Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is
James Bainham. He is a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two,
during which he flew B twenty four bombers. In late September nineteen forty
four, his plane was shot down on what is now known as the Castle
Mission Raid and he became a German prisoner of war until he was liberated near
the end of the war in April nineteen forty five. And sir, thank
you very much for being with us. You're welcome being welcome. Where were
you born and raised, sir well, I was born as a little warcker
argans Law. I was raised mostly i'd say Petrick Kinda, Texas. What
was the impact of the depression on your family? Manda. I had a
church business and it is a texta kunta and in the early thirties, I
guess the pressure hit. His customer has disappeared and it fold to see what
broke. I was about ten eight or ten. We moved to Glenvin's,
Arkansas for a couple of years live with my grandparents there. How did you
hear the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Do you remember where
you were and how you heard that news? Yeah, I said, I
was saying a home in Textakouna. I graduate from high school the summer before,
and I was in actually lay in bed, listened to radio late morning
and heard it on the radio. Yet, what was your reaction to hearing
that news. I don't remember immediate, but I was like other kids,
serious, ready to enjoy something to everybody else. Now, you were about
seventeen and a half years old at that time, So did you enlist as
soon as you hit eighteen or did you get drafted? What was the process?
Yeah, I soon as I was eighteen, I went over to Dallas,
took the aviation to the test, passed it. I worked for a
Safeway at the time, so soon as I passed it, of course I
was signed up. That was the somber of four to two. But went
home and they sent me a note that I would be wouldn't be called active
duty till December of that year, so I had to go make my job
back for a while. Why did you choose the Air Corps because I didn't
want to go into infagery. Where did you go for training and then flight
school. Well, I signed up, called back to Dallas, sent to
send on to Lacland Air Force Base which was Kelly Field in December. Starting
what took basic there was about eight of ten weeks sent for primary flight training,
sent to Colon Airfield, ol West, Texas for nine weeks of a
primary flight train. From there, left and went to basic training which was
a place called Waco Army Airfield. Took basic air for iron ten weeks and
then set across the other side of Waco was a bit called Blackland Air Force
Base and it was advanced training twin INDs in advance and I graduated and got
my wings there. What was the most challenging part about flights, Well,
for you just surviving. I think about half the guys get worsed out,
probably on purpose because that was the player, just to not get morsed out
and study everybody of the driving force that was survival. At what point did
they designate you to be a bomber pilot? When I went to twin engine
advanced at work called black Foot, almost destined to go to Bolt the engine
flying and I graduated from twenty ends. You got my wings and commission and
was sent to tart Field in Fort Worth, Texas, where they told me
how to fly. I'd be twenty Four's described the B twenty four. I
was a big old buck everything four engines, great, big old twelve fifty
horse power. It was a box. It was hard to fly. It
had a date what the called Davis League, which was very skinny, very
little left. But it holds more bombs than to be seventeen, and we're
further so it was probably more of them built in World War Two than there
were sevent these, But with seventeens, that was one of the one of
the main heavy bombers that were for the europe. How much farther could it
go than to be seventeen, I don't really know. Don't remember that we
could go as high we flew it about twenty eight twenty two thousand people for
bombing seventeens would go up to twenty four twenty five thousand, so they had
a little less accuracyve Flack had none that we did. Both of them had
ten positions, a lot of guns on them be twenty fours, although in
forty four they took the belly charts out, so we didn't have a billet
protection. They took those out, give us another thousand pounds of mobs because
of them. It's because of chure of air force would come up unders and
just lobb cantons. And sometimes you mentioned that it was like driving a big
old box. So was that something that you adapted to pretty quickly or did
it take a while? The Oh the conversation from then that sance that the
twenty four was harder to handle than the seventeen. Didn't have a minute mesch
lift on it, so it took more muscle I think to make it,
make it move and do things that needed to do it. But I guess
we kids were fled. We took it as a matter of pride for rather
than a problem. Now, you headed over to Europe on the Queen Mary
in the spring of nineteen forty four. What do you remember about that voyage?
Yeah? Actually, I think it was a Queen at the same ship
and it was taking us about four and a half days. It traveled fast,
or fifteen thousand people on it. We were three pretty well, despite
the fact that we had a lot of people on him, officers which we
had arrived status. I had four officers on my crew, six inlisted van
and the officers eight in the dining room with British wars and pretre you well,
plus said we had on that trip. And memorable was it? Miller's
orchestra went over with us. Miller wasn't there, he flew over, but
a drummer named Mary mckindley who had handled a band the Little Railver, and
they put a few few shows on. So we were kids from Arkansas.
That's pretty impressive. Absolutely, absolutely. So where were you stationed once you
got to England? First went to Ireland for a little orientation, then a
two three weeks and then wound up in East Tangiia. We were about twenty
miles in nors little area called Timpenham. Our bases were only about three miles
apart all over that end of England. We had a lot of our singing
division, which was betwenty four division, all over the place, just a
few miles apart. Tell me about your first mission. What do you remember
it most about it? I don't remember this particular. They took me off
away my crew for the first mission and I flew with another crew as follow
just to get it under my bells. I got and it was scary.
I remember my legs shaken when we rolled the flak room run on the bomb
runs with flak busted right outside the windows. But it was meant to a
doctrine and me to the world that it did. And the next mission I
took my crew with our problems and we went back to Germany and bobbed again.
I got to tell you one manner of pride for our for our bind
group when I got there. Our COO COO for one of the squadrons was
the extracy contribute Seward. Ever, ever, I took pride to that he
was a real genuine baller pilot. He actually flew missions over Germany, and
I think he had twenty minu and Andrewsville when they promo him the wing.
But he had a lot of respect. We took pride into the talking part
that it was our boss. Now we'll get to the mission where you were
shot down in a little bit. But you have said that perhaps even more
harrowing than that one. Amazingly was your fourth mission. Tell us what was
happening that day and how it unfolded. Yeah, it was this. Now
it was pretty deep into Germany. I forget what target was and we were
flying long and one just starting the bomb run over their bombays, and a
ship and a woman above us about five hundred feet got a dress hit by
flack and exploded and dove down right into the plane amazedly in front of us,
probably ondrew feet, and the two of exploded. We went through their
explosion and it blew us over on the back. We went straight down for
about ten thousand feet, came out to dive someway and lost our group.
Of course, we were out there by ourself. Our mombs old bookless on
the shekels and tumbled out. But we came out of it and took handing,
vaxing on and of it. He was nowhere. We were alone.
We finally made it back home that day. So it was a harrying moment
and scary. Our plane never flew again. It was so warped out of
truth, but we made it all. How tough was it to keep her
in the air. It was really hard to bring her out of that dive.
We were going straight down. Charlie Buskin was like co Violin and I
were both on the wheel trying to pull it out of the dive. There
are a lot of forces are. We were carbdent because I was the fact
that to I stress my virgular park. So we took our time and yeah
it was hard. That's James Banam, a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War Two. Still to come in this edition, mister Baannam will tell
us about his B twenty four being shot down over Germany, bailing out and
becoming a prisoner of war for the next seven months. But up next,
Baynam walks us through a bombing mission, from briefing to take off to the
bombing itself. That's next. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty
Seconds of Service. This sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile.
T Mobile offers exclusive discounts for a veteran and military families and are proud supporters
of the National Defense Network. Visit t mobile dot com slash military learn more
about how they support our military community. Roger Jensen has a heart for helping
others. For decades, He's been giving back to veterans and his community in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I think anytime someone steps up to help anyone at
all, it makes them feel better. Also, Jensen said, it's something
Jensen has built his life around since serving in the Marine Corps. He said
he was just seventeen years old when he got to Vietnam, where he spent
most of his three year tour. He said he struggled for years after coming
back and eventually found solace in a church where he helped local youth. That's
where he learned giving back to others also helped him and his recovery from PTSD.
Today's sixty Seconds of Service is brought to you by Previgen. Prevagen is
the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand. You can find Prevagen in the
vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumba's.
Our guest in this edition is James Bainam, a veteran of the US Army
Air Corps who served as a B twenty four bomber pilot in the skies of
our Europe in World War Two. Ahead Baynam will take us to that fateful
day his bomber was shot down and he became a pow. He'll also share
his adventure of getting home after being liberated near the end of the war.
But right now, mister Bannam walks us through a bombing mission, from getting
the assignment to flight preparation to executing the bombing. We lived in a little
distant hut along with a couple other crews, at least the far off so
he did, and in the middle of the night we would hear a jeep
coming to wake us up, maybe a mile from the flight line, and
right here, the Lord he stopped outside our room. If we were on
the list that day, come in to wake us up, and we get
up, get our eyes open, and make our way to the flight line.
We would wind up eating breakfast somewhere along the way got to the flight
line. The briefing pretty much like you're seeing the movies where a bunch of
guys are in a room, some officer walks in, pulls pull the curtain
off of mat and shows the string going to Germany and the conversational weather,
the speed, the location, all that goes on during the briefing. Tell
me about taking off and getting information? What did that process involve? Well,
wait, of course, we cut the trunk out to the hardstamp where
our bomber was. We had a position in the TEXI formation to get out
to the runway and take off where we did some three flights. Of course,
me and my engineer would walk, complain, make us sure if we
could everything was okay, and then we load on, get our gear on,
get our crew in position, get a flare from them control tower,
and start taxand and fulling into a bigger line. There'd be on our base
about thirty OUs of thirty five would takeout finnerbout every thirty second saved fire,
green player, and we'd head down the runway only loaded B twenty four.
We had about eight thousand pounds of bombs twenty seven hundred gallons of gas,
so we were pretty heavy, heavily loaded. But take all the runway and
get off. Just start climbing to the altitude. That was a pretty dangerous
thing based for three miles apart, and we would take off and five couple
thousand feet and maybe you turn to keep doing that till we got to like
twenty thousand feet. If anybody made mistake, there's us. There were using
some wrecks during the the formation period, maybe a few planes would go down,
but before we were and left for Europe. Now, did you generally
have fighter escorts for at least part of these flights or no. Yeah,
we did most of the time. I'm not sure when the peak fifty ones
came in. Forty sevens were there when we got there, but they didn't
go quite as far as the fifty ones would. So whenever the fifty ones
arrived they gave us full fire coverage. It was so significant because the minute
you didn't have fire coverage, you had German fighters coming in right after.
But that's fifty oneths were there. They finned a lull for the most part,
and we only had to face flack. Tell me more about the flack.
There's not much you could do about it. So how did you deal
with it? Were dealt to? It? Said? By a pattern?
Go again. For the most part, there was a couple of gaps in
the coastline of Europe that the German's intentionally left open for us, and our
whole bombers free would go through those gaps. They in casely did that so
they could get us into the one place they do where they we would be
going. Usually, if we did that, we got over the coast without
much flat. Generally then we didn't really have much unless the night of the
take. We didn't have much until we got to the to the bomb zone
and when we got on to the target. Because most ivory bombers Frankfurt,
Berlin or Hamburg a big city area and they had their flat cars on rail
cars, so when they found out where we were heading, all the guns
went to that towards that area that were available. So generally they had good
flat coverage no matter wherever you were heading. Tell me how things unfolded as
you approached the bomb target. We had what they was called an IP initial
point. That's the area where all your all your planes from one target would
go through to form up to head towards the target, which is quite a
few minutes to give your volveteer time to line up and aim and drop their
bombs. And from that point to the target there was always a lot of
flat It was really heavy. They were eighty eight. They were really good
at what they did. Usually immediately when we got in the flat area,
they were right right on us and our flike shelves were bursting royal center our
windows, and many times we'd get theirs and a plane we got shot down,
dockle wingall whatever. Did you deal much with enemy fighters? Only a
couple of times we had fighters come through our group and had Bronzer gone time
and they did us. But they came through the element of our group,
not down five planes in one pass. They came from above. They were
developing a genetic graphic. Time had a jet led for FW one nineties to
our group, shot some planes down, dough for the ground and took off.
That's only a time we had fighters other than Castle and Castle that is
in mass. That's James Banham, a US Army Air Corps veteran of World
War Two. When we come back, Baynum takes us step by step through
the mission that ended with him as a German prisoner of war. I'm Greg
Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is James Banam, a veteran of the
US Army Air Corps who served as a B twenty four bomber pilot. In
just a moment, you'll hear the whole story of his eleventh mission, which
resulted in his plane being shot down and Beanam becoming a German pow. But
first Batam shares more about the types of bombs his plane was dropping and how
he and the rest of the crew dealt with the severely cold temperatures on board
every flight I very one mission, we would have one hundred pounders, another
ish so we'd have two thousand pounders. We'd hold four vols with a whole
fifty one hours founders. The sequence normally was that our group would be made
up of different bombs, and the lead the lead squadrants going in would drop
dead nators, big bombs that blow things up. Even some of them were
delayed explosions for even after some hours are to go into their areas, stay
there and then blow up later, but they were devised to make gruble to
uh tear things up. Then the second group behind them, maybe another quadrant
two would be dropping and sindiory bombs which were generally smaller bombs, and the
actually explodier one ground went in as smaller as sinderies, set everything old farm.
And then the last group to be easily hundred pounders that would have shrapparral
be anti personnel bombs keep the firefighters who put the wire out. There was
another challenge that you faced just on board, and that was the severe cold.
What were those temperatures like and how did you deal with that? Well?
They were I was seriously called that time of the year above Germany,
around twenty to twenty four thousand feet to be forty degrees or fifty degrees below
zebra. Usually. Of course, we were sitting there at seat for six
eight hours at a time, so we had we had an electric suit to
slip into, even had electric gloves, but they didn't work very well against
that heat. We wore or we could. We had silk gloves and wool
gloves and leather gloves and panted shoes underneath our fl this but nothing was quite
out. It was there was always post by. I'm not LEAs now don't
work wall because they suffer from neurosity which has caused from way a boat.
Then, sir, how many missions had you flown before the day you were
shot down? Jim? I was on my level, all right. So
let's go to that day September twenty seventh, nineteen forty four. Again it's
known as the Castle mission raid. What was the mission that day? And
tell me how it unfolded. We were vombiting Castle and the targets were varied
from different bomb groups, but there were a lot of probably triple art that
I was going into that area. We were leading wing our group was that
day, and so we were first into the IP and headed towards castle for
some reason, and it's been a big fight for many many years for the
lead crew made the navigation era or where they may just made a JUDGM mineral
decision area, but one way or another, our league group went eighteen euries
to the left before we got to the target and took us off completely off
the bomber stream. The second group behind us corrected the problem, stayed on
the route, and we wound up about fifteen minutes out of fighter covering.
So there's only a level bit a time till the loopwoff identified us and came
at us for about one hundred and fifty fighter planes. They made four passes
and shut down twenty five hours of thirty of us in we and the fighter
planes that she came back to the area shut down nineteen with the fighters.
We were gone. Yeah, so where was your plane hit? How did
you know? It was in dire condition? The first task, we were
hit with cannons twenty dollari cannons from way behind out of our range of our
picture calibers. They just kind of set back behind us, and the first
pass they love those cities. Those cannons did to us and blew things up.
Quite a few planes got drunk, heads explored, went down. Our
formation got broken up, just completely, just centegrade and we wound up after
the first year where there was some generators on fire that filled their plane with
smoke, but it wasn't fatal and we got it out cleared to smoke and
the second could pass. They center Bombay's all bar hundred detail Bombays which is
where the gas tanks for Lokate Ronald cow Pom. We didn't mow up.
We fought it for a couple more passes, but eventually we blew up.
Meanwhile, before we did, we all jumped out. Was that your call
to abandon the plane? Yeah? Yeah, I try to looked that way
that I ranging the bell A navigator and bombs Air were up at the front.
They came to hundred eighth fright deck. Pont lailed after Bombay. My
radio man flew up on the flight deck. He bailed Bombay. My co
pid left. My engineer was in the turk top turret and he followed them.
My tail gunner got had a cannon exploded his turret and was blinded.
One iron shot up pretty badly. The way waistcutters hooked him up, put
his shoe on him and dumped him out because so he'd lived, and he
did. He lived me ninety years old. Then the waistcutters followed him out
to the hats. I obviously got out to the bombay with fire, fire
going around here, and then were to hit the ground. Tell me what
it was like jumping out of that burning plane. It wasn't a problem in
all with hard liquor at you it was. It wasn't a through pest at
all. It just had to happen. We were fired about twenty twenty one
thousand I jumped. We were down to about twelve thousand times. I jumped.
I didn't help my sheet because there was so much wreckage in the air
that it was dangerous. I let it. I free fell for about till
I was about two thousand feet high, and then opened and floated on down
to the ground and got captured. Do you remember thinking anything in particular on
the way down. John was glad to shee open. They always told us
that, yeah, if you're free falling and the ground starts looking like it's
getting larger. It's time to open your sheet, so I'll follow the ice.
It seemed like it's okay. And what happened when you hit the ground
A bunch of potato farmers, old guys for harvesting, and right below all
the fewer going on above them. So they had their fish forks out of
Edinburgh Bridge ready to take the young American fires capture, probably still bragging about
it. Were Are there crewmates near you where you landed? No? I
seen there was a guy for another ship of what was brought in the global
village where I was. We were spread out quite a bit because from the
time the first guy jumped till I jump, we were a little town there
did their house and was the name of three of my guys landed closer there.
All got caught pretty close to each other, put in cars and taken
to a compermine nearby and just tortured and beat up and then shot. They
were all murdered that day. The guys were trying to Durenberg and three umber
run for there were murders. What a difference depending on where you landed.
Yeah, I have absolutely just I could have been killing. The crowd was
some of them. You know, they had a national policy to kill flyers
where they propaly God to call us terror figures, baby killers whatever. So
a lot of scot killed by people on the ground because their families had been
bombed and they're ready to fight. I had four of my guys got killed.
Two got injured severely jumping out of the plane and suffered but real seriousness
all their life. Three of us didn't get hurt. Everywheund up in prison
caps. Our young girl was about seventeen who watched me land that actually be
captured in that old town, and she went and got a school teacher,
a lady was older, spoking nice as she talked to me, and she
as she calmed the crowds down, kept me from gettle. Inch, I'm
sure. And I actually met her a few years, about ten or fifteen
years ago, back over there and went around the area where I went down,
and she was so alive. She a lady, but the teacher or
the young girl, the young girl, it was as a meet her.
Yet, So what happened once the German military took you into custody, Well,
the first night I've wound up in jail, the second in Frankfort,
and the second night, along with probably a dozen other guys, I've been
given up and was in a jail cell and at an Air Force based at
Ashwet. From then on we're pretty pretty safe because we were with the loop
Flop and their handling out people was a lot towards those Geneva condition where the
asss were pretty brutal folks that they got here. Did they interrogate you right
away? What did they do first? Yeah, there's there's I was sent
I guess the second night I was a catch. I was sent to operas
a little little interrogation sent around eight Frankfort, and I was set put in
uh solitary UH for two three days and taken in and and interrogated by your
guys who were going to shoot me and all that stuff, not to scare
your kid. And then then there was one guy in charge of the center
that were pretty famous. Interrogated a lot of higher officers and I had a
session with him. But then I didn't know like a lot. I was
like I was a bomber bottle. But anyway, they finished us, put
us on train and sent to Northern upon the ball succeed stallar both one two
three day train ride from Frankfort up there. What were the conditions like in
Starlight left one? They were sparse, but they were livable. When I
first got there, we got Red Cross parcels of food, which kept it
from starving. We got those for two or three months after I got there,
and then I guess all the whole systems in Germany started breaking down,
and we didn't get much of bigges thing to eat, very smallowed out,
got hungry and cold, and but we survived. What specifically did you eat
and how much did you get to eat? When we first got there?
The parcels had other things like tin of fish, oleod biscuits or hard crunchy
cookies of some sort, how little same and maybe all sorts of stuff like
that. But it was a few cans, and it was enough to sustain
you for a week, not to sate your affetite, but to sell you.
And we had that. While we had that, it was we were
fine. When we ran out of that for breakfast, we using it a
couple of papers and slices of black bread and a couple of Urson's coffee for
breakfast. I was about it then once our room had twenty guys and we
had a pot in there that would boil full of water. Put a couple
of handfuls of dried turnips in there and each have a little soup without each
seasonings, salted greaser, and then supper we used had three or four very
small potatoes and a couple more pieces of the black. That was about it.
So we loved. Wait, what were the sleeping conditions like they were?
Okay, it was cold, no hesion there, but they were.
It was out of the way. It was in barracks. We were in
barracks that had twenty guys for a room. They left us in at night
at the endoor the train on one end for night years and the daytime there
was a central tree outside that we use. We made okay, we were
kids, Yeah, said were you allowed to bathe? Once every week we
got to go to the h We had a game shower with bea gets in
a big room and we walk on there. They turn the water on for
a minute we could soap up, and then after another minute and the turning
back home, we could wars the soap Paul Man. We got there every
week. Get did they force you to work now officers couldn't work. I
was on a said Judeva convintion where we would have been better all because manually
ever been better to be doing something then sitting there going crazy. That's James
Bainum, a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two. He flew
B twenty four bombers in the European Theater, was shot down and became a
prisoner of war. In a moment, the conclusion of mister Baynum's story,
including his liberation by the Russians and an incredible adventure to get back across Europe
and get home. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This
says Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is James
Bainum, a veteran of the US Army Air Corps who served as a B
twenty four bomber pilot and spent seven months as a prisoner of war. In
a moment, you'll hear how Baynum's prison Camemp was liberated, and all about
his adventure getting back home. But first Batam continues his description of the Pow
camp and reveals that the prisoners were actually very well informed on the progress of
the war. Yeah, we probably were really well versed. Someone had the
Swedish Red Cross had sent in a photograph. I guess it was as some
of the wizards of our group had taken apart and found some crystals in it
and actually made radios on them, and we had a radio on our barracks
he had hidden somewhere and CEO of the barracks. At night after we were
locked in, they would hook up the crystal radio BBC on it, and
then of course during the day's the Germans shamus there news. We probably had
a good idea of what was going on, as anybody with both those sources
tell me how you were liberated. Ran the end of April, we had
we had a Colonel Fighter Powell who was a senior America so there Ziff Key
was his name. He was our in charge guy in our in our military
changing command. So the Germans dealt with him for things they needed to do.
So they called him in and said they were moving us together us out.
The Russians were on their way ant Our territory, so they were going
to move us force march us out to keep us from Big Three to the
Russians and ziff Key rocutes for us to leave. He said they could leave
they wanted to, but we were staying put. So and it works.
And Germans actually the let very last year or sold may they vacated the camp,
actually open the gates and marched. That has left us there, but
Stiffkey in charge of us. The next day the Russian troops came through our
chair journey. Their decision was to put some trains bocked card take us to
the Bictible of Believe overn Over on the eastern shore of Russian and post on
bost and take us back to America. But Jiffy refused to do that.
There were seven thousand opposite the camp, so we had little laders. We
were being a big chore. He said, we're not moving, and they
actually faced them down. So the Russians took on off and went. They
kept going west and meet up with the English and the Americans. Oh,
we stayed there for a couple of weeks. The plans started, having made
for the eighth there for us to come in and fly us out. Took
a couple of weeks to get together. So after a week another kid died
from Brooklyn. We didn't have the idea of just sitting there. We weren't
sure what the Russians you're going to do and all these accused, so we
were just kids trying to do something. So he had our left camp one
morning early after a week there and walked about ten miles right across some Russians
who had taken all the Germans bicycles away from talking out of a couple of
those. We rode, rode the Westway about fifty mile Vsar to English lines
and came back home that way. Good old American ingenuity. Absolutely, yeah,
yeah, we're just done as we should have been killed probably, but
if we weren't, being able to get that far, even on a bike
is impressive. Given what you had just been through as a prisoner of war,
what kind of condition were you in? How much weight had you lost?
For example, I'm a skinny kid. I'm normally worried about an urn
seventy five, and I was found about fifty but I was in medal shape.
We were still pid. I was twenty twenty one years old. Our
trimp was the district. Of course. We rode to vs Far. The
English took us in and posted on GI truck took us south a few miles
to American lines. They posted on another truck rolled about half of they got
the central Germany to Hildershein Air Force Base, which was a big base,
and the Americas were flying at plane full of French, mainly French sleevely we're
flying them back to France already. So Pat and I went out to the
airport, talked to some Polos and they let us sit on their flight back
and we flew from Hildershin to Nancy, got over. I don't know how
we did it, but we got on a buckard rode night tripped down to
near Switzerman to an American hospital. They told us we be patient, they'd
send us back to the Channel so we can go home, and that wasn't
what we were doing. So we got back to the station, jumped on
the hospital train going north and the next day we were at camp like a
strick up near the MP. After about ten days we got a boat and
came out, Tom Bulson. So basically you bargained your way across Europe.
Yeah, yeah, we just we like to say we had a adventure.
Every where we went. The trained this was court martial, but would pretty
much do with appeal devils. They were going court martial. Z. I
love that story, mister Bannon. Most of us will not know, thankfully,
what it's like to lose our freedom, but you do, and you
also know what it's like to get that freedom back. So tell us what
it's like when you lose it and how it feels to get it back.
It's pretty decimal vegue in prison, but it didn't kill you. Yeah.
We had twenty of us in our room and we got along. I had
a sort of a little group there that ran our lives. We had rules
about various things where we have one guy that we liked that we acted so
we had to try out kick him al's room, made him go somewhere else
and camp and find a place to sleep. We ran things that this we
could. Every year. We got books, had some books paper banks from
Red Cross, so we read. We kept along. We talked about girls
at first, so we ran out of two. We talked about food.
Water went down for three days one time we talked about water. So whatever
it was important in our lives is what we do. All telling you when
you think back to your time and service, sir, what are you most
proud of I just get through it. Yeah, I'm a pretty proud kid.
All of us were our ten guys that were, you know, nineteen
to twenty something years old, and they were just coming kids from all over
the country doing a job that they you had to be done. There,
weren't they saying dramatic about it. May you brag about it, but oh
all for your lives and some of them, several of them, David,
pretty impressive stuff when you think about it for a younger where we were extremely
impressive. And we're extremely grateful. Mister Bannam, thank you so much for
being with us today, and most of all, of course, thank you
for your tremendous service to our country. Yeah, your war com thank you,
Thank you. James Bannam is a US Army Air Corps veteran of World
War Two. He piloted B twenty four bombers. He also spent some seven
months as a German prisoner of war. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans
Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please
visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow the American Veterans Center on
Facebook and on Twitter We're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center
YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course, please
subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for
listening, and please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles