Where in the World Have I Been?

Marine Second Lt. Robert 'Bob' Crowton's Navy Cross, awarded for heroism at Okinawa.

My former teacher Pete Benavage as a Marine Sergeant before heading to Iwo Jima.

Joseph Lajzer as he appeared after over three and a half years of Japanese captivity, including the Bataan Death March and slave labor in Japan.

Have been interviewing a gentleman who was on the Clark Field Baseball Team in Philippines before war broke out. He was on the Bataan Death March, then helped build the airfield at Palawan as slave labor, then took a Hell Ship to Japan and spent a long time "digging coal for the Emperor" at Hiroshima Omine and saw the A-bomb fall thirty miles away that fateful August day. He is in the photo above. (Name withheld)

This youthful gentleman was my Western Civilization teacher in high school. He is Major Pete Benavage, United States Marine Corps (Ret.). As a young sergeant of Marines, Pete helped lead a platoon on Iwo Jima. This is a photo capture from a Japanese TV program about Iwo Jima entitled 'Island of Death'.

Pete Benavage, teacher and friend.

Marine Second Lt. Robert Crowton's "Old Breed" First Marine Division patch that he wore on Okinawa, where he won the Navy Cross for heroism.

Marine Lt. Bob Crowton's lovely wife, Marge, admires his Navy Cross, awarded at a hospital in San Diego after he had undergone surgery to shrapnel damage to his face. (Bob Crowton collection)

Bob's Purple Heart and the box for his Navy Cross.

Bob awarded his Navy Cross in San Diego, CA.

William Morrison, who as a young Marine guarded a gun emplacement at the base of Mt. Suribachi and saw the flag go up.

Navy Corpsman William 'Bill' Lynne, who served with the First Marines at Peleliu and Okinawa. The corpsmen fought alongside the Marines, and saved many lives in battle. (Bill Lynne photo)

The wounded Corpsman in this famous press photo is Bill Lynne. (Bill Lynne collection)

Greetings to my faithful readers, all 26 of you. :)

Sorry I have not written on the blog much lately. I've been very busy working on my next book, and since it is not about WWII airmen, this page hasn't gotten the attention it did before

Right now, I am deeply involved in researching a book about the Pacific War. Lately, I've been working on two chapters in depth. The first involves the men who were on the Bataan Death March and the ensuing years as POWs. The second involves men who were at Iwo. These are but two chapters but I tend to immerse in just a few at a time. I've already put a lot of time into Pacific aviators and into Okinawa, the USS Indianapolis, and Navy Corpsmen. I have also been interviewing several Pearl Harbor survivors. This on top of the fact that I work sixty to seventy hours a week in the highly lucrative field of teaching high school.

I am putting a small sampling of photos of some of the guys I'm writing about at the moment, and who will all appear in the book when it comes out next year.

Stay tuned. I will be back.

Astute Review of Untold Valor

Posting this review by Jan Peczkis of my book on Amazon. Mr. Peczkis is that rare Amazon reviewer who actually reads the book and then is provides some synthesis and analysis. Thank you, Mr. Peczkis.

Click here for Mr. Peczkis' review, which focuses on German treatment of Jewish American POWs.

New Information on Hitler and American POWs

My friend and fellow historian John Havers of England sent me an email today that sheds more light on the story from a few days ago about the American POW camp near Berlin and the possiblity that Hitler visited the camp and announced FDR's death. The information sheds some doubt on the account, but I imagine we'll never know until Dan Culler hears from his historian friend in Germany about the exact location of the Berlin POW camps.

Thanks, John, for this valuable information.

John writes:


By coincidence I read your piece on the blog about Hitler and POWs just as I had found in our local library Until the Final Hour - Hitler's last Secretary by Traudl Junge. Pub 2002 ISBN 0 297 84720 1. This, as she was then, very young lady was in the Berlin bunker close to Hitler right to the very end.

It is not a day-to-day record of events but does tell a lot of what was happening. Given that FDR died on 12Apr45, and based on what is said in the book, I find it a little difficult to believe that Hitler was outside the bunker around this time; obviously I am unable to prove anything but it does make me wonder about the story.

Best regards
John

POW Remembers Hitler Visiting Camp and Honoring FDR

An aged Adolph Hitler, shown here in the years before his death, visited a small camp of American POWs in Berlin and informed them of the death of FDR, then stood at attention while the camp honored FDR, in a story related by POW Dan Culler.

Here is an amazing story I'd never heard about before, related by good friend Dan Culler, who was himself a POW. I quote Dan's story in its entirety.

"Roosevelt and Hitler

Here is a story you all might find interesting. I learned of it at our weekly POW
meeting at the VA which ended sometime in 2001 because not many of us were left,
and Sam Atterbury our councilor retired. It was told by Harold, one of our POWs who was shot down over Berlin in Jan. 1945 and was placed in a small POW
camp in the Berlin area, with Americans and British.

He mentioned the camp was close to Hitler's last bunker, and they let the allies
know of the camp hoping the allies wouldn’t drop bombs in that area.

Harold said several times Hitler with several guards would come to
the POW camp and would just stand next to the wire and look at the
prisoners.

Then when Roosevelt passed away on April 12, 1945 Hitler
came to the camp and had the guards inform the Americans of
Roosevelt's death and had them assemble in the yard and stand at
attention for a short time in honor of Roosevelt. Hitler and his
guards outside the wire, also stood at attention, and as you know
Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.

How about that gentlemen, here was Hitler a maniac dictator who was responsible for
million of death paying homage to a ruler who help being him down.
Harold said the Russians freed them."

Novel Update

Writing a novel is like living another life. Every day, I get up and disappear into a world that exists only inside my head. I live in that world for four or five hours at a time. When I re-surface, I always feel discombobulated. One moment I'm in a German Stalag Luft with my characters, the next I'm sitting in a small room in Ammon, Idaho, staring at my computer.

The characters in my novel are currently in their second POW camp. The first camp became too full, due to the fact that sometime in September of 1943, the Italians switched sides, and all the Italian soldiers and diplomats in German territory instantly became 'the enemy'. Massive roundups and imprisonment of Germany's erstwhile allies from Italy followed. Many of those who ended up in the German prison camps couldn't believe that they were there.

Though my camps are fictional, they are based on actual camps. The first camp is based on Stalag VII-A at Moosberg. The second is based on Stalag 17-B at Krems.

One of my favorite readings about POW life comes from my old friend John Chaffin. John was a pilot in the 95th Bomb Group who was shot down on the Munster Mission in October, 1943. He became a close friend after we met in 2000. A strong Christian and a writer, John sent me several of his own books, based on his journals and notes he kept while a pilot and POW. John was one of my earliest critics. When I wrote something that he thought stunk, he would tell me, and then tell me how to make it better.

Sadly, John passed away about three years ago. I lost one of my best editors. After 100th pilot Herb Alf passed away, I had only one of my original three 'hard-ass' editors left, namely Maurice Rockett, who remains with me to this day, keeping me on the straight and narrow.

John's journals and notes are occasionally hilarious. John loved to cook. His mother had taught him to cook as a boy, though almost none of his fellow POWs had a clue how to do it. John therefore became the 'chef' in his 'combine' or group of POWs who shared food and cooking duties. An incredibly creative man, John developed recipes for dozens of dishes--no easy task when you consider that all his recipes had to be made from the limited ingrediants in a Red Cross Parcel.

Remember, all John's recipes were POW-tested, and all came from limited ingredients and were normally baked over improvised stoves on hand-made utensils.

Here is one of his Kriegie creations:

"Kriegie Cake:

The Kriegie Cake is likened to a sandwich in that it is built and not made. It is not unlike stew, since almost anything sweet in the pantry can be thrown in.

The bulk of the cake or rather the usual starting point, is one bowl of bread scraps. Soak these in hot water for fifteen to thirty minutes and then pour into a dishpan. You are now ready to start.

Throw in about one KLIM can of cracker crumbs. (Rob's note--Klim was a powdered milk and the crackers were either shredded biscuits or crackers that the Americans had traded for from the Brits). Add sugar to suit taste--about 3/4 pound should be close to right. Put in 1/2 can of Nestles milk if you have it handy; a can of any kind of jam helps and 1/2 can of chocolate powder is one of the few necessary ingredients. A half can of New Zealand coffee doesn't hurt anything and, if you like, a box of raisins might be added. An apple pudding or Yorkshire pudding (from British parcels) will help immensely but if you are not fortunate in having one, don't fret.

When you have tired of throwing things into the pan, roll up your sleeves and work at the mess with both hands until it is well mixed. (If it is obvious there is dirt on your hands and the weather is not too cold to run out to the latrine) you should probably wash your hands first---especially if any of the picky other Kriegies in your combine are watching.

Work the mess with both hands until it is well mixed. Pour the batch into a buttered pan and bake in the bottom of the oven until done. It should be baked slowly.

Almost any kind of icing will suffice for your cake. If you are lazy or pressed for time (rare event for a kriegie) a little jam or honey will do. Should you feel more industrious, here are a couple of ideas for your use:

Take 1/4 Klim can of milk, three spoons of sugar; mix well then add enough water to take a thick paste. Spread it on and there you are (italics John's).

To make a chocolate icing just add cocoa into the already mentioned mixture and there you are---chocolate!" (Italics John's).

John Chaffin was one wise man who took the lemons life gave him and figured out the best possible recipe for making lemonade! He returned from his incarceration to have a long career with General Dynamics. Before he passed away, my brother had a good visit with him down in Texas. To the end, John was a writer, a mentor, a leader in his Christian church in the Dallas area, and one heck of a contract bridge player and instructor.

I Miss You, Old Friend--Remembering Basil Lyle Shafer

Lyle and Me, June 6, 2002, Wilson, Wyoming.

Today, I spent a lot of time straightening out my basement Air Corps room where I store my research and writing materials. For several hours I carefully went though items I hadn't looked at for three or four years.

As I straightened the room, I kept running into things sent to me by Basil Lyle Shafer. Lyle was the first vet I interviewed back in 2000. I knew very little about Army Air Corps history, apart from what I'd read casually or seen in movies. Lyle patiently walked me through every question with a clear, concise and dipomatic answer. He sent me large manilla envelopes filled with historical data, photos, scans of old newspapers. He lent me his own books to use for research. He answered countless letters and emails almost faster than I could generate them. And because he and his wife Helen only lived across the Teton Pass, I could drive over and visit.

A photo capturing Lyle's thoughtful, intelligent personality that appeared in the Jackson Hole, Wyoming News, May 24, 2000 (Jackson Hole News)

Lyle was born in Ohio. His father had been a motorcyle policeman. He'd been killed in a crash before Lyle was born, and Lyle had worked hard every day of his life. He was a brilliant man, and one of deep moral values, despite the fact that he found it hard to believe in God after the things he'd witnessed in World War Two. He was one of the few people I've ever known who would literally give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.

At eighteen, Lyle entered the Army Air Corps and became a B-17 bomber pilot. By this time in the war, the crews were being rushed through training, and the advanced training was now done 'on the job', meaning while you were actually flying your combat missions. Lyle ended up in Framlingham, England with the 390th Bomb Group, still just a kid, but entrusted with a huge piece of equipment and the lives of nine other men.His first pilot had flown a few missions and decided he simply could not bear the responsiblity of holding the lives of the crew in his hands. He'd turned in his wings. Lyle stayed close to this man, visiting him after the war and taking care of his wife and child after the pilot died an early death from illness. That's just the kind of guy Lyle Shafer was.

Lyle's crew. Lyle is in front row, center.

On September 10, 1944, Lyle was flying as a co-pilot on a B-17 named 'Gung-Ho'. They ran into some heavy and accurate flak over the target at Nuremberg, where they were bombing ball bearing factories from 26,000 feet. Lyle decided he'd better put on his flak helmet. He leaned over to pick it up off the floor of the cockpit. At the same instant, a round entered where his head had been, decapitating the pilot, Fred McIntosh. It was McIntosh's 25th and last mission. He'd been looking forward to going home to his wife and child.

One of the only known photos of 'Gung-Ho', shot down September 10, 1944. Six of the nine men on the plane were killed instantly when it exploded.

The next round cut the plane in two, and it exploded. Lyle was falling in the nose section. Somehow, he clipped on his parachute and simply stepped out the opening behind the pilots' seats into space. As he told it, in seconds he went from a pilot of a powerful machine to being a helpless guy in a parachute. He ended up as a Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft I in Barth. He remained a prisoner until the end of the war.

After the war, Lyle traveled across the entire United States and visited the families of every man who was killed on the Gung-Ho that fateful day, as well as visiting his old pilot who had refused to fly. Why did Lyle do it? He told me it was because they would have done the same for him. Maybe, but I think it's because Lyle was a special person who knew the importance of duty, loyalty, and honor. Years later, he said, "I figured I was living on borrowed time, and I pledged myself to make the most of it". And that he did.

Because he was so good with people, Lyle ended up as the director of personnel for the giant NCR Corporation, one of the largest companies in the nation. I believe he also held a law degree. When I met him, he and Helen had a summer home in Wilson just across the golf course from Vice President Dick Cheney and a winter home in Arizona. He'd started life with nothing, and ended up at the top of his profession. Sometimes, good guys do finish first.

Fifty years after the war, Lyle tracked down all his barracks mates from the prison camp and got them together for a reunion. He was a man of incredible persistence and fortitude and never gave up till he found all the living members of his barracks.

Using a 'captured' German camera after liberation, the barracks-mates had a group photo taken in front of their barracks at Stalag Luft I. Years later, Lyle tracked all the mates still living and arranged an annual reunion.

On the back of a pack of Camel cigarettes, Lyle and his POW roommates recorded their guesses on when the war would end. The kitty was $5.00. Lyle's guess of June 6, 1945 was the closest, and at the reunion in 1989, his mates paid him $75.00.

About 2002, I ran up Teton Pass to raise money for the World War Two Memorial then being built in Washington, DC. I did it on D-Day, June 6. Lyle met us at the bottom, and pulled off to encourage me all the way up. The pass is five and a half miles long and has a vertical climb of 2,200 feet. The day was hot. I'd trained on the pass, but only when it was cool. In addition, it was windy. But every time I saw Lyle, it gave me the strength to move on up the mountain.

We did the last hundred yards together, and celebrated at the top.

Lyle and I finish the run together, with the WWII Memorial Banner. June 6, 2002.

Lyle and Helen moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington a year or so later, and we kept in constant touch. He mentioned to me in one e-mail that he was having some health issues and was getting treated, but assured me he was 'in good shape for someone in my condition'. He checked on the progress of Untold Valor regularly. As soon as it was published, I mailed him one of the first copies out of the box, but never heard back from him, which was very unusual because he was good about getting back with me right away. A month went by, with no word. Finally, a letter from his daughter. Lyle had passed away. To my knowledge, he never saw the book.

And just like that, he was gone. I am from that last generation of American men who are taught not to cry. But when I heard, I cried anyway. Suddenly, the world was a poorer place, because this exemplary human being was no longer in it.

Today, he was everywhere in that room with me. I looked at the posters he'd meticulously put together for the reunion. The scanned newspapers. The photos. A stack of letters and emails. A set of books by Winston Churchill. I had a strange feeling, a feeling of sadness that he was gone but also of great thankfulness that I'd known him.

One of the last things Lyle ever told me, the last time we saw each other, was how happy he was to have met me. "You know, I'd trust you with my life if we were ever in battle together," he said. It was one of the greatest compliments anyone ever paid me.

Hopefully, everyone who reads this will be reminded of someone who was--or is-- a positive influence on his or her life.

Someday, will someone be able to say of each of us that we made a positive difference? I sure hope so.

My guess is, Lyle Shafer was that kind of person to many more people than me. One good man can make such a huge difference. Thank you, Lyle.

eBay Find

Every so often something comes up on eBay that I have to get. The latest is a large, glossy magazine put out by the YMCA shortly after World War Two ended, entitled "Yankee Kriegies: How Our POWs Made Little Americas Behind Nazi Barbed Wire". What makes this book so good is its two narrators, one a wonderful artist and writer, the other a stealthy photographer who took many clandestine photos of prison camp life. Ross Greening, who did many of the illustrations and text, was one of the original Doolittle Raiders who attacked Tokyo in the early days of the war. He then flew in Europe and became a POW. He kept an art book going while in the service and after the war this was published in a limited edition, entitled 'Not As Briefed'. It is in my opinion the finest art collection produced by a POW during the war, though it covers everthing from training through the Dolittle mission and his time in Europe.

One of Greening watercolors, showing the navigator bailing out of a crippled B-17

New prisoners arrive at Stalag Luft I on a cold, blustery day, by Ross Greening.
C. Ross Greening, Tokyo Raider and later POW in Germany

The other writer, Sgt. Anthony Spinelli, managed to take many photos of life in the prison camp, and many are in this magazine.

The magazine is a real yearbook/scrapbook of kriegie life and an important piece of history. I got it for $2.99 as no one else even put in a bid on it.

To read a good article from Flight Journal about Col. Greening, follow this link http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3897/is_199910/ai_n8859543

To see more of Greening's art, go this link: http://www.merkki.com/art.htm

The book is hard to find in hardback, running over a hundred dollars on Amazon, but can be found for less if you do some searching. Paperback copies of 'Not As Briefed' are reasonable on Amazon. Here is the amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0874222397/atribtothecac-20

Greening's Book, Not As Briefed: From the Doolittle Raid to a German Stalag

The Day the American Flag Flew Over Moosburg

Stalag VII was liberated on April 29, 1945. This Nazi Flag was torn down from top of city hall in Moosburg, Germany and replaced with an American Flag on that same day. It was signed by over 100 POWs and returned to the United States by the 303rd Bomb Group's Angelo P. Petix. The Petix family donated the flag to the Mighty Eighth AF Museum in Pooler, GA
If you or a family member signed this flag, please contact us. (The website has a link to super-size the flag and check the signatures on it close-up)

Message written on the captured flag by Maj. Andrew S. Low, Jr. 453rd Bomb Group.

An interesting story about the liberation of Moosburg is found here http://www.303rdbg.com/pow-moosburg-flag.html

Thanks to Marilyn Walton for this story idea.

Red Cross Parcels

A July 4th salute to the Red Cross parcels that kept the Allied prisoners of war going during World War Two. Not only were the food and cigarettes welcome, but the parcels provided for many of the needs of the prisoners, as a lively barter system developed between the men and between the prisoners and their guards. By the end of the war, the Red Cross parcels contained better food and cigarettes than the Luftwaffe guards were able to get themselves. Many a clandestine radio part or other important survival or escape item was obtained by bribing guards with parcel contents. Each country supplied parcels for its troops. The British parcels were slightly different, as were the Canadien, as the list below shows.

In addition, the Klim cans could be made into anything from plates to small bellows-furnaces by the ingenious kriegies. Parts of cans were melted down and re-cast.

In future posts, I will be sharing some of the kriegie recipes given to me by Lt. John Chaffin, a 100th BG pilot shot down on the Munster mission in October 1943. John collected all the recipes while a POW and wrote them down. Almost every item was made from the basic ingredients contained in a Red Cross parcel.

The contents of a typical Red Cross parcel varied slightly, but generally were much like the one described by 15th Air Force, 301st Bomb Group airman Sam Hewett, who has an excellent site at the following link: http://www.thehewitt.net/sam.html.

"One full Red Cross parcel was a box about 3" deep and 12" square and contained the minimum amount of food required to sustain a man for one week at approximately 1700 calories per day. In an American box were small portions of spam, corned beef, powdered eggs, jelly or jam, powdered milk, soda crackers, dried raisins or prunes, powdered coffee, cigarettes, sugar, a chocolate "D" bar, salt and pepper."

The outer looked like this. Each outer box contained four individual parcels. Men rarely got their full parcels regularly, often waiting weeks in between or having to split a parcel meant for one man several ways.

Those Ingenious Kriegies:Chapter One: Making table-tops, trays, and plates

Lyle's mock-up of the cutting device used to connect flattened Klim cans to make metal sheets, table tops, plates and trays. Notched knife is in cut in board. This was used to cut the cans. Seam is visible connecting the two cans. The smaller Spam-type can was used to get solder.

The late Basil Lyle Shafer was a B-17 Flying Fortress co-pilot whose 390th BG aircraft was shot down in 1944, killing most of the crew. Lyle ended up in a Luftwaffe prison camp at Barth, Germany. Lyle became a very good friend when I first began writing my book Untold Valor. I had no writing experience, no resume'. I was just a guy who wanted to learn about the men who flew the heavies. Lyle never tired of my sometimes ignorant questions, sending me information on a regular basis for three years. He was the first man I interviewed for the book, and he believed in it from the first. When I got frustrated, he's the guy who kept me going.

Lyle lived near me, just across Teton Pass in Wilson, Wyoming. I visited him there several times. One the second visit, he gave me some of the artifacts he had saved and shown at the POW reunion in Jackson the previous summer. I am going to do a series of articles on some of the ingenious stuff the kriegies came up with. Several of these are from Lyle. The cooking recipes, equally ingenious, are from the late John Chaffin, a 100th BG B-17 pilot who went down on the infamous Munster Mission in October 1943 and became a POW as well.

Lyle made this mock-up to demonstrate how the men in the prison camp made trays, plates, table-tops and other metal items. They used Klim cans, which came in their Red Cross parcels. Lyle explained that they would flatten the cans out, and then cut strips of the cans, which they would make into connecting pieces. They would then slide two flattened Klim cans together by folding the edges of each and sliding them onto the connecting piece. To cut the cans, they used a block of wood and a regular kitchen knife with a notch it it. Lyle said they made everything they needed this way. The photo shows the mock-up Lyle made and gave me some years ago.

Lyle passed away about three years ago. Though he was my #1 believer and backer, he passed away only a few weeks before the book was published and never got to see it.

I will feature more of Lyle's amazing stuff in future posts.

Lyle Shafer as a young aviation cadet. He was twenty years old when he was shot down.

Lyle Shafer's Prisoner of War photo taken at Dalag Luft. He was badly injured when this photo was taken, having lost several teeth, broken his arm, and with a many pieces of flak and shrapnel embedding in his arm. Lyle had bent down to get his flak helmet in the cockpit when a round entered right where his head had been. This round decapitated the pilot and the next split the plane in two.

A Daughter's Love, A Father's Service

As you know from my post yesterday, I just finished a wonderful book by my friend Marilyn Walton entitled Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return To Germany To Finish Her Father's Story (Paperback - AuthorHouse, May 2, 2007). This story would be of great interest to any Air Corps enthusiast, especially the sons and daughters and grandchildren of the men who flew the heavies over Europe in World War Two. I asked Marilyn if I could share some photos from her story on this blog, and she graciously accepted, so here are some photos of Marilyn's search for her father's story, direct from her new book.

Photo above is of Lt. Thomas Jeffers, B-24 bombardier, Rhapsody in Junk. Mr. Jeffers passed away in June of 2004 at the age of 83 after a series of debilitating strokes.

The B-24 Liberator 'Rhapsody in Junk'. Thomas Jeffers served as the bombardier on this aircraft when it was shot down over Germany in 1944. Nine of the ten-man crew survived by parachuting from the stricken plane. The tenth was found dead on the ground, after either striking the tail section on bail-out or from being killed by German civilians.

Above, the field where Jeffers landed after bailing out.

The farmhouse, built in the seventeenth century, that was almost hit by Rhapsody in Junk before it crashed into a nearby wood.

A few years ago, Marilyn and her husband John returned to the town and interviewed witnesses of the crash. Here, one witness motions to a point in the woods where the plane impacted. There are still four craters created from the plane's massive engines, and one tree still bears the scars of impact. Though most of the plane was removed by the German government within a day or two of the crash, locals kept some pieces and used them to make everyday household objects, including coat hooks and a tea strainer. Marilyn was given these pieces on her visit.

A write-up in a German newspaper about the visit, which generated great interest in that area of Germany. The Waltons found the Germans to be helpful, and learned how the German civilians had endured during the war. Much of the translating was done by the young man in the above picture, Matthias Martensen, seen wearing the jean jacket.

A tea strainer and a coat hook, made by local German civilians from the wreckage of Rhapsody in Junk. Also shown is a piece of the aircraft's rubber tire, found in the woods.

Some of the articles found at the crash site later, using a metal detector and other techniques

My thanks to Marilyn Walton for sharing these photos. The photos are to be found in the book, but are shown here in color.

Book Review: Rhapsody in Junk

I just finished this book last night. It's a great read and highly recommended. Marilyn Walton has produced an important addition to the Air Corps history that deserves to be read by anyone interested in this period. What follows is my book review of Marilyn Walton's Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return to Germany to Finish Her Father's Story.

"This book is both great history and a wonderful personal narrative.

Thomas Jeffers is an aging bombardier suffering the debilitating effects of a series of strokes. His daughter, Marilyn Walton, becomes determined to find out all she can about her father's World War II experiences as a B-24 Liberator bombardier and prisoner of war. Her quest, through the miracle of the internet, phone calls, and snail mail, takes her to his long-lost crewmen, to an understanding of his wartime experiences, even to the spot where her father's plane crashed in a German wood sixty years ago. During her journey, she learns much about her father, the nature of courage and suffering, an incredible array of Air Corps history, and about herself.

Jeffers and his crew mates on the B-24 Rhapsody in Junk were shot down over Germany and forced to parachute at low altitude. Their plane crashed into a wood near a small German village. Jeffers endured interrogation and imprisonment in one of the German Luftwaffe's Stalag Lufts, the same camp where the Great Escape took place. Near the war's end, as the Russian Army threatened to recapture the camp, the men of Stalag Luft I were force-marched great distances in one of the coldest winters of the twentieth century.

Like most of the men of the Greatest Generation, Jeffers returned from the war and put it behind him, raising a family and living an exemplary life. As strokes began to rob him of his memories, Walton became determined to re-discover them before it was too late. She educated herself in the maze of official paperwork recounting her dad's training, missions, and the demise of Rhapsody in Junk. She studied the MACR for clues about where the plane came down, and where the men were captured and moved. She tracked down surviving members of her father's crew. And with the help of a young German high school student, she made two trips to the German village where the plane crashed, even finding pieces of the plane that had been salvaged by villagers and turned into everyday objects. Her journey also brought home the point that the war had brought great suffering to civilians on both sides, and she shares stories of the German people she met and befriended on her visits.

In the end, Walton successfully pieces together, from beginning to end, the story of her father's war experiences, using primary documents, interviews, and good old-fashioned heavy reading. It is a book which will appeal to anyone who has had a father in the Air Corps in World War Two, especially one who was a Prisoner of War. What makes the book truly special is that Walton is a born storyteller, and she mixes personal observations about her relationship with her father both in the past and in his final days with her war story. It thus becomes a book not only about one man, one air crew, and the war they fought, but an intensly personal book about a daughter's love for her father and her need to preserve his story for future generations.

Here is the Amazon link for the book. http://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Junk-Daughters-Germany-Fathers/dp/1425974864/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6987722-7900953?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183308036&sr=8-1

Herb Alf and Petals of Fire

Geri Morris, Herb Alf, and Rob Morris in Roseburg, Oregon, c. 2003. Geri and Herb are holding some of Herb's original notes he took as a POW in a German prison camp. These notes formed the nucleus of his World War Two novel Petals of Fire. He wrote on both sides of sheets of toilet paper, and hid the work in a secret compartment in his wallet. Herb was one of the only survivors on his B-17 Flying Fortress after it took a direct hit and exploded. He then survived prison camp hardships and a forced march across Germany in 1945.

Today's recommended book is 100th Bomb Group pilot and POW Herbert Alf's Petals of Fire. Herb conceived and wrote this book over a fifty-year span. He began it as a prisoner of war in Germany, writing on BOTH sides of sheets of toilet paper, which he stored in a 'secret compartment' in a dime store wallet. The Germans never found it. In 1999, Petals of Fire was published in a limited quantity of 2,000 books. It is almost impossible to find a copy anymore, but anyone wishing to read it, get in touch with me about possibly borrowing mine. It is a historical novel in which Herb tried to cover all aspects of strategic aerial bombing.

I had the good fortune to get to know Herb quite well while writing my own book. We had several very enjoyable days together at his home in Roseberg, Oregon with Herb and his wife Sylvia.

Herb passed away a few years ago and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was an artist, a sculptor, an educator and one of the finest men I've ever met. His book is must reading for any air war historian or 100th Bomb Group member, especially anyone interested in the POW experience.

One of the only known photos of Herb as a pilot, taken when he was in flight training Stateside. Enlarged and edited for clarity and color by R. Morris

100th BG Navigator Frank Murphy Flies Final Mission

Another great man has taken off on his final mission. Frank Murphy, a 100th Bomb Group navigator who ended up a POW in World War Two, passed away a few days ago. Frank was always very helpful to historians in their Air Corps research. He could always be counted on to provide great moral and intellectual insight into the air war, and he will be dearly missed.

Frank was a literate and educated man, a Georgia boy, who was both a writer and a musician. His book, Luck of the Draw: Reflections on the Air War in Europe, is one of the best books about the 100th Bomb Group in World War Two up to the time Frank was shot down and captured. The book then becomes an exciting story of survival as Frank becomes a Prisoner of War.

Frank, you will be missed. God speed and God bless.

Frank's book is available on this link at Amazon. It was printed in limited quantities, so get yours soon. http://www.amazon.com/Luck-Draw-Reflections-Air-Europe/dp/0917678516/ref=sr_1_1/103-0005295-6637462?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182390988&sr=8-1

The 87-Day Winter POW Death March--Lest We Forget

A photo taken by a clandestine camera on the forced march.

Young 390th Bomb Group Ball Turret Gunner Delbert Lambson had the misfortune not only to be shot down, but also to become a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft IV in East Prussia. Even then, his troubles were not over. In February 1945, the Germans decided to evacuate the camp of 6,000 prisoners to prevent the POWs from falling into the hands of the advancing Russians. For the next 87 days, thousands of Allied prisoners would be fighting for their lives against cold, disease, and hopelessness as they covered 600 miles on foot.

It was one of the coldest winters on record. Limited to a diet of only 700 calories a day, and marching many miles a day, the men began to weaken. Typhus, dysentary, pneumonia, diptheria, and pellagra ravaged the weakened marchers. Frostbite was also a terrible problem, resulting in many amputations later. Men slept wherever their guards put them. Sometimes, they were lucky enough to be sheltered in a barn. Often, they slept on the frozen ground.

On May 2, 1945, the weary POWs met Allied forces near Hamburg. They had covered more than 600 miles in 87 days. Of those who started on the march, about 1,500 perished from disease, starvation, or at the hands of German guards while attempting to escape. In terms of percentage of mortality, it came very close to the Bataan Death March.

Much of the above account is from survivor George W. Guderley.

Prisoner of War Memorial at Stalag Luft IV, in what used to be East Prussia but is now Poland.


For more information about this death march, go tohttp://www.b24.net/pow/march.htm