At seven O'clock on the evening of May 11 we were called for a
short mission to France. This was my twenty third mission
my army records show that I flew thirty seven missions. I don't
know what caused the difference in the records. As far as I knew,
it was my twenty third mission and I was glad it was to be a short
one. Bruce and I had recuperated from the night before and he was
flying as my wingman. We got over France and were attacked by a
large group of enemy fighters. We were soon scattered all over the
sky engaged in combat and Bruce, who was to be off my left wing
guarding my rear, wasn't there. All I saw was an ME-109 directly
behind me. He must have come from above so quickly that I missed
him. I immediately started a right turn, but it was
too late. The next thing I saw was two rows of bullet holes
chewing up each side of my instrument panel. The armor plate
behind the seat was only a foot wide and the bullets were hitting
the instruments about twenty inches apart. I'll never know how my
arms kept from being hit.
The cockpit filled with flames and I knew the gas, tank behind the
seat had been hit and was burning. I just had time to pull the
canopy release and struggled to kick myself out as fast as I
could. My oxygen mask and earphones were still fastened to the
plane and these together with the force of the wind made it
difficult to get out. I was lucky not to be hit by the tail
section of the plane. Both of my ears were burned and the silk
scarf around my neck was nearly half burned, but the wind
extinguished that. I was 23,000 feet up which about four mi1es
and did what I was not supposed to do I pulled the ripcord to open
my chute. Due to the panic from the fire I suppose I wasn't
thinking too clearly. The farther you fall before you open the
parachute, the less chance the enemy has of seeing you and the
better your chance for escape. Also some of our pilots had been
shot by enemy planes while coming down in their chutes. I was
headed down when my chute opened and Jerked me around into a
sitting position which later caused all my back problems. My heart
went to my throat when I looked up and saw three panels of the
parachute were missing. I realized now that they are made that way
to release some of the air underneath to make them more stable. It was
really quite an experience to look down and see nothing
beneath you except your shoes. The first impression I had was of
the absolute quiet around me. I checked my watch and noted that it
took exactly twelve minutes for me to come down. I threw away all
the info I had that might help the enemy and ate the candy bar I
had in my packet rather than let it be taken away. It was a good
thing I did so as it was quite awhile before I was to eat again.
I saw my plane go down, crash and burn several miles away. I found
out later that I was in Luxemburg near the city of Metz. As I
neared the ground I could see that I was going to land in a plowed
field near a small village. I was not facing in the right
direction and tried to turn and steer myself by pulling on the
chute lines. I almost died of fright when the chute folded half
under and so I let go in a hurry. The chute opened again correctly
and I landed in the soft dirt of the field without even falling
down.
The landing was very easy and I immediately got out of the chute
harness and began to run for the woods that were on either side of
the field. I had gone only about ten feet when I heard a rifle shot
and the bullets whizzing past me so I stopped and held up my
hands. The German was coming across the field toward me from one
direction and a group of twenty people from the village were
coming from the other. The group from the village reached me first
and one of them took out a package of Lucky Strike cigarettes,
gave me one and lit it for me. They were French and all smiles.
they could have hidden me if the Germans were not right there. the
German was a young boy, but I gave up any thoughts of escape as he
was the one with the gun. He took me back to the road where he had
a bicycle. It seems the Germans patrolled the roads on bicycles
during air raids and captured the Americans when they saw the
parachutes coming down. If I had not opened my parachute so soon
he might not have seen me and I could have reached the woods
safely or the townspeople could have hidden me. It was almost dark
now as it was 8:00 pm. I walked along the dark road with him
behind me on the bicycle carrying the gun. After about an hours
walk we came to a city where I was taken into a building where
there were several German soldiers. They made me empty my pockets
and took my watch. They were interested in my 'May West' life vest
so I showed them how it worked and they all jumped when I pulled
the pin and it inflated. I was then put in a dark room, face down
on a cot with my ankles drawn up behind me and tied to my wrists.
They left me this way through the night and returned for me in the
morning. Than I was taken into the city of Metz where I was joined
by some other prisoners. Bruce was with them and I was very glad
to see him and know he was safe. We had been shot down at the same
time. There were several fellows from a bomber crew and we were a
group of about ten. They took us down one of the busy streets and
we were a little nervous as to the reaction of the civilians who
we had been bombing, but they just looked at us. None of us spoke
French and they were probably afraid of the German soldiers with us.
As one of the boys in the bomber crew had been hit in the knee by
flak, he had it all wrapped up in bloody cloths. He had received
no medical attention and could not walk on it so we all took
turns, one on each side of him. He was in a lot of pain but never
complained. I recall traveling part of the way in a streetcar, but
can't remember how we got from Metz to the interrogation center in
southern Germany, which was our destination. When you are in a
foreign country in this situation it certainly seemed good to have
your fellows to talk to! By this time we were beginning to get
hungry, but were all, so nervous about what was going to happen to
us that we didn't concentrate much on food.
When we arrived at the interrogation center we were separated and
I was put into a small room about ten feet square with a high
ceiling. There was a little window about fifteen feet off the
floor which gave a little light in the daytime. The only
furnishings in the room was a wooden bed with a burlap mattress
filled with straw. I could just faintly hear the prisoner in the
next room and later learned that some of the prisoners tried to
communicate with one another by tapping on the wall in Morse code
(which we had learned in training). We were fed three times a day
by the guard stationed in the hall outside. In the morning there
was one slice of bread and a cup of tea, at noon a cup of barley
soup, and at night the bread and tea again. It was just enough to
keep you from starving. I got so hungry that when eating the bread
I would put my jacket over my lap, eat over it then lick the bread
crumbs off the back of the jacket. I tried to keep track of the
days by taking a stick of straw out of the mattress and putting a
one inch piece on the board at the head of the bed each morning.
With nothing to do all day you would soon begin to wonder if you
had counted the day or not. I would sometimes spend several hours
worrying: did I or didn't I do it? The bathroom was down the hall
so when you needed to go you banged on the door until the guard
came. There was no paper and no water so we couldn't keep clean.
I spent eleven days living like this with no one to talk to. All
you could do was think and look at the pieces of straw on the
board. I would walk back and forth for exercise then sit and
think. About the third day a guard took me into a room where a
German officer sat behind a desk. He asked me questions about the
mission I was on, the others in our outfit, all about the planes
and our base in England. We had been told to give nothing but our
name, rank and serial number and that is all I did. After about an
hour I was taken back to my room. A few days later I was returned
to the officer and he began telling me all the information he
already had about me. He knew my hometown (even about the lake),
when I graduated from flying school and all my training bases, and
who I was flying with the day I was shot down. They even knew
about my home base back it England.
1 was amazed at how widespread their spy system must have been and
assumed they must have had informants at every base in England and
the U.S. All he asked was that I sign the papers to the effect
that all the information was true which I refused to do. He even
had the number of my plane and knew the position of it in the
flights.
Just recently I read the book The Interrogator by Haus Scharff
and realized that he was the one who interrogated me. He moved to
the United States after the war and lived in California. The third
and last time I was taken in for interrogation Bruce was in the
room when I was brought in. We just looked at each other and tried
to show no sign of recognition. He didn't say anything and shortly
another door opened and in came "Here I sit, fat, dumb and happy"
Barlow who had been shot down a month previously. We still tried
to show no sign of recognition and finally the interrogator said:
go ahead and say hello to each other for we know already you were
flying together. We shook hands and smiled at each other. After
eleven days of solitary confinement we would have liked to talk,
but didn't. After those eleven days we were desperate to talk to
someone besides the interrogator! He asked no more questions and
we were taken back to our rooms. Barlow was not in the same prison
camp that I was and I believe that was the last time I saw him. I
learned later that after he returned to the States he stayed in
the service and rose to the rank of Major before I lost track of
him.
After eleven days, according to the straws on my shelf, we were
all taken to a large room. There were about fifty of us and it was
a sight you should have seen. We all had beards an inch or longer
and the talking and hollering was deafening. Even the situation in
which we found ourselves did not dampen the laughter and Joy of
being with friends again. Bruce was the only man I knew but these
bomber crews were immediately as close as long lost buddies. We
all had a shower and then a shave. They gave us a little pair of
scissors like you have in kindergarten and I cut Bruce's whiskers
and he cut mine. We had to cut them off enough so the razor could
do the rest. We only had one razor blade which everyone used (and
it was dull) but we managed to get fairly clean without too much
bleeding.
I assume the reason we were not interrogated further was due to
the greater number of Americans being brought into the place. I
also suspect that they weren't getting much information from second
Lieutenants and were more interested in higher ranking officers
who knew a lot more about the war effort in England. They were
probably trying to find out more about invasion preparations. One
thing of interest was a ceremony in England presenting a medal to
one of the leading war aces of the time. He was shot down the next
day and when he arrived at the interrogation center the Germans
had a large picture of him receiving the award. It was hanging on
the wall of the room when they brought him in for interrogation.
You can understand how fast their extensive SPY system worked!
The next thing I remember we were all standing out in an open
field waiting for a train. We were each given a cardboard
suitcase from the Red Cross. Wt opened them and mine contained a
sweater, pajamas, toothbrush and paste and several other small
items which I forget, mainly because the sweater took all my
attention. It was bright orange and when I put it on it came down
to my knees and the sleeves were about six inches too long. It was
Just straight knitting like a scarf and was probably done by some
Volunteer who knew nothing about knitting but wanted to help the
war effort as best they could. It was the best present I ever
received. It was worth a million dollars to me under those
conditions and I probably had tears in my eyes. I know everyone
said that if the Red Cross were collecting money there that they
could have had everything we owned.
As we were standing there talking, I heard someone mention the
name Len Pierce, so I called out "Who knows Len Pierce?" I met the
pilot who was flying with Len and he told me all about how Len was
killed. Len was lost on May 10 the day before I went down and it
was strange to learn about it under these circumstances. I
probably knew about it over there in the middle of a field in
Germany even before his folks were notified. The pilot who had
been flying with Len explained that Len's plane was damaged and he
was trying to make it back to England. His plane quit over the
Channel and he had to parachute out. He landed in the water and
the chute came down on top of him. He was tangled in it and
drowned even though he was a good swimmer. He was flying with a
good outfit and had shot down two enemy planes.
The German guards were standing around us with huge black dogs
that I believe were Dobermans. They started marching us to a train
in single file and the guards and dogs kept us in line. The dogs
were staining at their 1eashes with teeth barred and saliva
foaming from their mouths. They were really fierce and we were
petrified with fear. They were only about six feet on each side
us and you can bet we stayed in a perfect line! We boarded the
train and started out with the hope that American fighters would
not come down and strafe the train. We didn't know where we were
going but figured it was to a prison camp.
Somewhere along the way the train stopped and down a bank below us
was another train with all the people from it standing on the
grass. They were about 200 feet from us and Americans also. We saw
pilots we had gone through training with and a few we knew from
other squadrons in England. We waved and hollered but our train
started up again. It was on that train I learned my first German
word "abort" meaning bathroom. I forget how long we were on the
train or if they fed us, but we were so apprehensive about our
future we were less concerned about our appetites.
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