||On the morning of April 9, 1944, 151 B-17 bombers were
dispatched to hit the Focke-Wulf plant at Poznan, Poland and the Heinkel plant at
Warnemunde, Germany. According to official records, 12 B-17s are lost that day, including
the B-17G Punchboard, serial number 42-39974.
The crew of Punchboard consisted of the following members of the Eighth Air Force,
452nd Bomb Group, 731st Bomb Squadron based in Deopham Green, England:
Lieutenants Harry Dukes, Arthur Wagner, Clyde Freeman, Ernest Racener
and Sergeants Robert Hazelton, Charles Cook, Robert Carlson, Charles
Garrett, Vernice Wilson, Herbert Rosenberg
Punchboard arrived at Deopham Green on January 11, 1944 and the 452nd entered
the air war over Europe on February 5, 1944. According to Lt. Freeman, the airplane was
named "Punchboard" by Lt. Racener. Freeman had wanted to name the plane
“Nasty Pants.” According to Sgt. Garrett, there
was a "punchboard" consisting of 25 spaces painted on the nose of the
plane. With each mission the crew would "punch" another square
until all 25 of the crew's required missions were completed.
After participating in 12 previous missions, Punchboard participated in the
Pozen/Warnemunde mission. It was a 14-hour flight in severely overcast sky conditions
which became worse over the mainland. Bomber command recalled the mission because of the
weather, and although the radio operator aboard Punchboard claims to have heard it, the
group did not receive the order and proceeded to the target.
The flak over the target was light but very accurate. After dropping bombs over the
target, the small group turned back toward England. It was at that time that the crew
noticed a hole in the right wing near the fuel tank, presumably a result of flak, and the
aircraft was losing fuel.
A group of Focke-Wulf 190s then attacked the formation. Lt. Freeman personally counted
32 fighters and described the group as looking like “a swarm of bumblebees.” The
fighters flew past the formation and then turned back in to attack. During the attack Punchboard’s
cockpit glass was destroyed. The formation was still too far from England to receive
coverage from Allied fighter planes.
Thirty to 45 minutes before the final landing at Vaerlose at 16:01 local time, realizing that they were low on gas and would not be able to make even the English
Channel, Punchboard and several other bombers turned north toward
neutral Sweden. According to Freeman, the navigator did not have the
maps specific to the area and they had only a general idea that Sweden
was north of their present position.
Punchboard’s tail gunner reported that they were being pursued by a JU-88,
which had already knocked down several other aircraft. Punchboard tried taking
evasive action but the JU-88 stayed with them. The JU-88 had fired one rocket at the
plane, but the bomber crew assumed that the reason they hadn’t been hit was because
he hadn’t gotten a good shot at them. Why the tail gunner did not open fire on the
JU-88, which was well within range of his guns, remains a mystery.
According to Sgt. Garrett,
because they had jettisoned the ammunition moments earlier they were
unable to return fire.
According to Lt. Freeman, the crew did not know what the Swedish flag looked like but
believed that they were indeed flying over Sweden. That is, until they were shot at. Punchboard was now flying at about a thousand feet above ground level to avoid
German radar. As they were flying over a
river or lake they began taking fire from a small boat. The crew was unsure of what type
of watercraft was below them but they noticed tracers coming up at the plane,
and based on Lt. Freeman's memory, the waist gunner on that side
returned fire. (At some point prior to landing, all unnecessary
weight was jettisoned from the airplane - including ammunition and
As is remembered above, the crew returned fire at the watercraft, and
this incident may have occurred prior to the gunners' jettisoning their
After flying further, the crew did spot some flags, but it began to become
increasingly clear to them that they
were in the wrong place. They were approaching an airfield, and while still hoping they
were in Sweden, realized that their options were limited. They could either land the
airplane or get into a dogfight with the JU-88, which the Flying Fortress was not capable
of at that time. In addition to the wing damage that was causing their loss of fuel, they
had sustained damage to one of the engines. The engine damage had not created a fire but
was causing them to lose oil and had diminished the effectiveness of that engine. Lt.
Freeman recalls damage under the co-pilot’s seat as well.
Lt. Racener then made the decision to land the plane at the airfield
presently below them. The airfield turned out to be Vaerlose
Airfield in occupied Denmark - where the Luftwaffe was operating an
aerial gunnery school.
Before their capture, the crew managed to destroy the Norden bombsight
and the radio as well as maps and
instructions to the bombing target that day. The Germans on the field were there when they
landed and took all 10 crewmen as prisoners of war. Upon landing, Sgt.
Garrett remembers looking back through the fuselage from the radio
room and seeing a "Luger poking his nose through the door." All crewmen were uninjured at the time
of their capture.
As was remembered by Lt. Freeman, the crew were taken into a building at the airfield and separated into different rooms
within the complex and were soon given food. Later a man "dressed to the
nines" in full military uniform - wearing many decorations - approached Lt. Freeman. He
introduced himself as the pilot of the JU-88 that had pursued their airplane prior to
landing. He advised Lt. Freeman that the decision to land the airplane was their
best choice as he would have had to shoot them down had they not done so. The pilot
of the JU-88 was Hauptman Walter Barte of the Stab III./NJG 3 night fighter group.
Barte and his crew were awarded the claim for Punchboard.
They spent one night at Vaerloese, and the next day, 10-APR-1944, the crewmen were then taken by
train to the Danish coast to board a ferry to Germany. They were
taken by train to the Dulag Luft at Frankfurt to be interrogated.
Lt. Freeman and Sgt. Garrett remembered that at the train station in
Hamburg waiting for the train to Frankfurt, the captive crew drew a
considerable crowd. Realizing who these men were and what they
were doing there, the crowd began to become agitated and began cursing
the crew. The German guards accompanying the crew restored order
and kept the angry crowd from the crew.
The crew spent two or three
days at Frankfurt under interrogation. According to both Freeman
and Garrett, the interrogations at the Dulag Luft were not intimidating,
and the interrogators knew vast amounts about the men and operations of
the Air Force.
As the Germans were very strict about separating the officers and
enlisted men, after the interrogation at the Dulag Luft, the officers were transferred to Stalag Luft
I, a Luftwaffe Camp, near Barth, Germany and some or all of the enlisted
men were taken to Stalag 17b, a Wehrmacht camp, near Vienna.
liberation of the camps - at least that of Stalag Luft I and Stalag 17b
- are intensely interesting.
Six weeks prior to the end of the war,
when the Russians entered Austria, Sgt. Garrett remembers that the
prisoners at Stalag 17b were set on a forced march to the west by their
captors. It was a "loose" march with little supervision, but no
one was attempting to leave the formation.
The Allies were advancing on Germany from the west, and as the formation
of prisoners were in camp one day, an American plane flew overhead.
Unsure whether the plane would recognize the camp as American POWs, one
of the prisoners took out an American flag and placed it on the ground
to alert the pilot. Seeing this, the plane flew over the camp
again waggling his wings. For the next five to six days, the plane
would fly over them to check on their progress.
The column of
prisoners marched to the Innes River where they stayed for two weeks.
Sgt. Garrett remembers that the US Army was immediately on the other
side of the river, and finally crossed one morning. The German
guards were then themselves taken prisoner and the American POWs were
The POWs were flown back to France and Sgt. Garrett stayed
at Camp Lucky Strike for two weeks. He then went from La Havre to
Southampton where he boarded a troop ship to Boston.
remembers that Stalag Luft I was liberated in May of 1945 by the
advancing Russian Army. Several days before the liberation, the German
guards had left the camp. Freeman recalls being liberated by a couple
of drunk Russians in a jeep who came barreling down a hill shooting at
anything that moved.
The POWs were airlifted out of Germany in B-17s
from a nearby airport and were taken to France where he made his way