DULAG LUFT, NEXT.

AIR COMBAT,

WORLD WAR II

    The Army Air Forces in World War II were an elite corps of volunteers especially  recruited and trained to perform highly skilled combat jobs in the air.  The high standard of competence required tor the aircrew, pilots, copilots, navigators, bombardiers, flight engineers, radio operators, and gunners was such that  the crew were commissioned and noncommissioned officers.  Combat crews worked as a tea, the success of which depended upon each and every man doing his job well.  The Army caste system so prevalent on the ground did not exist inside a bomber in aerial combat.  The aircrew officers were more concerned with flak, enemy fighters and dropping their bombs on the targets than military customs and courtesy.  Flying attracted young, free-spirited, fun-loving individualists.  They were well educated, nonconformists that did not fit into the Army's mold of submissive, non thinking followers.  Nevertheless, they had a great sense of patriotism and loyalty to their country and were eager to their part in the war.  Their character, patriotism and courage demonstrated in the air followed them as they bailed out from burning bombers and fighter plane into the prisoner of war world of the enemy.  A Domain of Heroes is the true story of the brave young air warriors that were shot down and survived to become prisoners of war in Germany in World War II. 

    One of the great fears that the families at home had to live with every day was that a person from Western Union would knock on their door with the dreaded envelope  containing blue or gold stars.  The envelopes sent shock waves through the recipients.  The mothers and wives of the day knew the star code and if they were able to open the envelope, and many couldn't, their only hope was that the stars were blue and not gold - - - gold meant the worst, their soldier had been killed in action.  Two blue stars left a shred of hope, their son was missing in action and there would be a long agonized wait for the next telegram.  The following example is one received by Mrs. Dorothy L. Dillon:

    "THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES TO EXPRESS HIS DEEP REGRET THAT      YOUR HUSBAND SERGEANT HAROLD L. DILLON HAS BEEN REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION SINCE TWENTY ONE NOVEMBER OVER GERMANY IF FURTHER DETAIL OR OTHER INFORMATION ARE RECEIVED YOU WILL BEPROMTPLY NOTIFIED.  

DUNLOP ACTING THE ADJUTANT GENERAL"

There was still hope, that's all they had to live with.  Sometime's it turned out for the good, sometimes for the worst.  In Dorothy Dillon's case, month's later, Captain Arthur Weaver, a Chaplain located temporarily in Paris and the former minister of Dorothy's church, heard a German broadcast listing Harold as a prisoner of war and called Dorothy in Indiana telling her that her husband was alive.  But, many mother's and wives were not so lucky. 

       Staff Sergeant Dillon was flying as right waist gunner with the B-17 crew of Lt. Warren E. Loendorf on a mission to bomb the synthetic oil production facilities at Merseburg when their Fortress was struck with flak over the target.  Dillon saw flames streaking out from number three engine like a comet.  Then, someone shouted over the intercom, "Fire in the bomb-bay!"  Dillon yanked loose from the intercom, grabbed a small fire extinguisher and rushed to the bomb-bay.  In his words, he described the event as follows: "The fire in the bomb-bay was like a blast furnace.  I shot the extinguisher into the flames with no effect.  It was like squirting a water gun into the raging flames.  The aluminum partition of the radio compartment began to melt from the intense heat and I knew it was hopeless.   

Dillon continued.  "I rushed to the waist door.  Everyone in the waist was gone except Olie Olsen, the ball-turret gunner.  He was squatting, motionless by the waist door.  I snapped on my chute and shouted, 'Olie, we've got to get out of here! '  he didn't say a word but pushed himself forward and out.  I noticed that I had my chest pack on backwards.  I remembered someone in training said that it didn't make any difference.  You just pulled the ripcord with your left hand.  I jumped.  The Fortress exploded behind me.  Debris was flying through the air all around me.  I made a delayed jump.  We had heard that German fighter pilots machine-gunned flyers coming down in their chutes.  When I could recognize cows on the ground I pulled my ripcord.  I swung once to the left, back and hit the ground." (Loendorf, the pilot, Flight Officer, John Simcich, the co-pilot, and Flight Officer, Jordan Ivanoff, the navigator, did not get out and were killed.)

The ordeal of life and death was not over for the flyer lucky enough to bail out of a burning bomber before it exploded.  One landing in the middle of \Germany usually was not able to avoid capture.  What followed varied depending upon the character  of his captors.  The downed airman's best hope was to be taken into custody by Luftwaffe or German soldiers.  But, Hitler and his Nazi henchmen  had branded the airmen "Luftgangsters" and "Terror Fliegers" and urged the German people to retaliate by beating and murdering the downed flyers.  The Nazi, SS, and German civilians enraged over the bombings of the German cities and spurred on by Hitler retaliated by beating, lynching, and murdering captured flyers.  Often they were forced to run the gauntlet being beaten with shovels, clubs, and whatever was available.    

Staff Sergeant Harold L. Dillon landed by parachute in the middle of a German mining camp.  "Men that looked like miners surrounded me,"  he said.  "{They searched me and took my escape kit and two pocket knives.  One kept saying, 'Ohio! Ohio!'  He wanted to know if I was from Ohio.  He either had relatives in Ohio or had been in the state and was trying to ask me about it.  I pretended not to understand.  They motioned for me to walk toward some high beams that reminded me of windmills.  I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I guess it was fear.  We had heard about captured flyers being lynched and I thought they were going to hang me.  I was greatly relieved when we went on by the beams to a nearby Luftwaffe anti-aircraft battery."

Staff Sergeant Tyre C. Weaver was severely wounded on a raid over Hanover.  His left arm was almost severed at the shoulder.  Lt. Keith J. Koske, his navigator, tried to apply a tourniquet to the badly bleeding arm but couldn't.  The crew knew that Weaver would bleed to death before getting back to England.  They concluded, reluctantly,  that his chances of survival was greater if they bailed him out and the Germans picked him up.  They attached his parachute to his harness.  Weaver accidentally pulled the ripcord and opened the chute.  Kiske gathered up the open chute, tucked it under Weaver's good arm and pushed him out the front hatch.  Weaver was picked up by a young German girl and several Hitler youth who rendered aid.  Weaver survived to become a prisoner of war.

The crew of 2nd. Lt. Stew Cooper, bombardier, was shot up badly by Fockewulfs on a raid of the submarine pens of Emden, Germany.  A 20 mm shell through the windshield of the Fortress killed Flight Officer, Alfred Drabnis and and severely wounded Lt. Cecil B. Fisher, the copilot.  The disabled B-17 was going down and Cooper crawled over the dead body of 2nd. Lt. Lester Leonard, the navigator and bailed out.  The bombardier passed out and when he came to floating down in his chute he didn't have a left leg.  But, miraculously,  Stew survived to become a prisoner of war. 

Tail gunner Sergeant Robert Reed found himself in the severed tail of a Fortress falling three miles to earth.  His parachute was gone.  He leaned back against the armor plate and braced himself for certain death.  The tail section fell into some trees and Reed survived to become a prisoner of war. 

Of all the flyers killed in their bombers and fighter planes during World War II, from flak and enemy fighter planes, 32,730 survived to become prisoners of war in Stalag Lufts, in what Flight Surgeon, Captain Leslie Caplan described as "A Domain of Heroes".   The above is a brief summary of a small part of the book, A Domain of Heroes.

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Dulag Luft Interrogation Center.