Shot down 13 April 1944 in B-17 #4240016 'The Character. ' Prisoner of War (POW).



POW

Joseph W. Kiska

“My Last Mission - April 13, 1944”

written on August 31, 1944, while a POW at Stalag Luft I (Barth, Germany)

(transcribed from handwritten notes in pencil by his daughter Regina Kiska)



Was awakened by C.Q. at about 3:00 a.m. I was already tired as I could only manage to get 5 or 6 hours sleep as we flew missions every day for the past few days. I finally manage to leave my nice, warm bed and get into my cold clothes. We all walked down to the mess hall to eat what we didn’t know but, to this day, that was the last egg I had. Caught the jitney and rode to briefing, which was at 5:00 a.m. We were briefed on what looked like a real long raid to me. Augsburg. The route certainly did look long time on the map on the wall. Pavia, our left waist gunner, was grounded with frost bitten hands so he was replaced by Jim Cullan, who was going on his first raid.

Take-off was for about 7:00 a.m. I went to Q.M. with Radman to get him red sun glasses, everything went swell. I passed around the escape kits and chocolate bars and gum. We carried forty-two 100-lb. incendiary that day. We were flying 016, which we flew on our first mission. We flew over England as usual and, after we were formed, we were on our way. We entered the Continent between Ostend and Dunkirk, seeing no flak. We were at 16,000 till we got near Frankfurt, then we clinched to 21,000 ft. We had 47s for escorts, and they stood in close. 703 dropped out of formation when we were pretty deep and we took his position as #3 ship. The view was terribly good as you could see the snow on the mountains and the castles near that area. We finally turned on our I.P. and we could see flak ahead. It looked pretty intense but we thought nothing of it as we rode through it before, which was as bad.

The Navigator was riding in Bombardier’s seat and he dropped the bombs a few moments early. The Pilot never knew as he was on V.H.F. [RK note: Although dad was officially the “co-pilot,” he was in the pilot seat on this mission, the pilot in the “co-pilot” seat]. A few seconds later we were in the middle of it. You could feel that they were pretty close as it sounded as if pebbles were thrown against the ship. The top turret was hit and plexiglass spread. About a second later my left hand felt ajar so I looked down; I had a flak hole in my hand and the blood spurted out. I held my hand over it and it felt ok.

The interphone system didn’t work; shifted radio around but no use. Had to feather #3 engine as manifold pressure fell low and engine was only windmilling. Engine #4 was afire so we feathered that and we dropped from formation and turned right, losing altitude. The other engine didn’t seem to run right. Flak was tracking us right along as we flew alone. A 47 pulled up alongside. It didn’t seem as we could make Switzerland so the pilot told me to get out. I pulled the warning switch as I was on the pilot side. I told Engineer to go out. I pulled the emergency release on the bomb bay, then threw off oxygen and helmet and went up into the nose to tell Bombardier and Navigator to get out. I left through the lower escape hatch. It wouldn’t jettison so I just sat on it and slid off. I cleared the bomb bay pretty good .

I was clear of the ship and I got the last glance about 150 feet below it and it was a strange feeling to see it pull away with #4 sending out a stream of smoke and flame. I was kind of groggy but, when I hit the cold air, I was ok. I could see the blood on my hand turn a light pink as it was freezing. It sure was nice just floating through the air. I dropped from about 20,000 to 10,000 feet before opening chute – what a jerk. Everything seemed so quiet. In my left hand was the ripcord, which I threw away and watched as it fell away. As I neared the ground it got warmer. I noticed large pine trees and I didn’t like the idea of landing in one. I swayed back and forth, I could see farmers on plows as I neared the ground. I could feel the warmth rising from the ground.

I landed near a farm with a farmer with rifle, waiting. I braced up for the landing and hit ok. I opened the first aid packet on my parachute and put a compress on my hand. Took my chute off and, by that time, a farmer with a rifle was frisking me. I put up my hands and he was amazed to find that I had no small arms. There were quite a few people in this village, which had many religious statues about. I was taken to the first house and was given water to drink. I ate some of the candy in my escape kit. I soon got used to the people staring at me; they seemed to be pretty nice. A little later, as the pain increased in my hand, I gave myself a morphine injection and laid down for awhile and fell asleep.

I was awakened by a German officer who had a car waiting, and off we went. Was about 5:00 p.m. then. We drove for about 5 miles and stopped at a little town. The scenery on the way was pretty nice, mostly farm land with cattle roaming about. At this town I was joined by my Engineer. At first I pretended not to know him. We were then taken to another town where we went to a building where there were German enlisted men. We were searched and everything was removed from my pockets. We stand there for about a half hour where the men sure sized us up.

I was then taken to a hospital where I had the piece of flak removed, and I spent about 3 hours there. When I was gaining consciousness after having ether, I was being questioned by nuns as to the target we hit. They asked if we bombed Munich. There were many German soldiers at this same hospital. At about 10 I was taken to a truck where I saw the Bombardier and Navigator, also Engineer, but that was all. I asked where the others were. He said two of them were in the box on the truck. They were the Pilot and Left Waist Gunner. We were told to get on the truck. We went about 20 miles not saying much all the way but sure did a lot of thinking. I was lying down on the open chutes that have been collected from the crew.

We finally arrived at where we got quarters for the night. We were stripped of all belongings – watches, rings, identification tags. Here I found out that the rest of the bodies were supposed to have been in the ship. Also was told by the Navigator, who was the last one out of the ship, that the Radio Operator would not jump. He was to have summoned the men in the waist and had as he went through. The Bombardier and Engineer and Navigator went out the Bomb Bay. The Navigator was the last one out alive, and he left at about 8,000 when the ship went into a dive. He could not force the Radio Operator to jump, so he had to leave to save himself. The Ball Turret Operator was in his turret when we hit. The Radio Operator was at his table. The ship burned on contact with the ground and blew up, leaving quite a crater.

I slept exceptionally well, as I had morphine injection and anesthesia. Breakfast was coffee and hard bread – and I mean hard. The weather was real warm, much warmer than England. About noon the bodies were ready for burial, and we saw them for the last time. They loaded them on a truck and they were off. The guards were very social, we passed the time very fast. We left at 7:00 that night for Frankfurt. We changed trains a few times. We talked with many German soldiers who were from the States. One was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At one stop the soldiers were infuriated when they lost their compartment to us, so we had to get off and wait for another train. We saw soldiers from all branches and all kinds of uniforms. We rode all night and got to Frankfurt the next noon, where we got interrogated . We were only 2 hours in Solitary, then taken out to the regular camp across the street. We stayed there [RK note: at Dulag Luft] for 2 days – met about 7 or 8 of the other fellas from my group who were shot down a few days prior to me. The place was pretty dirty, and I was glad to get out of there. We finally left and rode on a freight train 2-1/2 days and arrived at Barth [RK note: at noon on April 20, which was Hitler’s birthday?]