Bunkmates relive their capture, escape

On April 20, 1945, Russian artillery knocked down the fence surrounding a German prisoner of war labor camp, enabling Pendleton Woods, Clarence Deal and other prisoners of war to escape. Woods and Deal were bunkmates in the barracks. They and two others were captured on a patrol behind German lines shortly before the German counteroffensive known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Pendleton Woods, 83, Oklahoma City.

We just took off. Two of the guards went with us. It was everybody for himself. We were bunk mates. I was a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle). He (Deal) was a Sniper. About nine of us were on a patrol. If you make any contact, two take off immediately.

We had a small firefight. It was terribly cold. My BAR wouldn’t fire. I had my 21st birthday in a German boxcar.

We paired off. Each person with his partner would take off our shoes and put our stocking feet under the jackets and arms of the other.

In prison you had guys sitting around talking about food all day and dreaming about it all night. When you reach that point of hunger, it is not in the stomach. It is all over the body. It was in the blood.

I don’t look back with bad feelings about any of that. When I get together — there were four of us — we stuck together all the way through. When we talk, we talk about some of the funny things.

Clarence Deal, 82, Jones

I was a sniper and snipers are not supposed to go on patrol, but I did this time because my top sergeant begged and pleaded with me to go with him to be his scout. I went because he was a good friend of mine.

We wound up two miles behind the lines in Germany. Out of our patrol two got away and two got killed. The others were captured.

There were several scary times.

We had heard the Germans weren’t taking prisoners, but we were totally surrounded and our chances were slim and none, and I chose slim.

They told us to climb a fence. We heard they march you out in a wheat field and shoot you down.

They made us march into a wheat field. That’s a funny feeling.

You don’t know if every step you take is going to be your last.

Finally, we marched down into an underground railway and fortress.

The next day, they started interrogating us. I know I didn’t tell them anything. The interrogator said he knew who I was and where I was from.

The interrogator said, ‘Tell me. Is Bishop’s Restaurant (an Oklahoma city restaurant at the time) as good a place as it used to be?’

All of a sudden all the fighting stopped. We heard footsteps. It was the guards and they said come here. We walked 155 miles and were dead tired. We saw German soldiers that were 10, 11 and 12 years old carrying rifles.

It was a shame.