Shot down 12 May 1944 in B-24 #41-28715. Prisoner of War (POW).



Also flew with the 445th BG/702nd BS.



30 December 1943 on return from mission to IGF factory at Ludwigshaven. In B-17 #42-64436 "Two Gun Flossie" - A/C had accident upon landing. Baldwin Avery crew. 9 RTD.



Sergeant Cliff Syverud was on his 24th mission - only one to go - when he was shot down over Germany. Coming down in his parachute he hit 'the biggest tree in Germany' and, obeying orders, waited in a house for the military to arrive. One soldier came, with two bicycles and they rode about twenty miles to a local jail before being taken to the interrogation centre. The interrogation lasted five days, during which time Syverud stuck rigidly to 'name, rank and number'. He was then loaded into a boxcar with about 50 other men, packed so tightly that they were unable to even sit down during the four day journey.



Life at the camp was bleak, Red Cross parcels a lifesaver; the six cartons of cigarettes in each pack often traded with the guards in exchange for fresh food.



Early in 1945 as they could hear the Russian Front getting closer Syverud - with some 86,000 fellow POWs - was marched westward for many weeks in wintry conditions in what became

known as the Black March. 'When it became dark we were herded like cattle into an open field....we sat as close as we could....in a circle with one of us on the outside, sitting on the foot of the one inside. We kept rotating, to keep everyone awake....if they'd fall asleep they would freeze to death'.



They first walked into British troops, then set off to find American units. 'After seeing swastika after swastika for a year, what a feeling when we saw an American flag'.



On his retirement Cliff went around schools and civic groups to tell of his experiences. In 2009 he told his story to the Milwaukee Sentinel, confessing that he had had nightmares

for many years after.