Chronicle of Dixie’s Delight

Part Two

 In the fall issue of Splasher Six, we flew the Berlin mission with this crew, sharing their harrowing mission and following them as they bailed out of their doomed aircraft.  In part two, the journey continues with their evasion and capture experiences.

 As Bombardier Howard Leach floated down after bailing out of Dixie’s Delight, he spied below a heavily wooded area with clearings and a pond.  “I headed in that direction, pulling heavily on the shrouds.  The landing, in two feet of water, was jolting.  I rapidly disengaged myself of the chute, towed it to land and covered it up the best I could with debris. I buried my 45 service revolver and ran for the wooded area, descending into a narrow, water filled ditch covered by ice, where I lay down. It wasn’t long before two soldiers appeared on a bridge 100 years upstream.  They were joined by a number of youths – the search party.  I lay face down daring not to move as two teenagers passed me on the ditch bank a few feet away.  The soldiers remained smoking before leaving.

 “After what appeared to be a long wait, I managed to crawl to the bridge, my lower extremities frozen.  Adjacent to the bridge was a fallen tree into which I crawled, none too soon. A wagon appeared and passed over the bridge.  I hid out until dark and found my way into the center of the woods.  Here I built a fire and dried out my clothes.  I was wearing my field jacket over the ‘heated flying suit’ and fleece lined boots.  My shoes were gone from the bail out.  I was deeply depressed and became tearful.  Someway or other, I had to find my way out of Germany and get word home to the folks that I was safe.  They could not bear the loss of two sons.

 “I examined the escape kit by firelight.  It consisted of a map, compass, matches, halozen tablets, chocolate bar, bullion cubes and a hack saw blade, which I concealed in my pant leg.  I gathered up my earthly belongings, put out the fire, and headed west guided by the North Star.  I found a road and was able to dodge a bicyclist who was headed to the nearby town, which was apparently under attack by English aircraft, presumably Mosquitoes.  The sirens were wailing, search lights were probing the sky, and there was a bomb blast or two.  I traveled all night knowing search parties would be scouring the woods come daylight.”

 Pilot Wally Oldham’s experience was different from Howard Leach’s.  “I was picked up right away.  I landed in a small village in an open area right in the middle of a circle of people who had been watching my descent.  Their local policeman was right there with drawn gun by the time I got my chute gathered up.  They were country people and not overly hostile.  However, I had some anxious moments as they marched me down the road to the village center.  By that time there was a crowd of 50 or so people following and every time we passed a tree, I expected to see someone throw a rope and noose over a limb.”

 Waist Gunner Tom Ramsey was another member of the crew that managed to evade immediate capture.  “After landing, I hastily gathered up the chute and took off running.  After a while and since I couldn’t detect any pursuit, I stopped to take stock of the situation.  I removed the chute and harness, found a large hollow stump, and stuffed it in.  I didn’t change my boots immediately because the ground was wet with melting snow.

 “I had my survival gear tucked in my flying suit.  I don’t recall the complete contents, but by far most important were the compass and maps.  I had a spare compass, which I had acquired before the mission. 

 “I was very surprised to see the great expanse of forest.  Since I was raised in the country, all my life I hunted and fished.  I felt that I was in my element and stood an excellent chance of getting back to England.  I had only to stick to the forest, travel at night, hide out during the day, and I was home free.”

 Meanwhile Wally Oldham was facing an entirely different set of circumstances.  “I was kept chained to a post in a barn, and numerous villagers, some of whom could speak a little English, came in to look at me and ask questions.  In high school I had a couple of years of German, so I had a limited vocabulary enabling me to understand and make myself understood to a degree. 

 “Later, the police took me to a barracks where they kept some French and Polish slave laborers under military guard.  I spent the night in a cellar there and the next morning was taken to a farmhouse where more villagers filed through.  After a couple of hours the police brought Carl (Co-pilot Carl D. Dunn) in.  He was caught on landing at a nearby village and had no ill effects from the jump or treatment.”

 Tail Gunner Ralph Kalberloh landed in a tree and, after disentangling himself, fled.  “I wasn’t hurt, but all I had to eat for an entire week was a candy bar.  On the third day I met a Russian male slave laborers and a Russian girl, from whom I tried to get help, but no deal as both of them were afraid of getting killed.  I walked every day until I was exhausted.  My feet were frozen and swollen so that I couldn’t take my shoes off.  My clothes were frozen stiff.  It didn’t make much difference then whether I was captured or killed.  On the fifth day I decided to surrender before I became so weak that I would pass out and die of exposure.  I surrendered to some Belgium slave laborers who turned me over to the Gestapo.”

 Evading, Tom Ramsey fared rather well for a time, and was never hungry while evading capture.  “I had plenty to eat even though it was mostly raw potatoes and turnips which I found buried in cellars everywhere.  I supplemented these with occasional eggs, which I stole from chicken houses.  These eggs were eaten raw, as I felt it was unsafe to build a fire.  On one occasion I filched a large frame of honey from on of the old classic dome-shaped beehives.  I can imagine the consternation of the farmer when he opened his hives.

 “My optimistic assessment of reaching England didn’t take into account the conditions I was to encounter. During this time, Germany was experiencing a ‘February thaw’ with lots of melted snow about.  It rained and froze during the night and the daytime thaw made travel difficult.  My flying boots became hopelessly waterlogged, so I discarded them in favor of the GI boots.  I was wet most of the time.  The nights were so cold that my toes began to freeze. I didn’t realize this until by the end of the fourth or fifth day when my feet when, with my feet badly frozen, it became very painful to walk.  My feet were so badly swollen that I couldn’t take my shoes off, so I slit the sides to relieve the pressure. 

“I was continually amazed at the extent of the forest I encountered.  Some of it was re-growth, some uncut forest, and some were plantations where trees were planted in rows.  I could have traveled the whole week and never left the forest.  I wished many time that I had brought my 45 or Colt Woodsman 22 pistol with me.  We had been cautioned not to do so because if caught we would be considered to be an armed enemy and probably shot forthwith.  However, had I possessed a firearm, it would have been easy for me to keep myself supplied with meat while hiding out.”

 Like Ralph Kalberloh, the state of Tom Ramsey’s feet forced him to surrender. 

 Meanwhile, Wally Oldham and Carl Dunn were being transported to Luneberg, where Ralph Kalberloh would also be sent.  “We were told that we would be taken to the city jail in Luneburg, which was only a few miles away,” wrote Wally.  “I had lost my shoes when I jumped, so I told them I couldn’t walk and, by golly, they brought a horse and carriage, so Carl and I rode to jail in style...the carriage driver in front, the two of us in back, and two Luneburg policemen, on bicycles, escorting us. 

 “After we got to Luneburg, we were interrogated by the Gestapo and then turned over to the military.  They seemed to accept the name, rank, serial number routine, but volunteered info on our crashed plane.  They said it crashed and burned in a meadow and that there were three unopened chutes aboard so we must have lost three men.  I didn’t mention that those were spares so they probably thought they had caught all the survivors and didn’t realize that there were still two men not taken.

 “Most of the prisoners in that jail were German military personnel.  Their cell doors were not locked, so they were free to roam the area in front of our cells.  Most were curious about our presence and gathered about asking questions, seemingly aware that the war was in its last months.  After a couple of days they brought in Dick (Gunner Richard G.) Chapple.  He was okay and glad to see us. 

 “Another day or two later, in the night, some guards took us out, loaded the three of us and two guards onto a passenger train bound for Hanover.  It was great timing as Hanover had just been the target for a bombing raid.  The ambulances and cleanup people were still there when we got off the train.  Needless to say, our presence created quite a scene and fortunately the guards did a good job protecting us from the irate populace. 

 “Our destination was Frankfurt.* There was a change of guards there and they held us until dawn in the sub-level floor of a bombed out hotel building.  On leaving there we rode a city street car, along with the early morning ‘going to work’ crowd, to an outlying camp.  It was an interrogation center, complete with solitary confinement cells and the daily grilling for any kind of info you might have.

 “At this center they had a file on each individual with all sorts of military stations and former occupation.  They knew that I had worked for Consolidated Aircraft and I believe that caused me to have an extended stay in solitary.  Consolidated was building the B-36, and when I left there all they had was a mock-up of an experimental model.  I had never seen that or was hardly aware of that supposedly secret project.  The German intelligence wouldn’t’ buy my ignorance on the subject, but finally after a week all POW’s were sent for sorting out to go to their respective service camps.”

 The member of the crew who evaded the longest was Howard Leach.  From February 3rd to February 13th he evaded searchers, battled gnawing hunger and bone chilling cold. 

 “It was impossible to sleep,” said Howard.   “Hunger was ever present. Around two or three in the morning, I was proceeding down a main street when out a side road appeared three Germans with a bicycle equipped with a light.  They stopped me and began to question me in German.  I replied, ‘Yo estoy un Espanol trabajo.’  They wanted my certificate.  ‘Es perdido,’ I replied and started to walk away.  One of them grabbed me by my flight jacket and the other blocked my way with the bicycle. 

 “The one that could speak Italian wanted to know what was in the sack.  I emptied its contents on the ground: three turnips, a pair of socks and a shirt I had taken from a clothesline.  I was wearing the trousers over my flights pants.  Under the glare of the flashlight I gathered up my meager belongings, put them in the sack and took off.  The last I remembered was one of the Germans saying that he knew there were Italiano trabajos but nix Espanolas. 

 “On February 13th, it was still dark when I entered a large city.  Thinking that surely I had crossed into the Netherlands, my thought was to select a home on the outskirts of town and ask for refuge.  I walked down the main street as daylight emerged.  To my dismay, I encountered a building enclosed by steel fencing laced with swastikas!  I had to get out of town.

 “I headed for the outskirts of town and into a huge open field only to encounter gun emplacements.  The field was laced with 88’s pointing skyward.  Nearby there was a factory which was blowing up.  Last night’s bombing raid by the RAF had dumped delayed action bombs, which were now going off.  I set down and studied my map.  Nearby were two railroads entering a town which must be Leer, and beyond the second railroad was the border, some 20 kilometers away.

 “I had only to go past the two railroads, cross the river and travel a short distance to reach the Netherlands shown on the map.  The first railroad crossing was easy.  I found an underpass and then was confronted with crossing over the second railroad.  There was no underpass.  I must pass beneath a railroad guard station in which I could see soldiers.

“I made the crossing without looking upward, climbed the road nodding to two elderly Germans tending their garden, and stopped to look across the river.   What I had mistaken to be a an abandoned factory turned out to be a border outpost.  Emerging from a dugout appeared a German officer, monocle in eye.  Seeing me, he called, ‘Comen here, boy.’ 

 “I had run my course.  I stepped forward, saluted, and announced that I was surrendering.  I thought he would drop his monocle before he approached me with his luger drawn. 

 “I was taken underground to a room where he and other soldiers assembled.  A phone call was made and I was ushered out of the dugout and transported to a nearby airfield to be interrogated by the Luftwaffe.  A search of my pockets revealed a couple of 45 shells, which seemed to excite my captors, and then they found the hack saw blade concealed in the cuff of my trousers.  The officer in charge became annoyed that I would reply only to my name, rank, and serial number.  I did not reveal to them that this very airfield was the secondary target for me on the February 3 raid.  I nervously expected B-17s to appear any moment.

From the airfield, I was taken under guard to Leer and placed in a solitary jail cell.  An elderly prison guard appeared giving me a cup of ersatz coffee and a stale piece of black bread.  He spoke English, telling me that he had spent some time in the United States living in Detroit.  I lay down and slept.  It was the end of my attempted escape from Germany.

 *Frankfurt am Main was a Dulag Luft interrogation camp.

 -end-