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TWENTIETH BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON (H)
SECOND BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H)
APO 520 11 OCTOBER 1943
STATEMENT OF LT. KEMP MARTIN
The formation went over the target in trail. We (A/C 837) were in 3-2-1 position. The flak was heavy, intense and very accurate. Engine #2 and the supercharger on engine #4 were knocked out, leaving only two effective engines. Although the flak was intense, no members of the crew sustained flak injuries before leaving the ship. It is my opinion that the installation of armor plate in the nose protected the bombardier and navigator from serious injuries. I would even go so far as to say our lives were saved by the protection of the plating as it shielded us from several large penetrations.
We dropped all but three (3) of our bombs on the target. The turn off the target was to the left and it was after the turn was made that the bomb-bay doors were opened again for the purpose of salvoing the three (3) remaining bombs. The open bomb-bay created additional drag and our airspeed was further reduced. It was at this time that the formation was attacked by 16/17 E/A consisting of ME-109’s. Most attacks were concentrated at 7 o’clock, low. The sky in front of our plane was so filled with 20mm cannon bursts that my first impression was that the bursts were from aerial bombs instead of cannon fire. The fighters were most aggressive, attacking from 6/7 o’clock and attacked in pairs and fours. In peeling off after making a pass, the fighters would divide, half going to the right, and half to the left.
The nose of our aircraft began to fill with smoke, some of which came from our guns but some was from a burning portion of our plane. I opened the astrodome for ventilation.
My parachute hindered me in the operation of my guns and I removed the quick detachable chute to allow more freedom. The interphone system (I learned later) was destroyed shortly after the first fighters attacked. Within a few seconds after I had unfastened my chute, the pilot sounded the emergency alarm bell. I failed to hear the alarm because of the noise of our gun fire and the whistling of the wind as it passed through the astrodome.
As I removed my parachute, I glanced at the altimeter; it read 18,000 feet, and the airspeed indicator was on the red line. The mountain tops appeared very close and our altitude was only slightly higher than the mountain peaks. It was then that I discovered that our interphone system was out, as I was unable to speak with the pilot. At this instant a single fighter, followed closely by a second, attacked from 3 o’clock level (Vega aircraft mount. Navigator’s guns on the right). I gave the first fighter a long burst. Several rounds of tracers were seen to hit the enemy aircraft in the vicinity of the cockpit. The fighter made a violent “pullup” and then winged over and went into a steep glide with heavy smoke coming from the engine. I believe the fighter was destroyed as later observation from one of our gunners confirmed its crash into a mountain.
After firing the last burst at the ME-109 I glanced up into the cockpit and saw that it was not occupied by either pilot nor co-pilot (it was the habit of Lt. Martin to unzip the upholstering in the nose and thus afford himself a view of part of the cockpit). I immediately re-fastened my parachute and made ready to leave the ship by way of the nose escape hatch, but hesitated to jump immediately because there were too many tracers passing directly beneath the hatch. When the tracers ceased, I left the plane, making the jump in a sitting position. At the time I abandoned the plane, Lt. Kelly Erwin signalled that he was prepared to follow. I was the first officer forward of the radio room to leave the ship. I delayed pulling my ripcord till I had fallen between 3/6,000 feet. During my entire descent I had perfect vision and the wind did not affect my eyesight. When my chute opened it oscillated violently and by the time I reached ground I was nauseated. I landed in an apple tree and sprained my back. Immediately, I was surrounded by civilians and was taken into a farmhouse. The civilian crowd increased. While in the house, and with no warning, a man of large build came forward and struck me a stinging blow to the chin with his fist. Most of the other civilians didn’t appear to be hostile and removed my assailant from the room. The farmer, in whose house I was taken, offered me fruit and wine. I was too nauseated to accept either.
Two civilian authorities arrived and took me into custody. I judged them to be air raid wardens. While we were walking to the nearby village a civilian struck me a blow on the back of my head from behind. It was so violent that I was almost knocked out. Other civilians approached me from behind and pinched my back and buttocks. The guards then moved in closer and offered me adequate protection. At the police station at Pantaldinorte I met Lt. Porter, co-pilot, and Sgt. Lee, radio operator. Both were injured. Lt. Porter’s lower lip was cut completely through and Sgt. Lee was fairly well covered with small 20mm fragmentations. My injuries consisted of a flak wound in the right thigh and left side. Neither were serious. The Italians gave us first aid. Their facilities were limited and antiseptic and gauze was very scarce. About a teaspoon full of iodine was placed in a glass of water. This was used as an antiseptic wash. Their instruments were worn and rusty. Their supply of cotton was acute. They had no adhesive tape and when our wounds were dressed I supplied adhesive tape and bandages from a first aid kit that was in my jungle kit. No stitches were taken in Lt. Porter’s lip. They closed the cut with adhesive tape. Sgt. Lee’s wounds were cleaned but not dressed.
We retained our equipment, parachute, “Mae West”, etc., from the time of our capture and used them for bedding on the night of the 19th of September. Lt. Kelly Erwin’s chute was placed in the room with us later that afternoon.
A large group of the village folk were allowed to come into the room where we were quartered and remained with us until approximately 2200 hours that evening. At 2000 hours we were served dinner which consisted of a generous quantity of food and wine. We were unable to consume all that was offered.
At 1900 hours a priest came in and told me that Lt. Erwin was dead. Being of the opinion that Lt. Erwin was Catholic, I asked the priest to provide a Catholic burial. He said he would take care of the ceremony.
The night of the 19th we slept in the police station, on the floor, using our chutes for cover. The following morning Lt. Porter, Sgt. Lee and I were taken to Avolina by motor car. There we joined Lt. Pasero.
TWENTIETH BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON (H)
SECOND BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H)
APO 520 11 OCTOBER 1943
STATEMENT OF EVENTS LEADING TO THE ESCAPE FROM PRISONER OF WAR CAMP
OF 1ST LT. BERNARD B. PASERO, PILOT OF B-17F
On August 19, 1943, while on a raid over Foggia, Italy, we were hit by several bursts of flak on the bombing run. This knocked out our number two (2) engine and the supercharger on number four (4) engine. After dropping our bombs, I feathered the number two (2) engine. We only dropped nine (9) bombs since three (3) of them stayed in the racks and I did not know this until a few minutes later, when the radio operator called up over the inter-phone system. I called the bombardier and told him to get set to drop the rest of the bombs as we were following behind the formation and losing altitude fast. The throttles were advanced to forty-eight (48) inches and twenty-four hundred and fifty (2450) R.P.M.’s. Immediately after that, we opened the bomb-bay doors and dropped the last three (3) bombs. About that time, I noticed a very large hole in the upper surface of the right wing and discovered the throttle control cable on number four (4) engine had been shot away at the same burst that destroyed the supercharger. I tried to call the Group Leader by radio to slow down and enable me to catch the rest of the formation. I could never get an answer and presumed that my radio was out of order. It was then that I dived to gain on the formation and get under it for cover. Shortly after that, I heard fighters called out at seven (7) o’clock, low, and immediately the sky was full of twenty (20) mm bursts. I believe that there were twelve (12) to fifteen (15) enemy aircraft attacking our one plane.
Just before the enemy aircraft jumped us, I saw the B-17F go down that was piloted by Lt. John Bradley. He had two engines knocked out by flak over the target and enemy fighters attacked him and set his plane on fire. He was flying on my right wing at the time and I saw his plane explode in mid-air. I also saw one (1) chute open up just before the plane exploded, and later in the day, a Captain of the Civilian Police told me that they had counted nine bodies in the wreckage, and also that there were three (3) unexploded bombs. When I landed on the ground I saw the fire from two (2) planes burning close by and was told by the civilians that both of them were United States aircraft, but later discovered that one of them was Lt. Bradley’s aircraft and one (1) an ME-109 that either my plane or Lt. Bradley’s had shot down. The enemy pilot never bailed out. Lt. Martin, my navigator, thinks he shot down this ME-109 because soon after the fighters attacked us, he saw two (2) aircraft flying off to the right side of our plane, one flying in front and slightly lower than the other. Lt. Martin saw his tracers going into the front plane and a few seconds later the leading plane pulled up and almost crashed into the plane following him and then fell off to the right, apparently out of control.
The first thing that happened after the enemy fighters attacked us was that all radio equipment went out and a fire started in the radio room. The radio operator soon put out that fire. The next thing that happened, the rear window of the tail gunner’s position was struck by twenty (20) mm which bursts knocked the tail gunner back off his seat, but this was a good thing since another twenty (20) mm burst shot the seat away and a fragment clipped his headset off.
The tail gunner had numerous slight wounds on his face and both arms. Then both waist gunners were injured by twenty (20) mm fragments. Sgt. Charles M. Stewart, the right waist gunner, was injured badly in the leg and S/Sgt. Edgar N. McDonald, the left waist gunner, also had a leg injury near the ankle. About this time the number three (3) engine on our plane was set on fire and the elevator control cables were shot away. It was then that I rang the alarm to abandon the ship as the cockpit was full of smoke. I placed the ship on AFCE and told the co-pilot to leave his position. The ball turret gunner came out of his position. Both waist gunners had left the ship by the main door, and soon after that the tail gunner left the same way. By this time, the ball turret gunner could not leave by the main door since flames were being swept back by the prop wash, so he left by the waist gunner’s window. After I ordered the co-pilot to leave he started out and I thought he was gone, but he came back, why I do not know, neither does he. It was then that I pulled the salvo and bomb-bay switches, and started out behind the engineer. When I got in the bomb-bay I noticed that the radio operator was still in the radio room, so I swung around the framework and went to the radio operator, grabbed him by the shoulder and told him to leave. He was sitting on the floor of the radio room and had both hands covering his face. He had been struck by twenty (20) mm. fragments and was bleeding by numerous small wounds about his face and neck. I pointed to the bomb-bay and he went out the plane that way. We were now flying at an altitude of seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) feet. Before jumping through the bomb-bay, I hesitated for a few seconds as tracers were flying by under the ship in great numbers. When I jumped, I delayed opening my chute because two (2) ME-109’s were circling me on the way down. My head wasn’t very clear as I had been walking around in the plane at that altitude without a portable oxygen bottle and it seemed as if I was walking in a dream. While I was falling through space, it seemed as if I was practically stationary as I could not tell that I was getting any closer to the ground and I found out I could control my position while falling by swinging my arms and legs, the same as if you were diving off a high board. When I pulled the ripcord and the chute opened I felt a very slight jar.
When I landed, I landed on a roof of a two story dwelling about a quarter of a mile from the small town of Cuisano, Italy, which is close to the town of Avellino. As soon as my feet touched the roof the chute collapsed and that jerked me off and I fell on the ground but fortunately, I landed on top of the jungle kit and that helped to break my fall, but that gave me quite a jolt and dazed me considerably. When I regained my senses, I was surrounded by civilians and one Italian soldier, a Sgt., on patrol for paratroopers. The crowd around me consisted approximately of fifty (50) men, women and children. One man came up to me with a shotgun in his hands and looked me over for any firearms that I might have. (Note: pilot thinks that for this reason it is not advisable for any air crew members to carry firearms since the enemy has been led to believe that we are vicious and will cause trouble under such circumstances). The civilian with the shotgun helped me disentangle myself from the chute and took me into the house and offered me some food, which consisted of fruit, bread and pork. I couldn’t eat anything after going through the experiences I just had. It was then that the Italian Sargeant took me in hand and walked me into the town and put me into the town jail. Later in the afternoon, about 1800 hours, they took me into Avellino in a small pickup truck and there I spent the night in an ante-room of the police station. The next morning they brought T/Sgt. Eaton, Sgt. Farrell and Sgt. Herzing into this police station. Right after lunch, Lt. Martin, my navigator, Lt. Porter and Sgt. Lee were taken to the Officer’s Candidate School in the same town and placed in the guard house. The next afternoon, they took all of us to Benevento and put us in a room which was upstairs over the Headquarters of the Third Air Force, and placed under guard. It was here that we had our first real search, and they took everything we had, including jewelry and identification tags. The first thing they found in the way of escape material which we had concealed on us was the escape belt that the navigator wore. They found several small compasses that we had concealed on our person but we did get away with the compass that the navigator had in the collar button. Early the next morning they took us to a railway station and put us on a regular scheduled passenger train. We were allowed to ride first class and each prisoner had an individual guard. We did not know where we were going, but that evening, about 1700 hours, we were taken off of the train at a small station in the suburbs of Rome. We were allowed to look out of the window enroute and during the day we passed two (2) airdromes with numerous planes on them. I noticed that one airdrome had been bombed heavily and quite a number of ME-109’s had been damaged. They had propped up the ME-109’s to make them look serviceable, and had these wrecked planes dispersed among serviceable aircraft. The other airdrome that I saw had numerous JU-88’s well dispersed. During this ride we passed an underground powder plant which showed considerable activity, however, there was evidence of bombing.
After we were taken off of the train in the outskirts of Rome, we were transported by military truck to the main railroad station, where we waited for several hours under this same guard we had when we started. While in Rome, we noticed considerable damage had been done to the railroad facilities by our bombing, and one thing that I learned was that the main aqueduct feeding the city had been out and that Rome was without a water supply for ten (10) days. Soon after 2400 hours we were loaded aboard another military truck and taken to a small suburban station north of Rome. From there we took a train for Poggio. When we arrived in Poggio we were taken to a prisoner of war camp which had previously been a convent. It was here that we were again thoroughly searched and interrogated and later placed in solitary confinement. I was put in a room, approximately nine (9) feet by twelve (12) feet, which had one large window and one light. We were fed in the same rooms we were confined in but were allowed to exercise in the open, under guard, for one hour every day. Sometimes this was cut to a half hour or forty-five minutes. We were interrogated by an Air Force Captain who was dressed in civilian clothes (this was told to me by the guards and they also told me he was the commanding officer of the camp). The interrogator was very friendly and would offer us cigarettes from time to time. These are some of the questions that the interrogator asked me and some of my answers:
1. QUES: Where were you based? ANS: I cannot say.
2. QUES: How many A/C in your formation? ANS: I do not know.
3. QUES: Did you graduate from flying school as a Flight Officer or a Lieutenant? ANS: I cannot say.
4. QUES: How many missions have you completed? ANS: I cannot say.
5. QUES: Were you on the Ploesti raid? ANS: I’m sorry, I cannot say.
6. QUES: How do you like the Flying Fortress? ANS: Quite well.
7. QUES: Were you on the Marseille raid? ANS: I cannot say.
8. QUES: What was your occupation in civilian life? ANS: I cannot say.
He asked me numerous other minor questions which I do not remember.
On the sixth day after we arrived at Poggio, they moved Lt. Porter, my co-pilot, in my quarters with me, and on the eighth day, they moved Lt. Martin, my navigator, in the same quarters. We were each given a straw mattress and one blanket. We made our beds right on the floor.
On September 5 1943 we were transferred to another prisoner of war camp at Chieti, Italy. There were two hundred (200) American officers and approximately eight hundred (800) British officers in this transfer. It was here that I met Captain Bentley, former C.O. of the 429th Squadron. He told me that he had crash landed in the sea just off of a small island, in water about 200 yards from the beach. He also said that his co-pilot had been killed by fighters and that he never got out of the plane but his bombardier, Lt. Heaborg, got out and was rescued although he was severely injured. Captain Grooms, his navigator, was at this same camp but I didn’t talk to him very much. Bentley told me that when he made his water landing some Italians came out in a small launch and picked him up. From that day on, he had been shifted from one camp to another. Captain Grooms was in a hospital from a leg injury for some time, but finally joined Captain Bentley at Chieti.
I met Lt. Bentley, from the 96th Squadron, at this same camp. Lt. Bentley told me that they had been hit by flak over the target and the aircraft caught fire and to the best of his knowledge every man aboard had abandoned ship. He said that he had landed in the Straits of Messina, about 4 miles off of the coast, and that the Italians soon picked him up in a small launch. The launch made a thorough search of the area at the time and found most of the enlisted men of his crew, but no officers. Lt. Bentley doubts if any of the officers were ever picked up.
At the prisoner of war camp in Chieti, there was a senior British officer in charge of the prisoners. I think he was a full Colonel but may have been only a Lt. Colonel. The camp must have been some sort of a military camp before it was converted. They had fourteen (14) large barracks to house the prisoners. The dormitories were large rooms and they housed thirty (30) prisoners in each room. We had double decked bunks, straw mattresses, sheets and pillows. There was a British Intelligence Officer there who briefed us and told us of the system of the prison and what was going on in the way of excavations for escape. He told us if we had any intentions of escaping we would have to make these known to him and tell him when we were going to make the break. This prisoner of war camp looked like a regular peace time prison and had a high stone wall all around it. The prisoners had been working on tunnels for escape for about five (5) months. They had dug three (3) tunnels that I knew about. One started beneath a fireplace in the cook house and extended about thirty (30) or forty (40) feet beyond the outer wall. They had constructed a bellows arrangement in the fireplace to furnish air for the men working in the tunnel. The workmen carried the dirt out into the outer yard in pillow slips and piled it around several young trees that had been planted in the yard. This must have been obvious to the guards and the prison authorities as some time this dirt was piled up so high that only the tops of the young trees stood out above the pile. Another tunnel started in a manhole that was constructed for sewer pipes from the main dormitories. They hung a blanket over the tunnel entrance to conceal the work. I don’t know how far this tunnel had progressed but do know that it was out beyond the outer wall.
The prisoners had a unique warning system for warning the prisoners when inspectors or German officers were in the prison. They had cardboard dials on the walls in the corridors with three (3) divisions, one marked hysterical, one normal and one agitative. When the dial had pointed to hysterical, it meant to be very careful of conversation and to cease all tunneling operations as German officers or inspectors were present. Then, when it pointed to normal, it meant that everything was all right and could proceed. When it stood at agitative it meant for all prisoners to be extremely careful in regards to their actions and conversation as it was suspected they were being watched.
After the Armistice had been signed with Italy, we were told through our interpreters that the Germans had been there and had said that as long as no one escaped they would not take over the administration of the prison. After that the Germans came every day and took inventory. Our senior officers ordered everyone to be cool, calm and collected. We felt like this meant to be cool, calm and get collected. He threatened Courts-Martial to anyone who attempted to escape. From the conversation around the prison we thought that the Allies would be there within two or three days.
After we had been there for several days, we awoke one morning to find the place heavily guarded by German paratroopers and that day German officers made several rigid inspections. The German officers were all very young and very military-like. The enlisted men looked to be no older than 17 or 18 years. Soon after the Germans took over they announced that we were not to become alarmed as they were not going to move us since there were on transportation facilities. They said they were only holding us to prevent sabotage. This all proved to be a lie for the very next morning we were called at 0530 hours and told to be ready to move by 0700 hours. The Germans confined us to barracks and posted a heavy guard. At 0700 hours the Americans were moved out first in groups of twenty-five (25) and loaded into military trucks. It must have been a psychological move on the part of the guards for they took a two man machine gun and set it up near the trucks and fired several rounds into the hill. For breakfast that morning we had two-hundred (200) grams of bread and a little tea. We departed about 0830 hours and arrived at Sulmona, Italy at about 1100 hours. We were ordered to leave the trucks and stay in our respective groups. I saw nothing of importance on this trip. A short while later we were assigned to quarters and that night we escaped which I will describe later.
To go back in this story and include a portion I forgot, I will tell you about Lt. Kingsberry, who was co-pilot for Lt. Rozelle. I met him at Poggio, the place I have just described. Lt. Kingsberry told me that he saw many chutes from his plane and the plane of Lt. Thomas as he was going down. He said that he landed in the water and swam for thirty (30) hours. When he finally reached the beach he was so exhausted that he went right to sleep and when he awakened he found himself surrounded by civilians. He told me that while he was swimming he saw many flares throughout the night and thought certainly that our Air-Sea Rescue had picked up many of the crews. That was all that I learned from him.
At Sulmona, about 1600 hours, it was officially announced by the Germans that we were to leave for Germany the next day. Colonel Gooler, our senior United States officer, was very sad when he told us of this.
The Sulmona prisoner of war camp was located on the side of a hill and consisted of some twelve (12) or fourteen (14) barracks and was surrounded by three (3) barbed wire fences with machine gun nests at each corner on the uphill side and sentinel posts well dispersed on the inner side of the outside fence. The enclosure was approximately three hundred (300) by six hundred (600) feet. There was an administration building on the lower side of the compound. About midway of the six hundred (600) foot side, there was a small gully and a large wood pile just outside of the second fence. This looked to me like a good place to make an escape since you could crawl through this gully under cover from the machine guns on the hill and since it was a turning point for the guards walking post beyond the first inner fence. I timed the length of time it took for these guards to walk the length of their post and noted that they had a signal between the guards so that no two guards were facing the same direction at the same time. There was a string of lights just beyond the inner fence which lighted the area fairly well. It was here that I laid my plans for making the break. That night at supper I discussed this with Lt. Porter and Lt. Martin. They both agreed that this would be a good idea and that we would make our attempt at dusk. The prisoners were allowed to roam around the barracks area in groups. We notified the senior officer that we were going to attempt to escape that night. When it was nearly dark the three (3) of us were loitering between the barracks and close to the place in the fence that we had picked to crawl through. We had secured several short strands of rope in order that we might tie up the lower strands of wire to the higher strands thereby making a hole that we could crawl under on our backs. These we had with us and I had gotten several articles of clothing from the other prisoners and a small canteen which I had stuffed in the inside of my sweater. Earlier that day I had filled a box with toilet articles and an old blue sweater which a British soldier had given me and, after tying this box up, had thrown it over the fences into the ravine. A German guard saw this box sailing through the air and had immediately gone and examined it. Evidently he thought it was trash that I was discarding and threw it back on the ground.
We timed the guards again and at just the right moment I started for the fence thinking that the other men were right behind me. I made the first fence alright and crawled through without much difficulty. From there I crawled through the second fence and quietly tied those wires up. By that time the sentry was almost opposite me so I laid down in the gully and pulled some ferns over me. As soon as the guard passed on I crawled behind the wood pile which was just inside of the outer fence and waited there for my friends. Soon Lt. Martin crawled up to where I was and just a few minutes later Lt. Harry Elliott of the 97th Bomb Group (H), a former co-pilot and a fellow prisoner joined us. Lt. Porter never did show up and I presume that he decided against making the break unless he made it later in the evening. There were several prisoners who attempted to escape that night and after we had cleared the area we heard numerous shots and people running through the brush. The civilians told us later that the prison guards had killed two prisoners that attempted to escape that same night. Just outside of the fence we met up with two (2) United States Captains who had managed to clear the compound. It took us quite some time to make a hole through the outer fence since it was constructed of loops of barbed wire. With this accomplished I retrieved the box of clothing that I had heaved over the fence earlier in the day and put this in my teeth since we had to crawl on our hands and knees for more than two hundred (200) yards. We could hear lots of shouting back in the camp and searching parties were sent out after us. They shot several star shells and flares to light up the area and a number of the patrols came fairly close to where we were hiding. That night we made a wide circuit of the town and traveled due West. We walked all night long and at daylight we met an Italian civilian apparently on his way to work. This was a secondary road. He recognized us as being escaped prisoners immediately as the other officers with me had on parts of various uniforms. Fortunately he proved to be friendly and immediately warned us that there were many civilians in the town that we were approaching who would turn us in for the reward offered by the Germans. He told us to hide out on the hill in a wooded section the rest of the day and that he would meet us in the afternoon after his work was finished at a bridge along the road. He requested that only one of us meet him. About 1530 hours I came out of our hiding place and met him on the bridge. The first thing he asked me is what we needed. I told him that we needed civilian clothing for the other two men and food. We hid back in the hills that night and the next morning he brought us food and clothing. We stayed there and the following day we learned that there were two (2) English soldiers that had escaped sometime earlier that were being hidden in a church in the daytime by an American citizen. They were also sleeping in the open at night. After we met the American citizen we were advised to leave as soon as possible since the Germans were picking up civilians and conscripting them for laborers in Germany and that we were in great danger. This United States citizen planned a route South for us off of the main roads and gave us a good supply of bread and apples in a gunny sack. The next morning at daylight he started out with us and walked about six (6) miles until we were out of the valley of Sulmona.
After we left Sulmona we travelled by sheep paths to Pescocostanzo and from there to Altolata and from there to St. Pietro Avelino. The remainder of our route was to Morrona de Saunio to Bonerefro to Coltorre where we met the first Allied units. During our journey we followed sheep trails and across main highways. For food and water we went to the peasants and were treated with a great deal of kindness. The two (2) English soldiers travelled with us for several days but we lost them near Bonerefro. One day we were climbing the side of an open hill and the Germans patrolling that area fired several shots over our heads. Instead of running we turned to the right and worked our way from there to the top of the hill. Evidently the Germans had a gun position in the line of our path and did not want us to approach it. We were getting close to the front lines at this time. At the top of the hill we met an old man I judge him to be about 60 who told us there were numerous machine gun nests in the vicinity and that German patrols were all over the area. He advised us not to go any farther for a while and told us he had a small barn just over the hill where we might hide. I could speak with him with difficulty because I had some knowledge of Spanish. We hid in this barn for five (5) days. The old man would come every morning and every evening and bring us fruit and vegetables. He would sling a hoe over his back with a sack of food and before he would approach he’d do a little work around the orchard. While we were staying in the barn we witnessed several scrimmages between Allied advanced patrols and German positions, also artillery exchanges. These patrols would make contact between 1700 and 2000 hours every night and after a short exchange the fighting would subside. One afternoon we saw our P-40’s dive bomb and strafe a heavy artillery unit entrenched directly behind our position. The old Italian would keep us posted as to events, and on the morning of the sixth day, which was the 8th of October, he came to the barn and told us the Germans had withdrawn from that area. The night before we heard trucks racing their engines and much shouting among the German forces. We also heard them blow a bridge up during the night. As soon as we could get our supplies together we made a break from the barn and started toward the Allied lines, almost in a dead run. The first thing that we met that looked the least bit friendly was a light armored car of the Canadian Forces. When we approached them on the road they thought we were civilians but after speaking they recognized us as being Allies. They put us in this armored car and took us back to the officer in charge of the advanced scouting party. It was there that we gave them information concerning the evacuation of the German forces from that immediate area and their subsequent destruction of the bridge. This officer sent us to his division headquarters which was some distance behind the lines. It was there that we were interrogated by their intelligence officer. They took us from the division headquarters into the town of Lucero and gave us a room for the night and additional food and clothing. The following morning they sent us by jeep to our advanced Air Force Headquarters at Foggia, Italy.
At Foggia we met Colonel Willis, the Commanding Officer, and from him we received a warm welcome. That afternoon at 1310 hours he put us on a transport plane and we landed at El Acuina A/D, Tunisia at 1600 hours.
NOTE: This narrative was written from notes taken by the interrogating officer and relates the events chronologically as accurately as possible.
JAMES A. CLARK,
1st Lt., Air Corps,
Intelligence Officer.
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Historical Artifacts: We are looking for photos, documents and other types of artifacts including uniforms and gear of the 15th Air Force in World War II as well as other units and commands. We accept electronic/scans or originals of pictures and paper records. A General Order could be an award document that contains information on many servicemen. Special Orders may contain transfers or other information. Flight records, accident reports, maintenance logs, after action reports, pilot encounter reports, diaries and biorgraphies; all of these types of documents help us support or mission: preserving your history! Contact us today for instructions on sending us this material.
Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one.
