Stalag Luft III Newsletter – August 2016

Stalag Luft III Newsletter – August 2016

Greetings, POWs, Families, and Friends,

 Please take a nostalgic look at the picture below when thousands attended the Stalag Luft III reunions. You might just find a familiar face! Gen. Smart, Gen. Clark, and Jerry Sage are all sitting at the center table behind the white raised table, and just behind the flowers on a table. “Padre Mac,” Murdo MacDonald, beloved SLIII chaplain, is there too. You will have to zoom in on the picture. Due to its nature, I can’t make it any bigger.

 

1985 – 40^th Anniversary SLIII Reunion in Denver, Colorado, held at the Denver                  Marriott – The event was attended by over 1000 POWs and their wives.

 Identifying the General

In the last newsletter, I posted the picture Lt. Gen. Clark’s granddaughter sent to me for identification, which is below on the left. I had speculated it could be Gen. Ira Eaker, but that was wrong. Gen. Hodges was considered next, but his family confirmed it was not him. Our crack researcher in Belgium, Ed Reniere, then looked at countless pictures of WWII generals, and found Lt. Gen. Barton K. Yount, a West Point graduate, as Gen. Clark was, and the man who pioneered the procedures for teaching military pilots to fly. See link below of his distinguished service. As an added bonus, I was able to find that it was Gen. Yount’s wife who chose the original 1942 Army Air Corps March that you will recognize from the link below: 

 

Below is a link to the 1942 pressing of the “Army Air Corp March” performed by The Victor Military Band, conducted by Leonard Joy, with The Four Clubman, played on 1940 “Airline” Radio.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g44kSrnxZNc
In 1937, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold persuaded the Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, that the Air Corps needed an official song reflecting its unique identity in the same manner as the other military services and proposed a song competition with a prize to the winner. However, the Air Corps did not control its budget and could not give a prize. In April 1938, Bernarr [correct spelling] A. MacFadden, publisher of Liberty magazine stepped in offering a prize of $1,000 to the winning composer, stipulating that the song must be of simple “harmonic structure,” “within the limits of [an] untrained voice,” and its beat in “march tempo of military pattern.”
Over 700 compositions were received and evaluated by a volunteer committee of senior Air Corps wives with musical backgrounds chaired by Mildred Yount, the wife of Brig. Gen. Barton K. Yount. The committee had until July 1939 to make a final choice. However, word eventually spread that the committee did not find any songs that satisfied them, despite the great number of entries. Arnold, who became Chief of the Air Corps in 1938 after Westover was killed in a plane crash, solicited direct inquiries from professional composers and commercial publishers, including Meredith Willson [correct spelling]and Irving Berlin, but not even Berlin’s creation proved satisfactory, although it was used as the title music to “Winged Victory” by Moss Hart. Two days before the deadline, Crawford, a music instructor, aviation enthusiast, and professional musician billed as “The Flying Baritone,” personally delivered a sound recording of his entry, which proved to be a unanimous winner. Mrs. Yount recalled that Rudolph Ganz, guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and a consultant to the committee, was immediately and enthusiastically in favor of the winner.
The contest rules required the winner to submit his entry in written form, and Crawford immediately complied. However his original title, “What Do You Think of the Air Corps Now?” was soon officially changed to “The Army Air Corps.” Crawford himself publicly sang the song for the first time over national radio from the 1939 National Air Races.
Not everyone was fond of the song. During a dinner of September 1939, Mrs. Yount played a recording of the song for Charles Lindbergh and asked his opinion. He responded politely to Yount, but years later remarked in a diary, “I think it is mediocre at best. Neither the music nor the words appealed to me.” Arnold did not share Lindbergh’s opinion. He sought to fund publication of band and ensemble arrangements of the song for nationwide distribution. However, the Air Corps did not have enough money to publicize the song, so Crawford arranged a transfer of the song’s copyright to New York music publisher Carl Fischer Inc., including a perpetual performance release in favor of the U.S. Air Force.
After World War II, Crawford opened a restaurant near Opa Locka, Florida, named the “Blue Yonder.

Read more about Gen. Yount on the link below:

http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/108012/lieutenant-general-barton-kyle-yount.aspx

News from Marek

Gold Train:

With the potential discovery of the infamous Nazi Gold Train back in the news again, I asked Marek about it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/16/polish-treasure-hunters-begin-excavation-in-hunt-for-nazi-gold-t/

“They actually started to dig two days ago as they finally got all the permissions.
Earlier, they only conducted several examinations (with GPR and other special devices). This is about 80 kilometers southwest of Wroclaw [formerly Breslau, Germany].The German name was Waldenburg (today Walbrzych). I spent 4 years in high school there. Walbrzych/Waldenburg is just 35 kilometers northeast of my hometown, Lubawka (Liebau).To my knowledge, they confirmed that there is a tunnel down there. No Gold Train so far.”

Recent Finds:

Exploration of the camp and Stalag VIIIC that sat beside West Compound is still yielding interesting items. Below is a dog tag of a French POW from VIIIC. Marek later found the man’s death certificate in the Zagan City Archive, which indicates the death was suicide by hanging.

 

 

 

Beneath the signature:
“Selbstmord durch Erhangen” – [death by hanging]

Canadian Red Cross Box

Marek found an historic piece for the museum and bought it from a Polish seller:

“I asked the seller about it. The lady said that the house [where it was found] belonged to a Polish officer. He was in Polish Army in the West. Looks like he came back from the war with this box.”

The original Canadian Red Cross box was found in the attic in southern Poland.

On 8 May 1945, it was reported that 7,000,000 Red Cross parcels, weighing 35,000 tons were at sea or in warehouses in Britain, Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseilles, Toulon, Geneva, and Gothenburg. A Red Cross representative said that they were not perishable and could be used for distressed civilians and as a flexible reserve.

 

 

 

Donation of Stove

This stove was dug up sixteen years ago by some local “looters.” The stove is in perfect condition. It was found in North Compound in one of the huts near the fire pool. The men who had it saw Marek and his team on TV (the documentary made during the search they conducted last year), and when they realized what they do at the museum, they decided to donate the stove to the museum.

 

                        The stove was still filled with charcoal briquettes!

B-17 Parts from Polish Lake

Recently, Marek received a B-17 switch panel found in a small lake in northern Poland. Four crew members became POWs at SLIII.  Many of the parts found in 1989, are displayed in the Polish Army Museum in Kolobrzeg (Baltic Sea).  The plane was from the 91st BG, 322nd BS, shot down on mission to Berlin, 21st June ’44. It had crashed into Stolsko Lake (now Poland). POWs were Robert O’Bannon (SL3), Thomas Fitzgerald (SL3), Nathan Bartman (SL3), Arnold Ostwald (SL3), Irving E. Lewis, Benjamin Goldman, Herbert McCutchan, Jose Fioretti; KIA, and Amos Estrady.

When my father died, I found an autographed book by O’Bannon that he had in his collection, and I spoke with O’Bannon then. He has since passed away. It is too bad he died without seeing these parts.

 

 

 

Eagle Squadron Uniform

American POW “Casey” Jones’s Eagle Squadron uniform is now on display at the Air & Space Museum at Dulles airport. Marek took this picture when he was there. Note unique Eagle Squadron emblem for this American who, like many others, first flew with the British.     

 

 

More on the Eagle Squadrons

Wright-Patterson AFB:

Photos by Marek:

 

 

POW Display – Wright-Patterson AFB

 

Photo taken by Marek

Burial photos were taken at Stalag Luft I, in Barth – the second Luftwaffe officers’ camp

that preceded Stalag Luft III.

Polish Army Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU8EUp-VfRE

On August 15^th, Poland celebrated Polish Army Day. All tank sequences from the link below were filmed in Zagan, Home of the Polish Armoured Corps. Polish Army Day is celebrated on August 15th to commemorate the 1920 Warsaw Battle during the Polish-Bolshevik War when Poland stopped the communists near Warsaw, who had wanted to conquer Western Europe.

“A group of American volunteers helped us. They were pilots led by Merian C. Cooper. Communists left Poland, and the years 1920-1939 were the Golden Era for our country. We had very good army, industry, and education. We were able to rebuild the country and then we lost everything in 1939 again.”

To celebrate this year, there was a great parade in Warsaw. Twenty tanks from Zagan participated in the parade, as well as four US Army Abrams tanks and other vehicles.

                     American Pilot – Merian C. Cooper

POW Tom “Ma” Wilson Receives Lance Sijan Award from A.F. Academy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_P._Sijan_Award

Tom, affectionately known as Ma by his roommates, 96 years old now, recently was presented with this prestigious award.

             Tom Wilson

In the spring, Tom fell and broke a rib while playing golf, getting out of a bunker, which kept him from golfing for a while, but now he is well again and back in action.

Congratulations on your award, Tom, from the SLIII Community!

Duxford – POW son, Keith Ogilvie – Canada

Keith had an eventful time with his book launch in Duxford, England, where he also enjoyed the air show.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/163-7133762-4431029?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Keith+Ogilive

“It was an amazing weekend for me to see two solid days of extraordinary aircraft blowing around the field (including a B-17!) and at the end of each day’s show to see 20 war birds flying by in formation–7 Spitfires, 2 ME109’s, a couple of P51 Mustangs, a Grumman Avenger, a Bearcat and a bunch of others I don’t remember.” 

Keith’s photos below:

                              End of the day fly over

                           B-25 – Mitchell Bomber

 

                             B-17 and Spitfire

 

                                B-17 and ME 109

Sentimental Trip Back to France – POW daughter, Carolyn Clark Miller – U.S.

Carolyn returned to France July 4th, 2016, for the 60th Anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty at the old air base, now a French drone base, which her father, SLIII POW, later, Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, had commanded near Chaumont. Carolyn, one of three children of men who had been stationed there, was the only one who was actually there by the statue when her father dedicated it. She was seventeen then. There were a few other Americans, including about six former enlisted personnel who had closed the base down in the mid-sixties. Several hundred French had come from afar for the celebration.

“They raised the French and American flags simultaneously exactly as they had at the first dedication on July 4, 1956, and then played the Star Spangled Banner and Le Marseillaise. Another one of the ‘children’ and I laid a wreath at the base of the statue.”

The following day, the attendees met in the middle of town at a statue dedicated to Franco-American friendship and French and American WWI war dead. The names of 19 American pilots who died in accidents during the 50s and early 60s were added to the statue, and Taps was played.  After many speeches, they laid three wreaths, and Carolyn, fluent in French, gave a short talk before she presented a plaque she had made to the Mayor of Chaumont in memory of her father and grandfather.

“I told the several hundred French citizens of Chaumont that the history of their town and the history of our family are significantly linked. The mayor told me that the plaque would hang in the Hotel de Ville.”

Carolyn’s paternal grandfather lived in Chaumont for 15 months, a doctor on Gen. Pershing’s staff. After spending some months in the trenches caring for the wounded, Pershing brought him to the Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Chaumont to help design and facilitate the building of field hospitals to expedite delivery of medicines and supplies to the battlefields.

“Then, quite by coincidence during the Cold War, my father was sent to command one of the largest American bases in France, which was outside Chaumont, and we resided there for 17 months.”

Carolyn told the gathering that one day perhaps Clark’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren might visit France and come to Chaumont to see the plaque in memory of their ancestors and better understand the significance of Chaumont and Franco-American friendship to the family.

The next day, Carolyn unveiled the new street sign that renames a street in the center of town after President Woodrow Wilson who visited Chaumont during or right after WWI. Another street was renamed after the 48th Fighter-Bomber Wing, the wing stationed at the air base.

 

 

Bonnie Sher, left, Carolyn on the right –“Her father worked for my father, and was the project manager for the Statue of Liberty project. The French colonel’s name is Chabert.”

 

                            Carolyn unveils the street sign.

 

            Carolyn’s plaque dedicated to her POW father and grandfather

Book of Interest – POW son, Dick Olsen – U.S.

“Not too long ago, I Googled the name of the navigator on my dad’s crew and his name turned up in the appendix of a book written by a man named Imre Rochlitz.  The appendix contained the names of around 50 downed airmen that Imre helped when he was a Partisan in Croatia in 1944.  I have had a nice e-mail correspondence with his son—Imre died a few years ago.  Imre wrote a book called Accident of Fate and it is a very good book that I highly recommend. 

Youtube has a segment called, “Portraying Imre Rochlitz,” which is a captivating interview about all the things he went through during the war including being sent to a Ustache death camp in Croatia and then miraculously being released, thanks to a Nazi general.” 

Portraying Imre Rochlitz—about 30 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klXapslwNlk

A much longer interview with Imre Rochlitz—about 3 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdP7aycEgQQ

Here is the book—available on Amazon and other sites. 

 

The Cooler

From the book, The Dulag Luft Trial – 1952 by Eric Cuddon (editor) which is a book on the post war trials of Germans employed at the Interrogation Center in Oberursel,  comes this map of the cooler, which no longer exists. These are the solitary confinement cells where downed airmen were initially confined as they were interrogated.

 

Photos and Information – POW daughter – Deb Boyle Anderson – U.S.

“My father was Lt. Wilfred L. Boyle, B-17 bombardier, shot down and ditched in the North Sea, 8-12-43. He arrived at Stalag Luft 3 on 8-22-43. He was housed in the South Compound 135/13.

“I am working on a make-shift address book my father obviously made in prison camp. It lists about 30 people and includes two of his crew in the South Compound, some in the same combine. Some of it is in his handwriting and some in a variety of handwritings. It was written on German supply forms and is held together with pieces of metal.”

[When completed, Deb has agreed to share the address book for the newsletter.]

    

                                                                                         Wilfred L Boyle

 

Wilfred Boyle before being taken POW 

“The picture taken in the Moosburg, shortly before liberation, is of (from left to right) Frank Ronzio, Reuben Fier, and Wilfred Boyle. Frank and my father were both in the South Compound 135 room 13 and both were from Rhode Island; Reuben was in the West Compound and originally from New York. He visited my father in 1980 and was then living in Maryland. A few years ago I tracked him down through the internet. He was then living in Boca Raton, Florida. I sent him a letter, and he called me. His National Archive POW info is listed the same as my father 7A only.[NARA continues to repeat this error and the one that says all SLIII POWs also went to Stalag XIIID in Nuremberg, which they did not, and many of us have addressed this with them, but they will not correct the records.] I have two other pictures taken at Moosburg with just Reuben. He said there were 7 pictures in the series, but my father received only four of them and one was a duplicate.”

[After the war, Frank Ronzio was an American actor famous for playing ‘Litmus’ in the film, Escape from Alcatraz. He played ten roles in his life. He also acted in Hill Street Blues and Fear City.

Did You Know?

…that the French 40&8 box cars used to transport the POWs from Spremberg, Germany, were actually named by  the American Horse Calvary during World War I? That unit designated 40 men or 8 horses.

German Boy Witnessed the Forced March

With permission of Mr. Siegfried Heller who lives in Washington State, read the letter below that he wrote to Marek after visiting the camp. He became a good friend of POW Norm Achen decades after the war, not realizing at first that their paths had crossed in Jan. 1945, in Muskau. After the war, Norm also became very good friends with the son of Hanns Scharff. Siegfried is one of the incredibly lucky survivors of the bombings of Dresden, a town our POWs passed through on the 40&8 box cars very shortly before the bombings there.

Dear Mr. Lazarz,

You may recall our short meeting on June 3 of this year when a colleague and I enquired about a friend of ours who was imprisoned at STALAG LUFT 3.  His name is Norman Achen, and he and I met on January 29, 1945 not knowing that we indeed had seen each other until we found out about the details in 1990.

You and your friend were able to locate the records of Norm Achen and gave us a copy of those records.  We are very grateful for your efforts and appreciate your work at the museum very much.  I promised you that I would send you a copy of Norm’s book “Go with God” which is enclosed with this letter.  I hope you and your colleagues will enjoy reading it and that it will contribute to filling in those many blanks in the history of STALAG LUFT 3.  Norm has since passed on, and we are trying to locate some of his family now.  

Here again a quick recount of what happened on January 29, 1945.  I was seven years old then, and it was a very cold winter.  We lived at Sorauer Strasse 21 in Muskau, now Clara-Zetkin-Strasse 21, just about 200 m down on the right of the street from the bridge across the Neisse River.  Lots of refugees and military were streaming across the bridge all day long, and at night we always had a dozen or more people trying to get away from the cold, sleeping on the floor of our living room.  That day hundreds of American and British POWs were marched by our house in Muskau, several pulling their meager belongings on primitive sleds like oxen behind them.  My cousin Manfred and I threw snowballs at them for “fun,” and one of the POWs actually gave us a couple of small pieces of chocolate, something we ourselves had not tasted before – it was wartime!! 

Instead of refugees staying in our house that night, we had about ten or so German Luftwaffe guards along with a couple of watchdogs sleeping on the floor.  The POWs had been locked up inside the large Evangelical church (destroyed and never rebuilt) close to the market square and inside the brick factory in Muskau.  The guards told me about the camp and how many of the prisoners had dug a tunnel, sewn fake uniforms, carved pistol fakes out of wood, blackening them with shoe polish.  As a seven-year-old, I was all captured by that story. 

After running away from the communist system in East Germany in 1958, I lived in Australia.  In 1961 I came across the book “The Great Escape” and was so surprised to find out, that I actually had been indirectly part of the story.  In 1965 or so I the saw the movie in the USA – pretty much hyped up, though.  Then in 1990 when I was the vice president of Physicians Medical Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, the laboratory was sold to Nichols Institute.  The lawyer handling all the legal matters noticed my German accent and mentioned to me that he was shot down over Germany in the summer of 1944.  His name was Norman Achen, and what a surprise to discover that he marched by our house in Muskau in January 1945!  We became friends, and he wrote the book “Go with God” about his experience.  It’s a small world – and God is good, all the time!

You are doing a great job at the museum.  War is terrible.  I had lost my father in October 1944, missing in action.  My mother and I lived thorough that air raid of February 13, 1945 while in a refugee train on a railroad station in Dresden.  Having survived that is a true miracle.  Those horrible experiences in childhood will forever be engraved in my mind.

My cousin Manfred now lives in Krauschwitz at Zum Schulmeisterweg 6 (telephone number 49 35771 640955).  He is 80 years old now, but remembers all those details very well.  His sister Ingrid and her husband Günther Till still live at the house at Clara-Zetkin-Strasse 21 in Muskau.

Norm’s book:

Links

If you are near Boston:

http://www.museumofworldwarii.org/prisoners-of-war.html

Fly with the Blue Angels – John Lanza – U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4D0yx4DvBk?rel=0

“You’d think it was dangerous to chew gum while doing this!
Footage is courtesy of the U.S. Navy & the Blue Angels.
Video runs 3:44.  For sure, go full screen. This footage is of the “slot man” in the Diamond formation…toughest flying due to wingtip vortices, etc. When the pilot “smiles,” he is pulling some serious positive/negative “G” forces. Notice the rest of the formation in the pilot’s reflective goggles.”

The Four Chaplains – Famed WWII Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ewJp8HhYzA

Video of Admiral Nimitz’s Victory Parade – 1945 – Washington DC

1000 Plane Fly Over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQWNnYEOzw0

Adopt a Retired Old Guard Horse from Arlington National  Cemetery

Where Veteran Horses Retire After They’ve Served 

http://www.coolestone.com/media/15156/Where-Veteran-Horses-Retire-After-They’ve-Served/#.V6twZv-V9jp

B-17 Belly Landing – 1944 – Podington, England

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_WepIIcW9w

How to Fly a B-17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-zRFEt9lI

Touching Video of the Return of WWII Marines from the Pacific

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6f_FvZpm3g

Dress Made of Silk Escape Maps – POW daughter, Barb Edy – Canada

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-36783325?SThisFB%3FSThisFB

Searching the German Archives

Many WWII documents are held at the archive in Freiburg.

https://www.bundesarchiv.de/bundesarchiv/organisation/abteilung_ma/index.html.en

Until next time,

 

 

Marilyn Walton

Daughter of POW Thomas F. Jeffers

[Previous newsletters are all archived at stalagluft3.wordpress.com. Click on newsletters.]

 

 

 

Stalag Luft III Newsletter – January, 2018

Stalag Luft III Newsletter – January 2018

Greetings, Stalag Luft III POWs, Families, and Friends,

Marek recently received $1100.00 in donations from American children of POWs  and wanted to thank those contributors. It is difficult to find artifacts related to Stalag VIIIC that sat right next to Stalag Luft III’s West Compound and wanted to once more thank the donors.

“I’d like to thank all recent donors for their generous contributions. The money safely landed in the museum’s bank account. The donation helped me to buy a unique collection of Stalag VIIIC original pictures. It happened just two days ago. Thank you again my Dear Friends!”

Christmas Cake – POW son, Tom Lundquist – US

“The Christmas 1944 Kriegie news-sheet cover [Dec. newsletter] reminded me of something in my father’s (1st Lt. John Lundquist – Belaria) log book.

I believe that the Christmas cake pictured was made by my father, although there is no written text to support that. However, later, at Moosburg, he and others did make an Easter cake which won a contest.

I’ve puzzled over the words on this Christmas cake, and don’t know if the expression “Etto nitchivo” was commonly used by Kriegies. Do you know?

“Etto” may be an abbreviation for “each to their own,” but “nitchivo apparently is Russian- and means “never mind,” “a mere nothing,” “tolerable,” or “futile joy.” In one source I found from literature, “nitchivo” meant “They will reach their goal at length, for they look upon the dangers and delays as nothing.” Seems appropriate.”

Marilyn: I submitted this to Marek, who speaks and actually can teach Russian.

Marek:  “That’s interesting! I’ve never heard this before. However, I know all these Russian words. I’m sure that Kriegies learned this from the Russian POWs – no doubts!”

SLIII POW/Tuskegee Airmen – Alex Jefferson Video – John Dodds – US

Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency

Folded Wings

2^nd Lt. William J. Bramwell – POW Daughter, Joan Wootton – US

On New Year’s Day, at almost 101 years old, William Bramwell passed away. On the day his plane went down, he was the most seriously injured, yet he was the last surviving man on that crew.  2^nd Lt. Bramwell was a B-17 pilot shot down over Belgium on Nov. 5, 1943, injuring his spine upon bailing out. He was quickly picked up by the Germans and fortunately sent for fairly extensive medical treatment, first in Brussels, then in Frankfurt, and other nearby rehabilitation hospitals. He was scheduled to come home on a troop exchange because of his injuries but was delayed multiple times and eventually was sent to Zagan, arriving August 15, 1944. He stayed until November 28, 1944, living in North Compound according to his journal. When he left for repatriation for injured flyers, he went to Annaburg, a gathering point for British and American flyers, where he departed for Switzerland on Jan. 14, 1945, eventually coming home on the ship, Gripsholm, leaving from Marseilles Feb. 8, l945.

He was featured in this newsletter to mark his 100^th birthday last year:

  

Lt. Bramwell front row, first man on the left

Lt. “Bill” Bramwell

 

 

Obituary:

William J. Bramwell, Jr., aged 100 years and 8 and 1/2 months old, passed peacefully with his family at his side on New Year’s Day. Mr. Bramwell and his wife Virginia, who passed in 1999, moved to Claremont, California after World War II where they built their home in 1955.  They raised three children,

Bill Jr., Virginia, and Joan. They were also blessed with six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Bill served in the Army Air Corps in World War II as a captain and pilot of a B 17  bomber stationed at Knettishall, England.  He served from 1942 until being repatriated in a prisoner exchange for wounded flyers in January 1945. He and his crew were shot down over Belgium in 1943, and he was a POW in German hospitals and Stalag Luft III.  He is a recipient of the Purple Heart.

He retired as a manager at Insurance Services Organization in Los Angeles in 1980 and was recently honored as their oldest living retiree.

Bill’s life spanned many chapters – born in Concordia, Kansas, at the end of WWI, attending a one-room school house, growing up on a Depression-era wheat farm, serving honorably in World War II, POW, returning veteran, suffering lifelong disabilities as a result of injuries incurred as he bailed out of his B17 over enemy territory, a 55+ year marriage, 33 year career, building a home and raising a family.

Bill and Virginia celebrated many years of a happy marriage.  Their lives centered around their family, traveling in the American Southwest, collecting native American jewelry and rugs, re-uniting with the remaining members of Bill’s B17 crew members and their families, and enjoying their retirement in Claremont.  Bill, of course, was renowned among family and friends for his sweet navel orange juice grown from his own trees, his juicy home grown tomatoes, and his many wonderful home cooked meals.  He could fix anything, build anything, and grow anything.  A good husband, father, and grandfather always ready to offer help and advice and always interested in what all his kids and grandkids were up to.

During the past several years, Bill resided at the Veterans Hospital in Long Beach where he became one of their oldest and most venerated residents. From janitorial and food service staff, to nurses who lovingly called him Papa, to doctors, he was revered for his military service and continued sense of patriotism and, despite his lifelong injuries incurred during the war, for never complaining.

Perhaps one of the best descriptions to remember Bill by was that written by George Watt, his B17 crew waist gunner… “low key, rugged, competent, his calm efficiency pulled us through some pretty tight scrapes.”  All of us who knew Bill can say he touched our lives in that manner.   It is a tribute to him to be remembered as such.

Bill, last man on the right, with his reunited crew

Lois Carter Edwards – POW daughter, Leanne Cunliffe – Canada

Wife of SLIII and Buchenwald survivor, Ed Carter Edwards, whom we all got to know at the Dayton Reunion, has passed away. Condolences to the Carter-Edwards family.

http://merritt-fh.com/tribute/details/726/Lois-Carter-Edwards/obituary.html#tribute-start

Address Book Entry

In going through my father’s things recently, I found an old address book with the names of his POW friends. I can tell it got wet at one time, and this entry on the last page was smeared. But I recognized the last signature as Tom Wilson, affectionately known a Ma in the camp. (South Compound). I scanned it to him as a surprise. My father carried this book on the march and on the box cars, and kept it at Stalag VII-A in Moosburg. It was taken to Camp Lucky Strike and would have been taken aboard the troop ship home!

Tom Wilson on Marietta Street in Milwaukee, WI

Item Found in England 467^th BG – Rackheath – Trevor Hewitt – UK

“I and two of our museum group were digging in the middle of a muddy field on the old 467th BG base at Rackheath just after Xmas. We had dug down about 5 feet or so when we found several items. One of these was a piece of Tuffnol board. This board is made up of a composite material and was used in the repair of electrical equipment, radios, and used as an insulator. The board came back to my home with all the other finds. I finally got around to start cleaning these finds and eventually I got to clean this piece. I washed the caked on mud off it and then started to polish it. I suddenly noticed something on the board when the light flashed on it. If I had not looked as closely as I did I could have very easily missed it perhaps never to have noticed it at all! It was a signature which had been scratched in the board and another set of initials which were FB.  The signature is “Theo L Rykiel”. It is in the centre of the white oblong box in the photo. I tried to copy the style of the writing to decipher the name.  So Theodore Luke Rykiel it turns out was a Tech. Sgt. Armourer in the 467th BG. His son posted the this photo of his father in uniform on the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, American Museum section website a while back. It would be great if I could trace his son and show him his father’s signature which had been buried for 70+ years at Rackheath. These small types of finds really fascinate me. Just to think Marilyn , this young man in a moment of probable boredom scribbled his name on the piece of board, not thinking anything of it at the time, and all these years later it came to light from 5-feet down in the ground on a damp cold Norfolk morning in December to spark a bit of a mystery.”

      White oblong box surrounds signature

Marilyn: “Years ago, I found the American family members of the crew of B-24 Belle of Boston for Trevor, a plane that crashed on Trevor’s grandfather’s farm during the war, so he asked me to see if I could find the son, Alan Stanczik. I believe I have found him and I’m waiting for him to call me.”

Wealth of Information Made Available by the Nat. Archives in London – Dr. Susanne Meinl, Germany

Scroll down to see actor, Peter Butterworth’s and Roger Bushell’s SLIII ID cards.

http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/opening-prisoner-war-collection/?ut
m_campaign=567324_January%20%202018%20newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20National%20Archives&dm_i=3PUB,C5R0,1MJWGI,19LW7,1

POW 1^st Lt. Alvin Lynch –  Flag, Wings, Bracelet,  ID Card – POW daughter, Molly  Bohn – US

Molly’s father was co-pilot on Mike Eberhardt’s father’s crew. Her husband, Tom, has made a flag holder and display case for Lt. Lynch. He is also working on a display case for the flag that was used at the memorial service for the late SLIII/Buchenwald POW Richard Bedford who died September 30^th 2017.

WWI Truce – Rob Davis – UK

After reading about the WWI Christmas truce in the last newsletter, British WWII Researcher, Rob Davis, sent the following poem he wrote about that event.

He also sent a picture of this plate:

“The ‘plate’ is actually the lid of the Christmas box that the Queen sent to all soldiers, containing sweets, cigarettes and other treats.”

Be sure to visit Rob’s many interesting and informative websites!

Base page www.robdavis.webhop.org

Bomber Command www.robdavis.webhop.org/raf_bc

Great Escape www.robdavis.webhop.org/gt_esc

Motorcycle Touring www.deauville.webhop.org/touring

Excalibur www.robdavis.webhop.org/excalibur

Writings www.robdavis.webhop.org/writing

Christmas, 1914

Rob Davis

The Private said, “What’s up, lads?

it seems right quiet out there,

but I don’t mind if Christmas morn

has no attack affair.”

We peered out from our trenches

(and so did all the Frenchies).

 

The Corporal said, “Stand fast, lads;

for we’ll not fight today.

For once, no battle, just because

it’s Christmas, and we’ll have a pause.

We’ll give Fritz no melée.”

We Privates thought this sounded fine,

and stood down right along the line.

 

The Sergeant said, “Stand fast, lads;

we’ll wait all quiet, and see

what happens, and if Fritz is still,

we’ll not attempt to do him ill;

all peaceful it will be.”

The Corporal nodded, all a-smile,

there’d been no rest for quite a while;

we Privates stood down all content,

against the walls our rifles leant.

 

The Captain said, “Stand fast, lads;

we’ll play it cool, and this’ll

do just fine, we’ll keep it calm

and hope that Fritz he wants no harm,

and doesn’t blow his whistle.”

The Sergeant said “Very good, Sir!

Enjoy your Christmas pud, Sir!”

The Corporal he gave orders,

“Stay well within your quarters!”

And told us all to lay off;

we’d likely get the day off.

 

The Colonel said, “Stand fast, lads;

here’s something to be seen;

a ray of light for trenches murky,

tinned chocolate, a slice of turkey

a present from the Queen.”

The Captain said “God save Her!

We’re grateful for the favour.”

The Sergeant, warmly dressed

was mightily impressed.

The Corporal passed the tins,

and said “Lads, here’s your dins.”

We Privates didn’t quibble,

we’d Christmas pud to nibble.

 

The General he said “What?”

And rose up from his benches,

“Whilst Fritz is eating Christmas pud,

our lads can do a whale of good,

and storm his ruddy trenches.”

The Colonel was dismayed,

but plans to go were laid.

The Captain said to “Stick it,

it simply isn’t cricket.”

The Sergeant he knew who was boss,

and didn’t argue much the toss.

The Corporal gave a telling,

“You there, lads, get fell in!”

We Privates downed our trifles,

and took up with our rifles.

 

Then came a voice from the other line –

“Merry Christmas, Tommy” – sounded fine;

so we all called, with no alack,

“Merry Christmas, Fritz!” we shouted back.

Then sailed into our dingy hide

a piece of sausage, then a tide

of bread, and bully, cheese and such.

For finest fare, it didn’t measure

but sure enough it gave us pleasure,

for tucking into bread and ham

beats shooting at the other man.

 

We tossed across what we could spare,

some tins and such flew threw the air;

(it made a change to not abrade

his dugouts with a Mills grenade.)

A face peered out from firestep yonder

and wondered if this all was blunder?

But then we all saw Fritz produce

a white shirt waved to show us truce.

 

The Corporal at the Sergeant looked

to see if this our goose was cooked,

the Sergeant caught the Captain’s eye

and saw his eyebrows rise on high.

The Sergeant saw his head a-nodding

and needed no more gentle prodding.

“Wave them back, lads, it’s all right!

What’s to hand that’s clean and white?”

 

We found a scrap of off-white cloth

and quickly tied it, nothing loth

to rifle’s end, and raised it so

that Fritz could see we’d have a go

to rise up from our muddy place

and be more friend than deadly foe.

Now we saw them, one by one

and cautiously with careful treads

without their rifles, no grenades

just tin hats on their grimy heads.

 

Our Captain was, by us, respected;

and sure enough, as we expected

he clambered up, to quickly meet

with Flanders mud beneath his feet

a German Hauptmann, where they stood

face to face, right where we could

see our Captain’s hand salute

the man who yesterday – he’d shoot.

We watched them both, tense to a man

’til saluted back the proud Hauptmann.

 

The Corporal cried, “It’s Christmas Day!

For Fritz and us, no fight – hooray!”

The Sergeant cried, “That’s right, I think!

We’ll share our humble food and drink

with Fritz, and find out if we can

what kind of enemy is our man.”

The Captain cried, “It’s safe, I reckon!”

We Tommies followed at his beckon.

Herr Hauptmann called out loud in German

and from his trench rose Wolf and Hermann.

 

A football from the blue appeared

and as we watchers waved and cheered

a kick-about ‘tween trench occurred;

no man on either side demurred.

Fritz and Tommy swapping cadges,

gaspers, lucifers, jacket badges;

no need to hide in trench’s cover

for all there understood the other.

 

Nobody seemed to want to war

like yesterday, or the day before;

amongst their crowd I picked a man

and thought “I’ll just see if I can

meet up, and without being rude

be pals for this short interlude.”

 

So Tommy there with Fritz did stand

to shake each other by the hand;

In Christmas cheer and gay bonhomie

“Good Luck, Fritz” and “Good Luck, Tommy!”

Whatever lay ahead their fate

men found men they could not hate.

 

Our Captain and the Hauptmann tall

saluted each and other all;

a whistle blew to spell the end

of peace ‘twixt enemy and friend.

We turned and trudged in fading light

and wondered why we had to fight.

 

The next day, had the bubble burst?

We waited – but who would fire first?

No rifles spoke, or Lewis chattered,

to keep things quiet was all that mattered.

But as sun lit the hills, we see

Fritz pounded by Artillery.

 

So it all began again

the senseless slaughter, and the rain

of shells and whizzbangs, frozen breath;

and friend, with foe, alike in death.

 

“Were you in the War, Grandad?”

Aye I was, and now right glad

that desperately so I tried

to shoot to miss, and aim aside.

For once I’d met Fritz, face to face

to shoot and kill was not my place.

I know it seems a shame

but I never knew his name;

and when the war was over

I’d have been pleased

to have had

a pint

with him.

 

Coincidence

The finding of Lt. David Foulkes’ dog tag recently brought an email from the son of one of my father’s best friend in South Compound, POW Charles Church. I had been looking for his son for eight years with no luck. Just before the SLIII Reunion in Dayton, Mike Eberhardt noticed a posting on a forum by Charles Church’s son and put me in touch with him. Son, Jim Church, ended up coming to the reunion where we finally met. Now he tells me his father and Foulkes were roommates in the camp!

Recently on ebay:  – Tom Colones – US

For those who still believe the Steve McQueen character in The Great Escape movie was real, Tom submits the following oddity reinforcing that error:

Links

Bombardier School in 1942 at Midland, Texas – Midland Army Air Field – POW daughters – Elizabeth and Susan Holmstrom – US

Check the pictures to perhaps see the familiar face of a relative?

The first class was on 02-06-1942.  Training was twelve weeks.

http://b-29.org/manuals/BOMBARDIER%20SCHOOL%201942.pdf

Video of the History of Midland Field and the bombardier school there – Click on link below:

History Of Midland Army Airfield

Vintage Video of Franz Stigler/Charlie Brown of Book Fame. “A Higher Call” – Joe Lawrence – US

Franz Stigler & Charlie Brown BCTV 1997

New Records on Great Escape Found – New Book

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5226245/New-details-Great-Escape-PoW-camp-revealed.html

Arlington Ladies – POW daughter and Arlington Lady, Carol Godwin, US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFk4JrIMkkk

P-40 Pilots – Pearl Harbor – SLIII POW Ken Collins – US

A short video about two American P-40 pilots who were able to get off the ground at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ zS8HWFWaqa4

 The Air War from the German Perspective  – Susan Meinl – Germany

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpF8E6gt1GQ,

WWII Aviation Photos – Ross Greene – Ross Greene – US

Mission4Today › ForumsPro › R & R Forums › Photo Galleries › WWII Aircraft Photo’s › USA

Change Course! – John Dodds – US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5onkl2EHV4

Rare Footage of the Red Baron – 1917  – Joe Lawrence, US

https://videos.komando.com/watch/8095/ultra-rare-footage-of-the-most-famous-fighter-pilot-ever

Notice them squirting oil prior to spinning the prop. The following is a very rare piece of film, 100 years old. It shows Baron Von Richthofen doing an external prior to a mission, as well as his putting on a flying suit prior to flight in cold weather. If you look closely, you will notice Hermann Goering. The Baron was shot down on 21 April 1918 by Roy Brown of the Royal Navy Air Services, a prelude of the RAF. The Aussies also claim that one of their machine gunners on the ground shot the Baron down. UK & Aussie doctors, after the autopsy, stated that the fatal bullet was shot from above. Ray Brown was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame on 4 June 2015.  Enjoy this up-close and personal look at the most legendary combat pilot who ever lived, the infamous Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen.

 Walt Disney Goes to War – Joe Lawrence – US

When the United States entered the war in 1917, Walt Disney wanted to enlist just as his brothers had but at only 16, he was too young. Disney found out the Red Cross Ambulance Corps was accepting volunteers as young as 17. So Disney utilized his artistic skills to change his birth date on his passport application from “1901” to “1900.” This photo is Disney in uniform by his vehicle before leaving Paris to return home. As can be seen in the photo, he decorated vehicles with cartoons while overseas. Later stating, “I found out that the inside and outside of an ambulance is as good a place to draw as any.”

In addition to the ambulance flaps, Walt created sketches for the canteen menus and for friends to send home to their families and girlfriends (for a small fee of course). He also sent funny sketches and letters back to his high school newspaper, “The McKinley Voice.” One of which revealed how homesick he actually was, the cartoon featured the caption, “Oh! I want to go home to my Mama!”. By August 1918, his brothers Ray and Roy had returned to Kansas City and Walt put in for a discharge

Did You Know? – POW son, Mike Eberhardt – US

 “Luftwaffe Stomp”—the name given by U.S. fighter pilots to a turn used in combat to evade German pursuers.  It involved stalling the aircraft and turning at the same time.  The maneuver was very effective in allowing the pilot to come out on the tail of a German fighter with a good chance of shooting it down.

Marilyn: Two personal notes –

On Jan. 25^th my husband and I flew to Florida to stand with Pam Sconiers Whitelock and family, and members of “Ewart’s Army” the dedicated international group who searched for the left behind SLIII POW for so long as we lay her uncle, Lt. Ewart T. Sconiers, to rest beside his mother on the 27^th of January, the 74th anniversary of his burial in Lubin, Poland. Two daughters, one son, and one grandson of the SLIII POWs who buried him that day stood in their relatives’ places for this burial. I will post coverage of and pictures from that re-burial in next month’s newsletter.

2. Some of you who know me are aware that our eldest son, John Walton, is the play-by-play broadcaster for the Washington Capitals Hockey Team. NBC has asked him to do the play-by-play for women’s hockey for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in early February. The Olympics Games will be carried on USA and NBCSN t.v. channels. On a 3-week leave of absence from the Caps, he will broadcast the women’s hockey games up to the bronze medal game when he will have to return to DC.  Now that the North and South Koreans have agreed to form a combined women’s ice hockey team, he will have the honor of calling those historic and unifying games. I know that his SLIII POW grandfather would be proud.

Until next time,

Marilyn Walton

Daughter of POW Thomas F. Jeffers

 

 

 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

 

Stalag Luft III Newsletter – February 2018

 

 Stalag Luft III Newsletter – February 2018

 

Greetings, Stalag Luft III POWs, Families, and Friends,

Welcome Home Lt. Sconiers!

          Lt. Sconiers Reinterred —Buried 74 Years to the Day—Defuniak, Florida

 It is so gratifying to report the final burial of Lt. Ewart Sconiers in Florida—the day we often thought would never come. Below are photos of the event and links to many videos on youtube.com that will show the highlights of an incredible experience for so many who attended.

January 27, 1944 – Luben, Germany [later Lubin, Poland]

Thanks to Rob and Nanette Sconiers Pupalaikis and daughter, Eden, who colorized this historic picture for the reburial. The original flag was supplied by the Germans, and the stripes were painted on fabric. The flag was always re-used. The day of the funeral, as the casket was lowered into the ground, a German guard jumped forward to grab the flag, and Lt. Col. Clark, on the left, foreground, watched the guard’s muddy boot step on the flag, an image that always stayed with him, the symbolic significance of which was not lost on him.

January 27, 2018, Defuniak, Florida

Major Gen. William K.  Gayler, Ft. Rucker, Alabama, presents the folded flag  that covered Lt. Sconiers’ casket to niece, Pamela Sconiers Whitelock, as her granddaughters, Kennison and Kennedy, look on.

The Beginning:

“Do you know if anyone has found poor old Sconiers?”  For me, this journey started with that simple question posed to me by Lt. Gen. Clark at the U.S A.F. Academy in 2005.  Having buried him in 1944, Gen. Clark, then a Lt. Col., knew that Sconiers was the only American POW from Stalag Luft III who was never returned home after the war—a decorated war hero In North Compound with the British who worked under Lt. Col. Clark on security for Tunnel Harry of Great Escape fame. That question haunted the general for decades.

I only knew the name Sconiers from looking through my POW father’s copy of Clipped Wings as a child, which was a published history of South Compound, where he and Clark were eventually held. I distinctly remember four crosses on the dedication page with names in black on each one.

 

 

 

Lt. Sconiers was one of four men in South Compound who died while held captive. In 1943, Lt. Schaffer [correct spelling] died of complications of an appendectomy. 1944 would bring three more deaths. Lt. Mannka died as a result of the mental condition termed “barbed wire fever” by his fellow POWs. His German death certificate showed the cause of death as dementia/pneumonia. Corporal Miles [correct spelling] was shot by a German guard from a watchtower during an air raid. And then there was Lt. Sconiers—a mystery as to cause of death with so few facts it was not even speculated upon in the book. Decades later, his discovered German death certificate would indicate pneumonia/schizophrenia, and one document showed heart failure. Three of the deceased POWs came home when he did not. During the long quest to find him and bring him home, it was learned that he had fallen on the ice in the camp, and a splinter of wood penetrated his ear drum, later causing an infection that went to his brain causing him to exhibit episodes of severe mental illness. There were no drugs available to treat his infection, and soon the Germans removed him from the camp sending him to a mental hospital in what was then Luben, Germany, where he died the next day.

Lt. Gen. Clark had told me that on the day of the funeral they left Sconiers buried next to French POWs and a few Russians in the POW section of the cemetery. White flimsy crosses marked those graves he said. He told me that after they left the cemetery, the Germans would mark Sconiers’ grave with the same flimsy white cross that marked the other POW graves.

Four of Lt. Sconiers’ POW friends, including his pilot, stood near his wooden casket that cold day.  Seven decades later, descendants of those four took their places in the same positions their relatives had occupied.

January 27, 2018

Two POW daughters, one son, and one grandson stand next to Sconiers’ remains—the very remains the original burial party stood by 74 years before. Left, foreground, Major /Ret. Ed Wheeler, son of Col. Clermont Wheeler,  behind him, Carolyn Clark Miller, daughter of Lt. Col.  A. P. Clark, right foreground Scott Spivey, grandson of  Col. Delmar Spivey , and behind him, Kathryn Bisbee, daughter of Lt. Milton Stenstrom, Sconiers’ pilot.

Return to Florida: No one could have anticipated the massive celebration that the good people of Defuniak  provided . This small town turned out to welcome Lt. Sconiers home in every way they could.  There are many videos of the celebration on youtube.com if you type in “Sconiers funeral.” Here are just a few below. Other videos are listed at wjhg t.v. in Florida, type in Sconiers. Pam is working with documentary makers who will tell the Sconiers ‘story, as well as the saga of  his recovery, and the documentary will be finished by next year. Pam is also writing a book on her uncle’s story. To get an idea of the tribute we observed, here are some mostly short videos that say it all:

http://www.wjhg.com/video?vid=471534684 – WJHG – Reporter Jennifer Holton –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvY1o4Or_l8 – Delta arrival, WJHG – Funeral – Hero’s Homecoming and parade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex7mmQ1S2kM&feature=youtu.be

credit Dave Peller – Overview of all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wISoEQ4E-UA – Defuniak Parade

http://www.wjhg.com/video?vid=471587144 – Finding “A Hero in a Haystack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWbQDBHVo3Ul Members of Ewart’s Army Reuniting at the Pensacola Airport – Lt. Sconiers’ arrival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQAaErGK_3A  –  Patriot Riders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBcop7qEZyU  – “God Bless the USA”

Thanks to Pam’s incredible planning, those of us who attended enjoyed the wonderful parade that wound through the streets, a tree planting, music, speeches,  a BBQ lunch sponsored by Sen. George Gainer, and a hotel reception. Senator George Gainer and Florida Rep. Brad Drake both attended to pay respects. They have introduced a bill to have part of Hwy 90 in Walton County, Florida, renamed for Lt. Sconiers.  A proclamation was presented to Pam honoring her uncle proclaiming Sconiers Appreciation Week, and she was given the key to the city. The Patriot Guard Riders escorted the hearse from Pensacola, where we met the plane, up to the Defuniak funeral home, near Panama City, which was a drive of an hour and a half. Traffic was stopped along the route as this extremely long procession with countless motorcycles and State Highway Patrol accompanied us and the hearse. It was a day none of us will ever forget.

Below are a series of photos taken by many attendees during our three days in Florida. Our day began in Pensacola at the airport where many of the members of “Ewart’s Army” reunited, coming from many locations, including Hawaii, Belgium and Poland.  Pam’s entire family flew in to attend.

Marilyn and Carolyn Clark Miller in Pensacola

awaiting arrival of the plane

Waiting beside the plane  – Pam and her sister, Paige

Honor Guard from Ft. Rucker, Alabama, marches out to meet

Lt. Sconiers’ casket.

Army escort stands at attention with Delta personnel

Finally back in his home state, Florida

 

Years of pent up emotions could finally be released.

The Patriot Guard Riders assemble to form the escort to Panama City. Most were the Patriot Guard Riders who all started the escort at the Delta terminal. They were easy to see due to yellow arm bands, windshield stickers, and PG patches.  The other motorcyclists were member of the Walton Co. Sheriff Riders and the VFW Commander Wade Wilmoth Motorcycle Escort. Those two escorts picked up when the others left I-10 and stopped before heading east on Hwy-90 for the last few miles.

The line begins at the funeral home.

Funeral Home – Sconiers was issued a new uniform, name tag, and medals.

His bones were wrapped in a plastic covering and covered with a soft Army

blanket beneath the uniform.

“Ewart’s Army”  in front of the casket  with Pam-  L-R –  Szymon Serwatka, researcher from Poland, retired Chief Petty Officer, John Gray, of DPMO who served as an escort on the flight, Pam, Marilyn,  our dedicated researcher, Ed Renière, from Belgium, and Dr. Jarrod Burks, archeologist from Ohio. Missing is Stephen Marks from Poland. Before Sconiers, none of us knew each other except Ed and I.

John Gray and Szymon Serwatka pause and reflect by the casket.

Chief John Gray,  retired from the US Navy, worked for the DPMO, (Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office) which at that time accounted for missing POWs and MIAs. Chief Gray told   Lt. Genera Clark that the case of Lt. Sconiers had been re-opened when DPMO decided to go back to Poland after reviewing all of the possible cases, selecting his, amongst others, because they believed it was potentially solvable.

Szymon Serwatka, Researcher for DPMO, had been working independently on Sconiers’ case several years prior to 2006. His passion continued, and he made several trips to Lubin. Szymon watched the eventual excavations with much interest and provided excellent detailed charts and maps to help locate the most likely areas for POW burials.

Ed Renière – Belgium – never gave up in eleven years. For over a decade, I have been in touch with Ed, one of the best WWII researchers I have ever had the pleasure to meet and work with. He agreed to help in the quest to find Lt. Sconiers. Ed had a way of finding whatever no one else could find. He even found a video link of Sconiers receiving a Distinguished Service Cross. Just down the line from Sconiers stood Paul Tibbets, who would later drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Beyond that, Ed never ceased finding archival material so elusive to the rest of us that contributed greatly to this success.

Marilyn and Pam finally close to Ewart

The day before the funeral, the town of Defuniak showed its

appreciation for their long lost hero.

Parade route

The Florida State Highway Patrol turned out to pay respects.

 

Senator Gainer with officers from Ft. Rucker, Alabama

 

Pam addresses the people of Defuniak

Residents line the parade route for Lt. Sconiers

Saying both hello and good-bye, Marilyn, unknown, Carolyn Clark Miller

Scott Spivey, whose grandfather buried Sconiers

Along the parade route

School children sang and lined the streets.

Yellow ribbons and red/white/blue ribbons adorned many trees.

Tree Planting

We wait to take turns to help plant the tree.

Marker for the tree

The Funeral

Johnie Webb from the former JPAC flew in from Hawaii. In charge of Outreach and Communications for DPAA, Johnie knew what it meant to be a “Promise Keeper,” a man wholly dedicated to doing what was right and serving those who have served America. According to Pam, without Johnie Webb’s indefatigable commitment, exemplary leadership, tireless oversight, and purest of hearts, Ewart Sconiers would never have made it home.

The church

“Ewart’s Army”—The Promise Keepers – and the four descendants

of the original burial party – seated at the back of the altar

Standing room only plus a filled annex to hold all who wanted to

witness the  historic funeral

Lt. Sconiers is driven to his final resting place.

Pam holds the flag as Maj. Gen. Gayler speaks to her granddaughters.

Colorized Photo on Display

Missing Man Formation – Eglin AFB – F 15s – roared over the gravesite

at the funeral. The planes were secured through the efforts of Rob Pupalaikis.

“Promise Keepers” honored at reception after the funeral

A gift from Carolyn Clark Miller to Marilyn and Pam recognizing the

long quest and all the bumps along the way. “Nevertheless she persisted!”

Marilyn, Chief John Gray, Szymon Serwatka, and Ed Renière share a

group hug celebrating “mission accomplished.”

Marilyn and Col. Chris Forbes who made sure Lt. Sconiers got home

after the cross was found.

POW son, Jim Keeffe, frequent contributor to this newsletter,

flew in from Washington State to ride with the Patriot Guard

Riders. See this website for a history of the Washington State Riders:

http://pgrofwa.org/

Sconiers’ former and now empty grave in Gdansk, Poland

Preparing for the new and final burial in Defuniak, Florida, next to

Lt. Sconiers’ mother, Maude

Three Crosses

So despite the fact that Lt. Sconiers eventually did receive only that flimsy cross in Luben, Germany, it served its purpose, as the French saw it and removed him from his Communist Lubin, Poland, grave and took him with their own when they were allowed in just one time to remove their war dead—at a time when the Communists would not allow the Americans in. It was then that he received the solid white cross in Gdansk, Poland at the French Military Cemetery. The French POW crosses were marked with the phrase, “Mort Pour Le France,” (Died for France), but that phrase was noticeably missing from Sconiers’ new cross.

The first cross was the white flimsy one put on Sconier’s grave in Luben, Germany.

The second cross:   Gdansk, Poland

…and finally, the third and final cross is now in  Defuniak, Florida

I think Lt. Gen. Clark could truly appreciate  the fact that  no longer on foreign soil, Lt. Sconiers now lies beside his mother, beneath a beautiful white marker issued by his own government, adorned with a beautiful solid arc  from his family, and graced by the words so long in coming, “YOU WERE NOT FORGOTTEN.”  To answer your question, Gen. Clark, “Yes, Lt. Sconiers was finally found.”

To read about the entire Sconiers’ story, please visit Pam’s wonderful website:

bringsconiershome.com  and watch for her book.

News from Marek in Poland:

Zagan Museum Now Rated #2 (out of 95 tourist attractions of Lubuskie Province, Poland!

---

This was published by the local newspaper recently and is great publicity for the museum.

For those of you have visited, consider leaving a review on tripadvisor.com

Dog Tag

Recently donated by a collector from Warsaw

According to the West Compound roster, POW #4328 was 2nd Lt. James A. Bouvier, hut #157, room 15. Bottom half of perforated dog tag is missing.

http://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/person.php?PersonKey=406

73rd Anniversary of the Battle of Sagan and the Evacuation of the Stalag VIIIC and Stalag Luft 3 POW camps (The Long March)

Marek: “After many days of fighting on February 16^th, 1945, the Soviet Army took the town of Sagan. For this small town, the war was over. One week before, on February 8^th 1945, Stalag VIIIC, an Army POW camp, was evacuated. Thousands of POWs were forced to walk hundreds of miles westward to other camps somewhere in Germany. It was called the Death March.

On January 27^th, 1945, Stalag Luft 3 was evacuated. Over 10,000 airmen including 7000 American officers were forced to leave the camp and walk westward in freezing cold. Many of the POWs from Stalag VIIIC and the enlisted men’s camps such as Stalag Luft IV did not survive. We also commemorated 78th anniversary of the first mass deportation of Poles. On the night of 9-10 February 1940, the first 140 thousand Poles that lived in Eastern border lands occupied by the Soviet Union were transported deep into the Soviet Union. Thousands of them died of starvation and cold.

As always, we had an honored guest, WW2 veteran 2^nd Lt. Piotr Gubernator. He gave an amazing speech. He was one of the first citizens of Zagan. He shared with us some memories about the abandoned and empty town of Zagan he saw in 1946.

US Army soldiers who are currently serving in Zagan attended the ceremony to pay tribute to all American officers POWs of Stalag Luft 3.”

                                                       Polish Army

U.S. Army

 

2^nd Lt. Gubernator

Polish Children and their Families

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/266350/polish-us-soldiers-remember-battle-zagan-liberation-pow-camp

 Winter Holiday in Poland

Two weeks of winter holidays for students in Poland provided time to visit with the Polish Black Division and the museum.  As always, Marek organized a trip for them. The all-day bus tour included The Hall of Tradition of the “Black Division,” POW Camps Museum, and Tank Training Center (10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade) in Swietoszow (15 km South-East of Zagan). In Swietoszow, they visited tank simulators and also a shooting range simulator, having lots of fun.

“We end every tour with a lunch in a mess room in Army Base in Swietoszow. Kids love to have lunch with soldiers. Also with the cooperation with 11th Armoured Cavalry Division, we came up with an idea of free guided tours of the POW Camps Museum and The Hall of Tradition of Black Division. ‘Open Sunday’ – free entrance and free guided tours on every third Sunday of the month.”

   10^th Armoured Brigade Visit

Black Division Tradition Hall

Leopard Tank Simulator

Shooting Range

At the museum:

“Lots of fun! Kids love the new room especially gramophone

which is still playable. I usually don’t do this during the guided

tours, but I could not resist this time.”

The POWs had gramophones, although a shortage meant that each block of prisoners only got one record session a month, and a dance club flourished.

Gramophone and record

Zagan Hotel Demolished

The hotel that many early visitors to the museum stayed in is now being demolished. My husband and I stayed there in 2004. It was built in the early 1970s. Other nice hotels have taken its place.

 

The hotel by this date is completely gone.

Folded Wings

Gus Seefluth

Many will remember Gus from the 2012 SLIII Reunion in Dayton, Ohio. Condolences from the family from the Stalag Luft III Community.

https://sympathy.legacy.com/en-us/funeral-flowers/name/august-seefluth-flowers/p186080561/

Working on Improvements on the Stalag Luft III Section of the Air Force Academy Website – Dr. Mary Ruwell – Archivist – U.S.A.F Academy

“In a few months a new version will succeed this one. But for now, this is the link to take you to Stalag Luft III material at the A.F. Academy.”

http://afadigitalhumanities.com/stalag/intro.htm

Photo of Signature Enhanced – Trevor Hewitt – UK

Trevor has improved the quality of the pictures of the American signature he found while digging at the old base at Rackheath base in England. It had been buried for over 75 years. The story was in the last newsletter. I was able to locate  Theodor Rykiel’s  great nephew who is stunned by the find.

New Book – Stan Walsh – Bombardier – 397BG, 598 BS – US

“This is a State of the Book report.” The book title is: The B-26 Goes to War with the subtitle, Army’s Torpedo Challenge – Sink Nippon Navy. So, briefly, the book is about the airman who received and took the first B-26 “straight” short-wing model Marauder to the Southwest Pacific (Australia) into battle immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It follows Lt. Allen’s torpedo testing exploits, Lt. Muir’s participation in the Battle of Midway, and Lt. Dewan’s battle diary entries.  It is a mini history of the 22 BG to May 1943 when only 16 battle-worn airplanes remained flyable. I am Editor-in-Chief and co-author.  I am currently organizing the index. The book has 180 pages, 28 interior photographs, MHS logo, and a map page. The cover is in color featuring Jack Fellows’ art and Steve Swartz’s photographs. Publication is expected to be in Feb. 2018 by Author House. “

Book  on German and African Americans – Dr. Larry Greene –  U.S.

“ I met Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson (ret.), in 2006 when I was a Fulbright teaching and research professor teaching at the University of Muenster. I co-organized a Conference on African Americans and Germany and invited Alexander Jefferson to speak at the conference on his WW II experiences in the military and as a POW. We made available his book Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free. I co-edited a book on the conference, Germans and African Americans: Two Centuries of Exchange.

http://www.upress.state.ms.us/images/book-covers/9781604737844.jpg

 

http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1336

It was co-edited with Anke Ortlepp. Anke was formerly with the German Historical Institute and moved on to a professorship with the University of Munich. See link to the University Press of Mississippi which published the book.

(Thanks to Larry, too, for sharing the SLIII Newsletter  monthly with his history classes!)

Larry A. Greene, Ph.D.

Professor of History

History Department

Seton Hall University

South Orange, NJ 07079

 467^th BG Reunion – Trevor Hewitt – UK

 Polish Blechhammer Tour Schedule for 2018 – Szymon Serwatka – Poland

Many newsletter readers took the tour last year and endorsed it highly. Here is the schedule for the tour for next year for those of you who missed the last one.

Trip Schedule

Day 0 – arrivals to Kraków

Day 1 – Kraków Castle and Old Town

Day 2 – Wadowice, Jeleśnia – B-24 memorials

Day 3 – Auschwitz death camp

Day 4 – Blechhammer USAAF WWII target

Day 5 – Żagań Stalag Luft III POW camp

Day 6 – Wrocław Old Town, Walim tunnels

Day 7 – Jewish Kraków, Wieliczka Salt Mine

Day 7 +1 – departures from Kraków

Day 1

We will start in Kraków, and we will see the Royal Castle and the Cathedral on the Wawel Hill.

We will take a tour of Krakow Old Town in an electric cart.

We will visit the market square with a historical trade hall, St. Mary’s Church, and an underground  exhibition about medieval Kraków.

Day 2

This day is related to the USAAF bombing of IG Farben in Auschwitz on September 13th, 1944.

We will visit memorials to two B-24 crews who were shot down on this date. One was from the 485th (we will see the crash site) and the other from the 460th Bomb Group.

We will also see a Polish-American museum in Wadowice.

Day 3

We will visit Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where 1 million Jews were murdered, together with 70,000 non-Jewish Poles, and 30,000 people from other nationalities.

We will also see where the IG Farben Auschwitz chemical factory was, which was bombed 3 times by the USAAF in 1944.

Day 4

On this day we will leave Krakow and go to Kędzierzyn-Koźle, known in World War Two as Blechhammer.

The town’s synthetic fuel factories were at the extreme range of the USAAF bombers, and were heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns.

We will see the factories, a former slave labor camp, and the museum dedicated to the 15th Air Force.

Day 5

After staying overnight in Wrocław, we will continue west to Żagań.

We will visit a museum dedicated to POW camps. It is located where the Stalag Luft III was. This camp was known from The Great Escape.

We will see a reconstructed POW hut, foundations of the camp’s buildings, and where the main Great Escape tunnel (Harry) was.

Day 6

We will visit Wrocław’s magnificent Main Square, with a place that has been serving beer since 1275.

We will see “Panorama Racławicka” (1894) which is a giant 360 degree painting best viewed from a centrally located viewing platform.

On the way to Kraków, we will visit mountain tunnel systems at Walim built by the Nazis in 1943 and 1944.

Day 7

We will go to an historical Salt Mine in Wieliczka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Then we will visit a museum in Schindler’s factory, made famous by Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” We will end the day in Kazimierz, Kraków’s Jewish district, where we will see a medieval Gothic style synagogue.

April 8-14, 2018 Tour

arrivals on April 7th, departures on April 15th

September 9-15, 2018 Tour

arrivals on September 8th, departures on September 16^th

Number of travelers: min 5, max 7

Contact Szymon at  sserwatka@yahoo.com for additional details.

Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association Tour and Memorial Ceremonies in Germany – POW son, Robert D. McCaleb – US

Foes by Fate – Friends by Choice

“My name is Robert McCaleb, President of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association (SSMA). My purpose in writing is to make you aware of travel plan options should you be interested in attending the SSMA and City Memorial Ceremonies in Schweinfurt, Germany, in October of this year (2018). My family will be making individual separate travel plans to the city. However, my father’s former college has put together a package tour that includes Schweinfurt and other sites in Germany.  It is open to any interested travelers. If you have further interest or any questions, I would be glad for you to correspond with me at email step_ads@bellsouth.net

Thank you for your interest in remembering our WWII veterans, especially the reconciliation of the Schweinfurt veterans from all sides of the conflict.

MSSU Safari – Germany Adventure 2018

Day by Day Itinerary

Day 1, Wednesday, October 10, 2018            DEPART FOR FRANKFURT

Our United Airlines flight from Tulsa will depart at 1100am for Frankfurt. Overnight flight schedule arriving Thursday morning around 700am. Additional details regarding our flight schedule will be communicated to you later.

Day 2, Thursday, October 11, 2018                 Arrive in Frankfurt, tour on the way to Nuremberg

Our scheduled morning arrival at the airport and then we’ll meet our Tour Escort and Motor Coach and tour along the way to Nuremberg. We will visit the town of Wurzburg and have a local guide give us a city tour. Later this afternoon we will arrive in Nuremberg and check-in to our hotel and get some rest. Standard room accommodations tonight at our hotel.

Day 3, Friday, October 12, 2018                       Nuremberg

Breakfast at our hotel included. Today is touring a full day in Nuremberg with a local guide. We’ll visit with admissions the Albrecht Durer House; Nuremberg Trials; and the Nazi Rally Grounds and Documentation Center. Tonight, you’ll be free to enjoy dinner at your leisure and explore on your own. (Breakfast included) Overnight at same hotel in Nuremberg, standard accommodations.

Day 4, Saturday, October 13, 2018                 Schweinfurt

Breakfast at our hotel included. Today we are leaving Nuremberg and traveling into Schweinfurt, touring Rothenburgh ob der Tauber en route (approximately 3 hour drive). During our visit to Rothenburg we will walk the Ramparts with your Tour Escort. Later afternoon arrival in Schweinfurt. Standard room accommodations at our hotel in Schweinfurt.

Day 5, Sunday, October 14, 2018                    Schweinfurt

Breakfast at our hotel included. Today is the 75^th Anniversary of the Second Schweinfurt Mission. On October 14, 1943, Joplin Junior College graduate Kenneth McCaleb was shot down over Schweinfurt, Germany, on his 19th mission as a navigator aboard a B-17 bomber. On this “Black Thursday” raid on three ball-bearing factories, more than 600 airmen were killed or captured and 77 B-17s were lost. McCaleb spent the next 19 months in German prisoner of war camps before being liberated on April 29, 1945. During the 75th anniversary of the Second Schweinfurt Mission, Robert McCaleb, Kenneth’s son and president of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association, will be helping to lead ceremonies in Schweinfurt to commemorate the reconciliation of the veterans. Other activities will be planned today as well. Overnight at our same hotel in Schweinfurt.

Day 6, Monday, October 15, 2018                   Munich

Breakfast included at our hotel. Traveling today from Schweinfurt to Munich with a stop along the way in Regensburg (approximately 4 hour drive). A local guide will meet us in Regensburg for a 2-hour city tour seeing the Old Town; St Peters Cathedral; Stone Bridge; and Porta Praetoria. Admissions to the Schloss Thurn & Taxis included. Later this afternoon we’ll hope to stop at the Dachau Concentration Camp (time permitting), and then arrive in Munich. Standard room accommodations in Munich at our hotel.

Day 7, Tuesday, October 16, 2018                   Munich

Breakfast included at our hotel. Today we will have a half-day panoramic city tour of Munich, stopping in Marianplatz to see the Glockenspiel on the Neues Rathaus. The rest of your day will be free for you to explore the city, and enjoy this magnificent city. Overnight at our same hotel tonight in Munich.

Day 8, Wednesday, October 17, 2018            Munich

Breakfast included at our hotel. Today is a full day tour to Berchtesgaden & Salzburg. Admission to the Obersalzberg Documentation Center, access to the underground bunker system giving us an idea of the monumental scale of the former headquarters of the Eagles Nest compound in the Bavarian Alps. Lunch will be included at a restaurant nearby. We will also visit Mozart’s Birthplace and Residence in Salzburg. Overnight tonight back in Munich at our same hotel.

Day 9, Thursday, October 18, 2018                 Munich

Breakfast included at our hotel. Today is a full free day for you to explore the area. There are many sights in the region available to see, a full list of programs available will be communicated to you later. You can also explore Munich on your own if you wish. Overnight at our same hotel tonight in Munich.

Day 10, Friday, October 19, 2018                    Return to Joplin

Breakfast included at our hotel. Today we will leave from Munich airport around 1130am. Further details about our departure will be communicated later. Our anticipated arrival in Tulsa will be around 9pm. Transportation back to Joplin after our arrival is included.

Links

 Great Full Length Movie Links Online – Tom Colones – US

U.S. B-24 Pilot Shot Down and Taken POW:

Instrument of War – BYUtv

US & British POW’s in a German Stalag Luft Camp:

Action War Movie 2018 – New Action Hollywood Movies Full Length English HD

Following a Father’s Footsteps – Saving Jewish POWs – Ross Greene – US –

https://vimeo.com/198357872

 Tuskegee Airmen – Locations Where They Were Held as POWs – Barry Schoen – US

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/tuskegee-airmen-held-as-prisoners-of-war/article_e11815c8-6910-11df-a73e-00127992bc8b.html

Eagle – Dubai

An  eagle’s power dive from the top of the world’s tallest building to his trainer below. The eagle was fitted with a camera and released from the top of  2715 foot  Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. Somehow from the altitude, the eagle actually picks out his trainer among all the other objects and people.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6g95E4VSfj0?rel=0

Did You Know? – POW son, Mike Eberhardt – US

As part of the WWII plan to augment the German race with racially worthwhile people, the Nazis adopted the “Lebensborn” program under which an estimated 300,000 children were abducted by the SS from occupied countries and sent to Germany for forced adoption.  80 percent of them never returned.

 VL Books Now Available Again

For those of you waiting for our book on Col. von Lindeiner, From Commandant to Captive, Mike has just ordered more he can sell discounted to $22, including shipping.  As always, 100% of the proceeds go to the museum in Zagan. Contact Mike at mikeceber@sbcglobal.net

A reference to a von Lindeiner document recently sent to me from Canadian researcher, Dave Champion, has once more piqued our interest in von Lindeiner records at the British Archive, which Mike and I hope to pursue.

Until next time,

Marilyn Walton

Daughter of POW Thomas F. Jeffers

 

 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

 

Stalag Luft III Newsletter – March, 2018