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Chapter 6 — Stalag Luft I - The Charles Reed Holden Story by Charles “Reed” Holden of a WW II shoot-down and POW experience as related by a B-17 Ball Gunner: Page 3 of 3 Pages |
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| Our cook, Chuck Inlow, gave up the his job after about six months and Hans Sands took over. I can see Hans yet, standing by the stove feeling the side of the coffee pot to see if the water was hot enough to make coffee. Hans turned out to be a very clever person around the stove. He melted the solder off the corned beef cans and when he had accumulated enough he made a mold from some clay he found and poured the molten solder into it to form the wings like the ones the crew members wore on their uniforms. I was able to get several pair of wings which I still have today. Many of the guys in our group came up with ideas to produce things we could use to make life easier and to occupy our time. I met a fellow from Kelly Field who showed me a pan his pilot had made. It was great example of Yankee ingenuity and looked as good as a pan you would buy in a store. The pans were made from large coffee cans and I asked my friend to show me how to make them. I used a table knife and a hinge from our stove as a hammer to manufacture a few pans. When the can was cut size, I put a wire around the top and the metal was rolled over the wire to make the top rigid and it was done and ready for use. It was surprising how many things our fellow prisoners dreamed up that were useful in our daily lives. It always helped to keep busy making things to keep from cracking up from being cooped up in the barracks. There always seemed to be a poker game going on and usually it was seven card stud which was our favorite game. We used cigarettes for poker chips and it was interesting how the loot moved around the table. One night, I got lucky and most of the chips were in front of me and I made out like a bandit. Some of the guys organized a theater group who put on plays and they were great. I’m not sure how they managed it, but they were able to get costumes from the Berlin Opera and we had a great time. It was just like some of the things you would expect to see in the movies about German prisoners of war during W.W.II. I just watched a movie on the History Channel about life in a Stalag prison camp and it was very accurate and brought back many memories. Some of the fellows in our group were former body builders and weight lifters, but the only exercise we got was walking around the compound or doing push ups, so we had to improvise to keep in some sort of shape despite our poor diet furnished by the Germans. One day someone came up with the bright idea of having boxing matches. We organized some matches and put on the gloves and had four bouts, the enlisted men against the officers. I lost my bout and I asked “Irish Welch” our referee what I had done wrong? His answer was you didn’t push hard enough in the last round. I gave it all I had but my opponent was just a little better. I still think he pulled rank on me. Oh! Well! On Sunday morning we had church services for those of us that were close to the church. We had an English Seminary student in our group who was our minister and it helped to lift our spirits to hear the words from the Bible to fill the voids in our lives. One day near the end of April 1945 a Russian soldier showed up at the gate of our camp on a big gray work horse with a machine gun laying on his lap. He shouted he wanted the gates to the prison opened, he yelled “These men are free ”. Just prior to this a field force had been established by the American Officers and each man wore an arm band with the letters “FF” on them to signify the wearer as a member of the group now running the camp. Unknown to most of the men incarcerated at Stalag Luft I, Col. Hubert Zemke, Commander of the 56th. Fighter Group was the Stalag’s Senior Allied Officer and as such was the Commander of Provisional Group X. This group represented all of the Allied prisoners before the Luftwaffe staff operating Stalag Luft I. End of Page 3 of 3 Pages, Chapter 6 — Go To Chapter 7 Cover Page — Introductions — Table of Contents Chapter — 01 — 02 — 03 — 04 — 05 — 06 — 07 — 08 or Home - Contact Us - Cold War Hist. - 91st SRS Hist. - Stardust 40 Mission Story |
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