Assigned to 368FS, 359FG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) ramrod mission to Hattenrod, Germany shot down in combat with 3 x Fw190's crashed near Cologne on 24-Dec-44 in P-51D 44-14329 Prisoner of War (POW). MACR 11074.



Awards: POW, WWII Victory, EAME.



Ray Boyd told his son, he was so focused on those two FW190's that he had no idea where that other one came from that shot him down. He had great difficulty getting out of the airplane due to the G loads. When he finally did, he decided not to deploy his chute immediately because of reports of allied pilots being shot while under canopy. He fell on his back for a long time, he said when he finally decided to pull the rip chord, he forgot to roll over on his stomach and the chute came out underneath his arm and whipped him around so hard it knocked him unconscious. When he woke up he was lying on his back on the ground with "the biggest German he'd ever seen holding the biggest gun he'd ever seen" telling him in English "Don't move!" He said they had it pretty rough in the concentration camp. He said when the allies were closing in the commandant received orders to have them all shot but he was smarter than that and just had the gates left open and all the Germans left the area.