I was given the usual
questionnaire sheet ,and I wrote my name,rank and serial number in the proper
places and crossed through the remainder of the questions. This didn't
bother my interrogator one bit, he just took a loose leaf binder from a shelf,and
proceeded to tell me all about the 744th Bomb Squadron and its various
activities. His remark was, "See, we don't really need any further
information from you,and so you will be going to the Hohemark hospital in the
morning there your injuries can be looked after,good bye."
A
photo of the Hohemark hospital. Courtesy
"After The Battle" magazine.
The time that I spent in this small hospital
at Hohemark Germany, was between Aug.2nd to 8th of 1944. Here I was able to
take my first bath since July 16, 1944. The wound in left ring finger had
become infected, a German Doctor operated on it,he applied some kind of
medication and then bandaged it. During this short stay at Hohemark, Francis
Gabreski the top ace from the USA was shot down and stayed here
for a few days.He seemed to have the freedom of the place and in the evening
he and some of the German officers would leave . Gabreski would return later ,
and appeared to have had plenty to drink. A day later he was gone and we were
led to believe that he had escaped,but we believed that he was traded for one
of the German aces that had been shot down over England. To this day I haven't
even heard that he was at one time a POW.
On Aug 9th 1944 I arrived at a hospital in
Obermessfeld,Ger. The cast on my leg was replaced and on the 11th at about
9:00PM my finger and arm was hurting real bad,I had a red streak all the way
up my arm and luckily the Doctor was making rounds checking on patients.He
told me to remove the bandage while he made the rest of his checks.The
upper part of my finger had actually rotted and smelled terrible. When
the Doctor returned he let me know that the finger needed attention
immediately.We went to the operating room ,he was the only one there. He gave
me a shot of something that put me out quickly. I awoke next morning feeling
wonderful, and hungry,and I still had my finger. When the Doctor checked on
me,he told me that I had blood poisoning and that if I hadn't told him about
my problem when I did that I wouldn't have survived till the
morning.Thanks to that Doctors skill , his dedication ,and sulfa drugs,I
made it.This Doctor was a British Major, that was given permission to give
himself up to the Germans so that he could help take care of the Allied
wounded. He also had the freedom to help the sick German civilians in the town.
On Aug 18th I was transferred to a hospital in
Meningen ,German.It was here that I met one of our guards that had made the
mistake of taking that "good Job" that was offered to him.His home
had been in Cleveland, Ohio.It was here in Meningen, on Sept.13th that a
train turn-around platform was bombed by two P-47 fighter Airplanes. We
could hear the 1000 pound bombs on the way to the target and then of course
the explosion, this was just a little to close. The cast was removed from my
leg on Sept 27th . On Oct 12th 1944,I left Meningen by train for Stalag Luft
III , near Sagan, Germany
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