Shot down 11 September 1944 in AC #4297806. Prisoner of War (POW).POW



Dwight Chiles

Pilot, 349th Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, England



Dwight Chiles graduated from Texas Military Institute in San Antonio in 1939 and attended the University of Texas, Austin. At the beginning of WWII he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Force, serving as a Boeing B-17 pilot in the Eighth Air Force, 100th Bomb Group, 349th Squadron.



An account by Lt. Chiles (co-pilot) on his 18th mission Sept. 11, 1944: "After the enemy planes made their first attack, our inter-phone system was shot out. A fire was raging in the bomb bay and the instrument panel was shot up badly. Lt. Baker (pilot) rang the bell indicating that we were to abandon ship. If the bell rang I couldn't hear it over the guns and engine’s roar. It wasn't heard in the nose either. Smoke began to fill my oxygen system. Baker pointed at my chute so I put it on and I put his on him under his flak suit while he was fighting the controls to get the ship on an even keel. We were leading the squadron, but by that time we were either the only plane left or the only one I could see. We were still on fire and still being attacked by enemy fighters. Our guns were still going; how many I don't know. Baker tried to set up the automatic pilot, but it was laying on the floor. He motioned for me to get out. Everything was getting black. I motioned to the men in the nose to follow me, I must have gone out the hatch then. The next thing I remember was floating through the air and the ship exploding.“



Dwight was shot down and captured by the German forces and remained in a Nazi prison camp, Stalag 1, until Russian troops liberated him in May 1945. Six of his crew members were lost, he was a POW for nine months. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and the Air Medal. In 1946, he went to work for Braniff Airlines and moved his family to Dallas in the 1950's until his retirement from Braniff in 1982