Assigned to 615BS, 401BG, 8AF USAAF. 11 x missions. Failed to Return (FTR) Kassel in B-17 42-31069 'Little Moe' 28-Sep-44; crashed near Helmstedt Prisoner of War (POW) MACR 9415

"The back end of plane was hit by flak & caught fire. Lt Daves got all of his crew out, then bailed out of the nose hatch, shortly after this the aircraft exploded. He was picked up by the Wehrmacht, and processed over the new several days into his final destination, Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany on the Baltic Sea. On 2-May-45 (ironically the day he died in 2014), he and several other airmen, seeing that all of the Germans camp guards had fled due to the Russians invasion of the area, liberated themselves by walking out of camp.
Walking through the town of Barth, my father often told of the atrocities he witnessed that had been committed by the Russians on the townspeople. Dead civilians everywhere - the Burgermeister's pregnant daughter dead in the snow, a stripped SS officer face down shot in the head (not that he did not probably deserve this). All vengeance for what the Russians had suffered at the hands of the German army."

Awards: AM, POW, WWII Victory, EAME.