Barth Germany
The story these photos tell took place in central Germany during the years 1941-1945. Most of them were taken in Stalag I, Barth, up on the Baltic Sea. Just outside Barth was one of the many POW camps established to house the thousands of Allied airmen who for one or other reason, didn't make it back to home base, but who, on the other hand, survived the hail of bullets, anti-aircraft explosives, crash landings and other hazards of combat. We must give special thanks to then-2nd Lt. Philip Melnick, deceased, of Monterey, California for preserving the majority of photographs from which these slides were made. In addition, six slides showing how the camp was built and of the four members of one B-17 crew were taken by then-1st Lt. Linn Stuckenbruck. He had his camera in a pocket in his flight suit when shot down. Upon liberation, he managed to retrieve it and snapped the unexposed film around camp while we waited to be flown out to France. And I have added several of my own photos, some of that time, and some quite presently taken. The story these pictures tell consequently, skips around in time and place. Because, as an American flying officers, we were afforded generally liveable treatment--misereable as it was so often was--we now can look back at those days without fearful flashbacks of terror or dread. So lets begin...