This story is written by WWII Veteran and POW Charles 'Chas.' Looper, who grew up in the Lake Lindsey area, near Brooksville. Looper writes about his 27th and last mission which was a part of Battle of the Bulge. His unit was flying P-47's over Luxembourg when he was shot down in enemy territory. This is the second of two segments.ond of two segments.
At one time, I was transported by ambulance. In this vehicle were about three wounded German soldiers and myself not including a driver and helper up in the front cab. Well, about every bump we hit, the wounded moaned. We had a heater fueled with wood in the back. I tried to keep the fire going by throwing in a stick of wood every once in awhile. I must have thrown a lighterd knot (A pine knot with lots of resin in it), and I thought we were going to melt down it got so hot!
When we arrived at the hospital, The doctors and nurses took good care of me. One nurse I remember used to come and take my temperature by putting the thermometer under my arm. I thought that was unusual, but that was their method and it worked. They kept telling me what a good place the prison camp would be. Ha-I just couldn't wait! When it came time for me to move on I asked the nurse to tell the authorities that I had a high temperature and could not be moved, but she wouldn't.
My toe that got frozen caused lots of pain when I tried to walk. I was escorted by two soldiers on a train. I asked one if he was good with his pistol, and he said what sounded like, "Ich ben Expert!" I took his word for it. I asked the other one if there was good hunting in Germany by making the motion like I was shooting a gun. He said, "No goot, no goot!" I knew that I had given him the wrong idea, so I drew a picture of a stag's head with antlers and he said," Ya, tis goot!"
Upon my arrival at the camp up on the Polish border (Stallag Luft 111 I believe), I was locked up in a small room with a guard for the first night. He was as sleepy as I was. I noticed that he was nodding and finally he moved his chair over in front of the door so that I couldn't escape without running over him.
I was put in with thousands of others and began to feel that I was finally where they were going to "Treat me so well." I remember for a short while I was with some British airmen. One asked me, "Why don't you Yanks stay home and keep out of their wars." I thought that was a silly statement for him to be making, but maybe he had a point.
My big toe was still paining me; but I noticed that they were walking around the compound quite regularly and I asked why? They told me that since the Russians were getting close, we would probably be making a forced march to get out of that area. It happened three days after I arrived. We were forced to pack whatever meager luggage we had and get into long columns and began to walk. We were guarded by the old home guard at this time. We would walk for fifty minutes and rest ten. We were watching an old soldier leaning against a tree resting, and one man said, "You know, that old man is old enough to be my Grandpa." He went over and offered to carry his pack. I was really impressed.
I got so tired walking and my feet started to blister. I was about ready to fall out and let them pick me up in a wagon or shoot me when we arrived at some sort of headquarters. I got to ride in a wagon with a soldier. Let me digress a bit- when I was in grammar school, we had a man principal-teacher who was in World War One. He mentioned that the Germans started their horses by making the sound ddrrddrr (If you can imagine what that sounds like). Well , when we got into that wagon and the soldier said, "ddrrddrr," my memory carried me right back to that classroom and my teacher's story.
When we got to a train station we were placed on what I believe were called 40 and 8 cars.(40 men and 8 horses). We sat on the floor and were so crowded that we had a time trying to stretch our legs. After a long ride we arrived at Moosburg and were placed in Stalag 7A. There were compounds for British, Americans, French and Etc. Thousands! I've heard since that there were over a hundred thousand of us.
We received a boiled potato, a piece of very hard dark bread, and some soup daily. About once a week there was some meat in the soup. When the Germans cooperated, we received Red Cross packages. We usually shared a package with another fellow prisoner. The bread we received from the Germans was so hard that they carried it about like wood in a wagon with no wrapping around it. (I heard later that it did have wood in it).
I don't remember exactly what the parcels contained, but they had some candy and a "D" bar which was a chocolate bar so hard that it was hard to bite. Powdered milk-a few cigarettes and canned meat spread. We built small cooking stoves from the emptied cans we received from the Red Cross parcels. Wood was at a premium! As we walked around the compound, we picked up any wood that we found. Even a used match stick was picked up. Later we found out that there was a sub floor under our regular floor. It was also used as cooking fuel.
There was a space of cleared ground about ten feet wide running along the fence with a single wire on sticks. This was called the warning wire. Signs stated that anyone stepping over the wire would be shot. It was raked and foot prints could be easily spotted.
Quite often we would place look-outs at the doors and have a news briefing. I knew more about our troop movements in camp than I did when on the outside. A map would be placed on the wall and a leader would explain the latest happenings. They would give the Allied news, then the German view of the news. They seldom agreed as to what was happening. I was told that many of the radio men from the bombers could make a radio out of things they found around camp. That's how we got our news.
There was an escape committee in camp. If a man wanted to attempt an escape he would present his plan to the committee and if they agreed, they should furnish that man with documents to aid in his escape.
On April the 28th. 1945, we knew our troops were nearby. Suddenly, we heard shooting. Several of us jumped into a trench near our area. We heard a popping noise and I heard later that bullets make that sound when they pass close by overhead. By this time, the guards had left and our camp was taken over by American troops. A tank rolled into our compound and we really were happy to see those friendly faces!
And thus ends my story about my 27th and last mission
--Chas. Looper.