Suddenly, I heard a low flying plane, probably looking for the location of our downed aircraft. Nearby was a small tree, so I crouched under it, hugging the trunk so I couldn’t be spotted from the air. Finally the plane left the area and I was sure ground troops would arrive shortly, so I headed for the edge of the woods nearby to hide until I figured out what to do next. As I entered the forest, I saw a man collecting firewood. I noticed where he had left his ax and I worked my way between him and the ax which was not to close to him. I made a little noise and in doing so the man turned around and smiled. I smiled back and gave him a little wave. We approached each other and got acquainted. I found out that he was a Polish POW out on a wood cutting detail. So we sat down and enjoyed a smoke together. The wood cutter couldn’t speak English, but he was friendly enough and he sure enjoyed my Chesterfield cigarettes. While we sat there, he explained in broken English and using sign language, how and where I should go to get out of there without being caught.

I took off in the direction he told me and I was making good time until I came to a good sized stream and had to change course. As I was looking for a place to cross the stream, I heard someone call to me. I turned around and waved to them and kept on moving. The person or persons called again so I thought I had better stop. Two civilians approached me, one was dressed in a gray suit complete with spats and an overcoat. “George”, the guy in the suit said “Fur you da var is over”. I looked at the two of them and I said, “All right, George, what now?” He answered, “Kum”. I followed the guy in the suit and the next thing I felt was the farmer who gave me a shove. I turned around and took a swing at him and he backed off. I told “George”, tell Junior to lay off and he did. From then on I didn’t have any more problems with “Junior”.

In town we stopped at a house and then I was taken to the police station. As we came out of the house I saw the whole neighborhood gathered around to see the “American Terror Fleiger” and right in the front was a pretty little blond haired girl dressed in a sailor suit watching the Germans march me off to the police station.

When we arrived at the police station, I had a feeling that I was in for a difficult time and my intuition didn’t fail me. Everyone was speaking German and they were all trying to talk at the same time. And it appeared that they liked to argue over everything. Finally, as I stood there one of the clerks walked over and stood in front of me and made a grab for my dog tags, but I managed to hang onto one of them. I’m not sure if he could understand English or not, but I told him “no way” because he wanted both of my tags. I shook my head “No” and told him without my I.D. I would be classified as a spy and be shot. While I was arguing with him another man came over and calmed the clerk down while I clenched my one tag in my fist. Apparently the clerk wanted them so he could make out his report or fill out some records. I am not sure, but eventually the tag he took was returned to me.

A short time later, another POW showed up and he was my escort from then on and he immediately asked me if he could have one of my Chesterfield cigarettes. He escorted me to another building where they put me in a cell and they assigned two young guards to watch me. I didn’t know that I was that important or looked that vicious. That evening the guards wives showed up and wanted to see the “Terror Fleiger”. I was beginning to feel like a celebrity and should be signing autographs. The guards wives were young, and in uniform and they had dark hair and blue eyes. They were very pretty girls.

The next morning, my new escort, which I named “Teddy” showed up and the first thing he did was bum another cigarette and then escorted me to the railroad station. I couldn’t understand that if he was a POW why he had so much freedom. I didn’t say anything because so far I hadn’t been mistreated and I was certainly glad that I had enough cigarettes to keep Teddy happy. The railroad station was very crowded and I turned around and Teddy was missing. I finally found him talking to a young lady. No one was paying any attention to me, so I just stood there and waited for him to return. When the train arrived I was placed in a compartment where a young woman was making small sandwiches and she gave me one. When the train left the station we were on our way to Du Lag Luft, near Frankfort, Germany.

When we arrived at Du Lag Luft the prisoners were ordered off the train and assembled in a group and marched to an area to wait for another train. The guards herded us into a barn where we slept on a dirt floor until the next train arrived. The old barn sure wasn’t the “Best Western”. After three days, thirty of us were herded into a box car with six guards. We had one end of the car and the guards had the other half. While we were traveling we had one large bucket of water for drinking and second one to use to relieve ourselves.