Preserving Their Stories
The following pages examine the important parts of the German POW system through which captured American airmen passed or were imprisoned at:
This is part of the Second Air Division Historical Research and Preservation Project, an independent effort of three members of the Heritage League to help preserve the experiences of the men whose war did not end when their B-24 went down. Their service continued behind barbed wire—through interrogation, imprisonment, hunger, forced marches, escape attempts, and the long wait for liberation.
Their POW experience remains an important part of the history of the Second Air Division, Eighth United States Army Air Forces, and of the price paid by the airmen who carried the air war into occupied Europe and Germany. Additioal POW camp information can be found at: https://b24.net/powCamps.htm
Prisoners of War of the Second Air Division
During World War II, thousands of airmen of the United States Army Air Forces were shot down or forced to abandon their aircraft over enemy-occupied Europe. Among them were pilots, navigators, bombardiers, radio operators, engineers, and aerial gunners of the Second Air Division of the Eighth Air Force. For those who survived the loss of their aircraft and avoided death or immediate capture, the war often entered a very different and uncertain phase: imprisonment as a prisoner of war.
The Second Air Division's B-24 Liberator crews routinely flew deep into enemy territory against heavily defended targets. When a bomber was destroyed or too badly damaged to return to England, surviving crewmen might parachute over Germany or occupied Europe. Some were aided by resistance organizations and eventually escaped or evaded capture. Many others were captured by German military or police authorities and entered the German prisoner-of-war system.
For those taken prisoner, capture marked the beginning of an entirely different chapter of their wartime service. Instead of completing additional combat missions from an airfield in England, they might spend months or even years behind barbed wire as Prisoners of War.
The German Prisoner-of-War System
Germany maintained an extensive system of prisoner-of-war camps throughout the Reich and occupied territories. The German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, was responsible for many of the camps containing captured Allied flying personnel. These installations were generally identified by the term Stalag Luft.The German word Stalag was derived from Stammlager, meaning a permanent prisoner-of-war camp for enlisted personnel, although the organization of the Luftwaffe camps became more complex as the number of captured Allied airmen increased.
Officers, enlisted airmen, and prisoners of different nationalities could be separated and sent to different compounds or entirely different camps. Consequently, members of the same Second Air Division aircraft crew might not remain together after capture.
From Capture to the POW Camps
The transition from aircrew member to prisoner could occur with terrifying speed. One moment an airman might be flying at more than 20,000 feet as part of a massive Eighth Air Force formation; minutes later he could be descending by parachute toward enemy territory.
Survivors frequently landed injured, disoriented, and alone. Their aircraft might have exploded or crashed miles away and the other members of the crew could have come down over a wide area. An airman seldom knew immediately which of his crewmates had survived.
Those captured were searched and deprived of weapons, maps, identification materials, and other military equipment. Depending upon where they landed, they might initially be held in a village jail, police station, military barracks, airfield, or temporary detention center before entering the organized German prisoner-of-war system.
Not every airman received the protection he expected as a uniformed prisoner of war. Particularly during the later stages of the war, Allied airmen sometimes faced angry civilians who had experienced devastating bombing raids. German military personnel occasionally had to intervene to protect captured flyers from crowds.
Captured Allied airmen were generally separated from prisoners belonging to the ground forces and were eventually placed in camps administered primarily for captured air-force personnel. Their journey could involve interrogation centers, temporary holding facilities, crowded railroad transports, and transfers among several camps before liberation.
One of the most important stops for newly captured Allied airmen was Dulag Luft, the German Luftwaffe's interrogation and transit center for captured air-force personnel. Prisoners were questioned about their units, aircraft, bases, missions, and other military information before being transferred into the permanent POW camp system. Airmen had been instructed to provide only the information permitted under military regulations and to resist German efforts to obtain operational intelligence.
Second Air Division prisoners subsequently could be held at several camps during their captivity. Among those associated with American airmen were Stalag Luft I, Stalag Luft III, Stalag Luft IV, and Stalag Luft VI, as well as the large prisoner-of-war camps Stalag VII-A and Stalag XVII-B.
Dulag Luft - Interrogation Begins
For many captured American airmen, one of the first important stops in captivity was Dulag Luft, the Luftwaffe interrogation and processing system for captured Allied flying personnel.
Dulag Luft was not primarily intended to be a permanent prisoner-of-war camp. Its purpose was to identify prisoners, collect military intelligence, complete administrative processing, and determine where the prisoners would subsequently be imprisoned.
Captured airmen were questioned concerning their unit, aircraft, base, missions, equipment, and other military information. Under established military instructions, a prisoner was expected to provide only identifying information such as name, rank, and serial number.
German interrogators nevertheless attempted to obtain much more. They sometimes demonstrated an unsettling knowledge of American units, commanders, airfields, aircraft markings, and operations. Information obtained from public sources, captured documents, previous prisoners, intelligence monitoring, and casual conversation could be assembled to create the impression that the interrogator already knew everything.
Isolation was another useful interrogation technique. A newly captured airman might be placed alone and allowed little information concerning his crew or his future. After surviving the destruction of an aircraft and capture in hostile territory, uncertainty itself could become a powerful psychological weapon.
Following interrogation and processing, prisoners were normally transported by rail to a permanent camp. For many Second Air Division airmen, this meant the beginning of a long journey deeper into Germany or German-controlled territory.
Transportation to the Camps
Movement between camps was frequently conducted in crowded railway cars. Prisoners could spend days traveling under uncomfortable conditions with limited food, water, sanitation, or information concerning their destination.
Rail transportation became increasingly dangerous as Allied air superiority expanded. Fighter aircraft regularly attacked German locomotives, rail yards, and transportation systems. Allied pilots could not always know that a particular train carried Allied prisoners.
Once a transport reached its destination, the prisoners confronted the familiar features of German captivity: fences, barbed wire, guard towers, searchlights, barracks, roll calls, and armed guards.
Life Behind Barbed Wire
Although conditions differed from camp to camp and changed throughout the war, certain experiences were common to many captured Second Air Division airmen. The prisoner's world revolved around barracks, fences, guard towers, roll calls, food, mail, Red Cross parcels, rumors, and the hope of liberation.
German guards conducted regular formations or Appells to count the prisoners. Men sometimes stood outdoors for long periods while discrepancies in the count were investigated. Escapes or suspected escape activity could result in additional searches and prolonged roll calls.
Food became one of the central concerns of camp life. German wartime shortages made official rations increasingly inadequate, particularly during the final months of the war.
International Red Cross parcels provided an essential supplement whenever deliveries reached the camps. Prisoners became remarkably inventive in combining small quantities of available food and constructing improvised cooking devices.
Cigarettes frequently functioned as a form of camp currency and could be exchanged for food, clothing, services, or other scarce items.
The Barracks
Prisoners generally lived in wooden barracks containing rows of bunks. Living conditions varied greatly, but overcrowding was common. Heating fuel was limited, particularly during the winter, and prisoners frequently slept in their clothing to remain warm.
Lice, fleas, inadequate sanitation, and shortages of soap created persistent problems. Illnesses that would have been relatively minor under normal circumstances could become serious because prisoners were weakened by poor nutrition and limited medical supplies.
Keeping Military Discipline
Despite captivity, American prisoners remained members of the United States armed forces. Senior officers and noncommissioned officers attempted to preserve military organization and discipline within the compounds.
Prisoners established administrative staffs, security organizations, medical services, religious programs, educational classes, athletic competitions, entertainment programs, and escape committees.
Maintaining these activities served an important purpose. They gave structure to days that otherwise could become an endless succession of roll calls, meals, and waiting.
Letters from Home
Mail was one of the most treasured connections between the prisoners and their families. Letters might take weeks or months to arrive, and some never arrived at all.
Families at home were often equally uncertain. Initially an airman's relatives might receive notification that he was Missing in Action. Only later, sometimes after a considerable delay, would confirmation arrive that he had survived and was being held as a prisoner of war.
For both the prisoner and his family, a short letter could provide the first proof in months that the other was still alive.
Escape
The obligation and desire to escape remained an important part of prisoner culture. Escape attempts ranged from climbing or cutting fences to sophisticated operations involving tunnels, forged documents, civilian disguises, maps, and compasses.
Even unsuccessful escapes forced Germany to devote guards, transportation, police, and other resources to the recapture and confinement of Allied prisoners.
Most escapees were eventually recaptured. The murder of fifty Allied officers following the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III demonstrated that an attempt to escape could carry consequences far beyond ordinary punishment.
The Final Winter - 1944-1945
The winter of 1944-1945 represented one of the most difficult periods experienced by Allied prisoners of war in Germany.
German military fortunes were collapsing. Soviet armies advanced rapidly from the east while American, British, Canadian, and other Allied armies approached from the west. German authorities began evacuating prisoner-of-war camps before they could be liberated.
Tens of thousands of Allied prisoners were consequently placed on the roads or crowded into trains and moved toward central Germany.
For prisoners weakened by months or years of captivity, the marches could be brutal. They walked through snow, rain, mud, and freezing temperatures, often without adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment.
Some marches lasted for weeks or months. Prisoners slept in barns, sheds, farmyards, forests, or open fields. Disease and malnutrition spread rapidly. Those unable to keep pace faced an uncertain fate.
Airmen who had already survived flak, German fighters, the destruction of their aircraft, capture, interrogation, and years behind barbed wire now faced one final struggle simply to remain alive until Allied forces arrived.
Liberation
During April and May 1945, advancing Allied armies began overrunning camps and prisoner columns throughout Germany and Austria.
For many prisoners, liberation occurred with little warning. American tanks or infantry might suddenly appear outside a camp that had been under German control only hours before. Elsewhere, German guards simply disappeared as Allied troops approached.
The raising of the American flag over a former German prisoner-of-war camp became one of the most emotional moments of the war for the men who had been held there.
Freedom, however, did not mean an immediate return home. Liberated prisoners first had to be evacuated from Germany, medically examined, fed carefully, given new uniforms and equipment, and processed through Allied personnel centers.
Many American POWs passed through collection and rehabilitation centers before being transported to England, France, or directly toward embarkation points for their eventual return to the United States.
Coming Home
The return of former prisoners was a joyous event for families who had sometimes spent months uncertain whether their sons, husbands, brothers, or fathers were alive.
Yet the POW experience did not necessarily end when the gates opened. Many men returned home significantly underweight and suffering from the effects of malnutrition, disease, wounds, frostbite, or other consequences of captivity.
There were also memories that could not be seen: the loss of crewmates, the violence of being shot down, uncertainty during interrogation, months behind barbed wire, and the experiences of forced marches during the final winter of the war.
Like many combat veterans of their generation, former prisoners frequently spoke little about these experiences after returning home. For some families, POW letters, photographs, military records, diaries, and wartime logbooks became the only surviving record of what their loved one endured.
Second Air Division Prisoners of War
The story of the Second Air Division cannot be told solely through its successful missions, aircraft, targets, decorations, and victories. It must also include the men whose aircraft failed to return to their bases in England.
When a Second Air Division B-24 disappeared from formation, the empty parking hardstand back at its English airfield represented ten men whose fate might initially be unknown. Some had been killed. Some were evading capture. Others were already beginning the long journey into the German prisoner-of-war system.
Their comrades frequently knew only that an aircraft had gone down. Days or weeks could pass before word arrived that some members of the crew had survived. Families in the United States experienced the same agonizing uncertainty after receiving a telegram stating that their loved one was missing in action.
Those who survived capture became part of a second battlefield, one fought not with B-24s, P-47s, P-51s, bombs, or machine guns, but with endurance, discipline, ingenuity, companionship, and the determination to survive.
From interrogation at Dulag Luft to the compounds of Stalag Luft I, Stalag Luft III, Stalag Luft IV, Stalag Luft VI, Stalag VII-A, Stalag XVII-B, and numerous other camps and hospitals, these airmen continued their military service as prisoners of the enemy.
Some endured captivity for only weeks. Others remained prisoners for more than two years. Some escaped. Some died in captivity. Thousands survived until the Allied armies finally reached them during the closing weeks of the European war.
Their experiences are an inseparable part of the history of the Second Air Division and the Eighth Air Force.
Remembering The POWs
Today, the former prisoner-of-war camps are scattered across several modern European nations. Some sites have almost completely disappeared beneath farms, forests, roads, and modern development. At others, museums, memorials, surviving foundations, reconstructed barracks, monuments, and cemeteries preserve evidence of what occurred there.
The physical remains are important, but the most valuable record survives in the experiences of the prisoners themselves: wartime correspondence, diaries, POW identification records, photographs, drawings, escape maps, camp newspapers, personal memoirs, oral histories, and the memories preserved by their families.
For descendants researching a Second Air Division airman, discovering that he was a prisoner of war often explains only the beginning of the story. Identifying the date and location of capture, Dulag Luft processing, POW number, permanent camp, subsequent transfers, evacuation route, liberation location, and return home can reconstruct an extraordinary journey across wartime Europe.
This section of the Second Air Division website is dedicated to preserving that history and to remembering the American airmen who exchanged the dangers of combat in the skies over Europe for the hardship and uncertainty of captivity behind German barbed wire.
Their aircraft may have been lost, but their service did not end when they became prisoners of war.
For more detailed POW camp documentation, photos, and stories of the 7 camps:
Click on one of the POW camp images below from b24.net.
