Prisoner of War (POW) Hit by flak and crashed near Coudres on 7/8/44 in B-17 'Take It Easy' 42-97173.



A pilot with 323 Sqdn, 91st BG James Fore later wrote a book "Tragedy and Triumph: A Pilot's Life Through War and Peace" about his experiences (1st Edition 1996). After bailing out of his stricken plane he was sheltered for the night in the cellar of the house of the farmer who had seen him come down. The following day 9th July 1944 Fore and other members of his crew met with Resitance leaders who planned an escape route for them. They were first taken too Paris where - at some point - they were betrayed and taken instead by the Gestapo. As they had been kitted out in civilian clothes they were not treated according to the Geneva Convention and were instead taken to Buchenwald. Fore spent 100 days at what was virtually an extermination camp and was very close to death when an officer of the Lutwaffe arrived and manged to get him and the other American airman transferred to a Stalag Luft POW camp. 'While happy for our group I felt concern for all those thousands of poor wretches we left behind, with no hope of survival...all their futures held was total misery, torture and death'. Fore was eventaully liberated at Mooseberg April 25th 1945 having survived the notorious Long March. 55 years later - following a career in Civil Aviation - He was re-united with Maurice Duval, the farmer who had sheltered hime that day in July 1944.



POW