One poignant memory was of a bomb run to the target, where he described the formation as it was locked into its approach. The long line of the bomber stream went straight towards the target, which was smoking up ahead; then one could see the planes turning back from the I.P. and head towards home. As they made the turn from the target the formations showed a frontal profile of the aircraft 10 to 12 of them in neatly tiered diamonds, as they came back towards him. At this point, the Flak gunners would lay down a barrage and the black puffy clouds would begin to form all around them. Suddenly, there was a bright flash in the center of the formation then an empty space where a plane had just been. Nine men and their B 24 just gone no chutes. Although flak vests were issued, he usually didn't wear them. The guys would stand on them since, there was no armor under their position to protect them from Flak. The Davis wing and the B 24 had many nick names "Flying Box Car" for one and "Flying Prostitute" for another (" that Davis wing had no visible means of support"). The aircraft had good speed and bomb load, but was very susceptible to hits. Fred felt it was unstable under fire. As an example, he mentioned a mission which took place on 18 September 1944 it was a supply drop over Holland, from a low level. The Germans were firing rifles and small arms from the ground and actually hit his aircraft. Some hydraulic lines were ruptured and the nose wheel wouldn't go down. When they reached home base at Shipdam, the pilot attempted a crash landing nose up, tail skid down! When their B 24 hit the runway, it was shaking like crazy and sending showers of sparks all over the place a very scary experience, since the fuselage was always filled with gas fumes during take offs and landings. The whole crew thought the aircraft would blow up!

I was shot down on September 30, 1944. You know something, I don't remember the mission... I don't remember the names, but I remember the date, because it was payday and I had a date. We were shot down and I parachuted out. The plane was hit by flak and we bailed out at 10,000 feet. I actually had to push out the other waist gunner Johnny was his name he froze. When I jumped out (and pulled the rip chord) the chute didn't open boy...I panicked I pulled again and the thing finally opened. Man, when that opens, it's like a steam shovel hits you! The force of that thing snapping open, when the wind hits that chute... all of a sudden you think your dead! You really do...you think you died and your in heaven because you don't see...earth. You don't see...sky.... You just see an umbrella over you, and you're drifting. You don't feel the drift...it's like your suspended in space. Here you went through all this havoc with rounds were exploding on the belts the whole inside of the plane was on fire. My mouth was burned from the oxygen mask where the flames hit me my whole face was burned. Then all of a sudden, from all this havoc you jump out and there's all this peace there's not a sound you don't know if your dead or alive. And you know when it starts reality? As you get towards the ground...when you can see the ground...it seems to be going a hundred miles an hour towards you. You don't feel like your moving, you feel like the ground is moving. That's when you realize you're coming down.

The pilot (I don't remember his first name, but his last name was Ledford) our nickname for him was "Pappy" Ledford; he was the oldest member of the crew. The name of the plane was "My Sad Ass" we had a picture of a donkey on the outside. We often joked about getting shot down and we'd say, "My Sad Ass" was shot down over Germany or over Berlin. I landed in a field. They had trained us about moving the shroud lines to maneuver so that you came down into the wind. I was coming down with my back to the wind. I looked up at this 24 foot chute, and said, "I'm not moving any lines!" I'd heard they could collapse so I just left it alone and luckily, I came down in a plowed field. I hit on my back and went unconscious just for a short time It knocked the wind out of me...and the next thing I knew one, of my crew (I think it was Johnny the other waist gunner) said, "Fred Fred...get up come on!" Germans were shooting at us, as we were coming down. We were all over the place, and it looked like a parachute invasion so many planes got hit! So, I said to him," You go ahead! I'll try to get up..." But you know I'm still knocked silly. From being burned, my tongue felt like it was pasted on the inside of my mouth and I was disoriented. I got to my feet. And they were right there. They captured us immediately. In fact, all of us were caught right away nobody got away. Germans were all over the place, waiting for us. We had already dropped our bombs and were on the way back home. We were hit by flak over Hamm, but we came down around Munster. Anyway, I remember them rounding us up and starting to march us. We were wearing the electric flight suits with the boots that are snapped on to them. When the chute opened, the first thing that happened was the boots came flying off. So I'm walking barefoot through these unpaved roads with the Germans, and I'm saying to myself: "You know something? This is like a grade "B" movie!" Like it wasn't real!

Finally they marched us up to this Luftwaffe field and put us in the lock up there. They detained us overnight, until they could get us transportation to Frankfort am Main. That night, what a terrifying experience! The British sneak over with these delayed action bombs, and drop them on the field. This was an active German airfield. One thing impressed me that nite. Now here we were, Americans that were just shot down right and my face was burned .They had a medical officer at this Luftwaffe field (before they put us in the hoosegow). He gave me paper bandages and some kind of salve to put on my face it was like Vaseline. Water was running on the inside of my nose, under the skin, because it was all burned. How this ever cleared up was a miracle, because I never really got treatment. That night, the British came and lay these delayed action bombs down on the field. We're on the floor of this lock up (there's a whole bunch of us) and...once an hour a tremendous bomb would go off. The metal door of the cell would rattle...BAM...This is like every hour. It would get under your skin! Then we went to Frankfort and Main, in those trucks that burned wood. They had you in solitary confinement for several days no washing no nothing. Then the interrogation! They really worked you over - tried to outsmart you; it was the good guy bad guy routine. "You're going to be shot as a spy if you don't talk to us!" They went through the whole thing!

Finally, I was assigned to Stalag Luft IV. I don't remember the dates; but we came by train and then they put us on a truck to the camp. It was October and I was there until they moved me to Stalag Luft I in January. They had Canadian and British soldiers already in the camp along with the American soldiers. There were wood barracks in the compounds and it was cold! cold! Definitely cold. The camps I remember were big, but I'd say we had about 40 guys to a barracks. treatment there was reasonable I guess; compared to the stories I heard about guys in the South Pacific and the Japanese. The shoes they gave us in camp had paper soles and they used to get wet when we walked on the damp ground there. I remember frost bite was such a common thing, but you wanted to walk. You had to exercise and you wanted to do something!

It was interesting being mixed in with these allies Canadian, British and Scottish. You really got to see other nations and they were all flyers. There were always Russians in the camps that did very menial labor; cleaning the latrines and things like that. That's what the Germans used them for. I didn't get mail at Stalag Lift IV, but we did get some Red Cross packages. I know we got some at Stalag Luft I (later). My folks heard about me being in camp within three months after I was shot down, but we didn't get any communications to each other. I think after they heard I was MIA, it took three months to find out I was P.0.W. I would say we had reasonable rations at IV. We didn't have courses, but we did get musical instruments from the Salvation Army. I started to blow a trumpet again! We had some balls and things we kept busy. In fact, I even did a little sewing. I got there after D Day, but the other prisoners knew as much as me because they had a radio you know, the BBC! They got all the reports!

At Stalag Luft IV, the Canadian boys were getting cigarette packages from home. I used to trade my slices of bread for cigarettes. We had that saw dust bread "Black Brot". I wouldn't want a slice of that now, but then it was heaven because it was nourishment. I used to make wine or booze, or whatever you want to call it from prunes. I had to wait until Stalag Luft I, because that's where we got the Red Cross parcels; they always had a box of raisins or prunes in them. We used to get yeast tablets on sick call and steal a light globe. We used to ferment it in that! When we left IV, we had some warning. It's a funny thing, but whenever you're in a camp of any kind, whether its a prison camp or army camp there's always rumors. I guess we more or less knew what was coming, maybe a few days ahead. The Russians were advancing, so the Germans had to keep us moving. It seems so stupid because supposedly, by law, an American P.0.W. cannot go into combat again.

I guess you've heard what kind of trip it was, going up to Barth. We had a forced march and then they stuffed us into box cars that were overcrowded. On the box cars It took us eight days, stopping and going. I didn't know Hy Hatton at that time. They had one box car and one doctor for medical cases. So many guys got sick from the water they gave us to drink! I remember the doctor that treated me had a southern accent. What happened was, there were so many of us in the box car, that if you fell asleep, people fell asleep on top of you. That's what happened to me; I lost the circulation in my legs and my boots got stuck! My feet were killing me because they swelled up and they had to take me on sick call. I finally got them to take me out, and they had to cut my shoes off; just to let my feet out and get my circulation back. While I was there, I watched that doctor operate on some guy who had shrapnel in his leg it had swelled and become infected. All he had to use, was a candle to sterilize a straight razor with. And that's what he operated with! They didn't stop the train to let us go, except once. They stopped the train and the guards were out. There was snow on both sides of the track. Finally they let us move our bowels, which we hadn't been able to do. Now here's this beautiful winter scene with all the white snow and all of a sudden it's all spotted up! Then back into the box cars again. The train took us right to Barth. We didn't know it at the time, but this was strictly an officer's camp. They were now expanding it to accept us non commissioned officers. They were going to start crowding us in. We didn't know they were segregating the Jewish officers in this camp. Later we found out it was unsuccessful.

Well, here we were new prisoners. We had just come from this other camp. We were on this terrible forced march and the 8 day ride on the box cars so crowded that not everyone could sleep at one time. It was awful you slept standing up! The Germans took us and assigned 40 men into each of these bare rooms. We were all young guys maybe 20 years old and you're saying to yourself "what's next what's next?" So, they take us into these bare rooms, the 40 of us. I was with your dad (Hy Hatton); at this point I had met him on the forced march into camp. We both knew we were Jewish, and we were worried about it. Don't think we weren't! We didn't know any of these other American airmen that we were with. The Germans told us to remain in this room and we knew the routine already we figured they would come in and tell us we'd have to fill straw into a mattress and use that to sleep on the floor. That's that we did in the other camp we called them "pally asses". So anyway, there's 40 of us your dad and myself... Instead, after about an hour, here comes this typical German military sergeant. He's a big guy with a handlebar mustache, and there's two privates with him; their rifles on their shoulders, and he announces: "ACHTUNG". So, we all stand at attention and he says "I'm here for a specific purpose. I know there are some Jewish soldiers in the room and I'm going to count to three (3). I'd like them to take a step forward!"

Now I can't answer for Hy (Hatton), I can only account for what went on in my head. I'm saying to myself: "This is it baby! When I take that step forward, I'm finished! So I'm not taking any step forward and if they're too dumb to take a look at my dog tag and tell I'm Jewish then I'm not telling them what to do!" So the sergeant goes: "Ein...Svei...Drie..." and nothing happens. Man, there's a deathly silence in the room. All of a sudden this sergeant starts to rant and rave in German and he says in English: "I know that there are Jewish soldiers in here. I'm going to count to three again. If nobody steps forward the soldiers will be ordered to open fire". The two privates aimed their guns into the middle of the group! So again, in my mind, I'm saying "Now this is too much! I mean, if I'm going to get it, there's no sense in everyone getting it." The sergeant starts to count again: "ein...svei...drei...".As soon as he starts to say "drei", I start to take a step forward, and... MY GOD! I look around and there's forty men taking a step forward! All forty men taking a step forward! All forty without an order! Now here's American Airmen from all over the country. I never met any of them, except for Hy, and I had no pre-arranged signal with him. Every one of them, at the count of three, took that step forward. You could say, it was just American ingenuity! This sergeant became livid! He started to curse again in German. His face turned purple. The veins were sticking out on both sides of his neck. I'm sure that he'd never come across anything like that before.

In Luft 1, I took a job working in one of the German field kitchens, which was to heat up water, because they didn't give us any food to make. I used to heat the water, and that way I could steal a couple of extra lumps of coal we needed the extra hot water for Hy's back. Near the end of the war, they stopped giving us rations it was just before we got liberated. We were there from January until May and we started to get pretty weak. I was 220 lbs. when I entered the camps and 150 lbs when I was liberated. I would say they stopped sometime in April; although they still gave us a little food like kohlrabi, black brot and potatoes. Even before that, they stopped giving us our Red Cross parcels. The Germans were keeping them for themselves. Those parcels are really what kept us going. Oh, we got pretty hungry! In fact, when the Russians liberated us, we were pretty weak it was hard for some of us to get up and greet them!

We did have some diversion though, when we were in the camps. One of the popular comic strips was L'il Abner. Sometimes, at night, when lights were out, there was nothing to do and nobody was sleeping anyway. The men in the barracks would take the place of different characters in Li'l Abner! We'd act out a whole story. Like we'd be roaring and laughing so hard that the Germans used to bank on our doors to shut us up they couldn't imagine what we were up to! Between the guards and us, it was like a game. Sometimes the guards would steal from our Red Cross packages, during inspections. We had to wait outside while they went through our stuff. So we'd wait until a can of instant powdered coffee was almost finished, then we'd fill it up again with stuff and spike it with cascara pills. Cascara, in those days was a laxative pill. We used to shave it down and grind it up. It was a brown color and would blend with the instant coffee. You'd always know who stole the coffee, because he'd be on sick call the next day. He couldn't get back at us; it was against German army regulations to steal. One bar of soap from a Red Cross package was worth a week with a woman from town (for the guards). They'd steal that too, but sometimes we'd put razor blades in the soap for them. We'd trade soap for radio parts. The guys would start with one part and then the guard would be hooked. If more parts were needed we could blackmail him for more because, really, trading was "verboten". They'd threaten him with exposure and he couldn't refuse. All the barracks were made on legs (they were never on the ground) and we finally found out why. They had made a crawl space so the Germans could come underneath the floor with a stethoscope and listen to us, for intelligence. What we used to do, was, we always had water boiling at night. If we could detect them under the barracks, we used to pour the water between the slats. Boy, some nights, shots would come flying up from there! I tell you, sometimes, we didn't expect to get home alive. Anyway, that's basically what the background of the whole thing was. Like, if there was an air raid and we didn't get back into the barracks fast enough for the guards, they'd shoot at us. You know, it wasn't food, but security that worried us the most. I traded my food for cigarettes. We were afraid of getting bombed during air raids they had a flak school and an installation near the camp. Before we got liberated, the Germans started blowing up the installations we thought they might execute us. We found out later, they had gas chambers being built and they were going to gas us off if they had time before the Russian advance. If the Russians didn't liberate us when they did, we were dead!

When we were liberated, the officers told us not to leave camp. You're not going to tell a bunch of American GI's not to leave camp, after a year behind barbed wire! I'll tell you what happened to me! I went out of camp got a bicycle and drove into town to check out Barth. Come back, and there's two M.P.'s now they're going to lift me off the bike and then lock me up! Put me in the hoosegow! They're going to court marshal me, they tell me.AWOL from prison camp! Those Russians were a wild bunch. The first ones that came in were Mongolian troops. THEY WERE WILD!!! They were boozed up with Vodka and came in on motorcycles. Some of them were falling, breaking arms and legs...getting back on their motorcycles...and driving, I don't know how!

Stalag Luft I was a tremendous camp, there had to be thousands of guys there, and we all saw different things that day (May 1). Where I was, a tank came through the barbed wire and flattened it out. These big, six foot Cossacks were the M.P.'s. They were the guys that took over. They went into town (Barth) and got cattle to feed us (which was not good, because we all threw up...our stomachs couldn't take it). Afterwards, they made us wait and wait until the allies had transportation (May 15) to take us to France to camp Lucky Strike and so on. These were the recuperation camps in Europe. Once we were in American hands, they must have taken Hy Hatton into the hospital. I came back on a troop ship, but they didn't stop in New York- the harbor was so full that they made us turn around and go down to Newport News,Virginia.Then we took a train back to New York.