A POW ESCAPE

LRS, Oklahoma

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I was born and raised in a small midwest town which had a large Geman population and al- though I disliked many of the people because they were very aggresive, I learned to speak German quite well. When I grad- uated from high school in 1938, I went to work in a coal and lumber yard. During high school I had TV instincts and ocassion- aly dressed in my mother's and sister's clothing. After high school I acquired a few pieces of old clothing and even found a lipstick in the park; however, I can not say that I was ever very good at crossdressing and always did it when alone.

When WWII broke out in Europe, I hung a large map on my bedroom wall and followed the news reports every evening. I also went to all the free lectures at the high school; some were on American Isolationism, the Ger- man Crusade, and the British French Alliance. The lecture that impressed me most was one about an American who joined the RAF. I was told that the man in the story was a student in England when the war started and he just enlisted. The lecturer went on to say that some Ameri- cans traveled to England to join

the RAF but most went to Windsor, Ontario and joined the Canadian Air Force. I decided to join the Canadian Air Force.

It took me 10 weeks to save enough money to make the trip to Detroit and when I got there I simply walked across the Inter- national Bridge. The Canadian Immigration Officer asked a great many questions and held me for about 45 minutes. I kept saying that I wanted to enlist in the Air Force; he answered, “Yes but there is a War on?" and kept on asking questions. He finally finished his forms and gave direc- tions to the recruiting office. At the recruiting office I had more trouble. They wanted me to wait and come back in two days. I be- came insistent and they finally agreed to ship me to a processing

center.

I was trained to fly a Huricane and arrived in England in May, 1941. I did not accomplish any- thing as a pilot and was shot down over Holland on March 17, 1942. I was captured as soon as I hit the ground and was shipped to a POW camp in Germany.

The camp was located in a small town. It consisted of a large stone building which must have been a monastery or con-

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vent at one time. It was known as St. Michael's because of a fres- co of the saint which could still be seen in the dining area. The building was divided and the guards lived on one side of the building separated from the pris- oners by a locked and bolted steel door. This arrangement conjured all kinds of escape plans and one evening, a few weeks be- fore I arrived, two POW's dressed as German officers went through the door and tried to walk out of the compound. They were de- tained by the sentry at the gate and he refused to let them leave until he talked with the prison commander. The POW's were quickly identified. After this in- cident seals were put on the door and if they were broken, the whole camp was punished. It did not stop escape attempts, it only put restrictions on the attempts.

After I was in the camp about two months, I saw my chance to escape. After roll call one Thurs- day night I saw two girls enter the guards quarters. They only waved to the sentry as they en- tered. They left a little after 11 p.m. and again only waved. I lay awake all that night making plans. I would dress as a girl and simply walk out of the gate!

I needed clothing and access- ories. The next morning I volun- teered to clean the guard's quar- ters. I guessed that the girls would forget some items which I would steal. The next Thursday night the girls came again. In the weeks that followed, I observed that 2, 3, 4 and even 5 girls would arrive about 7:30 and leave just after 11. They never stayed after 11:20. It was prob- ably illegal for the girls to come to the barracks but the officer who would enforce the rules