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 a
appetites.