BITTERSWEET MEMORIES

Euless man makes return trip to places he went as a World War II prisoner
By DAWN TRAVIS Mid-Cities News

Although 50 years have passed since Euless resident AI Lang was shot down over Germany, the prisoner of war's memories have not faded. It was Oct. 16, 1943. With a wife at home and a baby on the way, AI Lang became one of many men from his hometown of St. Charles, Mo., to enlist in the military. The United States had declared war on Germany and Lang said his obligation was to his country, even with the birth of his first child close at hand. So he joined the Air Force. Eleven days later, his wife, Mardine, gave birth to their baby daughter. Lang became a gunner on a B-24 Liberator in the Eighth Division of the U.S. Air Force. His place was in the aircraft's upper turret, behind the pilot and co- pilot, crouched behind a gun. In gunnery school, Lang learned how to gun from a plane by shooting at targets towed by women pilots. After gunnery school, Lang headed for Salt Lake City, Utah, to Kearns Air Force Base. There, the 10 man crew that he was to spend his military career with was formed. After further training in combat formation flying, the men were ready for the real thing. They flew to Valley Wales, England, where they were based at Bungay. Lang said his crew flew seven missions without incident over Germany, before a ground-loop crash "..scared the hell" out of him. The men were shooting German submarine pens when enemy fire blew out the B-24's left rear tire. Returning to the base, knowing the tire was flat, the men prepared for a crash landing, Off balance, the plane hurled to the ground, turning completely around in a ground-loop. Lang said the plane was s left for salvage. The crew received a 48-hour -pass to London to recuperate from the ordeal. Then, it was time for the ill-fated, ninth mission. On Aug. 26, 1944, synthetic oil refineries on the Rhine River were the target of 2,500 Allied aircraft flying in combat formation. Seconds after dropping a huge load of fire bombs, bullets ripped through Lang's airplane, shearing off the craft's two outboard engines at 23,000 feet. With the plane engulfed in flames, defective fire extinguishers forced the pilot to take the airplane into a 12,000-foot nose dive, which Lang said a B- 24 is not supposed to do, unless the pilot wants to lose the plane's wings. Left with two malfunctioning inboard engines, the plane did not have enough power to maintain altitude. Crew members worked feverishly to unload extra weight, throwing out boxes of ammunition, guns and excess radio equipment as they tried to fly toward the safe haven of France. But France's border eluded them. With the plane quickly losing altitude over Saarbrucken, Germany, the crew was forced to bailout. Lang was second to last to leap from the doomed aircraft. The last to jump from the exploding B-24 was the pilot, who Lang said was never seen again. Ironically, the men had defied death by escaping the burning aircraft, only to leap seconds later back into its grasp. The crew had parachuted over an S.S. German gunnery range training Hitler's Youth. Six of the 10 men became easy targets as the they floated to the ground ~ and eventually to their death. , Two bullets struck Lang's parachute before it collapsed in a tree, sending Lang in a fall to the ground. Unable to move with a broken leg and an injured back, Lang helplessly awaited his fate. Five hours later, the S.S. Germans found him, made a stretcher out of his parachute and loaded him onto the back of a truck. Lang was driven into town where he was paraded through the streets, becoming a target for some German citizens' rocks and jeers. Lang's navigator and co-pilot also were caught and jailed in separate cells. Lang said he was left on the parachute stretcher on the cell's bare floor for a week, with only one bowl of soup and some water to keep him alive. Lang's co-pilot repeatedly demanded medical attention on Lang's behalf in the name of the Geneva Convention, only to lose two front teeth to the butt of a gun for his efforts. At week's end, Lang was loaded onto a train and shipped to an interrogation center outside Frankfurt. He said it took a day and a half to travel the short distance because Allied forces kept shooting at the train's engines. At the Center, Lang underwent grueling questioning in a room heated to unbearable temperatures. He resisted, refusing to provide the Germans with any information. Incredibly, Lang said, the questioning officer proceeded to narrate Lang's biography. "He knew I lived in St. Charles, my wife's name and that I cashed my check at a local tavern every Friday night," Lang said. He discovered later that the German officer was a spy who had worked as a barber In St. Louis at the Chase Hotel. Lang finally received medical attention following the inter- rogation. His leg was set in a full cast and he was hospitalized from late August until October. Then he was taken to Obermass field, a prison site where he was expected to recuperate. After the "Battle of the Bulge," Lang said prisoners started pouring into the prison camp. One was an American nurse who also had been shot down. Because she was a nurse, she was allowed to leave the camp periodically. In exchange for sending a letter to his wife, Lang offered the nurse a good luck charm and a pair of his wife's underwear. In need of I spare clothing, she accepted the offer. Six weeks passed before Mardine learned that her husband, believed to be missing in action, was alive and a POW. In mid-March 1945, Lang marched with 10,000 other prisoners to Mooseberg, his final destination as a POW. On April 29 of that year, Gen. George S. Patton's men of the 14th Armor Division stormed the camp and freed the prisoners. This month - 50 years later - three generations of Langs are traveling to Frankfurt, Germany, to retrace the steps taken by their father / grandfather In World War II. The Langs, accompanied by their children and grandchildren, left for Germany April 14 to visit the prison camps where thousands of Americans lost their freedom while fighting for It. RETURN