The crew were as follows:
Pilot: Kenneth Hale, Co-Pilot: Nick Morgan, Navigator: Robert Nielson,
Engineer: Pat Caulfield, Radio Operator: Carl Goetz, Ball turret Gunner:
Harold Uebel, Waist Gunner: Dave Allen, Tail Gunner: Harrison W. Roach, and
Toggalier (enlisted bombardier) Richard B. Musgrave.
Musgrave's plane was shot
down on his Mother's birthday,12/12/1944, over Frankfort, Germany. He
credits the pilot, Kenneth Hale, with saving the entire crew by keeping the
plane under control until everyone had baled out. Upon parachute landings,
the crew were captured and imprisoned at Stalag Luft 1. By way of prison
food, the men received only rutabaga and cola rabbi. Red Cross parcels
sometimes arrived, but for long periods none appeared. Nonetheless, in
preparation for Christmas, the twenty-four men in Musgrave’s room saved such
Red Cross crackers as had arrived. These they crumbled together for a
makeshift Christmas pie they baked on the room's cooker.
Musgrave recorded some POW
information in a little journal he kept at the camp. As it happened, he and
his roommates had a pool about when the war would end. Each had bet two
dollars which of course, none of them actually had. So Musgrave had included
all these entries in his journal, thus providing a complete list of the
occupants.
The officers from Musgrave’s
plane had been assigned to another room. But the enlisted men were all
together as roommates, listed below with the other roommates. Because the
sixty-five–year–old pencil entries had faded in places, some names were in
question or incomplete. In such cases a question mark is entered:
Edward Anderman, Warren
Anderson, Palmer Arrowood, Edward Cado, Eugene Cronin, Harold Derr, James
Dodge, Frank Élan, Carl Goetz, Bob ?, Paul Moore, Hank Rutkowski, Chick
Lowe, Harrison W. Roach, Eugene Shiffmin, Edward Shiffner, Ben Sheppard, ?
Strive, E.C. Thompson Jr., Leo Ublanski, Harold Uebel, Cyril Vrabel, Edward
Westell ?, and Cleo C. White
Other items of interest in
Musgrave’s journal include the autograph of then Lt. Colonel, and later to
be Colonel Francis G. Gabreski, the well-known leading air ace. Gabreski was
the Compound Commander, the compound being one of three making up the camp,
whose head was another well-known air ace, Colonel Hubert Zemke.
One final point of interest
is that, while this was going on in Germany, Musgrave’s brother-in-law (and
father of this bio’s author) Major John U. Rapp of Batavia, Ohio, was with
the army, fighting in the Philippines and New Guinea under General Douglas
MacArthur.
Musgrave lives with his wife
Tina, near their two sons Doug and Dan and their families, in Chagrin Falls,
Ohio. His phone and address are above. Musgrave’s niece, Sandy Rapp, can be
reached at 631-329-5193 and
SandyRapp@aol.com.
