Stories by Don Patchen
Photo courtesy of Sandra Merrill
Photo courtesy of Sandra Merrill
Don was shot down by flak on 5/19/44 and taken prisoner. He relates that the scariest thing that happened to him was "watching German civilians coming to get me when I was getting out of my chute near Hanover. Pitchforks with the longest tines I had ever seen and I was from the farm and had seen many pitchforks. Fortunately a Wehrmacht detachment arrived to take charge."
He was marched off to internment at Stalag Luft III at Sagan until 1/27/45. On the march to prison camp "shots were fired and we all headed for the ditch and once back in line and ready to move out, there was another volley of shots and we dove for the ditches again. Very difficult to get us up and moving again."
He was moved by foot and rail to Stalag XIII-D at Nuernberg, arriving on 2/4/45. He was transferred again to Stalag VII-A at Moosburg on 4/4/45 by foot and arrived ten days later. It was there that he was liberated by General Patton's Third Army on 4/29/45. From there he was transported to Landshut by truck and then left for Camp Lucky Strike, France in a C-47.
One of the funniest moments that he recalls was "listening to the tower tell a plane on final to pull up and go around because there was live bomb on the runway. I knew the pilot was Billie Lamb, a rather excitable Georgia boy, and could imagine him 'walling' it and trying to pick the 51 up with the stick. This was during our training in Florida."
Another of Don's favorite stories is "returning from a mission to southern France after we found that we had a tail wind going in which would make us short on fuel going out. It was every man for himself and I found that my plane ran well on fumes as we made it back to base. Many just managed to make it across the channel."