Assigned to 506BS, 44BG, 8AF USAAF. Shot down 11-Apr-44 in B-24 42-7522 'Southern Comfort II'. Prisoner of War (POW). MACR 3848



“According to my diary, we had flown nine missions prior to this one on 11 April. We were carrying incendiary bombs. Near the target, we were under a barrage of flak, getting set for our bomb run. The bomb bay doors would not open as the tracks were frozen tight. Upon informing Lt. Money, our pilot, that I could not break the ice, we received a direct hit in the bomb bay. The rest is history. “Sgt. Roop, tail gunner, saw that Sgt. Young’s hands were badly burned, took his own parachute and placed it on Sgt. Young and helped him get through the rear camera hatch door. This resulted in Sgt. Roop being without a parachute of his own. I followed Young out the rear hatch, after removing my oxygen mask because I couldn’t get the hose to release from the regulator. With the mask removed, I got 3rd degree burns on my face and right hand due to the fire all around me. “I was picked up by German soldiers upon landing and was taken to an aid station in Frankfurt. They had converted an Agricultural School into a hospital. The doctors and aids were all part of the Dunkirk Evacuation Force captured – who were a wonderful group of men. Then I was sent to Bad Soden for work on my eyes. Even the doctors there were also from Dunkirk. I was later repatriated and returned to the States on 21 February, 1945. I saw Sgt. Young once after the war.”



Awards: POW, WWII Victory, EAME.