al 4 crewmembers died in the crash and were buried on the cemetery of the st Petrus banden.
The jeep from the glider survived the crash and was taken by the Germans who used it as their staff car.

                            Who can provide information

The story of the glider is published in several books about Oisterwijk during WW2.
Also a picture of the registration plate belonging to the jeep was published.
On this story Peter van der Linden is doing research for relatives of the crew.
He is searching for photo’s of the graves when the Americans where still buried in Oisterwijk.
For other American eye witnesses of the crash of the Queen-City he is searching for the whereabouts of the jeep onboard the glider.
These veterans of WW2 are very curious if the story of the jeep is a myth or a true story.
There is sometimes told by some elderly villagers that the former local j.p Dr Desain was in the possession of the jeep after the war.
For this research he is searching for the following information:

-Does somebody  know where the jeep is now a days?
-Are their still photo’s in somebody's possession of the graves during 1944-1945 of the crew  
  killed in the crash?  
- is somebody in the possession of remains of the glider?
- is somebody in the possession of photo’s of Doctor Desain and his jeep with maybe a  
  number plate ore hood numbers on it?
-Are their still any eyewitnesses around that were at the crash site on 19 September 1944?
-Is their somebody that knows something more about this story?

Today the new edition of our local magazine “de uitstraling”(spelled charisma),was spread over a 10000 homes in 3 villages, Oisterwijk, Moergestel       and Heukelom.

In this new edition there is a chapter called ”in conversation with”.

This month this chapter is dedicated to our search for the Willys Jeep.

peter.


IN CONVERSATION WITH                              by Erik Romanesco

PETER VAN DER LINDEN
ZP-21-98 (dutch plate number)

Is this the number plate of the Willys-Jeep that Peter van der Linden is searching for? And why is Peter searching for this ‘war jeep’?

Everything begins in the fall of 1944.Operation Market-Garden is just in its second day. It probably will be clearer if the movie “a bridge to far” is mentioned, this movie gives a clear view on the allied airborne operation performed over southern-Holland. Above Oisterwijk numerous airplanes can be seen passing Oisterwijk in those day’s. “The sky was black due to the planes, big bombers and transport planes towing gliders filling the sky” according to the older inhabitants of Oisterwijk. In one of those numerous convoy’s on route to Son, Nijmegen and Arnhem  also a glider called the Queen-City is flying. The glider is piloted by Flight Officer Noell McCann from Norwood Ohio, and consists of a crew and cargo on route to Son. At Son the glider will be released of its tug plane and land to go into battle with the occupying German army. But on the 18 of September 1944 something goes terribly wrong above Oisterwijk. The German anti aircraft guns are able to hit the wing of the glider and it goes down crashing in the area Kerkhoven, nearby the farmhouse of the Van der Sterren family. The crew doesn’t survive the crash, except as in a miracle the Jeep does in crystal shape. And this is the Jeep Peter van der Linden is searching for over the past half year.

Peter van der Linden  a relative ‘fresh’ Oisterwijker in the garden of his new build home comes in conversation with his new neighbours, Family The Jong. Soon it appears they poses the same interests for the second world war. Peter tells: ”Already at junior high school I was interested in the war; story’s of my grandma, documentaries and books encouraged me to keep up this interest and in my new neighbours I found a pleasant partner to discus the subject” They are the ones to introduce Peter with the story about the downing of the glider. With the knowledge just learned trough his new neighbours Peter returns to his home and decides to Google the name ‘Queen-City’. And to his amazement he got a hit. On the website ‘thewoundingofcharlywilber.com’, a internet book the story about the downing of the Queen-City is motioned. The nice thing about the year 2008 is the fact contacts are easily made around the world and the following occurred. Soon contact is made and information is exchanged with the author of the internet book.

Witnesses from these’s day’s know the Jeep was taken in the possession by the German authorities, and short after the war Dr Desain came in the possession of a Willy-Jeep. Is one plus one two? And is the Jeep the doctor possessed the same Jeep as the one named ‘Shirley” witch survived the glider crash in one piece? Peter tells: “not an easy task, that’s a difficult thing to find out cause very soon the my search came to a dead end”. Until I red the book ‘War in Oisterwijk’. In this book published in 1984 I found a photograph of the registration plate of the Willys-Jeep. Is the story a true story then I thought? Also in America the search for the Willys-Jeep didn’t stay unnoticed. There is a search going on in archives, documents and manifests to obtain more information regarding the vehicle. Also the story didn’t stay unnoticed by the press, and not that long ago a news item about the search was broadcasted on a television network about the effort made in Brabant (that’s our province)to obtain the ‘whereabouts’ of the Willys-Jeep in our village Oisterwijk.

During the conversation with Peter van der Linden and De Uitstraling it becomes clear that he is very up to date with war history of Oisterwijk. He spoke with numerous people and al the information gathered by him ends up in his large dossier. Especially the role Dr Desain played during the war and especially in the day’s close to liberation has his special attention. With passion he tells the story about Dr Desain being a red cross men and helping people in need during the war. Also its this doctor that takes care of the crew’s corpses onboard the Queen-City. Not every detail is suitable to write in this story, but the heroic deeds of Dr Desain are. He is the one that obtains documents from the glider and later burns them in his chimney at home to prevent them of falling in the hands of the Germans. also personal belongings from the dead crew members are secured by Dr Desain.” But there is more”, Peter van der Linden tells, “It was also Dr Desain who crossed the enemy’s line of defence and contacted the allies, who where eager to take in Oisterwijk. The information  the Scottish commander had was that Oisterwijk was evacuated entirely of its people .therefore its due to Dr Desain’ action Oisterwijk was spared further destruction”. No wonder that everybody learning of this story is most curious if the Willys-Jeep from the glider is the same Jeep Dr Desain drove in all these years after the war.

Who can help Peter? During his search peter talks to people who rather don’t want to talk about those day’s. Also eyewitnesses are getting older and sometimes they forget minor
details ore after all these years the memory just let them down, understandable I think. but some people from Oisterwijk will still be able to tell the story with clear recollection, and who can give a tribute to this search. Meanwhile the Jeep Shirley became a myth, especially in America, and if she never will be found the myth be keep on existing.

our local newspaper will publish my reconstruction of 'the crash of the Queen-City' over the next 3 weeks.
these are images of part one.
Peter.

PART ONE:

Peter, The article looks great and thanks for having the graves on the men from Baker Company.
Is there any chance you could have the article translated into English? My Dutch is very limited.

Doug

Dutch Historical Military Conservation Group:

I e-mailed this society early spring this year for information regarding the missing Jeep.
My question was if they possibly had a members vehicle registered that had the same registration numbers as Shirley the Willys Jeep from the Queen-City.
Now information could be provided to me due to the fact that this society doesn’t have a list with their members vehicle registration.
After being contacted by several members of the society’s commission regarding the story I came in contact with Miss Carry Engelhard.  
In return I was asked by Miss Engelhard if it was possible for me to make a story about the crash with more information and pictures if possible.
Funny thing to mention is, last year when I visited Sainte Mere Eglise, Normandie I met a woman  in a restaurant of that same society who was so nice to  provide me and my buddy with several  Points of interest near Sainte Mere Eglise.
When I told here this story by e-mail earky this year Miss Engelhard wrote me the following,
“That woman was me! So we already met”.
Talking about a small world.
around September I contacted here again and provided  here the information I had gathered so far.
After the promise an article was to be dedicated to the crash in their Magazine I received the magazine this week.  
The Dutch Historical Military Conservation Group or KTR, Keep Them Rollin has a magazine for their 1500 members who together own about 3000 vehicles.
They are in contact with several same alike society’s around Europe.
I even found their magazine in a store in Bastogne.
They have a website here http://www.ktr.nl/en/index.html
Because several translations can be read on this forum from other articles there is no need to translate this story again.
Except from the following story that is to ad to the rest.

Ones their was a little private ww2 museum in Oisterwijk, the Netherlands run by Mr Aan de Stegge from the village Oisterwijk.
In this museum some vehicles and planes where on display.
Together with pictures on the wall and other related items of the history of Oisterwijk during ww2 they gave the visitor of this museum an impression on the history of Oisterwijk during occupation and liberation true 1939/1945.
Also 3 Willys Jeeps where on display and after some research it appeared one was dated 1944.
Together with the story ones told by an eyewitness of the crash who I interviewed it is worth  to further investigate this Willys Jeep.
The story that was told is as follows,
After the dead of Dr Desain his family moved to an other part of Holland.
The owner of the museum in Oisterwijk Mr Aan de Stegge was able to buy the Willys Jeep ones owned by Dr Desain from his widow  and displayed it in his museum in the 70’s.
After research it appears this Willys Jeep had an old Dutch registration plate.
This was 47-30-vm.
The museum is long gone now after the owner passed away.
Nobody could provide me with info regarding the whereabouts of his collection.
Questions are asked to ww2 vehicle society’s in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Peter.

Peter, Very good posting, again showing alot of research. I have been talking
with Reg Jans from Beligum and he asked about the video I did on my Mom &
Dad's war stuff that appears on my website as well as Don Burgett's. I will be
sending him an envelope written by my Dad to my Mom in which Lt. Duane
J. Webster, the first American Patton's forces met at Bastogne on December 26,
1944, cleared the letter (all letters writen by my Dad had to be checked by an        
officer). While going thru the letters I have noticed that Lt. Hiltunen also cleared
some of my Dad's letters, along Captain's Rogers and Froemke.

Doug

Doug, thanks for your reply. as you can see I’m still not giving up on the Jeep.
Let’s see if this effort from KTR will bring up any new information for me, only time will tell they sure did a great job. At least the story is out in Holland and for everybody to read. Just another episode of our village history is put on to paper and I think its good to repeat our war history once a while. One can only learn from it and once again we are remembered that not only British lives were given for our freedom but also American.
Nice to hear that you are still finding out something new about your dad’s history regarding the letters.
Two weeks ago I visited the Ardennes with my buddy and had a great time.Again we visited some great museums and points of interest.
Also visited Bastogne and surroundings on a cold foggy day, no snow but the view of inside Bois Jacques gave me a real surrealistic feeling on how it must have looked like 64 years ago covered in snow and fog.

This is the letter Doug spoke of.

I found this enevolpe along with two letters written inside.
The dates of the letters were September 16 & 17th, 1944.
In the letters my Dad writes to his future wife that she might not
be getting some mail from him. (The reason of course was that
Operation Market-Garden was beginning and it might take some
time even if he could write a letter). Note that the certified examiner
of these letters was Lt. Ray Hiltunen and also note the postmark
on the envelope is September 18, 1944, the day Hiltunen and three
other Americans were shot down and killed aboard the Queen City.

Amazing, thanks for sharing!