• Vergeltungswaffe 1

Date of birth:

September 27th, 1917 (Soerabaja/Java, Dutch East Indies)

Date of death:

August 13th, 1944 (Saint Isle/Département Mayenne, France)

Buried on:

Dutch War Cemetery Orry-la-Ville

Nationality:

Dutch

Rudolf Frans Burgwal is born in Soerabaja, Dutch East Indies on September 27, 1917 and studied in Delft with Bob van der Stok amongst others.
In May 1941 Skipper Sietse P. Rienksma from Schipluiden and Kees Waardenburg want to leave to England. Rienksma has got a Westlander, named "Nooit Volmaakt" in which he ferries gravel and sand. Theo Vrins wants to join them also. He has just been released from inprisonment. And Bob van der Stok has got a compass. Rudy Burgwal is to be number five, he has got fuel. The trip passes succesful until the boat runs aground on the Roggenplaat, a sandbank. The Germans tend to believe Waardenburg and Rienksma as long as they promiss to report to the Ortskommandant in Veere as soon as they get off the sandbank but then they sail to Bergen op Zoom. The attempt fails but everyone is still at large and the boat is still in their posession.
On September 3, 1941 Rienksma, Waardenburg and Burgwal with four others manage to cross the North Sea on another boat.
Burgwal then joins the RAF and from July 22, 1943 flies with No. 322 (Dutch) Squadron and becomes the top scoring Dutch ace with 20 and 3 shared V-1's shot down, 5 on one day included.
He was killed in action on 12th August 1944 while escorting a Lancaster raid on Orléans.

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!

• - SHORES, CH. & WILLIAMS, C., Aces High, Grub Street, London, 1994.
  - Universiteit van Amsterdam- Digital Acedemic Repository
  - The Dutch Medals Page
  - Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Aeropedia
  - Strijdbewijs
  - European Air Force
  

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