Shot down 5 January 1944 in B-17 #42-30155. Prisoner of War (POW).

Conditions in the camp in East Prussia were harsh and even more so when Red Cross parcels ceased to arrive as the Russians pushed westward. When in 1945 the Germans started blowing up the camp Charles and three other inmates made their escape in the confusion. They headed east toward the Russians who were apparently shooting everything in sight. To avoid any misunderstanding they found a civilian who painted a reasonable good copy of the Stars and Stripes on the backs of their prison garb. They commandeered an old Mercedes Benz which was soon taken from them by a Russian major who gave them horses to ride instead. After a month of riding 'aimlessly eastward' they turned round and headed west. They eventually made it to American lines making a grand entry 'Four horsemen with Cossack hats, pistols, rifles, swords and bayonets'. They made it back to Chelveston some eighteen months after that memorable flight of January 1944.