'All they got was name, rank and serial number'

I was interrogated for five days in Frankfurt, Germany — held in solitary confinement — with nothing but bread and water. I was a radio operator and was privy to some codes which they wanted. They even threatened to kill one of my crew members if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to know. But all they got was name, rank and serial number.

I had fractured my foot when I bailed out, but the Germans didn’t think there was anything wrong with it ... so (with) the agony of that, along with the interrogation, I lost about 50 pounds in those five days.

I was a part of the famous 40-hour boat ride from Heydekrug, in which we stood up the entire time because we were so tightly packed in that we couldn’t sit down.

We sailed to Bremen, where we were put on cattle cars to Stalag Luft 4, located near Gross Tychow. ... They lined us up on the train station platform, and one POW had a cast on his foot, and the German officer asked him about it — and then took a rifle ... with a bayonet on it and thrust it through his foot into the platform.

We ran five kilometers from the train station to the camp, handcuffed together. There were guard dogs and soldiers with rifles with bayonets, and if you should stumble or fall, you would either get a dog on you or be goosed by a bayonet, so it was necessary that you and whoever you were handcuffed to would help each other out. When we got to camp we counted 42 bayonet wounds in one POW’s backside.

We were then lined up with machine guns out in front of us and were told if we moved, we would be killed. The Lord was with us, and not a man moved. I am sure that disappointed the Germans.

I was a member of the crew, Stark’s Ark, and we were flying our 25th mission — which would have completed our tour of duty, and we would have been on our way home!

Submitted by Glen E. Murray, 86, of Pauls Valley