The G.I. Bill of Rights: A New Chapter for Those Who Came Home from WWII

The University of Cincinnati 1946 yearbook. Text bottom right reads, “The war with its hard fought battles and lonely hours is over. Those who left McMicken’s halls to help fight those battles and to share those lonely hours have come back—not only to take up where they left off, but to carry out the dreams and plans they made while they were gone.” “McMicken” refers to McMicken Hall on the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, campus and was a nickname for students used in the 1940s.

 

The Dedication in the 1946 yearbook was as follows:  “As McMicken’s sons come back from the far-flung battle-fronts … North Africa … Anzio Beachhead … Normandy … the Bulge … Bataan … Coral Sea … Guadalcanal … New Guinea … Iwo Jima … Guam … they remember their classmates who will never again return to classes, to parties, and to the way of life they knew and loved. We will not and must not forget them and what they have done for us.”

 

Members of the University of Cincinnati Veterans Association in 1946.  Row 1 — Kemeny, J.; Rodgers, J.; Niedenthal, R.; Kelly, R.; Ritter, B.; Armandroff, T.  Row 2 — Hannon, J.; Faunteleroy, T.; Cleary, R.; Gordon, R.; Hill, R.; two unidentified members.  Row 3 — Vance, E.; Williams, H.; Murphy, J.; Williams, T.; Bentley, E.; Feltrup, A.  Robert Kelly was president of the organization. The purpose of the Veterans Association was to promote fellowship among veterans as they entered college life.  

 

Before WWII ended the United States (US) Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 which provided a range of benefits for returning veterans.  The legislation is more commonly known still today as the G.I. Bill of Rights.  

The educational benefits in the G.I. Bill included tuition and living expenses for veterans returning to school.  The University of Cincinnati was one of many universities, colleges, trade schools, and training programs that welcomed WWII veterans wanting to continue their post-war education. G.I. Bill enrollments at the University of Cincinnati began in the fall of 1945.  At its peak there were 8,000 veterans enrolled there. In 1949 two-thirds of the university graduates were WWII veterans.

The G.I. Bill was a defining document in 20th century US history.  The positive effects on the US economy that started with the passing of the G.I. Bill are still evident today.

 

 

The genesis of this story began when I found the 1946 University of Cincinnati yearbook in a used bookstore in San Antonio, Texas.  The tone and sentiment in the yearbook reflects the 1940s US society and the educational institutions that welcomed WWII veterans back from a long war and sought to help them readapt to civilian life.  

Thank you to University of Cincinnati Archivist Kevin Grace for his help in researching this story.

Photographs in the story are courtesy of the University of Cincinnati Archives.

A Smoking Snake: The Brazilian Expeditionary Force in WWII

 

The Smoking Snake shoulder patch of a Brazilian Expeditionary Force soldier in WWII.

 

Brazil was the only Latin American country to send ground troops overseas to fight in WWII.

 

In 1941 after the December 7th Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the United States (US) Navy was granted access to Brazilian ports in its anti-submarine campaign in the Battle of the Atlantic against the Axis.  In early 1942 Brazil granted permission to the US to establish air bases and military installations on Brazilian territory.   The South American bases were essential as staging and stopover points for aircraft and ships with destinations in Africa, the Mediterranean, and beyond.  Recife and Natal, Brazil, were particularly important bases during WWII.

The President of Brazil Getúllo Dornelles Vargas declared war on Germany and Italy on August 22, 1942, after 36 of its merchant ships were sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German and Italian submarines.

The  Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF) was formed in early 1943 and had Army and Air Force branches. The BEF included about 25,700 men and women.

The Brazilian Navy was not directly part of the BEF.  The Brazilian Navy and the Allies defended air and sea transport lanes, protected convoys between South America and the Strait of Gibraltar, and made it difficult for German and Italian submarines to operate in the Central and South Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. 

The first group of BEF troops sailed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Naples, Italy, in 1944.  Their mission was to fight alongside other Allied armies in the Mediterranean Theater.

The BEF Army branch was attached to the Allied 15th Army Group composed of British and US field armies in Italy.  The BEF had a notable role in numerous battles in Italy including the Battle of Monte Castello, the Battle of Montese, and the Battle of Collecchio. They captured over 20,000 Axis soldiers.

The BEF air branch was attached to the 305th Fighter Group of the US Army Air Force, 62nd Fighter Wing, 12th Air Force flying in the Mediterranean Theater. The Brazilians flew Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighter planes from their base in Tarquinia, Italy.  Their callsign was Jambock. They flew 445 missions and destroyed military targets including 1,304 motor vehicles, 13 railway wagons, 8 armored cars, 25 railway and highway bridges, and 31 fuel tanks and munitions depots.

 

Brazilian P-47 Thunderbolt pilots wearing their distinctive white caps. Kneeling left to right: 2nd Lieutenant Paulo Costa, Captain M. Joel. Standing left to right: 1st Lieutenant A.D.S. Eustógio, Lieutenant Colonel Nero Moura, 1st Lieutenant I. Motta-Paes, 1st Lieutenant R.B. Lima-Moreira, 1st Lieutenant L.F.M.F. Perdigão.

 

When WWII ended, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force had lost nearly 1,000 men killed in action.

The Brazilian Military Cemetery of Pistoia, Italy, was established on August 4, 1945.  The cemetery closed in 1960. The soldiers’ remains were returned to Brazil and re-interred at the Monument of the Dead of World War II in Rio de Janeiro.  

The body of an unidentified Brazilian soldier was later discovered still buried in the Pistoia cemetery.  The Brazilian government elected to leave the remains of the soldier there.  In 1967 the Brazilian Monument and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of World War II was inaugurated at Pistoia.  

 

 

WWII Allies remembered. 

An exhibit in the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, to commemorate the Brazilian Air Force in WWII.

 

For additional information about the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in WWII visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Expeditionary_Force.  Also at the web page is the story explaining how the BEF got the nickname Smoking Snakes.

 

In Memory Of … WWII Nun Sister Emeldine

Sister Emeldine in Holland in March 1946.  Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves. 

 

This story is in recognition of Dutch citizens who helped the Allies in WWII.

 

The United States (US) Army 24th Evacuation Hospital landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on June 12, 1944, six days after D-Day.  The unit followed Allied military operations through France, Belgium, and then to Holland in support of Operation Market Garden in September of 1944.  

From October 28 to December 2, 1944, the 24th Evacuation Hospital occupied the Saint Maarten Kliniek (Clinic) in Nijmegen, Holland.  This was their first hospital set up in an already existing building.  Prior to that the unit worked in a tent hospital setting.  The Kliniek had been used by the Germans when they occupied Holland.  

The Saint Maarten Kliniek is where this story takes place.

 

Top photograph of the front of Saint Maarten Kliniek in 1944.  Bottom photograph shows the back of the building damaged after nearby military operations.  Photographs courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves. 

 

In a 2011 oral history interview 24th Evacuation Hospital nurse Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore Reaves tells of meeting Sister Emeldine and other nuns who cared for patients at the Kliniek.  

 

Photograph of Sister Emeldine and Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore Reaves taken at the back of the war damaged Saint Maarten Kliniek in 1944.  Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.  

 

Josephine shared a story in her interview about a US Army 101st Airborne Division soldier who was dying.  His name was John Kubinski.  She, Sister Emeldine, and a Catholic priest endangered their lives to grant John’s last request.

 

    

 

If the families of those lost in WWII had known that their loved ones did not die alone but were in the hands of caring people, it may have offered them some solace in their grief.

John Kubinski and Nick Patino were buried in US Temporary Cemetery 4655 at Molenhoek, Holland.  Their bodies were repatriated to the US after WWII ended.

 

Unfortunately I could not find further information about Sister Emeldine.  She did survive WWII as is attested by the 1946 photograph of her above.

On November 19, 1944, a German shell hit the hospital.  US Army physician Guy A. Myers and nurse First Lieutenant Katherine L. Foster were seriously wounded.

The photographs in this story are used with the permission of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.  The oral history video is used with the permission of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. 

A valuable website with extensive information on many of the US medical support units in WWII is WW2 US Medical Research Centre

There are three other stories on this website about the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital.  The stories are WWII Camp Shanks, New York: And a Visit by Archbishop Spellman,  An Afternoon in Paris after Liberation: And a Letter from a Parisian Lady,  and The Medics: Those Who Took Care of the Wounded and the Dying in WWII .

 

The Resistance, Escape from Buchenwald, Allied Flyers Escape Line, 101st Airborne Interpreter: The WWII Story of Dutchman Jack van der Geest

Jack van der Geest, 1951, United States (US) Air Force B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber Radar Operator. He served his adopted country after WWII and became a US citizen.

 

Jacobus (Jack) van der Geest was born in The Hague, The Netherlands,  September 17, 1923.  Before WWII ended Jack worked with the Dutch and French Resistance, escaped from Buchenwald concentration camp, helped Allied flyers escape to Switzerland, and was an interpreter for the United States (US) Army 101st Airborne Division.  

Jack spoke seven languages he learned in school and from friends.  He spoke Dutch, English, German, French, Flemish, Javanese, and Malayan.  This ability proved to be invaluable to him during WWII and after.

[The Netherlands proclaimed neutrality when WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.  In spite of this, Germany invaded the country on May 10, 1940.  After overwhelming the Dutch Army and the bombing of Rotterdam, The Netherlands surrendered to Germany on May 15, 1940.  Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government escaped to the United Kingdom before the surrender and established a government-in-exile.]

In Jack’s autobiography Was God on Vacation? he tells of being awakened on May 10, 1940, at 4 o’clock in the morning to the sound of explosions somewhere in The Hague.  He, his parents and sister, and a friend staying with them that night ran from their apartment at Soestdijksekade 43 and gathered in the street with other residents of the neighborhood to see what was happening.  Jack said leaflets were dropping from airplanes.  The leaflets message, in Dutch on one side and German on the other side, was “We the German people came to liberate you.”

[In 1938 The Netherlands passed a law requiring firearms owners to register their guns.  The Germans used the registration list to go to homes and businesses collecting the weapons of Dutch citizens.  Some weapons escaped detection and became useful in the Dutch Resistance.]

The Dutch Resistance had many small, decentralized units that planned independent actions against the Germans.  Jack’s father became an area commander of such a unit in 1941.  Jack was a member.

In September 1942 the Gestapo went to the van der Geest apartment and arrested  Jack, his father, and his mother.  A Dutch woman collaborating with the Germans betrayed them. 

Jack and his father and mother were taken to a prison near The Hague in Scheveningen which in WWII was nicknamed “The Orange Hotel.”  They were interrogated separately.  Jack worried about his parents and did not find out until after WWII what happened to them.  Among his worries he didn’t know what happened to their old fox terrier, Jony, left in their apartment after the family was arrested.

After interrogation Jack was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.  Travelling in a standing room only cattle car with other prisoners, Jack arrived at Buchenwald the end of September 1943.  Some prisoners died during the journey.  At the camp the prisoners had their heads shaved, were disinfected, and given striped uniforms to wear.  Jack’s prisoner number on his jacket was 512601.  Beneath it was a red triangle identifying him as a political prisoner.  Assigned to work in several different areas of the camp, his last assignment in Block 46 was the most horrifying.  It was where they did human experimentation on camp inmates.  Some of what Jack saw he could never discuss even toward the end of his life.

After nearly six months in Buchenwald Jack didn’t know how much longer he could live and planned an escape.  His plan would take extreme focus and patience on his part.  He knew the crematorium was out of fuel and used this knowledge to his advantage.

Every morning there was a prisoner roll call in the camp at 5 o’clock.  In March 1944, one morning Jack “played dead.”  A guard wrote down his prisoner number, and his seemingly lifeless body was dragged to an area where the dead were stacked for disposal.  He laid among the corpses until early that evening when there was only one guard near the pile of bodies.  With his remaining strength Jack jumped up and overpowered that guard.  He removed his German uniform and with multiple layers of clothing that he removed from the corpses to fill out his skeletal frame under the uniform, he started to walk toward the entrance gate of the camp.  It was now dark, and a German truck driver saw him walking.  The driver offered him a ride to Weimar.  Jack jumped in the back of the truck and then jumped out the first time the truck slowed down after it was driven out of the concentration camp.

Near Weimar a German farm couple let Jack stay at their home that first night after escaping.  He was still in a German uniform and was never sure they knew who he really was.  Jack spent the night in their son’s bedroom and saw a picture of him in his German Army uniform.  The next day the farm couple gave him their son’s bicycle to continue his journey.  

Feigning a limp to look like a soldier wounded in the war when he was seen in public, Jack found a railroad station in Erfurt, Germany, and decided to get in a boxcar of a train headed west to France.  Shedding the German uniform along the way, he dressed in some civilian clothes he took from the farmhouse.  He changed trains three times and eventually arrived in Neufchateau, France.  Jack decided to get off the train at that point.

 

In Neufchateau Jack decided to take a risk and find a dentist.  A guard in Buchenwald had knocked out his two front teeth.  His gums were swollen and infected.  A dentist Dr. Marvell treated his infection and later put in two false teeth.  After cautious and wary conversation Jack told the dentist he had escaped from Buchenwald.  Dr. Marvell revealed he was a member of a French Resistance group called the Maquis and asked Jack if he would like to join the Resistance.  Jack said yes, and the dentist arranged transportation for him to Paris, France.

In Paris Jack’s Resistance group would steal important information from the Germans to pass along to the Allies and would break into government buildings to get identification and food ration cards to give to Jews and dissenters in hiding.  They also helped downed Allied flyers escape from France.

A Paris Resistance member Guillaume who ran a Allied flyers escape line asked Jack to go with him on a mission to guide flyers from Paris to Neuchatel, Switzerland.  Guillaume thought Jack’s escape and evasion experience and ability to speak multiple languages would be extremely useful.  On Jack’s first mission he and Guillaume met three flyers (two British and one American) at Versailles outside Paris.

The phase of the moon was important in planning these missions as travel was mainly by night and paralleled main roads to avoid German vehicles.  They walked approximately 248 miles (399 kilometers) to Switzerland, and the trip could take 10-12 days one way.  French farmers and Resistance members living along the route would provide shelter and food for the group.

 

Jack led the next mission on his own.  On his sixth mission an American flyer told him being multilingual would be of great use in the upcoming Allied invasion of Europe.  Jack knew that there were other Allied flyers escape lines, and he felt that his luck may be running out.  He sent word back to Paris that he was going to England from Switzerland.  He and the escaping Allied flyers left one night from an airstrip near Zurich, Switzerland, in what looked to Jack like a Douglas DC 3.  There were British and American Embassy personnel on the flight also.  Switzerland declared neutrality in WWII, but Jack found out then that in wartime certain rules do not always apply.

It was March 1944, and Jack was 20 years old.

In England Jack was chosen as an interpreter for the US Army 101st Airborne Division.  He trained as a paratrooper and parachuted into Normandy with them as part of Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944.  Jack acted as an interrogator and interpreter.

Jack stepped foot on Dutch soil again in Masstricht, The Netherlands. 

 

In Bastogne Jack had an opportunity to return the kindness of the German farm couple who had fed and sheltered him after his escape from Buchenwald.  A captured young German soldier he was interrogating described a farm near Weimer, Germany, where he lived with his parents before WWII began.  To the surprise of the soldier Jack provided him a description of his parents.  He told the soldier he had fine parents and said nothing else.  In Jack’s interrogation report he stated that he knew the soldier’s parents, that they helped him when he escaped from Buchenwald, and asked that nothing happen to their son.

The end of 1944 brought a message that the Dutch government ordered her countrymen in foreign service to report to England.  After reaching London Jack was given two choices: join the Dutch Army and train in England or become a Royal Netherlands Marine and train in the US.  His time spent with Americans and wish to go to the US made the choice an easy one for him.

The end of January 1945 Jack and other Dutch marines left Liverpool, England, on the Queen Elizabeth sailing to New York City, New York.  The Queen Elizabeth on that voyage served as a hospital ship.  The Dutch marines helped care for the wounded servicemen returning to the US.  In New York Harbor Jack used a sheet as a sling to carry a soldier who had lost both legs up to the main deck of the ship.  The soldier wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.  Someone started to sing The Star Spangled Banner.  Others joined in.

Jack trained at US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, South Carolina, and Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.  He was in Washington, DC, when he heard the war in Europe had ended on May 8, 1945.

During his time in the US Jack asked the Red Cross for help in locating his parents.  But he could get no news of his parents and sister.

On December 8, 1945, the Dutch marines left Virginia by ship with a destination of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Military assignments while based there included rescuing 50 Dutch marines captured in Indonesia during WWII that were being held in a Japanese prison near Peking (Beijing), China, and clearing Japanese soldiers out of the jungle of Java, Indonesia, who did not know WWII ended. 

In July 1946 Jack was discharged from the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps.  He found a job with a shipping and transport company located in Sydney, Australia.  He still had no word about his family.

After two and a half years Jack found himself back in Java on a business trip.  A letter from his mother was waiting for him at the post office.  She and Jack’s sister had survived the war and were in The Hague.  [Jack learned from his mother after WWII ended that his father was sent from “The Orange Hotel” to Dachau concentration camp about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Munich, Germany, where he died on February 19, 1943.  His mother was sent to the German concentration camp Ravensbruck 56 miles (90 kilometers) north of Berlin, Germany.  She was released about three and a half months later and returned to The Hague.  Records found in 2009 indicate Jack’s father died in Camp Vught which was a transit and concentration camp in The Netherlands in WWII.] 

Jack wanted to become an American citizen.  There was a six year waiting list to emigrate to the US from The Netherlands.  In Australia, where he had been living and working, there was a four and a half year waiting list.  Indonesia only required a person to speak Malaysian and live there for 30 days.  Easily fulfilling the two requirements Jack sailed to the US and en route stopped in The Netherlands for three months to visit his mother and sister.

He arrived in the US in November 1949 at 26 years of age.

While registering as an alien at a post office in Baltimore, Maryland, Jack saw a notice that one could become a US citizen after serving three years in the US military.  On March 2, 1950, Jack joined the US Air Force, became a Radar Operator on a B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber, and was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.  May 5, 1953, after serving three years in the military, Jack became a citizen of the US.

Jack died March 3, 2009, in Rapid City, South Dakota.  He was 85 years old.

Jack’s love for his adopted country is expressed in the last sentence of his autobiography Was God on Vacation? when he states “Next time you pledge allegiance to our flag, I hope you get the same thrill down your spine that I do.” 

 

 

A  friend of Jack’s once visited the Buchenwald Concentration Camp Museum where he found the Death Certificate of a prisoner named Jacobus van der Geest.  Jack was one of only eight people to escape from Buchenwald.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Death Certificate.

 

 

Jack published his book Was God on Vacation? (with Carol Ordemann) in 1995.  Thank you to his son Van van der Geest for his help in the research for this story.  The story, photographs, and maps are published with his permission.

On April 29, 1998, the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education did an interview with Jack.  He was named a Rescuer and Aid Provider by the Foundation for helping  Jews during the Holocaust.  The link to the interview (Part 1 and Part 2) is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIMqe6_VZ54.  

Jony, the family fox terrier, was rescued from their apartment three days after the family was arrested.

 

A Prisoner of the Enemy: The Story of WWII B-17 Navigator Carl A. Groesbeck

 

United States Army Air Force Second Lieutenant Carl A. Groesbeck’s prisoner of war photograph taken in October 1943.  He was a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress navigator with the 306th Bombardment Group based at Thurleigh, England.  The word Lichtbild means photograph in German.

 

United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Second Lieutenant (2nd Lt.) Carl A. Groesbeck was a B-17 Flying Fortress navigator with the First Lieutenant (1st Lt.) Roy Ranck crew assigned to the 306th Bombardment Group (BG), 368th Bomb Squadron, based at Thurleigh, England, in WWII.

The Ranck crew’s first combat mission was October 8, 1943, to Bremen, Germany.  The primary target was the German aircraft factory there.  Due to a thick smoke screen obscuring the target, the bombs were dropped over a secondary target.  After the raid, the B-17 formation encountered Luftwaffe fighter planes and heavy flak.  The Ranck B-17 made it back to Thurleigh but was badly damaged with so many holes in the fuselage that Carl said it looked like a sieve.  The B-17 was scrapped.  Miraculously, no member of the 10 man crew was seriously injured.

The second combat mission for the Ranck crew was the next day on October 9, 1943, to Gdynia, Poland, a city in the Polish Corridor on the Baltic Sea.  At that date in time it was the deepest B-17 penetration mission into the European Theater.  Gdynia was almost 200 miles (322 kilometers) east of Berlin.  The city had been under German control since the start of WWII in September 1939.  The target that day was the German Naval, industrial, and port facilities.

The 306th BG B-17s arrived at Gdynia about the same time as a formation of USAAF B-24 Liberator bombers from another base in England.  The B-17 formation did a 360 degree turn and dropped the bombs on the second run over the target.  As the B-17s departed the area numerous German Messerschmitt and Junkers fighter planes were in pursuit.  The Ranck B-17 was badly damaged in the attack.  The aircraft dropped out of the formation, an engine was on fire, and it was flying too slowly to outrun the fighters.  Right waist gunner Sergeant Douglas Farris was killed in action.

Flying over the Baltic Sea on the return route from Gdynia, pilot 1st Lt. Ranck was able to fly the B-17 to a Danish island called Samso in the Kattegat Sea east of the Denmark Jutland Peninsula.  The crew bailed out over land, but their landings were spread out over the island.  2nd Lt. Groesbeck landed near B-17 radio operator Technical Sergeant William Skahan who broke a leg when landing.  While tending to the broken leg, Carl was arrested by German soldiers.  He was led away from the area and hoped the radio operator would be taken to a medical facility.  2nd Lt. Groesbeck was now a prisoner of war (POW).  He was 24 years old.  The date was October 9, 1943.

2nd Lt. Groesbeck spent his first night as a POW in a Samso farm chicken coop guarded by a German soldier.  The farmer’s wife brought him some food that evening.

On Day 2 he was reunited with B-17 Flight Engineer Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt.) Harry Hall.  They were transported by boat to Copenhagen, Denmark.  Carl was surprised when they were billeted in a luxury hotel in the city.  He tells of walking into the hotel lobby while a man in a tuxedo was playing the piano.  They had a room on the fifth floor.  One German guard said he would buy them a razor and soap to get cleaned up if they gave him some money.  2nd Lt. Groesbeck said the American flight crews had been told not to carry money with them.  That was when S/Sgt. Hall pulled out a “ten spot” (American ten dollar bill) from his shoe.  They got cleaned up, and then a German officer offered them “the run of the town” if they promised not to try and escape.  Carl refused the offer, and that night a German sentry took their shoes and stood guard outside their hotel room.

2nd Lt. Groesbeck and S/Sgt. Hall were separated on Day 3.  That was the last time Carl knew anything about the crew until WWII ended.  [The nine Ranck crew members who bailed out did survive the war.]  Carl was transported by truck to a nearby German air base, taken by ferry to Germany, and then travelled by train to a Dulag Luft.  It was Day 4 as a POW.  [A Dulag Luft was a transit and interrogation center for newly captured Allied airmen.  There were several facilities in Germany as well as German occupied countries.  After interrogation the prisoners were sent to permanent camps.]  Carl spent about a week at the Dulag Luft and was then transported in a standing room only cattle car with other POWs to what would be his permanent camp at Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan, Germany [now Zagan, Poland].  Sagan was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Berlin.

Stalag Luft 3 opened April 11, 1942, and expanded to include North, East, South, and West Compounds.  There were prisons within a prison.  It housed Allied airmen who at one time totaled 10,949 men.  The camp had recreational activities, a library, theater, radio station, a band and orchestra, religious services, two newspapers, and prisoners planning escapes. 

The camp was intentionally built on sandy soil with the idea being it would be difficult for the prisoners to dig escape tunnels.  That did not seem to make a difference to many of the Allied airmen imprisoned there.  The most famous of the escape attempts was on March 24, 1944.  It became known after WWII as The Great Escape with the story being told in a book (1950) and a movie (1963).

Carl spent his time trying to keep busy, answering roll calls, attending Catholic Mass when he could, and sometimes acted as a security guard for tunnel diggers.  I once asked him how he lived through that chapter in his life.  He said his faith in God and an optimism about life were a great help to him.

After Carl’s nearly 16 months as a POW, on January 27, 1945, he and other prisoners of Stalag Luft 3 saw what he would describe as a “blood red” night sky.  The Soviet Army was advancing west and getting closer.  Artillery exchanges between the Russians and the Germans and burning structures in the distance lit up the sky.  The Germans decided to move Allied prisoners west into Germany.  Prisoners from Stalag Luft 3 (and other POW camps) were forced to march west in what was one of the coldest winters in Europe.  Temperatures were as low as minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25 degrees Celsius).  Over 80,000 prisoners made what became known as “The March.”  [Although the numbers of men who died during the forced marches that winter vary, the number of US and Commonwealth POWs is estimated to be 3,500.]

Carl and a group of men numbering about 250 were forced to start their march just before midnight on that January 27th night.  They had only the clothes they were wearing and any food they had stored in their living quarters and were able to carry.  Carl remembers marching through six towns and the POWs seeking shelter where they could when they were allowed to rest.  He recalls the first night after the march began that he and other prisoners packed as many men as they could into an abandoned German Lutheran Church.  Carl shared what food he had (a box of raisins) with a fellow POW.  There was always the threat of Allied air forces attacking them as they could  have been mistaken for retreating German soldiers.  At one point along the march the prisoners were put in cattle cars and taken to their destination point at Stalag 7A near Moosburg in Bavaria, Germany.  They arrived at the camp on February 2, 1945.  The distance travelled from Stalag Luft 3 to Stalag 7A was approximately 390 miles (626 kilometers). 

Other groups of POWs from Stalag Luft 3 and other camps continued to arrive.

Carl spent the last few months of WWII at Stalag 7A.  The camp was originally built to house 10,000 prisoners.  When it was liberated on April 29, 1945, by the United States (US) Army 14th Armored Division, there were nearly 80,000 POWs from many different Allied countries.  General George C. Patton made a visit to the camp.  

WWII was over for Carl.  He had survived.

May 8, 1945, WWII officially ended in Europe.  Carl was ill at that time and remained in Germany at Stalag 7A undergoing treatment for about two weeks before being evacuated to Camp Lucky Strike (one of the US camps in France for repatriated servicemen).  He recalls food portions in the mess hall being rationed for the POWs as they slowly regained weight and strength.  Food portions were determined by the color of the ticket they presented.  Too much food too soon could have killed them.  And at Camp Lucky Strike he saw B-17 Flight Engineer S/Sgt. Hall again.

Carl returned to the US by ship.  He went back to his hometown of Ottawa, Illinois.  Carl continued his education, married, and is the father of five children.  He attended Stalag Luft 3 POW reunions over the years and kept in contact with other fellow prisoners.   

But that is not the end of the story.  The German plane that shot down Carl’s B-17 on October 9, 1943, was a Junkers JU 88.  A crew member Heinz Philipp had written down the B-17 tail number that day.  After WWII, with the help of the US Air Force, Heinz learned the names of the B-17 crew and contacted Carl.  Carl later visited him in Germany, and they stayed in contact until Heinz’s death.

 

Carl Groesbeck (on the right) with 306th BG veteran Philip Mundell laid wreaths at the 306th BG Memorial in Thurleigh, England, in 2008.  Philip flew with the 369th Bomb Squadron as a ball turret gunner and togglier.

 

Last December Carl celebrated his 98th birthday.  He still has that sense of optimism and faith in God.

Thank you 2nd Lt. Groesbeck for your service in WWII.

 

 

A special thank you to Carl Groesbeck for sharing his wartime experiences with me and for all the time he spent answering my many questions while doing research for this story.  The story and photographs are posted with his and his family’s permission.

Thank you to the Witness to War Foundation which is dedicated to historical preservation of the stories of war veterans.  Martin Madert interviewed Carl in 2013 and provided me a copy of the interview which I used in researching this story.  For further information on the Witness to War Foundation visit http://www.witnesstowar.org/.

Information about the WWII 306th BG Historical Association can be found at http://306bg.us/.  Association Historian Cliff Deets is always an invaluable resource for BG history.

 

In God I Trust: The Story of WWII B-17 Ball Turret Gunner Frank Perez

Frank Perez WWII and 2010 kneeling next to the ball turret of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

 

Frank Delgado Perez was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 14, 1924. Growing up near an aircraft manufacturing plant, he became interested in airplanes. Drafted in 1943 he requested assignment to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF).

Upon induction into the USAAF Frank reported to Keesler Army Air Field at Biloxi, Mississippi, where he went through basic training and then received specialty training at the Airplane and Engine Mechanics School there. Graduates of the school became a B-24 Liberator Flight Engineer. After gunnery school at Laredo Army Air Field, Texas, and ten days leave, Sergeant Perez reported to Salt Lake City Army Air Field, Utah, where flight crews were being formed. Expecting to be assigned to a B-24 crew but due to the “needs of the service,” Frank was assigned to the Lieutenant (Lt) John J. Connolly crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress. The B-17 crew already had a flight engineer, so Frank was selected for the ball turret gunner position. The Connolly crew then went to Sioux City Army Air Base in Iowa for advanced overseas crew training.

In April 1944 the Connolly crew with other recently formed B-17 crews ferried new B-17s over the Atlantic Ocean northern route and landed in Prestwick, Scotland. Sadly, a number of B-17s and crews were lost enroute.

Transported from Scotland to England the Connolly crew was assigned to the 401st Bomb Group (BG), 613th Bomb Squadron, Deenethorpe. The base was about two miles east of Corby, Northampshire, England.

Due to scheduling and additional training received by some members of Frank’s crew, he flew his first combat mission as a ball turret gunner with the Lt Dow C. Pruitt crew on April 18, 1944. The primary target was Oranienburg, Germany. The city was the site of a Nazi nuclear energy project. Cloud cover over the city that day forced cancellation of the mission, and a secondary target was chosen. The secondary target was the Kumarkische-Zellewolle Viscose Fiber factory at Wittenburg, Germany.

April 19, 1944, Frank’s second combat mission, he rejoined the Connolly crew. The target that day was Kassel, Germany. Kassel targets included aircraft, heavy tank, locomotive, engine, and motor transport plants as well as railway works.

In 2012 oral history interviews * **, Frank spoke of the anxiety and fear felt by many men flying combat missions. He was a devout Catholic and wore a crucifix on the chain with his dog tags. Frank said before a combat mission a priest was available to those men who wanted to receive Absolution (part of the Sacrament of Penance). It offered them a sense of peace in knowing that they may not return. Frank did not drink alcohol but said if he did he would rather have had the shot of whiskey before the mission instead of during the interrogation when they returned to their base.

After the Connolly crew June 6, 1944, D-Day mission to Caen, France, Frank was hospitalized with pneumonia. He spent almost a month recuperating and then was grounded for weeks. He started flying with his crew again on July 28, 1944, with the target being the synthetic oil and ammonia plant at Merseburg, Germany. [Frank would later fly with other crews to reach his required number of combat missions. Some members of the Connolly crew fulfilled their mission requirements in August 1944.]

All combat missions were fraught with danger, but Frank spoke of a particular mission to Ludwigshaven, Germany, that became a test of his faith. Ludwigshaven was the site of large marshalling (railway) yards and a railroad depot. The bombing run that day was completed, and the B-17s turned to fly back to their base in England. Frank’s B-17 was hit by flak and began tumbling and rolling out of control as it quickly lost altitude from about 30 thousand feet. They were still over Germany. Frank could not get out of the ball turret due to the centrifugal force created as the plane fell from the sky. He saw the ground getting closer and closer. Frank called the pilot on the intercom. No answer. Then he called “anyone.” No answer.

During the oral history interview Frank asked for a moment to collect his thoughts. Even decades later, he said he felt “tongue-tied” and emotionally “thrown back” to that mission.

After a pause Frank continued his story. He thought he was going to be killed and started to pray. He prayed, “Well, God, if this is the way it has to be, let it be.” Frank said, “I was under tension and wanted to live. But when I said that, at that instant, everything was just as peaceful as it can get. [I] had my whole life flash before me … from the time I was a little kid to that moment. I mean just like a movie, but going like that [he snaps his fingers]. It’s hard to explain … like if you get killed, so what … you just don’t care.”

And then the B-17 pulled up.

The plane was flying at treetop level with only two of the four engines working. The crew began throwing unnecessary equipment and supplies out of the plane to lighten the load. Frank was still in the ball turret and was there for the entire mission. After what seemed like an eternity, he saw the White Cliffs of Dover on the English coastline. He knew they were going to make it. The B-17 landed at a B-24 base in England.

As fate would have it, Frank knew many of the military personnel at the B-24 base. After all, he had trained with them in Biloxi, Mississippi. Frank and the crew stayed there for a few days while the B-24 mechanics repaired the B-17 engines. He recalls at the B-24 base that they ate out of mess kits unlike Deenethorpe where they ate from plates. They flew the B-17 back to Deenethorpe.

Frank’s last combat mission (Mission #32) was to a synthetic oil plant in Politz, Poland, on October 7, 1944. He flew with the Lt Albert L. Hanson crew. Five B-17 crews were lost that day; three planes were shot down, but two reached neutral Sweden where the crews were interned until the end of WWII.

Frank sailed home to the United States (US) after completing his required combat missions. He was back in the US before the Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944. His assignment on the ship while crossing the Atlantic Ocean was to guard German prisoners of war (POW) who would be interned in stateside POW camps.

Staff Sergeant Perez was stationed at Amarillo Army Air Field, Texas, as a B-17 Inspector when WWII ended.

Frank returned to California and earned a Degree in Agriculture from California Polytechnic University. He always had a passion for life and considered every day a blessing. Frank was very active in his church and his community. Between the ages of 78 and 88 he went hang gliding, parasailing, skydiving, and paragliding. He never lost his childhood love for flight.

 

Frank’s crucifix is pictured at the bottom left of the photograph. Years later it still remained with his dog tags.

 

Frank died January 16, 2015, two days after his 91st birthday.

One can hope that other flyers experienced the “feeling of peace” that Frank felt before they died.

 

 

Faith in God was of great importance in the hearts and minds of many people, both military and civilian, who lived through WWII. Another story on this web site, “WWII Camp Shanks, New York: And a Visit by Archbishop Spellman,” addresses the comfort that faith in God provided the men and women who fought and died in the war. In 1943 the Ground Echelon of the 401st BG stayed at Camp Shanks before boarding the Queen Mary in New York City to cross the Atlantic Ocean to England. The link to the story is https://www.ww2history.org/war-in-europe/wwii-camp-shanks-new-york-and-a-visit-by-archbishop-spellman/.

Thank you to Josie Navarro, Frank’s niece, for her help in researching this story, sharing family memories, and for permission to post the photographs.

 * Thank you to Reagan Grau, Archivist, at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.  

 ** Thank you to Dr. Vernon L. Williams, Military Historian and Professor of History, at Abiliene Christian University. As Director of the East Anglia Air War Project, he interviewed Frank Perez and many WWII  Eighth and Ninth Army Air Force veterans and also members of British communities who grew to know and love (and sometimes marry) the “Yanks.”  The link for information about the project is http://www.angliaairwar.org/.