THANKS TO GOD, WE WERE FREE AGAIN

It was October of 1943, and 10 days before our first child was born, when I left for the US Army Air Corps in WW2. Nearly one year later, on August 26th 1944, on my 9th mission with 446th Bomb Group over Saarbrucken Germany, I was forced to bailout when our damaged B-24 crashed just over the French border. I landed in a tall tree and since my parachute collapsed, I fell to the ground, breaking my right leg and back. Soon, I was captured and taken along with 2 other crew members to a jail in the nearby German town of Saarbrucken. We stayed there for 7 days with only I bowl of soup and water. We later learned that 6 members of our 10-man crew were killed (4 of whom were executed by the local SS). My 2 surviving crew members carried me everywhere on a stretcher. We were put on a train and during the course of our ride to Frankfurt, 7 locomotive engines were shot off by fighter aircraft. In Frankfurt, I finally received medical attention with a temporary caste. While being interrogated there, I was put in a small room with high heat, and they knew I was in pain, but the interrogation was unsuccessful for them. Surprisingly, the English speaking German Officer proceeded to tell me all about myself; like where I worked before, my family's names, where I cashed my checks, and even the brand of cigarettes I smoked. He then said that he had lived in St. Louis for 17 years and had worked as a barber at the Chase Hotel, near my home town. I was then sent to Meinengen, placed in a hospital for wounded POWs, and was put in a full body caste with only my arms and 1 leg free. About 7 months later I was transferred to Nuremberg. near where Hitler made his speeches. After about 5 weeks we marched to Moosburg. We suffered frost bitten hands and feet and we slept in the woods with rain and snow falling much of the time. Soon we were to join about 110,000 Allied POWs at a camp in Moosburg. After about 5 weeks, on the night of April 28th, 1945 we heard the glorious noise of tanks and troops bivouwacing at a distance. Anticipating a battle, we took tin cans and dug slit trenches to protect us if a battle were to ensue. The next morning an observation plane with a speaker flew over the camp demanding surrender of the Germans. Gratefully, in about 2 hours, Patton's 14th Armored Division of tanks rolled in and~ THANKS TO GOD, WE WERE FREE AGAIN. Albert H .Lang 600 Live Oak Dr . Euless, Tx. 76040-3931 Email alandbutch@webtv .net Tel. # 817-545-4434 RETURN