Below is an example of his journal entry titled, "Points to
Remember".........
"That queer silence after the jump. The helpless feeling at the sound of
shots. The view of the railroad and village in the valley to my left. The
sight of the rest of the group fading into the distance. The landing in the
pine thicket. Astonishment at the welcome by Paul the Austrian. Slipping and
sliding over the snow to the farmhouse. The farm children on their skis. The
excited curiosity of the women and children. The cookies and milk.The
first betrayed feeling at the sight of the trooper. The cold shoulder given
the Volkstrom by the civilians. The scenic beauty of the winter time alps.
The curious heating arrangement in the farmhouse. The old mother's wonder
and gratitude for the Ivory soap. The bewildered look on Bart's (??) face
and our joy at meeting. The apparent friendliness of the inhabitants. The
search in the police station. The attempts at communication by the school
boy and the old man. Their admiration of our flying equipment. The clumsy
interroga!
tion. The long empty candy dispensers in the railroad station.
The speed of the electric train. The long cold hike out to the camp. The
insolent cruelty of the German NCO. That cold night on the bare table. The
glove incident. The discovery of Kautzman (??) on my way to the latrine. The
reunion with Abel, Faith, and Johnson. The spuds, soup and barley pudding.
Carrying Kautzman piggyback to see the Hauptman (??). The friendliness of
some of the guards. The curiosity of the Luftwaffe guards. That wonderful
relief when D.D. (here he is referring to DD Williams) walked in.
That exhausting walk to the station with crippled Kautzman. The
atmosphere in the train compartments. The "monkey in a cage" feeling under
civilian surveilance. Their gazes, varying from curious to spittingly
hostile. Rosenheim - The Russian woman working on the railroad. The bomb
blasts. The sound of my first real air raid alarm. The calm (he underlines
calm and has a ? immed. afterwards here) evacuation from the vicinity of the
station. The utter exhaustion after about a mile of carrying Kautzman.
The theft of the wagon. The old man on the bicycle. The sound of bombers
overhead out of sight. The Polish workers. The 51 staffing the station. The
French workers with their gift of real American cigarettes. The Shell gas
and Coca Cola signs. The Christmas tree at Bad-Abling (??). The cadets on
the PT field. The girl at the typewriter, Catherine Carlens twin.
Parting from Kautzman. The discussions with the Luftwaffe guards. The
German bread dried on the radiator. The 2000 departure. The night in the
station at Rosenheim. German cheese. The women dispatchers for the trains.
The loudspeakers in the stations. The well-dressed civilians. The bitter
cold stations - fuel shortage plus bomb damage. The absence of window panes.
The cobble stone streets. No motor cars. The overflowing trains. Passenger
and freight.
The gift of cigarettes Emlaw (??) talked the flyer from the Balkans(??)
out of. The JU52 pilot. The apparent stupidity of the guards. They
continually missed connections in Rosenheim, Munchen, Ulm (??), Stuttgart,
Heidleberg, and Frankfort. The super streamliner in Munchen. We just missed
it. The cold, cold trains. The huge cathedral, undamaged, only about a mile
from the station, in Ulm (??). T
he absence of large quantities of war equipment. Just a few guns on some
of the trains. The patched up locomotives. Twisted rails and shattered
windows. The similarity of the countryside between Ulm and Stuttgart to that
around home. The obliterated factory buildings. The amazement at good
condition of the tracks themselves when the entire station seems destroyed.
The once beautiful dome over the station at Frankfort, now shattered
completely by bomb blasts. The hubbub and confusion at the air alert. The
boy in the bomb shelter playing with the automatic rifle. The episode in the
square at Frankfort (he underlined this). OberUrsol (??) - the New
Years Greeting from the smart aleck interrogator. That first bowl of soup.
Solitaire (he also underlines this).
Mitchell, Donald E. 2nd Lt. 0834470
POW #7312 - Stalag Luft #1
Barth, Germany
19th March 1945 North 3 Compound
Room 13 Block 309
Roster:
*1. Ivey, Maury H. (1st) 0-664188 1120 W Main, Cennison, Texas
*2. Neudorfer, R.H. (2nd) 0-771776 Box 797, Boise, Idaho
*3. Silvey, W.R., Jr.(FO) T-127501 8452 Cante Ave., Chicago,
Ill.
4. Aldridge, J.S. (2nd)0-82886 401 Stiles Ave., Mapleshade,
N.J.
5. Gavanonski,G.A. T-129529 157?? Finch Ave., Harvey, Ill.
*6. Williams, D.D. 0-827767 R.R. Russels Point, Ohio
7. Smith, Bowman L. T-127679 511 Clark St.,
Maryville, Tenn.
8. Schamis, Abe (2nd) 111-45-76th Ave., Forrest
Hills, LI N.Y.
*9. Mann, Elton F. (1st)0-768612 115N. Hardesty, Kansas
City, Mo
10. Macksey, Earle (2nd)0-1172532 310 2nd Ave., West Oskaloosa,
Iowa
11. Neider,Joseph M.(2nd)0-708748 1746 Manzanay(?), Rivera, Cal
*12. Everheart,John E(2nd)0-555966 Box 407, Roswell, N.M.
*13. Rutherford,John L(1st)0-822273 3311N6th St., Philadelphia, Pa
*14. McCutcheon,R.B. (2nd)0-829246 1 Starling Ave., Martinsville, Va.
@15.Hedstrom, R.E. (2nd)0-714079 5659 Bartmer Ave., St. Louis, Mo
*16. Mowry, D.D. (2nd)0-2060567 702 E. Division, Audubon, Iowa
17. Treynellis, K.A. (1st)0-819349 565 Cliff St.,
Cliffside Park, N.J.
18. Williams, Geo. E.(2nd)0-714243 3215 2nd St., St.
Clair, Pa
*19. Carrol, P.L. (2nd)0-7711532 Laurens, Iowa
20. Winger, H.B. (2nd)0-2057067 403 Main St., W Middlesex,
Pa
*21. Carpenter, John (2nd)9-823309 2034(?)Earnest St., Jacksonville,
Fla
*22. Fulton,Bruce W. (2nd)0-707595 201 Erlanger Rd., Erlanger, Ky
23. Harvey, Charles (??) 0-33796733 Philadelphia, Pa
* - I placed this whenever Uncle Donald had a check mark at the person's
name
@ - I placed this whenever Uncle Donald had two checkmarks at the name
|
