James had qualified as a lawyer and obtained a Private Pilot's Licence before enlisting in the Air Corps in 1942. He earned his wings and was commissioned in the fall of 1943. After being crewed up at Kearney they flew across to Scotland and on to join the 305th BG at Cheddington. From there they flew only at night - their task, dropping propaganda leaflets over Nazi occupied Europe and supplying the French Underground. On his 13th mission they was shot down by a German fighter over Holland where he was eventually contacted by the Resistance and moved around until - a month later -being betrayed and landing up in Stalag 111 at Sagan in Poland. As the Russians advanced the POWs were marched westward until being jammed in with thousands of men at Mooseburg until General Patton's tank burst through the gates.

After the war he practised law in Mason City for some 50 years. In 2002 James and his wife made a trip to Holland and he met the people who had assisted him all those years before. He learnt that the Belgian man who had betrayed him had been shot and the complicit Dutch woman imprisoned for 20 years.







Prisoner of War (POW).