The liberated Frenchmen are above, a B-17 in modern days and Pilot William G "Bill" Godbey who flew them to freedom. The quote below is from a newspaper article. "Bill also helped fly out French citizens after they had been rescued from German slave labor camps in the Black Forest of Germany... The laborers had to stand up during the flight, because the B-17 he flew was stripped down. They couldn’t speak English and my dad couldn’t speak French, but he tried communicating with them not to open the hatch or they would all fall out. When he finally landed the plane at an airstrip by a small French town, he was voted honorary town mayor." http://wkcurrent.com/memorial-day-stirs-memories-p1501-71.htm