Home » 2022

Yearly Archives: 2022

George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 4

December 28, 2022 7:00 AM / 2 Comments on George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 4

George Edwin Farrar

A new search has provided me with some new information regarding my dad George Edwin Farrar, one of the original waist gunners of the John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group in World War II.

To view my original post and other information about George Edwin Farrar, please see the links at the end of this post.

Continued from George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

This part will cover George Edwin Farrar’s journey home from Germany following his liberation as a POW and his release from military service.

Germany Surrenders

George Edwin Farrar was liberated by the British Royal Dragoons on 2 May 1945. Just five days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to the western Allies at General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Headquarters in Reims, France. German Chief-of-Staff, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender, to take effect the following day.

On 8 May 1945, V-E (Victory in Europe) Day was declared as German troops continued to surrender to the Allies throughout Europe.

On the day of Germany’s surrender (7 May) and V-E Day (8 May), George Farrar was likely still in Germany or possibly in Brussels, Belgium, but would travel to both France and England before returning home. I am able to track his path through letters home and a medal application.

Waiting to Return Home

George Edwin Farrar just wanted to get home, but between the time he was liberated and the day he departed the European Theater calculates to sixty-one days.

In Germany following 2 May 1945 Liberation

George Edwin Farrar first wrote home after liberation, filling out the blanks of a “Priority Message.” Within his fifteen word limit, he did not indicate what day it was or where he was.

He wrote:

Dear Mother, was liberated May Second. Am in good health. Will be home soon. Love, S/Sgt. George E. Farrar, ASN 14119873

In Germany on 6 May 1945

Four days after he was liberated, George Edwin Farrar wrote a longer letter to his mother from Germany. Some of the highlights of the letter were that,

I was liberated by the English May 2nd.
I should be home soon.
I have been on the road marching since Feb. 6th with very little food, but am not in bad condition.
I guess I’ll have to get a new watch when I return as I had to sell mine for bread when I was on the march.
I hope you can read this, as I am writing on an old German gas mask case, and it is a bit rough, so will close until I have a better chance to write.

In Brussels, Belgium after leaving Germany

In filling out my dad’s posthumous Prisoner of War (POW) Medal Application on 17 August 1988, my mother wrote,

He was liberated on May 2, 1945. Sent to Brussels, Belgium and on to a hospital in France where he spent several weeks.

I do not know the source of her information other than probably told to her by my dad.

According to a U.S. World War II Hospital Admission Card, on 14 May 1945, George E. Farrar was hospitalized for ten days (presumably till about May 23) in a field hospital with a diagnosis of acute Tonsillitis. This field hospital likely was in Belgium, but the location was not included on the transcription of the card.

In France, 22 to 29 May 1945

On 22 May 1945, George Edwin Farrar wrote a letter to his mother from France. In part, he wrote,

Thought I had better drop you a line, as it is taking a little longer to get away from here than I thought, but it won’t be much longer.
I had better cut this as it is getting late and the lights here are very poor. And if I expect to do any more flying I had better take good care of them (my eyes).

At this point, he probably thought he would have to return to combat duty and flying. He also noted that while he was a prisoner of war,

I was in three German Hospitals for about two and a half months.

This indicates he was not placed in the general population of Stalag Luft IV until mid-December 1944, not mid-November as I have been thinking. I am also now even more curious about in which three German hospitals he stayed.

After not having a chance to mail his letter, Ed Farrar added a few more lines on 29 May 1945, with the new information that,

I have been in France for little over a week, and am going to England before I come to the States.

That last line leads me to believe he was in Germany and Belgium for almost three weeks before he arrived in France around 22 May.

In addition to a hospital stay in France, as indicated in the POW medal application, I believe it’s possible he was processed through the Cigarette Camp, Camp Lucky Strike, while he was in France. Most American airmen who had become POW’s during the war were processed through this camp.

I’ll write more about Camp Lucky Strike and the other RAMP (Recovered American Military Personnel) camps in a future post.

In England, June 1945

On 29 June 1945, George Edwin Farrar wrote a letter to his mother from England. He had thought he would be going home near the end of May and now it was a whole month later and he was still in Europe, in England.

He wrote that,

This will be my last letter from England, as we are leaving to-night. I will call you the first chance I get, after we reach the States. It will take a good while to cross, as we are going to be on a very small ship.

But George Farrar didn’t leave that night. According to his separation papers, he left England three days later, on 2 July 1945.

Return Home

George Edwin Farrar left England one year and one day after he left the States on 1 July 1944 heading to the European Theater of Operations for combat duty. He returned home by ship from an unknown departure point in England on 2 July 1945 to an unknown arrival port in the U.S. on 17 July 1945. I have not found any more details about his journey, including the name of the ship.

Release from WWII Military Service

George Edwin Farrar’s WWII Final Payment Worksheet noted a “Previous Organization” as Miami Beach, Florida. Just like Brodie crew waist gunner Harry Liniger, I believe George Farrar was sent to Army Air Forces Redistribution Station No. 2 in Miami Beach for reassignment processing after completing his tour of duty outside the continental United States.

The Gates County Index newspaper reported for Harry Liniger that, “During his processing, he is housed in an ocean-front hotel and enjoys abundant facilities for rest and recreation in this year-round beneficial climate.” George Farrar likely spent time in Miami for the same reason and probably in the same or a similar hotel.

Before going to Miami, Harry Liniger enjoyed some time at home, and I believe George Farrar would have also. George must have been considered to be on furlough from 24 July (a week after he returned to the States on 17 July) until 5 October 1945, and I believe the two locations he would have been in during this timeframe would have been home in Atlanta, Georgia, and at the AAF Redistribution Station in Miami.

During this time, on 14 August 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender, but surrender documents would not be signed until 2 September. Some consider the 14 August 1945 date to be V-J (Victory over Japan) Day, but others consider it to be 2 September 1945, when the surrender document was signed.

From Miami, George Farrar was likely next sent to San Antonio, Texas, where he received his Honorable Discharge and Separation Notice on 29 October 1945, from Miami.

According to his Final Payment Worksheet, George Edwin Farrar was discharged from the Army Air Forces on 29 October 1945. Up until this final payment, he was last paid on 30 June 1945, which was just before his departure from England, on the way home.

His Accrued Base & Longevity Pay from 1 July 1945 to 29 October 1945 was $399.84. His Foreign Service Pay from 1 July to 17 July 1945 was $10.88. His Furlough Rations from 24 July 1945 to 5 October 1945 was $48.84.

Honorable Discharge and Enlisted Record and Report of Separation

George Edwin Farrar was honorably discharged from the military service of the United States of America on 29 October 1945.

His place of separation was SAD AAFPDC (Army Air Forces Personnel Distribution Command), San Antonio, Texas.

He recorded his Honorable Discharge with the Clerk Superior Court of DeKalb County, Georgia on 14 November 1945.

George Edwin Farrar’s Report of Separation listed his height as 5’8″ tall and weight as 140 pounds. Comparing these measurements to those he listed on his draft registration card, during the course of his military service he lost an inch in height and two pounds. I can’t say why there was a height difference, but he must have regained the weight he lost as a prisoner or war over the six months since his liberation.

His separation record listed his (partial) Military History and Pay Data,

Military Occupational Specialty and No. – AP Arm Gnr. 612
Military Qualification – AAF Air Crew Member Badge (Wings)
Battles and Campaigns – Normandy, No. France, Rhineland
Decorations and Citations – listed below…
Service Outside Continental U.S. and Return – listed below…
Wounds Received in Action – Germany 28 Sept 44
Longevity for Pay Purposes was 3 years, 4 months, and 25 days
Total Length of Continental Service – 2 years, 4 months, and 9 days
Total Length of Foreign Service – 1 year and 16 days
Reason and Authority for Separation – RR 1-1 Convn of the Gov’t.
Service Schools Attended – Kingman, Ariz., Ft. Myers, Fla.

Decorations and Citations (Awards and Decorations)

American Theater Ribbon
EAME Ribbon w/3 Bronze Stars
Good Conduct Medal
Air Medal w/1 Bronze (Oak Leaf) Cluster
World War II Victory Medal
Purple Heart

George Farrar was awarded the Purple Heart medal for wounds received on 28 September 1944 per General Orders #41, San Antonio District, AAF PDC dated 25 October 1945.

George Edwin Farrar Purple Heart Card
Image courtesy of Keith Ellefson

POW Medal (awarded posthumously in 1988)

Service Outside Continental U.S. and Return

Departure from U.S.
- Date of Departure 1 Jul 44
- Destination ETO
- Date of Arrival 3 Jul 44
Departure from ETO
- Date of Departure 2 Jul 45
- Destination USA
- Date of Arrival 17 Jul 45

George Edwin Farrar’s Separation Record noted for his Military Occupational Assignments,

1 month, Grade Pvt, a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) of AAF Basic Tng 521
13 months, Grade Sgt, MOS of AAF Gunnery Instructor 938
3 months, Grade S/Sgt (Staff Sergeant), MOS of Airplane Armorer Gunner 612

The Summary of his Military Occupations noted,

AAF GUNNERY INSTRUCTOR (938) – Instructed Military Personnel in flexible gunnery for 7 months 1943 at Kingman, Arizona. Conducted and administered training classes and gunnery tests. Administered phase checks, organized students and instructors for training in aerial gunner for six months at Ardmore OTU, Okla.
AIRPLANE ARMORER GUNNER – Was a crew member of a B-17 at an 8th AF Heavy Bombardment Base in England for 3 months in 1944. Flew 17 missions over German Occupied territory. Flew as Armorer Gunner in lead ship and was responsible for inspection and repair of bomb racks, gun sights, and turrets. Fired 50 caliber machine gun from Waist position when in combat.

George Farrar’s Military Education noted,

ACGS: Kingman, Ariz. Flexible Gunnery, (30 and 50 caliber machine guns) 6 weeks.
AC INSTRUCTORS SCHOOL – Ft. Myers, Fla. 6 wks. – Course included instruction and practical training in teaching methods and Student Psychology as well as fundamentals of advanced Aerial Gunnery.

Additional Information noted,

POW in Germany 28 Sept 44 – 2 May 45.

More about George Edwin Farrar’s post-WWII life in my next post…

Notes

Thank you to the 384th Bomb Group and especially Fred Preller and Keith Ellefson for their research and obtaining and presenting records of the servicemen of the Group.

Previous post, George Edwin Farrar, Growing Up in Atlanta, Georgia

Previous posts, George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

George Edwin Farrar’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 3

December 21, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

George Edwin Farrar

To view my original post and other information about George Edwin Farrar, please see the links at the end of this post.

Continued from George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1 and Part 2

This part will cover George Edwin Farrar as MIA (Missing in Action) and as a POW (Prisoner of War).

The Mid-air Collision

On 28 September 1944, the B-17’s of the John Buslee crew and the James Brodie crew collided over Magdeburg, Germany. Rather than repeat the story of the collision, I will direct those who would like to read it to 384th Bomb Group pilot Wallace Storey’s account of the collision here.

Missing in Action

Morning Reports of the 384th Bombardment Group note the following for George Edwin Farrar: On 28 September 1944, on Mission 201 to Magdeburg, Germany (Target was Industry, Steelworks), George Edwin Farrar, flying with the John Oliver Buslee crew, went from duty to MIA (Missing in Action).

George Farrar and the other airmen involved in the collision would remain missing until some word was heard, typically relayed from the Red Cross to the military, and from the military to the families, or next of kin, of the missing. Word did not travel quickly outside of wartime Germany to families waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.

George Edwin Farrar’s missing in action status was reported in his hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, date unknown, but likely in early- or mid-October 1944.

Sgt. George Farrar Missing Over Reich

This particular article noted George received his wings at Kingman, Arizona, and mentioned he was a gunnery instructor at Kingman before going overseas for combat duty. It also looks like, at the time, his older brother Carroll was stationed in Greensboro, North Carolina with the Army Air Corps and his younger brother Robert (Bob) was stationed in the Pacific with the Navy.

During WWII, Greensboro was the only city to have a military base inside its city limits. In 1944, Greensboro’s Army Air Force base’s role was as an ORD, an “Overseas Replacement Depot.” It processed, reassigned and shipped out soldiers. It is likely that Carroll had finished one tour and was being reassigned there at the time.

At that same time, Robert (Bob), the youngest of the trio of Farrar brothers in WWII, was serving on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, the USS Intrepid.

Prisoner of War

Capture

In the mid-air collision, George Edwin Farrar was thrown unconscious from his B-17. He awakened long enough to deploy his chest chute before losing consciousness again. He next awoke on the ground, received a beating from German civilians, but was soon rescued by Nazi military.

He was unable to walk and was carried to a house. He received medical attention and was interrogated, but I don’t know the details other than he traveled by train and remembered that his German guards were kind to him and allowed him to ride in one of their bunks.

Within the first week after capture, the Germans allowed the POWs to send a pre-printed postcard home. George Edwin Farrar was allowed to send his postcard on 5 October 1944.

George likely wrote his card from the hospital. Considering his condition, his report that he was “in good health” was certainly not accurate. And he was not transported to another camp “within the next few days.”

POW mail could take several months to arrive at its destination. Fellow POW, Brodie crew waist gunner Harry Liniger, wrote his post card on 3 October and his mother received it on 20 December 1944.

George Farrar’s postcard, written two days later, could have been received in late December, too, but I think it is equally likely that it was not received until after the first of the new year. In late December, the Farrar family had not yet heard any official word about the fate of their son from the U.S. government.

Hospital and Prison Camp

George Edwin Farrar was severely injured in the mid-air collision and was hospitalized at an unknown location. Unable to walk, he remained hospitalized until shortly before Thanksgiving 1944, at which time he was moved to a barracks in the Stalag Luft IV POW camp.

Aside from George Farrar of the John Oliver Buslee crew, the only airmen of the two crews to survive the mid-air collision were George Hawkins, Wilfred Miller, and Harry Liniger of the James Joseph Brodie crew.

The only surviving officer, Brodie crew navigator George Marshall Hawkins, was seriously injured and served his entire POW internment in a POW hospital. All three gunners, Farrar, Miller, and Liniger, were all held in the Stalag Luft IV POW camp for enlisted airmen.

Stalag Luft IV map drawing courtesy of Jack McCracken

George Farrar and Wilfred Miller appear on the same camp roster, a Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster, placing both of them in the same Lager of the camp. I believe Harry Liniger may have been held in the same lager even though his name does not appear on the roster, which could be incomplete.

George Edwin Farrar’s POW number was #3885. He was held in Stalag Luft IV, Lager D, Barracks 4, Room 12. This I know from two POW Lager D rosters, one for American airmen and one for British airmen, from Gregory Hatton’s website, Kriegsgefangen Lagar Der Luft VI and VI.

George Edwin Farrar’s POW ID Tag

Telegram Received

The Farrar family received official word on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 1944, that their son was alive and a prisoner of war. More than three months had passed since the mid-air collision between the Buslee and Brodie crews’ B-17’s before George Edwin Farrar’s parents and siblings would officially learn he had survived.

Subsequent newspaper articles reported George’s status as a prisoner of war. None of these articles are dated, but are likely from early January 1945. Two of the articles were very similar, but provided slightly different details.

Prisoners of War

and

Sergeant Farrar Is Prisoner of Nazis

Both articles refer to my father as “Edwin” Farrar, the name he was called by family, rather than “George” Farrar, as he was known in the service. Both also mention his duty as a B-17 gunner, his Air Medal, and note he was a gunnery instructor, with one article adding the location detail of Albuquerque, New Mexico (rather than Kingman, Arizona as in the previous MIA article) and Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Both articles also mention brothers Carroll and Robert (Bob). Both identify Carroll as a Staff Sergeant with one noting his branch of service as Army Air Corps. Both identify Bob’s branch of service as the U.S. Navy with the additional detail of his duty as Watertender, and his rank of Third Class in one article. (Watertender is defined as “a crewman aboard a steam-powered ship who is responsible for tending to the fires and boilers in the ship’s engine room.”)

The news of Ed Farrar’s POW status even made the Susanville, California newspaper. His oldest sister Geraldine, “Gerry,” must have reported the story to her local paper after learning the wonderful news from home.

Previously “Missing”, Is Reported a Prisoner

I must assume that Ed Farrar’s POW postcard had been received by this time also as the telegram did not mention his condition. The postcard, with its report that he was in “good health” (and with “slightly wounded” canceled out) must have led Ed’s family to believe he was uninjured. And at this point, it is clear that the assumption was that his plane was shot down rather than being involved in a mid-air collision.

George Edwin Farrar’s sister Gerry (Mrs. W.C. Mass) also reported to her local paper that her brother had written to her and said, “With the things the Red Cross gives us we get plenty to eat.” If that was so, why would he have written to his mother on 24 October 1944 that, “I hope you will have plenty chicken when I get there. I think I could eat a couple all alone.”

The Red Cross Appreciated!

I believe prisoners in the German hospitals may have been fed more and better than the prisoners in the POW camps, but still of insufficient calories and nutrients.

It was not that the Red Cross wasn’t providing. It was that the Germans were not distributing the packages to the prisoners – at least the enlisted POW’s, but letting them slowly starve instead. With the Americans and British bombing the railways, many Red Cross packages did not get to their intended destinations. But many packages did and were hoarded by the Nazi POW camp leaders instead of distributing them to the prisoners.

The March

While Wilfred Miller was evacuated by train from Stalag Luft IV to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany in late January 1945, George Farrar and Harry Liniger remained in Stalag Luft IV until the majority of the POW camp’s prisoners were marched out of the gates of the camp on 6 February 1945.

They did not know where they were going or how long they would be on the road, but it would be the start of an 86-day 500-mile march of prisoners across Germany.

I have previously written about the march and how little the men were fed, how poorly they were clothed, how sick and exhausted they became, and how they were housed in barns or slept out in the open all across Germany. I have written about how the winter of 1945 was so brutally cold. But as I learn more details about the march from many of the survivors who wrote about it, I will have more information to share in future articles.

POW Liberation

George Edwin Farrar was liberated by the British Royal Dragoons on 2 May 1945. He and his marching companion Lawrence Newbold, an RAF Lancaster wireless operator, were still on the road when they were freed.

As a prisoner of war, George Farrar had been hospitalized for almost two months, had been held in a POW camp for over two more months, and had been on the road marching across Germany for almost three more.

Once he was liberated, George was again hospitalized, but not until twelve days after he gained his freedom. According to a U.S. World War II Hospital Admission Card, on 14 May 1945, George E. Farrar was hospitalized for ten days in a field hospital with a diagnosis of acute Tonsillitis. The record does not give any other indication of his weight or overall condition at the time of his hospitalization. I believe he was cared for in multiple hospitals before returning home, including a hospital in England, remaining overseas until early July 1945.

More about George Edwin Farrar’s return home, release from military service, and post-WWII life in my next post…

Notes

Thank you to the 384th Bomb Group and especially Fred Preller and Keith Ellefson for their research and obtaining and presenting records of the servicemen of the Group.

Previous post, George Edwin Farrar, Growing Up in Atlanta, Georgia

Previous posts, George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1 and Part 2

Previous post, Stalag Luft IV, Lager D, Barracks 4, Room 12

George Edwin Farrar’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

George Edwin Farrar’s Enlistment Record in the online National Archives

George Farrar’s POW record in the online National Archives

Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

Jack McCracken‘s map drawing of Stalag Luft IV

Missing Air Crew Report 9366 for the Brodie crew on 28 September 1944 courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Missing Air Crew Report 9753 for the Buslee crew on 28 September 1944, courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Online article, Greensboro’s Forgotten And Now Mostly Hidden History As Military Base

George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 2

December 14, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

George Edwin Farrar

A new search has provided me with some new information regarding one of the original waist gunners, my dad George Edwin Farrar, of the John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group in World War II.

To view my original post and other information about George Edwin Farrar, please see the links at the end of this post.

Continued from George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1

George Edwin Farrar’s Education and Civilian Employment prior to his Military Service

An entry on George Edwin Farrar’s WWII Separation Qualification Record reveals his pre-war Civilian Occupation as “Vending Machine Repairman: Was employed 18 mos. by C.D. Harris Cigarette Service, Atlanta, Ga. Serviced, repaired, and restocked cigarette vending machines.”

The timeframe of 18 months prior to his WWII enlistment and entry into active service (4 June 1942) would mean he started the vending machine repairman job in December 1940. This leads me to believe Ed Farrar’s last complete year of school was his 10th grade year in the 1939 – 1940 school year. He may have begun 11th grade in the Fall of 1940, but left school to take the job with C.D. Harris in December 1940.

Entry into WWII Military Service

Following in his older brother’s footsteps

Carroll Johnson Farrar, Jr.
Enid (Oklahoma) Army Airfield Yearbook, Station Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. An inscription dates the yearbook to July 1943.
Photo courtesy of Fold3 and Find a Grave

George Edwin Farrar’s older brother, Carroll, Jr., enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on 13 August 1941. One of his stateside training stations was the Enid, Oklahoma Army Airfield in Army Air Forces Training Cd class 43H – Station Aircraft Maintenance Squadron / Air Base Squadron. He later served in the Pacific Theater.

Information from a Farrar family history book written by Clarence B. Farrar in 1988 notes that Carroll,

Served 1941 to 1945, was Technical Sgt. Decorations include American Service Medal; Asiatic Pacific and American Defense Medal. WWII Victory medal; Air Forces Service Squadron 315th Army Air Forces. Battles India, Burma.

Ed always looked up to his older brother and followed in Carroll’s footsteps into the Army Air Forces.

Draft registration

George Edwin Farrar registered for the draft on 15 February 1942. According to his draft registration card, he was 20 years old, born on 3 September 1921 in Atlanta, DeKalb County, Georgia, and lived at 79 East Lake Terrace, Atlanta, DeKalb County, Georgia.

The name of the person who would always know his address was his mother, Mrs. C.J. Farrar, of the same address.

His employer’s name was Harris, Inc., at the Hurt Building, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, which was his place of employment.

George listed his height as 5 ft. 9 in. and his weight as 142 pounds. He had gray eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy complexion. He also noted, as an “obvious physical characteristic that will aid in identification,” a scar on his right ankle.

Enlistment

George Edwin Farrar enlisted in the US Army Air Forces at Ft. McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia on 4 June 1942, beginning his entry into active service on that date. His residence was noted as Fulton County, Georgia, although the area of Atlanta – Kirkwood – in which the Farrar family lived was in DeKalb County rather than Fulton County.

He also noted he was born in Georgia in 1921 and his education was two years of high school, which means he left school after the 10th grade. His civilian occupation was “Skilled mechanics and repairmen.” His marital status was single, without dependents.

Military Training

George Edwin Farrar began his military training with one month of AAF Basic Training 521 as a private.

Following Basic Training, he attended Flexible Gunnery School (30 and 50 caliber machine guns) for six weeks at Kingman, Arizona. He may have gone to a classification center before gunnery school, but I do not see any record of it. George Farrar was part of the 4th Student Squadron at Kingman, AZ in October 1942.

I see additionally that he was part of the 383rd Student Squadron in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Kirtland Army Air Base during the same timeframe, but do not see a formal record of him there. I have two pieces of evidence that he was in Albuquerque.

One is a news blurb in the base’s Bombsight newsletter, news reported from the 383rd Student Squadron,

It reads:

Lfc. Farrar made high score of the class with the Thompson Sub-Machine gun on the range. (Gee guys, better not fool with his gals.)

George was such a good shot with the Thompson Sub-machine gun, aka Tommy gun, that he earned the nickname “Tommy”.

The second piece of evidence was that he was in Albuquerque at the time of the filming of the Bombardier movie, which was filmed on location between October 12 and December 18, 1942. In this photo with one of the movie’s stars, Anne Shirley, you can see the 383rd School Squadron sign on the desk.

George Edwin Farrar on left with movie Star Anne Shirley
383rd School Squadron in Albuquerque, New Mexico

During his time in Kingman as a gunnery student, George Farrar attended the ACGS flexible gunnery school there for a six-week course. In a notebook he kept, he titled a section “4th Student Sq., Kingman, Ariz.” In that section are notes dated October 8 and 9, 1942.

His notes cover gunnery subjects such as small arms, Thompson sub-machine gun (cal.-45, model 1928), “US” Browning automatic rifle (cal.-30, M-1918), U.S. rifle (cal.-30, M-1917, Enfield), Shotgun (M-31, Skeet & Riot), and Browning machine gun (cal.-50, M2, Aircraft, Fixed & Flexible).

After gunnery school, George attended AC Instructors School in Fort Myers, Florida for six weeks. The course included “instruction and practical training in teaching methods and Student Psychology as well as fundamentals of advanced Aerial Gunnery.” I assume he was given the opportunity to become a gunnery instructor after performing so well as a student.

Following AC Instructors School, George became an Army Air Forces Gunnery Instructor with the 328th Hd. Sq. at Kingman. Beginning in May 1943 (Dad wrote a letter to his mother on May 23, 1943 giving her 328 Hd. Sq., Kingman, Ariz. as his new address, stating that he had just moved), he instructed military personnel in flexible gunnery for 7 months at Kingman, Arizona. He conducted and administered training classes and gunnery tests.

George Farrar left Kingman for an instructor’s position in Ardmore, Oklahoma about December 1943. In Ardmore, he administered phase checks, and organized students and instructors for training in aerial gunnery for six months at the 222nd Combat Crew Training School at Ardmore OTU. The Ardmore assignment lasted until May 1944.

On June 8, 1944, while at the 222nd Combat Crew Training School in Ardmore, George Edwin Farrar and future crewmate, Eugene D. Lucynski, received written orders “as a combat crew member requiring regular and frequent participation in aerial flights.”

George Farrar left Ardmore around June 22, 1944 with the John Oliver Buslee B-17 combat crew heading to England to fly heavy bomber missions over Europe. The crew made several stops in the states before finally departing the states June 29/30.

Combat Duty with the 384th Bomb Group

Morning Reports and other military documents of the 384th Bombardment Group indicate the following for George Edwin Farrar:

On 22 JULY 1944, George Edwin Farrar was assigned to the 544th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), per AAF Station 106 Special Orders #144 dated 22 July 1944 as a waist gunner (classification AAG, Airplane Armorer/Gunner, with the MOS, military operational specialty, of 612), for the John Oliver Buslee crew. His pay per month was $140.40. His rank when assigned was Sergeant. He listed his home address as Mrs. Raleigh Mae George Farrar (his mother), 79 East Lake Terrace, N.E., Atlanta, GA.
On 9 SEPTEMBER 1944, George Farrar was promoted to Staff Sergeant on AAF Station 106 Special Orders #180.
On 28 SEPTEMBER 1944, George Farrar went from duty to MIA (Missing in Action). He was subsequently declared POW (Prisoner of War) on that date.

George Farrar was credited with 16 completed combat missions with the 384th Bomb Group.

On his sixteenth mission, the B-17’s of the James Joseph Brodie crew of the 545th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group collided with the Buslee crew’s B-17 over Magdeburg, Germany. Three of the Brodie crew survived the collision, but George Edwin Farrar was the sole survivor of the Buslee crew’s Flying Fortress.

More about George Edwin Farrar as a prisoner of war in my next post…

Notes

Previous post, George Edwin Farrar, Growing Up in Atlanta, Georgia

Previous post, George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1

Carroll Johnson Farrar, Jr. photo courtesy of Fold3 and Find a Grave

George Edwin Farrar’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

MOS means Military Occupational Specialty

Previous post, Assigned Military Operational Specialties of the Buslee and Brodie Crews

Previous post, Timeline for Buslee Crewmembers and Substitutes, 545th Bomb Squadron

Thank you to the 384th Bomb Group and especially Fred Preller and Keith Ellefson for their research and obtaining and presenting records of the servicemen of the Group.

George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1

December 7, 2022 7:00 AM / 2 Comments on George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1

George Edwin Farrar

To view my original post and other information about George Edwin Farrar, please see the links at the end of this post.

George Edwin Farrar

I’m going to begin with a discussion about my dad’s name. His full name was George Edwin Farrar. His first name, George, came from his maternal roots. It was his mother’s maiden name, the surname of her paternal ancestry. I am not sure where his middle name, Edwin, came from. I do not find an Edwin in the George or Farrar ancestry other than his 22nd great-grandfather happened to be Edward I Plantagenet, King of England. Did Dad’s parents even know of that ancestry? I’m not certain they did.

But Dad was an “Edwin,” not an “Edward.” The only other “Edwin” I find in his family’s history is the name of the street on which his parents lived in 1913, 1 Edwin Place in Atlanta, Georgia. Did they like the name so much that they picked it for his middle name eight years later? I’m so not certain about that either.

To family and friends, George Edwin Farrar, was always “Ed.” Once he entered the military, he became “George.” Obviously, when your superior officer calls you “George,” your name is “George.” I’m quite sure he never would have corrected anyone with whom he was associated in the military, including fellow enlistees or crewmates, and especially not anyone under whom he was training or serving.

The name issue causes me difficulty when I transition between stories of my dad’s military life and his family life, like now. I often find myself switching back and forth between “George” and “Ed” when referring to my father, and sincerely hope I do not cause too much confusion about whom I am speaking. Forgive me for the lengthy digression into something as simple as my father’s name, but I thought it deserved an explanation up front.

Farrar Family

George Edwin Farrar came into this world on 3 September 1921. He was the fifth child and second son of Carroll Johnson Farrar and Raleigh Mae George Farrar.

Carroll was born December 17, 1888 in Charlotte Court House, Virginia to Charles Henry Farrar and Martha Ann Johnson Farrar. Charles was a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Raleigh Mae was a native Atlantan, growing up in the Grant Park area of Atlanta. She was born January 25, 1890 in Atlanta, Georgia to Raleigh David George (1858 – 1891) and Mary Willie Hollingsworth George (1861 – 1935). Her father, Raleigh David, was a train conductor and killed in a train accident the year after her birth.

Supposedly, up until his death, his daughter remained unnamed and was called “Baby.” After his death, Baby’s mother decided to name her Raleigh after her father. Unfortunately, the 1890 Federal census records were destroyed by fire leaving me unable to confirm this family legend told to me by the family’s youngest daughter, Beverly Farrar Millwood.

Carroll Farrar and Raleigh George were married in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25, 1909. Over the next twenty-eight years, they would have nine children.

The nine children of Carroll Sr and Raleigh Mae Farrar were:

Nell Geraldine “Gerry” Farrar (1910 – 1994)
Janet Mae Farrar (1912 – 1990)
Carroll Johnson Farrar, Jr (1916 – 1967)
Dorothy Gertrude “Dot” Farrar (1919 – 1970)
George Edwin “Ed” Farrar (1921 – 1982)
Robert Burnham “Bob” Farrar (1925 – 1983)
Martha Ann Farrar (1927 – 1970)
Harold Eugene “Gene” Farrar (1931 – 2011)
Beverly Marie Farrar (1937 – 2017)

While I have previously covered the 1930 and 1940 Federal census records for the Farrar family, I’ll provide a summary, or recap, here. Click the link for all the details.

Carroll and Raleigh Mae Farrar raised their family in Atlanta, Georgia, and according to the 1920 census, were renting their home in the Kirkwood section of the city. Four of the Farrar children were born by this year: Geraldine (age 9), Janet (age 7), Carroll, Jr. (age 3), and Dorothy (a month shy of age 1).

The family moved around quite a bit in the 1920’s, always renting in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood.

According to the 1930 census, the Farrar family was living in a rented home, still in Kirkwood. By now the family had grown to seven children and all seven lived at home: Geraldine (19), Janet (17), Carroll Jr. (13), Dorothy (11), my dad, Edwin (8), Robert (5), and Martha (2). The Farrar family continued to rent the same home for the first half of the 1930’s.

By 1937, according to the Atlanta city directory, the Farrar’s lived at 79 East Lake Terrace, SE. By now the family had grown to nine children with the addition of Gene, born in 1931, and Beverly, born in 1937. The youngest child of the Farrar family, Beverly, was the only one born in the East Lake Terrace home.

Ed Farrar attended J. C. Murphy Junior High School in Atlanta, Georgia, completing the junior high course of study on 2 June 1938. He would go on to high school, but I do not know which high school he attended. More research for me, I see.

By the late 1930’s, while Ed Farrar was still completing his education, it was now two decades after the end of World War I. World War II was brewing in Europe, but most Americans felt the United States should stay out of foreign conflicts.

On 1 September 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland to start World War II. Two days later, on 3 September, the day George Edwin Farrar celebrated his eighteenth birthday, Great Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany.

On 5 September, the United States proclaimed its neutrality, but it would only be a matter of time before three of Carroll and Raleigh Mae’s four sons would take part in fighting in the European and Pacific theaters of World War II.

Before America and the Farrar family went to war, time slowly marched on into the 1940’s. Americans must have been very on edge while the rest of the world battled on, wondering if and when they and their American sons would be called upon to join the destruction of nation against nation.

According to the 1940 census, the Farrar family owned their home at 79 East Lake Terrace, SE in Atlanta, DeKalb County, Georgia. Beverly remembered that the family rented the home first and then Raleigh decided they should buy it. Carroll, Sr., objected to the purchase, but Raleigh succeeded in talking him into buying the home. I don’t know what year they made the purchase, but they had done so by 18 April 1940, when census takers recorded the Farrar family for the Federal census.

In 1940, the three oldest girls – Geraldine, Janet, and Dorothy – were married and no longer living at home, but six of the Farrar children lived at 79 East Lake Terrace with their parents. Living in the home in 1940 were Carroll Sr. (51), Raleigh (50), Carroll Jr. (24), Edwin (18), Robert (15), Martha (12), Gene (9), and Beverly (3). Carroll Sr. worked as a printer in a printing shop, Carroll Jr. worked as a floor salesman in a department store (Atlanta’s downtown Rich’s store), and Edwin was a soda clerk in a drug store. The younger children attended school.

For the 1940 Federal census record entry for Edwin Farrar, in response to the question “Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940,” the answer was “Yes.” The next question, “Highest Grade Completed” was H2, or 10th Grade. Ed left school after completing the 10th grade. He was a good math student and won many math competitions, but with so many brothers and sisters at home to feed, the family needed an extra paycheck and his education was over.

[Note: his WWII Separation Record notes that after 2 years of high school, Ed Farrar left school in 1939. Even though the year he left school contradicts the census record, all records note his highest grade completed as 2 years of high school, or 10th grade.]

After his stint as a soda clerk, or as Ed called it, “soda jerk,” he worked as a vending machine maintenance man and made extra money as a Golden Gloves boxer.

On 4 September 1940, the “America First Committee” was established with the goal of keeping the United States out of WWII. But less than two weeks later, on 16 September, the United States military conscription bill passed and the first U.S. peacetime draft was enacted. A month later, Ed Farrar’s older brother, Carroll, Jr., registered for the WWII draft on 16 October.

Left to Right: Carroll Johnson Farrar, Jr. and George Edwin (Ed) Farrar.
May 8, 1941
Carroll enlisted in WWII 3 months later, on August 13, 1941

The next year, in the Summer of 1941, Carroll, Jr. was preparing to join in the war effort, even though the U.S. had not yet entered the war. Carroll, Jr. enlisted in the Air Corps on 13 August 1941, and this family photo was taken shortly before he entered the service.

The Farrar family, circa Summer 1941
Standing, back row, L to R: Ed, Bob Hunt (Janet’s first husband), Janet, Ozzie Couch (family friend), Carroll Jr.
Standing, middle, L to R: Martha, Dorothy (Dot) holding her daughter Phyllis, Raleigh, Carroll Sr.
Kneeling front: Bob, Gene, Beverly, Hugh Cobb (Dot’s husband), Denny (Dot’s son)
Not pictured: Geraldine

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, on 8 December, the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan.

On 11 December 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Hours later, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany saying,

Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization.

As the U.S. entered the war in Europe, Ed Farrar was still living in Kirkwood with his family at the 79 East Lake Terrace home. He followed his brother into war the next year, enlisting in the Army Air Corps on 4 June 1942.

On 8 May 1943, Ed’s younger brother Robert “Bob” enlisted in the Navy at the age of 18.

More about George Edwin Farrar and his military training and World War II service in my next post…

Notes

Previous post, George Edwin Farrar, Growing Up in Atlanta, Georgia

Lenard Leroy Bryant, Update

November 30, 2022 7:00 AM / 1 Comment on Lenard Leroy Bryant, Update

Lenard Leroy Bryant, photo courtesy of Derral Bryant

A new search has provided me with some new information regarding one of the original waist gunners, Lenard Leroy Bryant, of the John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group in World War II.

To view my original post and other information about Lenard Leroy Bryant, please see the links at the end of this post.

Bryant Family

Lenard Leroy Bryant was born 7 March 1919 in Alex, Grady County, Oklahoma. Lenard was the youngest of the ten children of Fannie Lenora Drake (1879 – 1961) and John Gilbert Bryant (1878 – 1938).

According to the 1930 Federal census, the Bryant family lived in Justice Precinct 6 of Hockley County, Texas. Nine members of the extended family were listed at the family’s address. Along with John and Fannie were four of their children including Jewel, John, Lester, and Lenard, and Fannie’s mother (Florence Drake), sister (Birdie Wadkins), and sister’s daughter (Daisey Wadkins).

John Bryant was born in Georgia, as were both of his parents. Fannie Drake Bryant was born in Texas, her father was born in Tennessee, and her mother was born in Alabama. John’s occupation was farmer.

The ten children of John and Fannie Bryant were:

James Clyde Bryant (1900 – 1986)
Ralph Hubert Bryant (1901 – 1989)
Earl Alfred Bryant (1903 – 1991)
William Marion Bryant (1906 – 1975)
Jewel L. Bryant (1908 – 1978)
Letha Murel Bryant (1910 – 1994)
Lettie Mae Bryant (1912 – 1982)
John Bryant (1914 – 1969)
Lester Marvin Bryant (1917 – 1968)
Lenard Leroy Bryant (1919 – 1944)

Lenard Leroy Bryant married Ruby Maudene Baisden on 21 October 1939. Maudine was born 2 June 1923 in Gasoline, Briscoe County, Texas to Ottie and Virgie Baisden, and died 16 February 2004 in Littlefield, Lamb County, Texas.

The 1940 census records Lenard (age 21) and Maudene (age 16) as living as a married couple in Justice Precinct 4 of Hockley County, Texas. Lenard’s occupation was laborer and Maudene’s occupation was housewife.

Entry into WWII

Lenard registered for the draft on 16 October 1940. He was 21 years old, born on 7 March 1919 in Grady County, Oklahoma, and currently lived at Route 2, Littlefield, Hockley County, Texas.

The name of the person who would always know his address was his wife, Mrs. Ruby Maudene Bryant of the same address.

His employer’s name was Otte Baisden (which I believe was his father-in-law) of the same address.

Lenard listed his height as 5 ft. 10 in. and his weight as 145 pounds. He had blue eyes, blonde hair and a light complexion.

I do not find an enlistment record for Lenard in the NARA online files, but did find a form titled “Certification by Uniformed Services” of the Department of Health and Human Services SSA in his NPRC record which notes Lenard’s Date of Entry into Active Service as 18 May 1943.

Left to right: George Edwin Farrar, Lenard Leroy Bryant, Erwin V. Foster, and Sebastiano Joseph Peluso at Grafton Underwood.

WWII Service – Morning Reports and other military documents of the 384th Bombardment Group indicate the following for Lenard Leroy Bryant:

On 22 JULY 1944, Lenard Leroy Bryant was assigned to the 544th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), per AAF Station 106 Special Orders #144 dated 22 July 1944 as a waist gunner (classification AAEG, Aerial Gunner, with the MOS, military operational specialty, of 611), for the John Oliver Buslee crew. His pay per month was $140.40. His rank when assigned was Corporal. He listed his home address as Mrs. Ruby Maudene Bryant, Rt #2, Littlefield, Tex.
On 6 AUGUST 1944, Lenard Bryant was promoted to Sergeant on AAF Station 106 Special Orders #158.
On the 9 AUGUST 1944 mission to Erding, Germany, Lenard Bryant was reassigned to the position of Engineer/Top Turret Gunner with the Buslee crew. Clarence Seeley, the crew’s original Engineer, was seriously wounded on the 5 AUGUST mission and did not return to duty for two months. This enabled both of the waist gunners of the Buslee crew, Lenard Bryant and George Farrar, to remain with their original crew. Farrar remained the crew’s waist gunner while Bryant took over the top turret position. If Seeley had not been seriously wounded and unable to participate in combat missions, either Bryant or Farrar would have been moved to another crew, or possibly even another bombardment group.
On 9 SEPTEMBER 1944, Lenard Bryant was promoted to Staff Sergeant on AAF Station 106 Special Orders #180.
On 28 SEPTEMBER 1944, Lenard Bryant went from duty to MIA (Missing in Action). He was subsequently declared KIA (Killed in Action) on that date.

Lenard Bryant was credited with 16 completed combat missions with the 384th Bomb Group.

Medals and Decorations

Lenard Leroy Bryant earned the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and also received the Purple Heart.

Casualty of War

Lenard Leroy Bryant died 28 September 1944 at the age of 25, leaving his young wife, Ruby Maudene, a widow at the age of 21. Lenard is buried at Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Eijsden-Margraten Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands, Plot G, Row 7, Grave 22. Maudene lived to the age of 80 and never remarried.

Lenard and Maudene Bryant, 1939, photo courtesy of Derral Bryant

Notes

Previous post, Lenard Leroy Bryant, Top Turret Gunner for the Buslee Crew

Lenard Leroy Bryant’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

MOS means Military Occupational Specialty

Previous post, Assigned Military Operational Specialties of the Buslee and Brodie Crews

Previous post, Timeline for Buslee Crewmembers and Substitutes, 545th Bomb Squadron

Thank you to the 384th Bomb Group and especially Fred Preller and Keith Ellefson for their research and obtaining and presenting records of the servicemen of the Group.

Thank you to Derral Bryant, Lenard’s great-nephew, for family information and photos.

George Hawkins’ Account of his Internment and Hospitalization

November 23, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

A continuation of last week’s post, George Hawkins’ Account of the Buslee-Brodie Mid-air Collision, as written in a letter to Frank Furiga, “an account of my 1944-45 visit to Germany,” some time after Christmas 1983.

George Hawkins continued his letter to Frank Furiga with information about his hospitalization and internment following his capture by the Germans after the mid-air collision.

Magdeburg

I remained here in the city for the remainder of the year [1944] … in the prison ward at the hospital while undergoing surgery and in the balcony of an old theatre where they housed several hundred injured from many nations. On October 6th they attempted to set my broken leg but an air raid interrupted their efforts and I came out of the anesthetic in the basement air raid shelter … the leg still not set. They finally got the job done on the 12th … and that deserves a little comment.

A Colonel, the chief of Surgery, at the hospital returned from leave the day before my second attempt at leg repair … he had just buried his wife and children who had been killed in an air raid. He needed to get back to work following his tragic experience and he found me. He decided he would perform the operation himself and did so … without anesthesia. I filed charges against him with the War Crimes Commission at a later date but nothing ever came of it. Magdeburg is still in the Russian zone. But, needless to say, POW time from that point on was a piece of cake.

In late November, I was returned to the hospital with a knee infection. The plaster cast was removed and they found a real mess. The leg would probably have to come off. But a young captain took charge and did a beautiful job. I’ve never been able to bend my knee since then but the leg is still there.

DULOG LUFT & HALL MARK

I departed from Magdeburg on January 12th and arrived in Frankfort two days later. I spent the night at the railroad station in a dungeon-like room about forty feet under ground and rode in a trolley car and a truck to Dulog Luft. A very short interrogation then up to Hall Mark the following day. I remember my interrogator who once worked for Western Electric and took bus 18 out of Newark each morning on his way to work. I had to admit that I didn’t know very much about Newark, New Jersey. I guess he just wanted to be friendly … right? One day later and we were on a hospital train to Obermassfeld.

OBERMASSFELD

Arrived here on the 18th of January. The British doctors took xrays and I finally got a full understanding of my physical condition … for the first time. Here I met a number of people who I’m sure you knew also … Irving Metzger (no fingers) and T.S. McGee from Mississippi … the chaplain. McGee, George Brandon and I came out together … we toured Paris together. One week later, on January 25th, I was moved over to Meiningen.

MEININGEN

Here we joined forces, Frank … so there is little I can tell you that you don’t already know. I do have a few dates noted so I will jot them down and see if they ring any bells:

[Dates are in 1945]

February 23, Bombing by USAF

March 2, Bombing by RAF

March 24, US fighter planes overhead

March 26, Group of ambulatory POWs moved out of camp to the East, away from approaching allied troops. Group included Marty Horwitz and William Griffin.

March 30, Shelling

April 1, Guards gone. We have taken over the camp

April 2, Obermassfeld liberated

April 4, German guards returned by order of local commander

April 5, LIBERATED by 11th Armored

April 10, Departed camp

POST MEININGEN

The ambulance convoy out of Meiningen took us to Hanau (94th Medical), then 58th Field hospital (?) and then it was a C47 to Paris (48th General) on April 12th … then back to the U.S. on April 23rd.

Thank you to Paul Furiga, son of Frank Furiga, for sharing George Hawkins’ letters with me. More information about George Hawkins courtesy of Frank Furiga to come soon…

George Hawkins’ Account of the Buslee-Brodie Mid-air Collision

November 16, 2022 7:00 AM / 1 Comment on George Hawkins’ Account of the Buslee-Brodie Mid-air Collision

George Marshall Hawkins, Jr. and Frank Dominic Furiga, both airmen of the 384th Bomb Group in World War II, met not at Grafton Underwood, the 384th Bomb Group’s airbase in the Midlands of England, but in a POW hospital after both were injured when bailing out of their respective aircraft during bombing missions to Germany.

The two men, George of the 545th Bomb Squadron and Frank of the 547th Bomb Squadron, became friends during their captivity and remained friends after the war.

George Hawkins was the navigator of the James Joseph Brodie crew and was involved in the crew’s mid-air collision with the Buslee crew’s B-17 on 28 September 1944. Frank Furiga, a bombardier-turned-navigator, was also on that mission and witnessed the collision.

George and Frank wrote letters back and forth to each other after the war and Frank urged George to write up his recollection of the collision. Frank kept George’s letters, and Frank’s son, Paul Furiga, discovered them in his father’s wartime mementos and shared them with me.

The following is what George Hawkins wrote in a letter to Frank Furiga, “an account of my 1944-45 visit to Germany,” some time after Christmas 1983.

September 28, 1944

Following ‘Bombs away’ and while making a shallow formation turn to starboard, our lead ship suddenly racked up into a tight right turn … so abrupt that my pilot(s) were forced to increase the bank of the turn and pull up over the lead ship to avoid a collision. Ship #3 (flying the lead ship’s left wing) increased its bank and, riding high in turn, probably went to ‘full throttle’ in an attempt to catch up to the lead ship. Unfortunately, we were also high, in a tight turn, and playing catch up.

Standing at my position, I watched as #3 came right down our flight path and we had impact … their pilot compartment coming right up into our ship’s belly. I’m sure they had the lead ship in sight but never saw us at all. We must have been just above the co-pilot’s view through his starboard window. As soon as I spotted them coming in I hit the mike button and yelled to Brodie and Vevle to pull up, but as I talked the nose cabin deck buckled up under me, and I was pinned to the starboard side of the ship just forward of the inboard engine. On impact, our togglier and the Plexiglas nose disappeared.

I fought to free myself but to no avail … the wreckage and the air pouring into the opening in the nose made any movement impossible. Shortly thereafter the ship fell off into a spin and we started down. I can only assume that my body weight increased due to the centrifugal force build up … and this coupled with the structural damage suffered by the nose section led to a rupture of the air frame … and I was sucked out of the ship and was able to make use of my chute. I landed at Erxleben, a small town northwest of Magdeburg.

One added note: I flew all my missions using a chest chute. I wore the harness and hung the chute pack on the fire wall near my station. A day or two prior to the Magdeburg flight I had myself fitted for a back pack … one that fitted so tightly and was very uncomfortable to wear during a long flight. Well, I had it on that day. I have never been able to remember why I made the change, but I will always be thankful that I did.

The next day I was reunited with Miller (tail gunner) and Liniger (waist gunner) and we were driven by truck to the German hospital in Magdeburg where I was dropped off. They then went on to a camp.

George Hawkins continued his story with information about his hospitalization and imprisonment until the end of the war, which I will report in my next post.

Thank you to Paul Furiga, son of Frank Furiga, for sharing George Hawkins’ letters with me.

American POW Camps for Axis Prisoners

November 9, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

Harry and Carrie Liniger, newly married

In the spring and early summer of 1944, Harry Allen Liniger, with his newly awarded WWII silver gunner’s wings, participated in his final phase of training as an aerial gunner on an aerial combat team of a heavy bombardment unit at the 222nd Combat Crew Training Station, Ardmore Army Airfield, Ardmore, Oklahoma.

While Harry was in this final phase of his training before being shipped overseas for combat duty, his future wife, Carrie Belle Carter, was contributing to the war effort at home. During that time, Carrie lived with her brother, Benjamin Franklin Carter, and his wife in Newport News, Virginia.

In his later years, Benjamin Carter told Harry’s son, Harry Liniger, Jr., about his mother Carrie’s role during World War II, checking in German POW’s in Newport News. In an effort to learn more about Carrie’s work, an internet search of POW camps in the U.S., as well as those in Virginia, and Newport News specifically, turned up some interesting information.

My focus has always been on the Nazi’s POW camp, Stalag Luft IV, in which my father and Harry Jr.’s father were held, as well as other camps for allied prisoners of war of the Axis powers. I had not considered where the Allies held their prisoners of war, thinking that they would all have been housed in camps overseas.

However, I find there were a large number of camps here in the states. Author and researcher Kathy Kirkpatrick presents a comprehensive list of POW Camps in the USA and also a map of the camps on Gentracer.org.

Kathy’s color-coded map distinguishes between Base Camps, Branch Camps, Cemeteries, and Hospitals.

POW Camps in the USA
Courtesy of Kathy Kirkpatrick
© GenTracer

Kathy’s alphabetical list of Prisoner of War Camps, Italian Service Unit Camps, and Prisoner of War Hospitals is “based on weekly reports located on NARA microfilm #66-538 (population lists June 1942-June 1946). Additional locations based on newspapers, interviews, and other NARA records (at College Park and Regional Archives).”

According to Kathy Kirkpatrick’s information regarding POW camps in Virginia shared on Gentracer.org, there were eighteen base camps, twenty-two branch camps, and 3 internment locations in Virginia alone, including two POW camps in Norfolk (Allen Naval Operating Base and Norfolk Army Base), four in Newport News (Eustis – Fort Abraham, Eustis – Fort Eustis, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, and Camp Patrick Henry), and two in Virginia Beach (Camp Pendleton and Fort Story).

Not certain of where exactly Carrie Belle Carter performed her duties of checking in German POW’s in Newport News, I reviewed some internet resources for information. I found details about the prisoners and the camps and think I can get a clearer idea of Carrie’s responsibilities.

For starters, the Newport News High School Class of 1965 website has a page with a lengthy discussion about the Newport News WWII POW Camps. The page header notes,

Camp Patrick Henry, the German POW Camp, morphed into Patrick Henry Field, now Newport News Williamsburg International Airport.
Another German POW Camp was located at the continuation of the James River Bridge crossover from Virginia Avenue to Jefferson Avenue, below the bridge.
More still were housed at Fort Eustis.
The Italian POW camp was on the Old Casino Grounds which was on the hill behind the Victory Arch.
Camp Hill, also used for the Italian POWs, was bounded to the south by the temporary wooden railroad overpass at 58th Street, the James River Bridge/Military Highway railroad overpass to the north, Jefferson Avenue to the east, and the railroad yards to the west.

Many former and long time Newport News residents recorded their memories, including seeing the barbed wire of the camps, and where the camps were located in the discussion.

Contributor Joe Madagan noted,

The German Army Prisoners of War were brought to the United States on ships like the USS West Point (AP-23), the converted SS America, on their return voyage from delivering troops to Europe. She had a special Marine Detachment equipped to guard the POWs, including the wounded and ill prisoners.

The German Prisoners of War were transported from the Port north on Roanoke Avenue past our house so I had a good reason to sit on the front porch and observe the troop movements along the avenue.

There was a hospital for the wounded and ill Prisoners of War at Camp Patrick Henry, and Italian and German soldiers were treated at that facility.

If my memory serves me, the Italian Army Prisoners of War were confined to the camp near the Port, which would have terminated near the 25th Street Bridge…

Contributor Bill Lee shared,

Between 9/16/42 and 5/13/45, 134,292 POWs (88% German – the rest Italian) were disembarked at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation (the Army’s name for the C&O piers). Most of them were sent to inland POW camps in the Southwest. But a fairly large number stayed in Hampton Roads and were put to work doing such things as KP, laundry and other chores. The first POW work camp in this country to be located at a port of embarkation was in Newport News.

Unseen, at one time, there were as many as 6,000 German POWs at Fort Eustis. Another 2,300 Germans (and 185 Italians) were a permanent part of the service workforce at Camp Patrick Henry.

After Italy switched sides in the war, more than a thousand Italian POWs, housed in Camp Hill – not to be confused with much larger Camp A. P. Hill, near Fredericksburg … were re-designated as ‘Italian Service Unit Personnel’ and employed in the port area. Hundreds more worked on farms in Warwick County, and in 46 businesses (not identified) on the Peninsula.

Camp Hill and associated military facilities were bounded to the south by the temporary wooden railroad overpass at 58th Street, the James River Bridge/Military Highway railroad overpass to the north, Jefferson Avenue to the east, and the railroad yards to the west. The most visible, to the public, of the prisoner enclosures was a barbed wire enclosed area on the north side. Although isolated from the rest of the military complex, anyone riding over the railroad overpass could literally look down into that encampment and ‘see the enemy’.

Camp Hill also included barracks for Military Police, a training facility for stevedore trainees and had a number of service-related facilities there, including a laundry … Some [of] his ’employees’ were Italian POWs. There was also a chapel, USO, theatre and gym at Camp Hill. Some of the Camp Hill structures remained in place and were put to local civilian use long after the war ended.

At the end of the war, there were still 4,100 Germans and 1,300 Italians on the Peninsula. Almost totally forgotten is the fact that a secret experiment took place at Fort Eustis in 1945/1946 to re-educate Nazi prisoners. The purpose of this was to create a core of cooperative and pro-American Germans to be repatriated and then help rebuild in the American zone of occupied Germany. In all, 20,000 POWs from all over the United States were processed through a six-day course at Fort Eustis before returning home!

Norm Covert added this information from the “Newport News WWII history book,”

A total of 134,293 German and Italian prisoners of war arrived via the Chesapeake and Ohio terminal.

The Port became the first to establish German prisoners of war work camps.

On June 13, 1945, 2,903 German prisoners and 1,419 members of the Italian Service Unit were engaged at the Port … Sept. 18, 1945, there were 4,077 German prisoners and 1,300 of the Italian Service Unit ….

Prisoners were quartered at Camp Patrick Henry and in the area adjacent to the overpass leading to the James River Bridge. Italian Service Units were quartered at Camp Patrick Henry and in barracks adjacent to the Chesapeake and Ohio piers.

It should be noted that Camp Patrick Henry included 1,700 acres activated Dec. 2, 1942. Nearly 750,000 men and women passed through the camp during 1943-1944.

As of Jan. 31, 1946, a total of 1,412,107 persons passed in and out of the camp.

Dale Parsons noted,

The Italian POW camp was on the Old Casino Grounds which was on the hill behind the Old Victory Arch. There was a movie theater built for the army (which later became The Jewish Community Center), and beside it was a gymnasium for army personal as quite a lot of troops were assigned to the port area. AA guns mounted on the roof of the Warwick Hotel, guards with dogs patrolling all the piers and the rail road storage area which contained ammunition, vehicles, food, etc. for the war. The Italian Camp was an open camp; they were allowed to roam in the Casino Ground area and lived in tents. This area was called the Hill. I remember talking to the prisoners as they had books to try to translate with me.

The German POW Camp was located at the continuation of the James River Bridge crossover from Virginia Avenue to Jefferson Avenue. It was located below the bridge. It had barbed wire above the fence, and had barracks with towers at each corner, and spotlights with armed guards manning each one. You could see the prisoners walking around the fenced in area.

The 58th Street overpass from Virginia Avenue to 58th Street was built for two reasons – to give the army better access to the HRPE Laundry, and for the new homes at Betsy Lee Gardens and new homes that had been built on Briarfield Road and Copeland and Newsome Park.

Camp Patrick Henry was a distribution point for the HRPE holding troops until ships were available to load them and equipment.

Fred Field added information “About Our Wartime Guests,”

I have been reading in recent issues the many recollections about Prisoner of War Camps on the Peninsula. I only remember the one near the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Military Highway. My family were lunch guests at that camp one Sunday in late 1943.

During the war local residents were asked to rent rooms for local Army officers. As a result we had two officers living with us for about two years during the war. One officer was stationed at the Jefferson Avenue prison camp. We were pleased about the lunch invitation, although the destination was kept secret from my brother and me until we arrived at the camp.

Our lunch was with the Camp’s several U.S. Army officers. We were served by Germans who spoke English surprisingly well. The food was wonderful and we were told that the prisoners did all the cooking.

After lunch we were taken on a brief tour. Although the camp facilities were very basic, many improvements had been designed and added by the prisoners. I was very impressed by the theater which had been extensively upgraded from a simple meeting hall. Our German guide for the theater identified himself as an electrician in civilian life. He proudly showed us the light dimmer arrangement he had made out of simple materials.

In my 1943 summer job as messenger for the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, I did see German prisoners disembarking from a ship and being assembled on the pier in preparation for loading on busses. They were all from the Afrika Korps and appeared tan and healthy.

After Italy’s capitulation, Italian prisoners were somewhat emancipated. They were given more freedom of movement and were assigned jobs around the Army bases. They soon earned recognition as wonderful cooks and there was much talk about the great improvement in Army food. I remember some soldiers at the message center saying that the Italians were doing all the mess hall work and the regular Army cooks were trying to look busy to avoid being declared surplus and shipped overseas.

Fred Field was not the only American to notice the appearance of the German prisoners. Carrie Belle Carter, who, according to her son, did not talk much about the German POW’s, described them as “tall, lean, blonde, and pleasant to look at.”

In addition to the Newport News POW Camps discussion page, an online article, “HAMPTON ROADS HISTORY – World War II POWs poured through Hampton Roads,” shed some light on this aspect of our World War II history.

The article explains why so many German and Italian prisoners of war were sent here to the States and explains the procedures followed for processing the prisoners once they arrived on our shores.

In August 1942, some 273,000 captured German and Italian soldiers overwhelmed Great Britain’s North Africa holding pens. The United States was urged to take as many as 150,000 prisoners on one to three months notice.

First the U.S. government sent many of the POW’s to compounds in Canada, and then to camps in isolated areas of the Southwestern United States. But within a month of the Allies’ agreement, Hampton Roads, as the U.S. Army’s Port of Embarkation for North Africa and the Mediterranean, processed its first group of German POW’s.

In the article, author Mark St. John Erickson noted that “Wehrmacht soldiers” … “guarded by MPs wielding submachine guns, … filled out paperwork aboard the transport ships with the aid of port interpreters, then filed down the gangways to be searched and questioned at stations set up inside the warehouses on the piers.”

I believe this is how Carrie Belle Carter contributed to the war effort in Newport News, by being a part of the continual processing of arriving German prisoners. I think it is likely that her work involved checking in the German POW’s at one of these stations in the warehouses set up on the piers.

How do you think Carrie and other Americans felt about, as discussion page contributor Bill Lee noted, seeing “the enemy” among them on a daily basis? And would it be more difficult for Carrie to continue her work after her future husband, Harry Allen Liniger, went missing on a heavy bomber mission over Germany, and she eventually learned he was a prisoner of war?

Sources

Thank you to Harry Liniger, Jr., son of Harry Allen Liniger and Carrie Belle Carter Liniger, for sharing his family stories from WWII

Author and researcher Kathy Kirkpatrick and her POW publications

POW Camps in the USA courtesy of Kathy Kirkpatrick and GenTracer

POW Camps Map courtesy of Kathy Kirkpatrick and GenTracer

POW Camps in Virginia courtesy of Kathy Kirkpatrick and GenTracer

The Newport News WWII POW Camps courtesy of the Newport News High School Class of 1965

Article “HAMPTON ROADS HISTORY – World War II POWs poured through Hampton Roads” by author Mark St. John Erickson

Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 4

November 2, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

Harry Allen Liniger, waist gunner for the James Brodie crew. Photo courtesy of son Harry Liniger, Jr.

A new search and additional information from his son, Harry, Jr., have provided me with some new information regarding Harry Allen Liniger, waist gunner of the James Joseph Brodie crew of the 545th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group of the 8th Army Air Forces in WWII. He was an original member of the crew and on board Brodie’s B-17 on the 28 September 1944 mission to Magdeburg.

To view my original post and other information about Harry Allen Liniger, please see the links at the end of this post.

Harry Allen Liniger, Update continued…

This is the last part of my Harry Allen Liniger, Update article and will cover Harry’s return home, release from military service, and post WWII life.

For a recap of the story of the 28 September 1944 mid-air collision between the Buslee crew and Brodie crew B-17’s in which Harry Liniger was one of only four survivors, read 384th Bomb Group pilot Wallace Storey’s account here.

Germany Surrenders

On 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to the western Allies at General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Headquarters in Reims, France. German Chief-of-Staff, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender, to take effect the following day.

On 8 May 1945, V-E (Victory in Europe) Day was declared as German troops continued to surrender to the Allies throughout Europe.

Harry Allen Liniger’s Return Home from World War II Military Service

According to Harry’s Honorable Discharge and Separation Record, he departed the European Theater on 27 May 1945, destination US, and arrived back on U.S. soil on 9 June 1945.

Harry’s POW Story in his Own Words

Shortly after his arrival home, the Gates County [North Carolina] Index newspaper interviewed Harry about his POW experience and published the following article in the 13 June 1945 edition of the paper.

~*~

Liniger Home; Lost 60 Pounds As War Prisoner in Germany

Gatesville. – Having gained back the 60 pounds he lost as a German prisoner of war, Sgt. Harry Liniger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Liniger of Gatesville, is back in town on a 60-day recuperation furlough. At the expiration of his furlough he will report to Miami for further assignment.

Sgt. Liniger, waist gunner aboard a Flying Fortress, parachuted to earth in Germany last September when his Fortress was in [a] collision with another Fortress which had been riddled by anti-aircraft fire. Of the 20 men aboard the two Fortresses, only Harry and three others survived.

The navigator [Brodie crew airman George Marshall Hawkins, Jr.] suffered fractures of both legs, but more than ten days elapsed before he could get medical attention. Harry suffered a back injury and various cuts and bruises. He was in jail within four hours after landing, he said.

He would not have escaped from the crippled plane had it not exploded, the sergeant added. The blast blew him out of the turret and he retained consciousness long enough to open his parachute.

Without Shoes

He landed without shoes, was given one issue of clothing which he wore for the next several months and subsided on three potatoes a day and half a loaf of bread per week supplemented by occasional Red Cross supplies. Diseases, dysentery and marching during the evacuation when Russia started its drive, took its toll of American prisoners, Harry said.

While they were marched in an effort to keep out of reach of Russian liberators, 500 or more would go to sleep in a barn and leave 50 or 60 who could not go on the next morning. The Germans said the disabled men would be hospitalized. Harry could not say whether they were or not.

Harry weighed only 98 pounds when he again reached Allied military control. He regained his normal weight within 30 days at a French rest camp.

Harry and thousands of others escaped when the collapse of Nazi Germany appeared eminent, but he was in a group recaptured by German troops who were scheduled to surrender the following day. But on the following day, the regiment got orders to continue fighting at the Elbe River.

At one time, the American escapees were within sound of front line gun fire but German machine guns drove them back to cover.

As prisoners, the men were permitted to write a letter a month. He did not receive a letter during the whole time he was imprisoned, and Red Cross supplies did not come through with regularity, he said.

Harry holds the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Good Conduct Ribbon, American theatre of operations Ribbon, and the European theatre of operations ribbon with four campaign stars, representing the Air War, the battles of Norway and Southern France and the battle of Germany.

Article courtesy of the Gates County Index newspaper online archives and contributed by the Albemarle Regional Library System, Gates County Public Library

~*~

This newspaper article was a great find. It confirms many things I have believed to be true and many things I can conclude about my own father’s POW experience that I have only assumed. My father, George Edwin Farrar, who was one of the other three survivors Harry mentions, was held in the same POW camp and forced on the same march. Dad likely was fed the same diet and suffered a similar loss of weight.

However, I don’t believe Dad was part of the group of American escapees Harry mentions. I would like to learn more about Harry’s escape and recapture experience, though. I imagine I can find similar stories from other Stalag Luft IV prisoners in some of their books and diaries. As often happens in my research, one find triggers a new search, and I’ll keep looking.

Just a couple of minor corrections to the article:

Eighteen men were aboard the two fortresses, not twenty
Harry was in the waist of the plane, not one of the turrets

One thing I must comment on, though, is regarding Harry’s mention that he did not receive a letter during his imprisonment. Don’t think his parents, sister, or future wife didn’t write to him. I am quite certain they wrote as soon as they received an address for him. They wouldn’t have learned he was a prisoner of war, or where he was held captive, or obtain an address to write to him until late December 1944.

Under normal circumstances, letters between families and prisoners took months to deliver. But Harry was marched out of the POW camp on February 6, 1945. Letters were probably on their way to him, but never made it into his hands. By the time a letter would have arrived at Stalag Luft IV, Harry was no longer held there. And mail certainly wasn’t delivered to the prisoners on the road during their 500-mile 86-day long march.

Marriage

Seven weeks after returning home, Harry married his sweetheart, Carrie Bell Carter. The Gates County Index newspaper published an article upon the news of their marriage.

On 1 August 1945, Dillon, South Carolina: “Mr. and Mrs. L.S. Carter of Gatesville, N.C. announce the marriage of their daughter, Carrie Belle, to Staff Sergeant Harry A. Liniger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Liniger, also of Gatesville. The wedding took place in Dillon on July 26. … They will leave Gatesville on August 11 for Miami Beach when Sgt. Liniger is scheduled to report for duty.”

Japan Surrenders

Just days before Harry and Carrie were to leave for Miami, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, on Hiroshima on 6 August and on Nagasaki on 9 August. On 14 August, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender. Surrender documents would not be signed until 2 September. Some consider the 14 August 1945 date to be V-J (Victory over Japan) Day, but others consider 2 September 1945, when the surrender document was signed, to be V-J Day.

Reassignment Processing

According to the 1 August newspaper article, Harry Liniger left home on 11 August. He and his new wife Carrie traveled to Miami Beach for his reassignment processing. Their son, Harry Jr., shared this photo with me.

Harry Allen and Carrie Belle Carter Liniger (on the far right) at the 5 O’Clock Club, Miami Beach, Florida

I am uncertain of their arrival date in Miami, but the Gates County Index published another article reporting Harry’s arrival.

On 22 August 1945, Miami Beach, Florida: “S/Sgt. Harry A. Liniger, 21, of Gatesville, N.C. has arrived at Army Air Forces Redistribution Station No. 2 in Miami Beach for reassignment processing after completing a tour of duty outside the continental United States. During his processing, he is housed in an ocean-front hotel and enjoys abundant facilities for rest and recreation in this year-round beneficial climate.”

Release from Military Service

Honorable Discharge/Separation

With the war with Germany and Japan over, I am not sure how long Harry and Carrie remained in Miami, but according to his separation document, Harry Liniger was honorably discharged from military service on 31 October 1945 (his Date of Separation) at Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina.

Some of the notable information on Harry’s Honorable Discharge includes:

His Military Occupational Specialty and No. as Airplane Armorer Gunner 612.
His Military Qualification as AAF Air Crew Member Badge (Wings)
His Battles and Campaigns as Southern France, Normandy, Northern France, and Rhineland
His Decorations and Citations as European African Middle Eastern Service Medal with 4 Bronze Stars, 1 Overseas Service Bar, Good Conduct Medal, and Air Medal. (Not listed on his Honorable Discharge are his Purple Heart, WWII Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, and Prisoner of War Medal).
His Total Length of Continental Service was 1 year, 7 months, and 22 days.
His Total Length of Foreign Service was 11 months and 9 days.
For his Service outside the Continental U.S., he departed the U.S. on 1 July 1944, Destination European Theater, arriving 5 July 1944. He departed the European Theater on 27 May 1945, Destination US, arriving 9 June 1945.
He attended Radio School at Scott Field, Illinois, and Gunnery School at Harlingen, Texas.

Post-World War II Life

Ocala, Florida

On his Honorable Discharge/Separation document, I found another piece of interesting information. Harry’s permanent address for mailing purposes was listed as Box 251 Gatesville, NC, but handwritten beside that was the address “Municipal Trailer Park Ocala, Fla.”

Harry’s parents, Paul and Estella Liniger, lived for a time in Ocala and Harry and Carrie spent time there with them, enough so that Harry included the address on his Honorable Discharge/Separation document.

I have been living in Ocala for the past ten years and was curious if the trailer park still existed and where it is/was located.

I found that the Ocala Municipal Trailer Park no longer exists, but that it was formerly located at 517 Northeast 9th Street, Ocala, FL, directly north of Ocala’s Tuscawilla Park, near where one of the city’s premier entertainment venues, the Reilly Arts Center, is located today.

The trailer park opened in 1937 to house WPA (Works Progress Administration) workers. The WPA was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers to carry out public works projects. The trailer park was also reported to be intended for visitors to the area who were expected to stay on a short-term basis, but became very popular with longer-term visitors and residents.

Closing and eventually demolishing the park stretched over a three-year period beginning in 2007, displacing the ninety people who lived there.

The property is currently divided into two uses: one, a parking lot for The Reilly Arts Center, and two, the home of the Ocala Skate Park (for skateboarding, in-line skating, and freestyle bicycling).

I had never been aware that the parking lot where my husband and I park when we attend shows at the Reilly are at the very spot where Harry and Carrie Liniger stayed with his parents after World War II.

While in Ocala, Harry worked at an alligator farm. The name of the gator farm is unknown, but perhaps Harry worked for Ross Allen, the noted herpetologist, at the Ross Allen Reptile Institute on land near the head of Silver Springs. The reptile institute attracted thousands of tourists to Silver Springs for many decades.

Harry Liniger worked at a Gator Farm in Ocala, FL after the war

and

Carrie Liniger at a Gator Farm in Ocala, FL after the war

and

Harry and Carrie Liniger in Ocala, FL after the war

Harry and Carrie’s son, Harry Liniger, Jr., visited his grandparents in Ocala when he was twelve years old. He said, “When I was 12 years old my mother put me on a train by myself to visit my grandparents in Ocala. They took me to Silver Springs for a visit. It may have been special to them. They lived in a trailer park and I remember playing shuffleboard every day.”

Post-World War II

Harry and Carrie Liniger later moved to Portsmouth, Virginia and in 1946, Harry and Carrie were blessed with a son, Harry Jr.

Still in the early years of his marriage, and when Harry Jr. was only fourteen months old, Harry Liniger died in an accident in Portsmouth on 8 October 1947 at the age of 23.

He is buried in the Powells Point Christian Church Cemetery in Harbinger, Currituck County, North Carolina, along with his parents and sister.

Carrie passed away October 5, 2011, and is buried in the Carter family plot in Gatesville, NC, less than 100 yards from the house in which she was born.

Notes

Thank you to Harry Liniger, Jr. for sharing these stories from his family history.

Previous post, Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 1

Previous post, Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 2

Previous post, Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 3

Previous post, Harry Liniger, Waist Gunner for the Brodie Crew

Previous post, Harry Liniger – After the War

Previous post, Boarding a Train

Harry Allen Liniger’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Harry Allen Liniger’s Enlistment Record in the online National Archives

Harry Liniger’s POW record in the online National Archives

Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

Dave Osborne’s Fortlog

MOS means Military Occupational Specialty

Previous post, Assigned Military Operational Specialties of the Buslee and Brodie Crews

Previous post, Timeline for Brodie Crewmembers and Substitutes, 545th Bomb Squadron

Missing Air Crew Report 9366 for the Brodie crew on 28 September 1944 courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Missing Air Crew Report 9753 for the Buslee crew on 28 September 1944, courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Harry Allen Liniger on Find a Grave

Gates County Index newspaper articles courtesy of Digital North Carolina newspapers

13 June 1945 edition of the Gates County [North Carolina] Index newspaper

Several articles in the Ocala Star-Banner newspaper covered the trailer park over several years:

12 December 2005 – City’s choice, Officials to decide whether to repair or close park
25 October 2006 – City weighs pros, cons of saving auditorium
27 September 2011 – Ocala wants ideas on redesigning Tuscawilla Park
30 January 2015 – City’s transient trailer park called ‘one of the best’

Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 3

October 26, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

Harry Allen Liniger, waist gunner for the James Brodie crew. Photo courtesy of son Harry Liniger, Jr.

To view my original post and other information about Harry Allen Liniger, please see the links at the end of this post.

Harry Allen Liniger, Update continued…

This part will cover Harry Allen Liniger’s MIA (Missing in Action) and POW (Prisoner of War) experience.

The Mid-air Collision

Missing in Action

Morning Reports of the 384th Bombardment Group note the following for Harry Allen Liniger: On 28 September 1944, on Mission 201 to Magdeburg, Germany (Target was Industry, Steelworks), Harry Allen Liniger, flying with the James Joseph Brodie crew, went from duty to MIA (Missing in Action).

Harry and the other airmen involved in the collision would remain missing until some word was heard, typically relayed from the Red Cross to the military, and from the military to the families, or next of kin, of the missing. Word did not travel quickly outside of wartime Germany to families waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.

The Gates County Index newspaper published two articles in the month of October with the only information available at the time.

On 18 October 1944: “Mr. and Mrs. Paul Liniger of Gatesville have been advised by the War Department that their son, Sgt. Harry Liniger, turret gunner on a Liberator bomber [correction: waist gunner on a Flying Fortress/B-17 bomber] is missing following a flight over Germany on September 28.”

On 25 October 1944: “Sgt. Harry A. Liniger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Liniger of Gatesville, waist gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress and recently awarded the Air Medal, is missing following a flight over Germany on September 28.”

A follow-up article in the same issue noted: “Award of the Air Medal for ‘exceptionally meritorious achievement while participating in sustained bomber combat operations over enemy occupied Continental Europe’ to Sgt. Liniger was announced by an Eighth Air Force bomber station in England soon after news that he was missing reached Gatesville.

Waist gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, Sgt. Liniger was taking part in attacks being carried out against targets in Germany and the occupied areas by the American Air Forces. He was serving with a Fortress group that is a veteran unit on the European aerial front. Sgt. Liniger is 20 and was a student at Edwards Military Institute in Salemburg prior to entering the service.”

Prisoner of War

By December 1944, the Liniger family had received word that Harry was alive and a prisoner of war. The Germans allowed the POWs to write a limited number of postcards and letters home, but the mail could take several months to arrive.

For example, I have a letter my father wrote as a POW he dated 9 November 1944. Someone, probably my grandmother, noted on the letter that she received it over four months later on 23 March 1945.

Initial postcards the POWs sent home within a short time after capture looked like this postcard of my father’s.

Harry Liniger wrote his card just two days before my dad, who was hospitalized following capture, on 3 October. (I don’t believe POW’s were allowed to tell their families they were not in good health, hence unable to note he was seriously wounded and could not walk).

The Gates County Index newspaper published an article on 20 December 1944, so these first post cards likely took two months to reach the families.

On 20 December 1944: “Mrs. Paul W. Liniger of Gatesville recently received another card from her son, S/Sgt. Harry Liniger, prisoner of war of the German government. The sergeant said that he was in good health and was being moved to another prison camp. The card was dated October 3, five days after the Flying Fortress of which he was a crew member, was forced down into Nazi occupied Europe.”

Prison Camp

In Nazi Germany, Allied prisoners of war were confined to separate prison camps based on at least two criteria. Those held captive from various nationality air forces, airmen were kept in “Luft” stalags. Officers and enlisted men were also separated into different camps. Of the four survivors of the 28 September 1944 mid-air collision between the Buslee and Brodie B-17’s, one was an officer and three were enlisted.

The officer, George Marshall Hawkins, Brodie crew navigator, was seriously injured and served his entire POW internment in a POW hospital. If he had not been injured, he would have been assigned to an officer’s POW camp. The three enlisted men, George Farrar of the Buslee crew, and Wilfred Miller and Harry Liniger of the Brodie crew, were all assigned to Stalag Luft IV. Farrar spent the first two months of captivity in a hospital, but was then placed in the camp in late November 1944.

I discovered George Farrar and Wilfred Miller on the same camp roster, a Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster, placing both of them in the same Lager of the camp. I have been unable to find Harry Liniger’s name on any of the available rosters, though. It is possible that he was held in Lager A, B, or C, but looking through the Lager D roster more closely, I believe a page could be missing between scanned pages 37 (which ends with Lewis) and 38 (which begins with Lissendrello) where Harry Liniger possibly could be included alphabetically in this list.

Harry Allen Liniger’s POW number was #3818. His son, Harry, Jr., found the number in his grandmother’s war time diary along with her son’s POW address. Harry, Jr. says Estella Liniger’s diary was pretty simple, but held a lot of valuable information. “It had the addresses from all my dad’s duty stations, the address for the Red Cross in Switzerland and a few others. One entry said she received my dad’s Air Medal in the mail. It mentioned receiving a couple of letters from dad saying he was ok. She also wrote out her prayerful thoughts on some days.”

The March

Harry Allen Liniger was one of the Stalag Luft IV POW’s marched out of the prison camp on February 6, 1945 to begin the 500-day 86-mile march of prisoners across Germany. One day, Harry Liniger, Jr., opened his father’s New Testament and found a note his dad had written on cigarette paper.

Harry had recorded a horrific train ride to which the prisoners were subjected on their journey. This note confirms an event in the historical record of the march, the memory of which likely haunted the men on the train for the rest of their lives.

On another day, Harry Jr. showed the note to his daughter and she decided to look through the book. She found a list on the inside cover that looked like Harry was adding up his back pay while in captivity. There was also a man’s name, Charles Gleason, ASN 32718483, and a New York address of 200 E. 81st St., printed in the back.

Charles Gleason’s POW record in the online National Archives notes that he was held in Stalag Luft IV. Charles was a left waist gunner with the 97th Bomb Group, 340th Bomb Squadron, of the 15th AF based in Amendola, Italy in the Province of Foggia. [Note: Between 17 August 1942 and 21 October 1942, the 97th Bomb Group flew from Polebrook and Grafton Underwood with the 8th Air Force].

Charles Albert Gleason was 5’8″ tall, weighed 145 pounds, had gray eyes, blonde hair, and a light complexion. He registered for the draft on 15 February 1942. His place of residence was 200 E. 81 St., New York, NY and he was born on 29 June 1921 in New York, NY.

Federal Census records from 1930 and 1940 note that Charles’ father was Charles A. Gleason, Sr., his mother was Katherine (or Catherine, possibly with the maiden name of Kelly). He had two older sisters, Dorothy and Rita. His father died in 1936, leaving Charles’ mother a widow.

Charles Gleason went MIA on the 97th Bomb Group’s 23 October 1944 mission to the Pilsen, Czechoslovakia Skoda Works in B-17 42-31709. The missing air crew report, MACR9513, notes the cause as flak.

Ten men of the Josie Francis Flotz (Durham, NC) crew – Paul Eugene Rominger (Ohio), Leon Joseph Cooning, Jr., Wallace John Lameweaver, Robert T. Oakes, Dalton John Cormier, Charles Albert Gleason, Clifton Edward Huffman (or Hoffman of Palestine, WV), John David Lawson (Osborne, KS), and Richard Arthur Leonard (Dayton, OH) – all were captured and became prisoners of war.

MACR9513 notes that at a location of 4915N/1257E, the Flotz crew’s B-17 was observed “Straggling after target run. Result of enemy aircraft and damaged by flak or defect in oxygen.”

An airman who was an eyewitness, Sgt. Glenn W. Troutman, reported, “After completing the target run, I saw aircraft #709 straggling, because of a hit by flak or some other damage to aircraft.” Crew member Clifton E. Huffman reported: “All ten [crew] members bailed out shortly after losing three engines over target. Saw all crew members at Frankfort interrogation center.” The pilot, Josie F. Foltz, Jr., reported that they were over the target (just after Rally) when they left the formation. He added “All crew members bailed out approx. the same time & about 50 to 100 mi. SE of target near Eger, Germany.”

Charles Gleason was able to evade for a day, but was captured on 24 October 1944 at 17:30 (5:30 in the evening) near Maerzdorf dist. in Kaaden (Kadaň), a town in the Chomutov District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czechoslovakia.

I expected to find Harry Liniger and Charles Gleason on the same POW roster from Stalag Luft IV. Coming from bomb groups that were not based even in the same country, Liniger in England and Gleason in Italy, I can’t imagine where they would have met if not in the prison camp or on the march.

However, I do not find their names in any list together. I do find Charles Gleason listed in the roster on page 74 of the POW book “Barbed Boredom – A Souvenir Book of Stalag Luft IV” by Charles G. Janis. He is listed as “Gleason C 200 E 81st St New York N.Y.” Harry is not found in this list. The author of “Barbed Boredom,” Charles Janis, was held POW in Lager D, the lager where I know George Farrar and Wilfred Miller were both held. However, neither of their names appear on Janis’ list either. And in the roster where I do find Farrar’s and Miller’s names on, the Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster, I do not find Charles Gleason, Harry Liniger, or Charles Janis.

Charles Gleason’s POW record indicates his last report date was 9 July 1945. Harry Liniger’s last report date was 31 May 1945. George Farrar’s last report date was closer to Gleason’s. Farrar’s was 13 July 1945. Farrar had an extended hospital stay following his liberation and perhaps Gleason did as well as both returned home much later than Harry Liniger.

Charles Albert Gleason died April 20, 2001 at the age of 79.

I have shared this information about Charles Albert Gleason because he must have been important to Harry Liniger during their confinement as POW’s during World War II. If any family members of Charles Gleason have any information about this time in his life, please contact me.

Liberation

The Gates County Index newspaper published several articles upon the news of Harry Liniger’s liberation.

On 30 May 1945: “Sgt. Harry Liniger, waist gunner on a Flying Fortress shot down over enemy occupied Europe many months ago, has been liberated from a German prison camp, according to information reaching his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Liniger, through the Red Cross.”

On 6 June 1945, Gatesville: “Mr. and Mrs. Paul Liniger have received an Army Signal Corps message from their son, Sgt. Harry Liniger, liberated prisoner in Europe, telling them, ‘At the rate I am moving, I will be home in a few months.’ They also received a telegram from the War Department saying that Sgt. Liniger was returned to military control on May 2.”

On 28 May 1945, upon the receipt of the telegram of her son’s liberation and return to military control, Estella Liniger recorded her last prayerful thoughts in her diary, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”.

Notes

Thank you to Keith Ellefson for obtaining Charles Gleason’s missing air crew report for me.

Previous post, Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 1

Previous post, Harry Allen Liniger, Update – Part 2

Previous post, Harry Liniger, Waist Gunner for the Brodie Crew

Previous post, Harry Liniger – After the War

Previous post, Boarding a Train

Harry Allen Liniger’s Personnel Record courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Harry Allen Liniger’s Enlistment Record in the online National Archives

Harry Liniger’s POW record in the online National Archives

Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

Dave Osborne’s Fortlog

Charles Gleason’s POW record in the National Archives

Missing Air Crew Report 9366 for the Brodie crew on 28 September 1944 courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Missing Air Crew Report 9753 for the Buslee crew on 28 September 1944, courtesy of the 384th Bomb Group

Gates County Index newspaper articles courtesy of Digital North Carolina newspapers

97th Bomb Group courtesy of the American Air Museum in Britain

Yearly Archives: 2022

Continued from George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Germany Surrenders

Waiting to Return Home

Return Home

Release from WWII Military Service

Honorable Discharge and Enlisted Record and Report of Separation

Notes

Continued from George Edwin Farrar, Update – Part 1 and Part 2

The Mid-air Collision

Missing in Action

Prisoner of War

POW Liberation

Notes

George Edwin Farrar’s Education and Civilian Employment prior to his Military Service

Entry into WWII Military Service

Military Training

Combat Duty with the 384th Bomb Group

Notes

George Edwin Farrar

Farrar Family

Notes

Notes

Sources

Germany Surrenders

Harry Allen Liniger’s Return Home from World War II Military Service

~*~

Liniger Home; Lost 60 Pounds As War Prisoner in Germany

~*~

Release from Military Service

Post-World War II Life

Post-World War II

Notes

The Mid-air Collision

Missing in Action

Prisoner of War

Liberation

Notes

Post navigation

Copyright Notice/Fair Use Policy