SSgt Charles Hoyes was the radio operator of the B-17G-1-BO 42-31110 QE-M "Pacific’s Dream" when it took off from Station 468 Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK, on December 31st, 1943 during Mission VIII BC171 in order to bomb the Cognac-Châteaubernard area. At 1221, just after they had dropped their bombs, the plane was hit by flak. Two engines caught fire and one was rendered inoperable. Unable to maintain formation, the pilot lowered the plane and ordered the crew to jump. After gliding a bit, the plane meandered to what is now the D144 and crashed. Upon reaching the ground with a wounded knee, Hoyes was told by some farmers to hide in the woods. He was given food and clothes. After a German patrol unsuccessfully searched for him, he wandered to the nearest farmhouse. There, a note from McLaughlin, one of the gunners, reached him. He rendezvoused with him and Fier at the mayor of Bourneau’s house. The latter took them to the Cussac maquis, where they stayed for five days. They moved with some other Americans to a priest’s house for two weeks. Then Hoyes, Fier, McLaughlin, and others were taken by a Maurice Lacherez to Limoges, while four others went with a Spaniard Lacherez later shot. Being ill, he stayed in Limoges for 10 weeks while the rest moved on. The Spaniard that had taken the other Americans tricked Hoyes into going to a maquis near Perigueux in order to recruit him. Escaping with a Russian and a Belgian Jew, they hopped from family to family through cars and trains before reaching Gibraltar through Madrid and Pampelune, and then the UK. One can find his escape report on http://arcweb.archives.gov. It is E&E report #768 detailing the Bourgogne/Pyrenees escape route.

SSgt Hoyes died in 1973.