Hundreds in 452nd held as POWs in WWII

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Matt Proietti
  • 452nd AMW Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  10th in a series

More than 750 men from the 452nd Bombardment Group were shot down in B-17 Flying Fortresses over Europe in World War II. 

While most became prisoners, 61 evaded capture and 74 made it to neutral countries, according to the 452nd Bomb Group Association, a fraternal organization made up largely of unit veterans and their families. 

"I was more of a reluctant guest than a POW," said Technical Sgt. Arthur Mills, 86, of Lawrence Park, Pa., an engineer/top turret gunner on Princess Pat. "They pretty well left us alone. They guarded us, of course." 

A Luftwaffe pilot shot down Princess Pat May 12, 1944, when 16 aircraft from the 452nd were lost on a mission to bomb an oil refinery in Czechoslovakia. Sergeant Mills was one of 625 prisoners of war from the bomb group, predecessor of the 452nd Air Mobility Wing at March Field. 

"You're at 20,000 feet, you've got some airplane shooting at you, they're trying to kill you - - and then all of a sudden your plane is so shot up that you can't keep it up anymore," he said. "You've never bailed out before and your plane is on fire. It's quite exciting. Panic, you know." 

Princess Pat crashed in a wooded area between Mombris and Daxberg, Germany. All 10 men aboard it survived. 

"We had to be the luckiest crew in the whole world because our plane was riddled with holes from wingtip from wingtip," said Sergeant Mills. "The wings looked like a sieve." 

The six enlisted troops were imprisoned at Stalag Luft IV in Poland, which had a compound for English prisoners and three for Americans. Non-commissioned officers didn't have to work because the Germans respected rank, said Sergeant Mills. The aircrew's four officers were kept at another camp. 

Dr. Vernon Williams of Abilene, Texas, Christian University, head of a study on England-based 8th Air Force operations, said the biggest danger posed to aircrew members was by German civilians looking for vengeance after months of heavy Allied bombing. 

"People (saw) their crewmates killed. They were miraculously saved because (German) soldiers showed up and forced the civilians back," he said. "Many people told me that story where they were the only one or one of two or three in their crew that (lived), most of whom had survived the jump and were killed by civilians." 

Sergeant Mills said he saw men brought to Stalag Luft IV who were injured after they landed. 

"Guys came into camp beat to a pulp by civilians. You can hardly blame them: how would you feel if your wife and daughter were killed by American bombers and some guy lands in your backyard in a parachute? Those same people today would regret killing somebody like that, but how mad can you get (at them)?" 

Advancing Russian forces prompted the Germans to march 6,000 Stalag Luft IV prisoners south from February to April 1945 just before the end of the European campaign. Sergeant Mills suffered an infected foot and his clothes were filled with lice during the 600-mile trek, he said, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 men. 

"The Russians were getting close," he said. "The Germans should have let them take care of us. The logistics of feeding us (was) really something." 

Sergeant Mills was liberated in Germany after 11 ½ months in captivity. His foot was treated with sulfur by Russian doctors and then by Americans who had penicillin. He weighed 98 pounds, down from about 140 prior to his capture. He said he didn't suffer as many health problems as heavier men who lost half or more of their weight. 

"What got me through was my sense of humor," he said. 

Aircrews and planes from the 452nd participated in six POW evacuation missions, carrying 4,054 men to freedom. Sergeant Mills recuperated in a hospital 90 miles from his Pennsylvania hometown. 

Some 452nd men flew damaged B-17s to neutral countries. First Lt. Curt Weibel, 87, was a pilot whose plane's engines, landing gear and oil lines were damaged by flak June 21, 1944, over Germany. 

"I told the (navigator) to get his maps and find us the closest friendly area," said Lieutenant Weibel, a resident of Wakefield, R.I. 

Flying on only two engines just above treetop, he steered the aircraft to Sweden, where it crash landed. All 10 crew members survived. 

"A man said, 'You lucky sons of (expletive), the war's over for you," said Staff Sgt. Norman Katt, 84, of Huntley, Ill., a waist gunner on the same crew. "And it was, really." 

The officers were hosted as guests in private homes, while enlisted troops stayed in hotels or cabins. The men drew pay from the U.S. embassy and bought bicycles and cameras during their 5-month stay. Lieutenant Weibel was sent to Texas and then to Georgia to work as an instructor pilot before the war ended. 

Sixty years after he was taken prisoner, Sergeant Mills returned to Germany in 2004 with his son. Prior to the trip, a local newspaper received 50 responses when it published an announcement of his visit asking if anyone remembered the crash of Princess Pat, he said. 

"You would have thought I was the prodigal son. They had a great big reception for me. It was so funny - all of these people turned out. It was embarrassing." 

Sergeant Mills found pieces of his aircraft in the forest where it crashed and obtained a copy of a report filed by the pilot who shot down his plane. He brought home a brick from a potato cellar at his former POW camp. 

At the party held in his honor, a man gave him a soup bowl with a swastika on the bottom as a memento and another came forward to ask the sergeant if he remembered him as the boy who carried his parachute in 1944. "He stood next to me...and he hugged me. Can you imagine that?"