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Editor's Note:  The following is compiled from notes taken during Mr Brown's talk.  This text is not intended to be a verbatim account of Mr Brown's experiences.  If you'd like more information on Mr Brown's experiences, please contact the webmaster. 

Mr Brown recounted two stories from WWII that he thought would most interest the folks at the EAA meeting.  Mr Brown had been a 2Lt flying B-17 bombers from Great Ash Field in England in 1945. 

Two B-17s Collide 

The first incident occurred  on March 1, 1945.  Mr Brown was piloting a B-17 over Belgium on a bombing raid.  The weather consisted of scattered clouds.  The planes were required to hold formation even if that meant flying through a cloud.  Passing through one cloud, two of the bombers above 2Lt Brown collided and broke up.  A wing from one of the bombers fell and hit Lt Brown's plane badly damaging the side and tail of his aircraft.  Although Lt Brown had lost rudder control, he was able to safely return to England. 

The crew members of the two bombers that collided were killed except the tail gunner of one of the bombers.  He remained in the tail of the bomber and rode it 13,500 feet to the ground  with only minor injuries. 

Lt Brown is Shot Down 

The second incident recounted by Mr Brown began the day after his plane was struck by the falling wing.  On March 2, 1945, Lt Brown's B-17 was shot down.  Mr Brown said that his formation was normally attacked by the German fighters from the front.  This particular day, the fighters attacked from the sides and rear.  Mr Brown believes that a rocket was fired at his plane and set the plane on fire. 

Lt Brown gave the order to bail out and then sent his co-pilot back through the plane to be sure everyone had gotten out.  Lt Brown then ordered the co-pilot to bail out.  A few seconds later, Lt Brown released the controls of the plane and tried to open the door on the side of the cockpit to bail out.  The plane rolled over and went into a steep dive, but Lt Brown was able to eventually open the door.  He could not, however, exit the plane because the high-velocity air outside of the plane kept pushing him back into the plane.  He eventually exited the plane but became snagged on part of the door.  A few seconds later, the plane exploded throwing Lt Brown free of the plane. 

Mr Brown next remembered floating down to earth beneath his parachute.  He says he never pulled the parachute ripcord.  Apparently, the explosion of the plane knocked the the parachute from its packing.  Lt Brown's next worry was that some flaming part of the airplane might fall on his chute and burn a hole in it. 

Lt Brown Taken Prisoner of War 

However, he landed safely near a small town and was taken prisoner by the local civilians.  The civilians were furious at the American pilots for bombing civilian targets and took Lt Brown to a barn prepared with a hangman's noose.  Lt Brown pleaded to be taken to the Luftwaffe as a POW.  At the last minute, a local official stopped the villagers and took Lt Brown to a nearby Luftwaffe POW camp. 

Shortly after being turned over to the Luftwaffe, Lt Brown was transferred to an interrogation center in Dresden.  During the train ride, Lt Brown and his fellow prisoners burned their aviation maps and manuals to stay warm.  Burning these items also prevented the Germans from acquiring them.  Lt Brown stayed at the interrogation center for seven days. 

He was repeatedly asked during his interrogation about the "airborne buncher."  This was an NDB located on the lead ship in each bomber formation to aid in forming up for a bombing mission.  In an effort to intimidate Lt Brown, the Germans showed him photos of his airfield in England.  They also showed him a clipping from the Atlanta Constitution that annouced his graduation from flying school. 

Following his interrogation, Lt Brown was transferred to the Neurenberg POW camp.  The prisoners were organized into units similar to those of active duty units; flights, squadrons, and groups.  The prisoners had to stand in formation each morning for a head count.  One morning during formation, it was announced that the prisoners would be leaving on a march and that large men were to help carry smaller men during the march. 

Forced March to Another Camp 

One of Lt Brown's friends was a large RAF Spitfire pilot named Jack Hooks.  Spitfire pilots were normally rather small because the Spitfire had a small cockpit.  When Jack Hooks was asked why a large pilot like himself was flying Spitfires, he replied that he wasn't that large when he started flying.  He had started flying Spitfires when he was only 16 years old. 

Just days before the march, the camp received a shipment of Red Cross boxes.  These boxes normally contained food and morale items.  This time, the entire shipment was football hip pads and boxing gloves.  Undaunted, the prisoners claimed these items and found uses for them such as pillows. 

During the march, the columns of prisoners were strafed by Allied P-47s.  Lt Brown and Jack Hooks ran for cover behind a tree.  There was only room behind the tree for Jack Hooks.  Lt Brown simply crouched nearby.  When the attack ended, Lt Brown found that a bullet had struck Jack Hooks in the face.  Jack was dead and much of his face was gone.  The march continued, but the Allied pilots realized their mistake and the column was not attacked again. 

The prisoners survived the march by trading Red Cross cigarettes for food in the towns along the way.  Each prisoner cooked his food on a small stove made from a milk can.  While bartering for soap, Lt Brown learned from a local German girl that President Roosevelt had died. 

The march ended at Mooseberg POW camp.  This camp contained a wide variety of prisoners including Indian and Russian soldiers.  Lt Brown remembers that the Indian prisoners seemed rather strange to him. 

The Allied POWs are Liberated 

During May, 1945, the number of German soldiers guarding the camp began to slowly diminish as the Allies closed in on the camp.  On June 1, 1945 Mooseberg POW camp was liberated by Patton's tanks, but the tanks had no food or supplies.  However, the prisoners managed to forage food from the surrounding country and continue to wait for the Allied supply lines to reach them.  After several days had passed with no sign of relief, the leader of the POWs, Col Goo (spelling?) got into an L-5 aircraft and flew to see General Eisenhower in Paris.  A few days later, a convoy of trucks arrived to carry the prisoners to a nearby airfield. 

At the airfield, Lt Brown asked to be sent back to his old unit to continue flying.  However, he was told that he wouldn't be allowed to go back to his unit.  Instead he went with the other prisoners to be de-loused.  He was next sent to Liverpool to get new uniforms and recuperate. 

There were many former POWs in Liverpool and the local Officer's club had posted notices about various ships that were carrying POWs back to the United States.  Lt Brown and another former POW decided to wait for a better method of returning to the States.  After waiting and playing around for a month, Lt Brown and his friend found passage back to the States on board a hospital ship.  They had chosen the hospital ship expecting a plush passage home.  However, Lt Brown regretted his decision because of the number of severely wounded and disabled soldiers on board.  Although he had had a bad experience as a POW, his hardships were minimal compared to the soldiers on that ship.  He remembers seeing one soldier carrying another.  The soldier being carried had no legs, but was providing directions for the other soldier who was blind. 

Postscript 

A few years ago, Mr Brown and his wife were touring New Zealand with a tour group.  When the tour group stopped for lunch in a small town, Mr Brown and his wife chose a small restaurant off the beaten path.  The subject of the war came up and the restaurant owner asked what field Mr Brown had flown out of during the war.  It turned out that the restaurant owner had been a 9-yr-old orphan in a town near Great Ash Field in 1944.  One of the happiest memories of his childhood was attending the Christmas party thrown by the American troops at the airfield. 

Mr Brown also exhibited his POW information card that he took from the German POW camp offices immediately after the camp was liberated.  He also had the three telegrams from the War Department to his family.  These telegrams reported in turn that he was missing in action, liberated, and heading home.