Dan Culler's New Flag

Just received word from former POW Dan Culler that his congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords sent him a flag that had flown over the United States capitol after reading about the vandalism to his American and Prisoner of War flags in front of his home in Green Valley, Arizona, (as reported on in this blog). Nice to know politicians do something worthwhile once and a while.

Old Glory Flies Again at the Culler Household

You can't keep a good man--or a good flag--down. Dan Culler with his repaired Prisoner of War and American flags yesterday, September 8.

WWII Veteran and POW Dan Culler's Flag Vandalized in Arizona

If this doesn't make you mad, nothing will. I am posting this email from my friend Dan Culler, who was a B-24 flight engineer in WWII and endured several years of torture as a Prisoner of War. His American flag and his POW flag were cut down by vandals.

"To all Americans,
Some time last night, this is what some vandals did to my driveway and cut down my American and POW/MIA flags letting them lay on the ground. If this is what happens in retirement Green Valley, Arizona, GOD have mercy on the rest of America. This 85 year old man spent the morning on his hands and knees trying to get some of it off, but I'm afraid my new driveway is ruined. I'm very much upset about the drive way and garage door but mad as hell about my flags. I was in WW11 and Korea and a POW and is this the thanks I get. This is the only time I have asked anyone to pass anything along the internet, but please do. Dan "

Hell's Kitten Crewman Reunited with Son of Crewmate

The crew photo that started David Hughes on the mission to reconnect with his late father's crewmate, Dan Culler.

In one of the most amazing series of events covered on this blog, the son of a former B-24 bomber crewman was united with one of his father's former crewmates after 65 years. Dan Culler flew as a flight engineer on the B-24 heavy bomber Hell's Kitten over Europe in World War Two, and John Hughes flew as a waist gunner on the same plane. The plane was heavily damaged in aerial combat over Germany and made a forced landing in Switzerland. Both men eventually escaped.

About two weeks ago, David Hughes returned from his mother's house with a small box full of his late father's WWII possessions. In this box, he found an old photograph of an air crew in front of a B-24 named Hell's Kitten. He got on the internet and Googled Hell's Kitten and was directed to this blog. To his great surprise, he saw on this site the very same photograph that he held in his hands. My friend and sometime contributor to this blog, Les Poitras, had written an article about Dan and another bomber crewman, Maurice Rockett, and had included the photo.

David left a message on the blog for me; however, the posting was from September of last year, and I rarely go back and look at blog entries from that far back. More than likely, David's post would never have been discovered and the story would have ended there. The very same day that David posted the response requesting more information on the blog, another friend of mine, Richard Havers, who lives in Scotland, noticed it and brought the post to my attention. I then got in touch with David.

David was unaware that any members of his father's crew were still alive. His father had passed away and had never really discussed his war years much with the family. His knowledge of that era of his dad's life was a void. I made contact with my good friend Dan Culler, making sure it was okay to give David his contact information. Dan generously agreed, and so, after 65 years, a reunion of sorts took place between Dan and the son of his friend and former crewmate John Hughes.

Another photo that belonged to John Hughes, showing the crew of Hell's Kitten.

It's a series of coincidences and 'almost-never-happened' events that convinced Richard Havers to admit that some things are just meant to be. This is one of them.

Ask a World War Two Airman: Some of Your Questions Answered Today

A few weeks back, I initiated a feature called 'Ask a WWII Airman'. I invited readers to send in questions, and promised to get answers from my panel of WWII Air Corps veterans. Today, we have two questions, along with answers.

Question Number One: "Did the training you receive adequately prepare you for the experience of aerial combat, or, after your first experience with enemy fighters did you feel like you had been thrown into something that was impossible to prepare for?"

Maurice Rockett, who flew his tour with the 95th Bomb Group as a B-17 bombardier, responds:

Training did not prepare us for the realities of combat. There was no way, as I see it now, to put trainees into positions of death-defying situations. We did not even dream them up nor would instructors have any notion of what it would be all about either. It might have been helpful to spend longer flight periods at altitude with the poor equipment we had--speaking for my time, of course--and to fly with little rest.

As for fighters and flack, these elements had to be experienced personally for evaluation. Even then, many crewmen did not endure the hammering blows of the two mentioned perils. Regarding bailing out and the ensuing result of imprisonment would also be impossible to duplicate training experiences. Although, it would not have been impossible to give us jumping practice, but with the time constraints it was probably never even considered.

We just got shoved into impossible situations. as cannon fodder, without any guarantee of survival. Each person had to deal with death, or the possibility thereof, their own way with the hope luck would be on their side."

Dan Culler, who flew his tour with the 44th Bomb Group as a B-24 flight engineer/gunner, and ended up a POW in Switzerland, writes:

"We were always told you will get more training in your next assignment which ended up over Germany. I can't blame the military, they needed crews very bad and not that much time to train. As far as myself, the actual combat didn't bother me as much as my older crew. After all I was the youngest in our squadron. I guess that is why they want the very young to do the fighting. It doesn't bother you until later in life. I was kept busy jumping in and out of the top turret, trying to keep the dam plane flying, plus hand cranking the faulty turret. Poor Maurice in the nose saw everything coming at him. You know Maurice, I read later the people who made the top turret for B-24s admitted they had a failure problem on some turrets over 18,000 ft."

Question Number Two: "As you got further into your missions, did it get tougher to go on them or easier? Easier because you'd already been through the experience or tougher because you had fewer to go and had thus far been lucky?"

Maurice Rockett responds: "I really did not relate to missions like you do. I thought of a mission being tougher, not in anticipation, but as the result of what I encountered. While I did not fly a 'last' mission, one to finish my tour, the feeling or hope of survival would be paramount after so many hair-raising events in the skies over Europe."

Thanks for the questions, and thanks to Maurice and Dan for answering.

Anybody else have anything they'd like to know from these two living legends?

B-17 vs. B-24

B-24 Liberator bombers skim the landscape as they attack the oilfields at Ploesti, Romania, one of the greatest aerial attacks of WWII.

A B-17 Flying Fortress banks, showing its classic lines.

My good friend Dan Culler, a former B-24 flight engineer, wrote me today and wondered why the B-24 always seems to get the short end of the stick when compared to the B-17. Dan wrote:

"Seeing how you and others are wrapped up in B-17 Flying Fortress WWII history, it makes me wonder how the B-24 Liberator groups are ignored from the air war in Europe, it as if we never were there. This even though more B-24s flew then B-17. When the B-24s flew the low level Ploesti raid, one of the most daring and costly raids in WWII, it was said if one B-17 was on that raid it would have been headlines Flying Fortresses hit Ploesti...I remember after the war and even today when people ask where I flew and when I say 'Europe', their first remark, Oh you flew the Flying Fortress? When I say B-24 or Liberators, they remark they never heard of it. Jimmy Stewart commanded a B-24 Squadron, shortly after I was shot down."

I emailed Dan back that I'd tried very hard not to stiff the B-24, which is every bit as good a plane as Dan says it is, in my book. While the B-17 may have been more durable, the B-24 was faster, carried a heavier bomb load, and was used in larger numbers. One of the keystone chapters of my book Untold Valor is about Dan, a B-24 man. In any case, I threw the question to one who knows more on the subject that myself, former B-17 bombardier Maurice Rockett, also a good friend and someone I trust as a straight-shooter. My own take on the B-17 vs. B-24 controversy is that the B-17 simply got more ink. It flew out of London, a city bursting at the seams with war correspondents, while the B-24 flew many missions out of North Africa and Italy, not a favorite for war correspondents. It was the media baby, the sexy plane, and the B-24 never got the same attention. Maurice basically agreed that it was a matter of ink, of publicity.

I know many men who flew on B-17s, and also many who flew on B-24s. I find it interesting and telling that B-17 men all consider the Fort to be a great plane, and the 24 men--to a man--swear by the 24. Suffice it to say that both were simply outstanding bombers and that the 24 is one of the unsung heroes of the war.

So here is a tip of the hat to the B-24 Liberator Bomber.

So please, readers, comment! What do you think?

Prayer Requests for Two Veterans

Two dear friends of mine, Dan Culler and Maurice Rockett, are undergoing surgery in the next week. Both survived hellish wounds in World War Two and both need the prayers of all blog readers in the upcoming days.

As a Christian, I firmly believe in the power of prayer. I am asking everyone who reads this who believes in the power of prayer to lift up a special request on behalf of these two men for the next week or so.

Dan Culler, prisoner of the Swiss at Wauwilermoos.

Maurice Rockett. Lost an eye over Europe as a B-17 Bombardier.

Thanks. And God bless you.

Novel Update

It's been my goal for a long time to write a novel about the Air Corps over Europe in World War Two. I wanted to tell the story, from enlistment through training and combat, followed by, in the case of my story, imprisonment in a German POW camp and a forced march at the end of the war. Historical fiction, however, is not worth telling unless it is accurate and rings true.

This summer, I've been working steadily on the novel. I have been very lucky to have eleven men who were 'over there' as my advisors. These eleven do everything from answer daily questions about anything from the cost of cigarettes to the best pub in London. They describe the terrors of combat and the humor of service life. Several also are reading the manuscript as I go in order to catch factual errors or correct scenes which do not ring true.

Their comments and emails alone run to a document of almost fifty pages so far, and this will be an important historical document in and of itself.

The novel should run about 80-100,000 words when complete. Though it deals with the entire Air Corps experience, I've also tried to make it character-driven. There are several unusual plot twists and it all builds to a surprise ending (what novel doesn't).

I'd like to thank my technical crew of advisors for their help all summer. They are:

1. Don Lewis, 15th Air Force, gunner, POW, Long March
2. Norris King, B-17 gunner, Shot down by Swiss, Internee
3. Will Lundy, 44th BG Ground Crewmen and historian, Flying Eightballs
4. Maurice Rockett, 95th BG, B-17 bombardier, Purple Heart
5. Delbert Lambson, 390th BG, Ball Turret Gunner, POW, Long March
6. Bob Cozens, 95th Bomb Group, Lead Pilot, Original member of 95th
7. John Carson, 15th Air Force gunner/armorer, POW
8. Dan Culler, 44th Bomb Group, B-24 engineer, Swiss internee and survivor of Wauwilermoos, a Swiss federal prison
9. Gale House, 95th Bomb Group, Chief Pilot, original 95th
10. DeWayne ‘Ben’ Bennett, B-17 pilot, 384th BG.
11. Leonard Herman, 95th BG, B-17 Bombardier, Purple Heart

Once the initial draft is completed, there will be re-writing and revision, but I've always found the initial drafting to be the hardest. My guess is, with a team of editors like the ones above, the revision could be a lot of fun.

Another Must-Read Book-- Black Hole of Wauwilermoos by Dan Culler

Anyone wanting to get a new slant on Swiss treatment of interned Americans during World War Two needs to read Dan Culler's book, Black Hole of Wauwilermoos, possibly the most important book about the WWII Swiss internee experience. Dan lives in Arizona with his wife Betty and in recent years his story has been recognized in several major books on World War Two, the most recent being 'Masters of the Air' by Donald Miller. I did a full chapter on his story in my own book 'Untold Valor'. What follows is my review of Dan's book, done some years ago. The book is available from Amazon.com and you can also get copies, signed, from Dan. Contact me if you are interested.

Dan Culler headed off to war, the son of Quakers, because he felt it was his duty to his country. He put love of country and the ideals of democracy and freedom above his own faith, and in so doing, ended up in a situation where he was abandoned by the nation he loved, and left to die in a hell-hole of a Swiss prison, Wauwilermoos.

This is Dan Culler's story. No one who reads this will come away from the experience unchanged. No one will ever read about Wauwilermoos or the miscarriages of justice Culler was forced to endure in a typical history book. The story should make the United States and Swiss hang their heads in shame. The truth about some of the hardships endured by American airmen interned in Switzerland during World War II has been supressed by publishers and editors for years. Dan Culler's book does a lot to shatter some of this official silence.

The first part of this well-written, sensitive book describes Culler's training as a B-24 flight engineer. It follows Culler and his crew from the States over to England, where they almost immediately fall afoul of the operations officer, who tries to appropriate their sleeping bags. Failing this, the man makes sure that Culler's crew flies the oldest, most decrepit B-24's in the squadron, and in the worst position in the formation. This is Culler's first intimation that things are not as they seem Stateside. Their lives hang on the whims of higher-ups. Culler's plane, crippled by flak, limps into neutral Switzerland. Life as an internee is not terribly harsh, but Culler takes the command of his superiors seriously--it is an airman's responsibility to escape and return to his unit to fight another day. So he escapes.

He is caught. And for his trouble, he is sent to a Swiss federal prison, Wauwilermoos. Wauwilermoos is a maximum security prison meant for the worst criminals in Europe, both Swiss and those who have escaped to Switzerland. Culler's crime-trying to escape and return to his unit. He is thrown into a barracks which approaches Dante's Hell, where he is tortured by his fellow inmates day after day. When he goes to the commandant for help, he finds his own government has abandoned him. The U.S. military attache', Gen. Legge, has sent out a message commanding US troops not to escape, and furthermore, has decreed that any who try will be sent to Wauwilermoos, where the Swiss can deal with them as they see fit. In addition, according to the U.S. government, officially there is no such place as Wauwilermoos, and there are no Americans held there. If not for a kind British sergeant who comes to check on his own nation's troops imprisoned in the camp, Culler would never have emerged alive.

As it is, the story of his incarceration and escape is every bit as intense and thrilling as anything Hollywood could concoct. The reader is kept frantically turning the pages, empathizing with Culler and rooting for his success. Once Culler makes it back to England, he finds he has been abandoned again. There is no such place as Wauwilermoos. He has never been there, so he has never been a POW. Therefore, he doesn't qualify for any POW benefits or medical or mental treatment for his many physical and emotional wounds. He tries to continue in the military, first as a highly-qualified techinican and then as a pilot cadet, but all his attempts are foiled by the military and he is discharged.

It is my hope that the reader's interest is aroused by this review, short as it is. You will come away from this book feeling Culler's sense of hopelessness and betrayal at the hands of the US and Swiss governments. You will be angry to learn the fates of the US military attache, Gen. Legge, who countermanded official military policy, and of the Swiss commandant of Wauwilermoos. And you will be angry along with Culler as he attempts to get recognition and medical treatment for the hell he has endured in the service of his country--a country that, sad to say, let him down when he needed it. This is a powerful book, carefully and sensitively written. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in the air war, in POWs and their fates, or in the strength of the human spirit. I recommend it very highly.

Dan Culler--An American Hero

Dan Culler's story is still relatively unknown, despite the fact that Donald Miller touched on it in his book Masters of the Air, which has been a big seller in the United States. I covered Dan's story in detail in my own book Untold Valor a few years ago, and have maintained a close friendship with Dan to this day.

Dan was imprisoned by the Swiss for trying to escape from internment after his B-24, filled with flak and bullet-holes, was forced to land in Switzerland. He spent time in hell, at the Wauwilermoos Federal Prison, where he was tortured and his wounds were left untreated. He still suffers from these wounds today. The camp was run by a Swiss Nazi named Andre Beguin. The American military attache in Switzerland, a man by the name of Barnwell Legge, did nothing to help the Americans who tried to escape, and in fact refused to acknowledge the existence of this camp. Fifty years later, the President of Switzerland, Kaspar Villager, personally apologized to Dan for his suffering during the war.


Wauwilermoos Swiss Federal Prison. Dan's barracks second from left

This dramatic and heart-rending story only gets worse, but I'm not going to go into detail here. Dan wrote of the experience in a book entitled 'Black Hole of Wauwilermoos', which has never gotten the sales it deserves and which is a tremendous--if highly disturbing--read. Anyone wishing to buy a copy signed by Dan can contact me and I'll see what I can do. I know Dan has copies available.

Dan Culler is one of my heroes. I do not use the term 'hero' lightly. Here is a man who was forgotten by his own government who never stopped loving America . He is an author, an inventor, and a frequent commentator on the state of America. He doesn't so much harp on what is wrong as try to come up with solutions.

Dan receives his Prisoner of War Medal, 1996, accompanied by his wife Betty. Also present, his Distinguished Flying Cross.

Dan Culler, I salute you as a great American.

For more on Wauwilermoos and American internment in Switzerland, check out the Swiss Internee website at http://swissinternees.tripod.com/wauwilermoos.html

More information and reviews on Dan's book can be found on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-Wauwilermoos-Airmans-Story/dp/188777601X/ref=sr_1_1/102-6987722-7900953?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183007683&sr=8-1