If ecsaping successfully from neutral countries such as Sweden or Switzerland, did USAAF crew have to fly combat again once back with their units?  Or were they sent Stateside?  Perhaps they were sent to the P.T.O. to serve the remainder of their tour?

I just want an idea of what happened to them once they reached, say, England. 

Thank you

Alexandre Jay

http://ww2artist.blogspot.com/

Propwash


If ecsaping successfully from neutral countries such as Sweden or Switzerland, did USAAF crew have to fly combat again once back with their units?  Or were they sent Stateside?  Perhaps they were sent to the P.T.O. to serve the remainder of their tour?

I just want an idea of what happened to them once they reached, say, England. 

Thank you

Prop,
I don't know specifically about returnees from neutral countries, but some evadees were put on a tour of airbases in England to tell how they did it.  These were a part of our continuing instructions about escape tactics.  These were entertaining and always got an interested audience.  As to further combat assignments I can't help you.

Bob Gilbert
Ball Turret Gunner, Goldin crew
381st Bomb Gp., 533rd Bomb Sq.
US 8th Air Force

In order to protect the people who helped them, Evaders or "walkouts" generally did not fly in the same theater after making it back to their units (ETO or PTO).  One notable exception was Flight Officer Chuck Yeager.  He begged General Eisenehower to let him remain in theater.  The General let him stay.  But as I said, that is the exception.  Lt. Tom Harmon walked out of occupied China and was removed from theater soon after.  I would imagine it would be the same for "Internees". 

Pete

Many escaped prisoners and Allied air crews shot down over Axis Europe either walked onto Swiss soil or were smuggled there by various resistance organizations.

Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, these evaders (those who had escaped from Axis POW camps or were evading Axis capture) who walked into neutral nations could resume active combat after being "exchanged or repatriated." (Evader pilots and bombadiers were in particularly high demand by all warring airforces and many Allied pilots and bomb aimer/bombardiers were "swapped" with German pilots.)

But, internees (those who steamed/flew ships/aircraft into a neutral nation to seek sanctuary from the enemy) could not, under the terms of Hague Rules of Air Warfare, Chapter VI: "Belligerent Duties Towards Neutral States and Neutral Duties Towards Belligerent States."

When the liberation of Northwest France had been achieved by the American Fifth Army, and the border crossing at La Pointe at Geneva was re-activated, the Swiss made arrangements to repatriate their Allied evaders from Switzerland through the American lines, either to Grenoble or Naples. Army Air Force personnel were given priority, and by the end of 1944 only a handful of the 5,139 British evaders in Switzerland remained there (for one special reason or another).

But many USAAF internees chafed under the Hague Convention restrictions. When their US Army colleagues opened up the border at Geneva after liberating French Savoie, some "jumped the border" in civilian clothes to link up with their compatriots, unaware of the essential differences between the Geneva and the Hague Conventions.  At the time they had sought sanctuary from the Axis forces, they gave "my word of honor" (en ma parole) that they had cease hostilities and were no longer "participating belligerents" or "combatants." This protected them from being pursued by enemy forces and their agents while inside the neutral nation that was granting them sanctuary in excahnge for their word of honor.

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
SGHQ - G-3 Special Projects
Camp Johnson, VT

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Kilroy was here

When on August 17th, 1943 (Schweinfurt-Raid) the B-17 of the 381st BG/532nd BS (S/N 42-30140) and nicknamed King Malfunction II was so badlyhit that the crew (P is listed as KIA) had to bail out over hostileterritory, two of their members made it back to their own lines. Aftera hazardous trip through enemy lines, two airmen reached London inNovember 1943.  Both aviators were then ordered to Washington,decorated with the Silver Star and they were NOT send to another tourof duty. They were ordered to talk about their experiences in front offuture crews, in case they would find them back one day in a similarsituation. These airmen were the first who made a succesfull evasion(with the help of many resistance fighters) from enemy territory tofriendly lines.

Great answers guys, thanks.

Alexandre Jay

http://ww2artist.blogspot.com/

navilluswp


(Evader pilots and bombadiers were in particularly high demand by all warring airforces and many Allied pilots and bomb aimer/bombardiers were "swapped" with German pilots.)

I don't think this is accurate. Do you have sources to support this?

David Wilma
Son of 1LT Francis R. "Dick" Wilma (1920-2005)
ATC, Chabua, India, '44 - '45
http://home.comcast.net/~davidwilma/Index.htm

Sir: This statement came from a summary of research of a collaborative group which I was a member, at the Vermont Militia Museum & Library at Camp Johnson.

I did not conduct the research for this section of the report, but the page of notes in the file associated with information (prisoner & evader exchanges) has these notations written on the bottom:

Council of British Service & Ex-Service Organisations - Code 948, Registered Charity No. 292804
<  http://www.prisonerofwar.org.uk/spring_2003.htm >

BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR IN ITALY: PATHS TO FREEDOM by Malcolm Tudor. ISBN 0-9538964-0-4. (Emilia Publishing) Woodlands, Bryn Gardens, Newtown, Powys SY16 2DR.

ESCAPE FROM ITALY 1943-45; Allied Escapers and Helpers in Fascist Italy by Malcolm Tudor. (Emeila Publishing) Woodlands, Bryn Gardens, Newtown, Powys SY16 2DR

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
SGHQ - G-3 Special Projects
Camp Johnson, VT

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Kilroy was here

Dwilma01

navilluswp


(Evader pilots and bombadiers were in particularly high demand by all warring airforces and many Allied pilots and bomb aimer/bombardiers were "swapped" with German pilots.)

I don't think this is accurate. Do you have sources to support this?

In Sweden, any airman who evaded and made it to Sweden (a total of 59), was sent back to the UK as soon as possible. (Making for Sweden, Part 2, by Widfeldt & Wegmann).

Early in the war, Interned allied airmen were exchanged man for man for German airmen. Later in the war (Sping 1944), the number of Allied Aircrews highly outnumber the number of German aircrews arriving on Swedish soil and more camps for US crews were set up. Note, these camps were set up in towns using hotels, rooming houses, summer camps and even some private homes. One camp was set up in a famed Royal Swedish Health Spa.

I don't have the exact dates, but sometime in 1944, those Internees who were returned to the UK were not allowed to fly in the ETO again.

I can highly recommend the above book as it details the acounts of all US Airmen who made it to Sweden, some safely, others were KIA and buried in Sweden with full honors.

kbc56

In Sweden, any airman who evaded and made it to Sweden (a total of 59), was sent back to the UK as soon as possible. (Making for Sweden, Part 2, by Widfeldt & Wegmann).

Early in the war, Interned allied airmen were exchanged man for man for German airmen. Later in the war (Spring 1944), the number of Allied Aircrews highly outnumber the number of German aircrews arriving on Swedish soil and more camps for US crews were set up. Note, these camps were set up in towns using hotels, rooming houses, summer camps and even some private homes. One camp was set up in a famed Royal Swedish Health Spa.

I don't have the exact dates, but sometime in 1944, those Internees who were returned to the UK were not allowed to fly in the ETO again.

I can highly recommend the above book as it details the acounts of all US Airmen who made it to Sweden, some safely, others were KIA and buried in Sweden with full honors.

My cousin died in Sweden.

First Lt. John F. Harrington served with the "Mighty 8th" Air Force, 93rd Bomber Group (Heavy) 329th Squadron, based out of Hardwick. He was the co-pilot of Joker II (tail number 42-51253 RE V) a B-24-J aircraft.

According to the Individual Casualty Questionnaire (ICQ) completed by pilot Capt. Harry H. Gruener, Joker II was the Division's "Deputy Lead Bomber" on a bombing mission over Hamburg on 17 JAN 1945. Group Leader Major John H. Floore was aboard in the co-pilot seat, his ninth bombing mission in that capacity aboard Joker II.  Lt. Harrington stood behind Maj. Floore.

As it began its' approach on target, the Lead Bomber aborted, breaking formation, so Maj. Floore ordered Joker II to become the Division's Lead Bomber for the remainder of the mission. According to the ICQ of the aircraft's Right Waist Gunner, Staff Sgt. Albert W. Chipman, Jr., Lt. Harrington and Maj. Floore then exchanged positions.

Lt. Harrington was in the co-pilot seat when a flak burst exploded near the right wing. Chipman reported that all aircraft damage and crew injuries occurred as the aircraft led the formation onto the bombing target.

In his ICQ, Sgt. Chipman reported that he and Lt. Harrington had flown together every mission (but two) since they had arrived together in the European Theater of Operations. Chipman added: Would have completed tour. Prior to mission, expressed, without a doubt, hope he'd see folks and his gal in a month. 

Joker II's wingman in the bombing formation reported the following in the "Lost Aircraft Report" statement on 21 JAN 1945:

I saw aircraft 523-V smoking and a possible gas leak in Engine 4. The ship lost several hundred feet and then I lost sight of them at that time. The ship was evidently hit before "Bombs Away" but it seemed under control when it dropped its payload on target and when it left the formation. All engines were still functioning, but it appeared that at least one and possibly two of them were smoking.
ROBERT E. OBERSCHMID
Capt. - Air Corps Airplane Commander

According to the ICQ statement of Joker II's tail gunner, Staff Sgt. Curvin Trone, Joker II had indeed lost two (of its' four) engines before dropping its payload: engine #4 was entirely disabled, and #3 was producing almost no power.

Capt. Gruener ordered Lt. Harrington to be taken back onto the flight deck to be tended to by Lt. Charles Kline, the aircraft's radar operator (the so-called "Mickey Operator") who also had been slightly wounded. Maj. Floore then re-assumed Harrington's co-pilot seat while Capt. Gruener piloted the crippled aircraft.

According Sgt. Trone's statement, Capt. Gruener's original plan was to fly the aircraft over Denmark, and the crew was to bail out. Capt. Gruener later reported that he realized that would have sealed Lt. Harrington's fate.  So, Capt. Gruener decided to fly to Sweden and try to land.

According to the ICQ of the navigator, 2 Lt. Karl Eisel, the aircraft "crashed landed safely" at a Swedish airfield at Malmö, where a Swedish ambulance was standing by to take Lt. Harrington and Lt. Kline to a Swedish hospital.

According to Lt. Eisel, Lt. Kline accompanied Lt. Harrington in the ambulance.  Lt. Eisel further reported that, while interned together, Lt. Kline told him that he (Kline) had observed Swedish surgeons operating on Lt. Harrington very soon after arriving at the hospital.

Lt. Harrington died of his wounds on 20 JAN 1945 in the hospital after surgery, having never regaining consciousness, according to his attending physician, Maj. Floyd A. Potter, MD of the American Air Attache's Office in Stockholm. Maj. Potter was responsible for supervising the care of hospitalized members of interned American air crews in Sweden.

Lt. Harrington was buried in an American cemetery in Sweden on 23 JAN 1945 with full military honors, with Group Leader Maj. Floore presiding. Members of the American legation participated and took photographs.

Lt. Harrington's mother, Mrs. Helen Harrington, was notified on 24 JAN 1945 that her son had been Killed in Action on 20 JAN 1945 while serving on his 29th mission. In 1948, Lt. Harrington's body was returned CONUS for reburial at the Holy Cross Cemetary in Malden, Massachusetts. (I visited his grave last week when I was in Boston.)

Lt. Harrington was the only loss from Joker II's twelve man crew, all of whom were interned at a camp in Falun, Sweden, repatriated one by one to England and rejoined "The Mighty Eighth."

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
SGHQ - G-3 Special Projects
Camp Johnson, VT

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Kilroy was here

Navilluswp,

Major Floore were repatriated only 10 days after the crews arrival in Sweden. The rest of the crew were repatriated on April 7 1945. The a/c was repaired and sent back to England on June 24th ´45.


About Propwash question, no Americans evaded from Sweden.
 

//Charlotte

Last July at our Roundtable meeting the Units Chaplin was the speaker.

He had been a radioman whose plane was shot down over Germany. The Germans actually helped to pull him from the wreckage. He was treated in a German hospital with wounded German solders by a good German doctor.

Once he was healed he was then put in a stockade. He and three others escaped from the stockade. With the help of the underground he made it back to England.

He spoke to several groups giving them tips on getting back and then he was sent to the Pacific Theater.

He again was shot down as a radioman. There was nothing good to say about his time with the Japanese as a POW. He was torched, beaten and feed little.

He said he had nothing good to say and nothing good to remember about his time as a POW of the Japanese, and he still has nightmares of the beatings and time as POW of the Japanese.,

Sincerely yours,
PA.Dutchman

Son of T/Sgt. Ray A. Heilman, JR.
11 TH Field Artillery 1937-1940
Schofield Barracks
7 TH AAC 11 BGH 42 Sq.1940-45
Hickam Survivor 12/7/1941
AAC Armorer (P) 911
P.U.Citation1942

I can confirm Capt. Sullivan's remark concerning the exchange of interned and evading airmen in Switzerland between the Allies and Germany.

Switzerland in 1944 was literally packed with internees, evaders and refugees from the U.S., Britain, Poland, Germany, Hungary and a host of other countries.  Germany in particular was losing a large quantity of pilots who found it necessary to land in Switzerland due to "aircraft damage" or "navigation errors."
Many of the American internees found themselves in resort complexes adjacent to similar facilities for German airmen.

The Swiss were not particulary convinced by these "I got lost" stories, but by the conventions in place, they were obliged to intern these airmen.  As the war began to take a large toll on the Luftwaffe pilot ranks, contacts were made with Swiss authorities to arrange exchanges whereby interned German airmen were returned to Germany and, in turn, Allied airmen were guaranteed safe passage back to allied control.  The American Military Attache's office jumped at the chance to "legally" send off any interned aviators back to allied control.  While evaders could leave at any time, the practical issue of getting them back through enemy lines was a huge obstacle, since the Americans did not have their own escape lines back to Spain.

In his memoir, Robert Titus, a 95th BG navigator, and evader, has recalled his experiences of being selected for exchange and being transported from Basel, Switzerland to Baden Baden, Germany and then to Paris in March, 1944.  From Paris the exchange group, which consisted of eight American airmen internees, were en-trained to the Spanish border at Hendaye.  The group was escorted by several German sentries to insure their safety until they were turned over to the Spanish authorities.  From there the group was taken to the British Embassy in Madrid and then to Gibraltar.

Besides these "expediency" exchanges, numerous medical based exchanges took place during the war.

Warren B. Carah

At any particular point in time, the treatment of the increasing numbers of grounded U.S. airmen interned by the Swiss and speed of repatriation could be greatly influenced by Swiss views of the American air war.

International law on this matter is already complex, and -- being surrounded by the Axis forces in Austria, German, occupied France, and by Fascist in northern Italy -- the Swiss were in a position that required delicate discretion. 

U.S. military attache, Brigadier General Barnwell R. Legge, and counselor to the legation, Jerome K. Huddle held a sensitive assignment.  It was important to the Allied war strategy that U.S. Legation in Bern be favorably received and granted access to as many Swiss officials as possible. The Swiss heard much about Nazi activities, and discreet inquiries could produce valuable information. Key issue was Swiss trade with the Axis, and the willingness of the Swiss to allow goods in transit between Italy and Germany to pass over their railway lines.

The U.S. Legation in Bern faced a huge wall of resentment from the Swiss (government officials and in popular sentiment) after a series of U.S. bomb raids and exchange of fire with Swiss defense forces over Swiss territory. Safe to say, the Swiss neither felt any generalized sense of importance to be gracious, nor that political gain could be realized for making accommodations for Allied downed fliers. 

One illustration (of many) is the SAT 01 APR 1944 U.S. bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen, with just over 22,000 inhabitants. Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz, Commanding General of the U .S. Strategic Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations, reported that two bomber groups admitted bombing in the northern salient of Switzerland on that Saturday, although the pilots claimed they had missed the town of Schaffhausen.

In response, the polite Swiss foreign minister voiced his inability to conceive of that explanation for "what apparently was a deliberate attack." He documented that the offending the tail number of several planes among the groups numbering about 50, that the killed and wounded Swiss civilians amounted to more than 100, and that fires were still ravaging homes, factories, city buildings, and railway yards. Nevertheless, he ordered that radio and press announcements be restrained from expressing or reporting pupular outrage. 

 In Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office)

Feelings in Switzerland remained strong. The weather had been excellent , and there seemed to be no acceptable excuse for errors. Acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew expressed his "profound shock" and assured the Swiss of American willingness to pay reparations if the responsibility belonged to the United States. Promises and reparation payments could not be the only response; something had to be done to prevent further recurrence of such incidents. This was clearly the thinking of General Marshall, who sent a personal cable to Eisenhower, expressing the growing concern in Washington over the increasing number of attacks on Switzerland: "everything within our power" should be done to ensure that American pilots were properly briefed and aware of the importance of positive identification."

The U.S. State Department changed its diplomatic tactics on the recommendation of the American legation in Switzerland and the British government. For political reasons stemming from Switzerland's neutral position and because of the future potential usefulness of Switzerland in restoring Europe's economy, Acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew decided that it would be inadvisable to place "too great" pressure on the Swiss regarding trade with Germany and, in particular, the position of principle regarding downed fliers, as the most practical means of achieving the Allies' goals. The Swiss had been stubborn, and this new approach seemed worth trying to Grew, willing to be more flexible than Cordell Hull.

The Allied bombings of Switzerland is one more reminder of the desperate nature of the total global struggle then occurring. Overall tension between State Department and Pentagon, between general headquarters and field command, between Army intelligence and OSS was not unusual. The same could be said of tension between the desire to prosecute the war fully and the need to tread lightly with neutrals harboring downed fliers, and balancing between the aggressive zeal of pilots and the fine lines of regulations easily obscured by climate and war. The peculiar relations of the United States and Switzerland provide a microcosm that sets these global problems in especially sharp focus. The global ramifications of  the war and the tensions it produced were far reaching. 

 

You can read a summary of the incidents and the political fallout in The Diplomacy of Apology : U.S. Bombings of Switzerland during World War II, by Dr. Jonathan E. Helmreich, published in Aerospace Power Journal - Summer  2000)  Here is  a sample that I found interesting:

The question may well be asked: why did so many violations of Swiss neutrality not receive much publicity in the United States? Many of the bombings were given extensive coverage in the Swiss press, and certainly American reporters had access to these accounts. Probably in the news of the day, the Swiss events seemed of minor significance. The official history, The Army Air Forces in World War II contains only a sparse account of the embarrassing episode, and the individuals involved have for the most part been reticent about discussing their experience.

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
SGHQ - G-3 Special Projects
Camp Johnson, VT

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Kilroy was here

Dwilma01:

I found this anecdote, taken from a long letter written by Bob Peter to W.F. "Bill" Hird, reprinted in Bomber Command News together with an extract from the "Bomber Command Quarterly Review" supplied to BCN by Noel Davis who supported it by correspondence and phone conversations with Bob Peter and crewmate Murray Bartle.

Because they ditched into the Swiss side of the lake and swam ashore, they were considered internees covered by The Hague Conference regulations about combatants taking sanctuary in a non-belligerent nation. If they had ditched in Germany and made their way into Switzerland, they would have been classified as "evaders" covered by the Geneva Convention.

A419 - P/O Bob Peter

About 50 miles short of the target, a vital ball-bearing factory in the industrial complex of Friedrichshaven on the German shore of Lake Constance, Bob Peter, pilot of "R for Robert", sighted a twin engined German fighter bearing in to attack the Lancaster from directly ahead. Paddy Balmer saw it too, but had no opportunity to open fire. Although Bob Peter immediately corkscrewed, the starboard outer engine was hit. He managed to feather the engine and flew on with the remaining three, bombed his target from 16,000 feet and then swung back for home.

A few minutes later "R for Robert" was attacked again. Murray Bartle, standing in the astrodome spotted tracer coming in from astern and then a fire broke out in the fuselage. The fire spread and soon the fuselage between the mid-upper and rear turrets was well alight and the plane filled with smoke, preventing Bob from seeing his instruments. "R for Robert" went into an uncontrolled spin, and he ordered his crew to bail out. Geoff Foulkes and Bob Brereton, in the nose of the plane, immediately did so and the opening of the front escape hatch cleared the smoke from the cockpit and Bob could see his instruments again. But he could not push the joystick forward and the aircraft continued to lose height as it continued to spiral downwards. 

Paddy Balmer and Vin Graham had succeeded in putting out the fires and Murray Bartle was able to came to the aid of Bob Peter struggling to correct the plane and together they managed to bring the aircraft under control. 

"R for Robert" had descended to only 3,000 feet but was flying very sluggishly, Bob Peter decided that his only chance for survival was to ditch in the lake and ordered his remaining crew to their "ditching stations".

Despite the pitch black night and only flying on three engines, he made a perfect "ditching" with scarcely any impact. Water rushed in over him, but all managed to climb aboard the inflatable dinghy which had automatically released itself.  The Lancaster sank about 3 minutes later, and after about one and a half hours of paddling they managed to reach the Swiss shore of the lake.

Despite their bad burns, the two gunners refused to leave the others and when the party met a Swiss farmer, they followed his advice to surrender to the local police station at Steckborn.

Later an ambulance came for the two burned gunners, and that night the Swiss police took Bob, Murray and Noel by car to St. Gallen where they stayed the night before being taken to Dubendorf Airfield in Zurich for interrogation and then on to internment at Bern.

While still in Bern, waiting to go to the airmens internment "camp" at Adelboden, Bob Peter was advised that he would be included in an exchange of internees - 10 British pilots as against 10 German interned pilots. By an ironic twist of fate, one of the German pilots was Wilhelm Johnen, the ace German fighter pilot who had shot him down, but who didn't claim "R as in Robert" as a "kill," as Swiss anti-aircraft fire was involved.

So, after a very brief stay of only some weeks, Bob Peter, on May 12 was exchanged at Basle, and entered Germany for the second time in a few  weeks. But this time it was a ground journey in the first class compartment of a train in company of a German officer and his NCOs, who made no attempt at regimenting the 10 former internees who were in civilian clothes. When they reached the Gare de l'Austerlitz in Paris they even feasted them in royal style and provided them with a personal hairdresser!

With friendly farewells, the Germans left the internees at Irun on the Spanish border and after spending time in San Sebastian and Madrid, they finally reached the U.K. via Gibralter. Bob Peter subsequently received the DFC. From England he was repatriated back to Australia to become a flying instructor at the RAAF College, Point Cook, Victoria, a non-combatant duty.

Wilhelm Johnen, in his book, "Duel Under the Stars" confirms that he shot down one British bomber near Besancon, in France, but that his "second shoot" that night "played into flak's hand" confirming that it came from the Swiss side of the lake defending the "neutrality of Switzerland".

Like Bob Peter, Wilhelm Johnen was also in trouble over Lake Constance. With one of his twin engines on his BF110 fighter knocked out by machine gun fire from a Lancaster, he had pursued into Swiss air-space and harried by Swiss searchlights, he was forced to land his fighter on the Dubendorf airfield at Zurich, and immediately having done so, blew it to smithereens to prevent its secrets being revealed.

Wilhelm Johnen, unlike Bob Peter, but like Bruce Simpson, resumed operations when he returned to his home base, claiming 15 more British and American before hostilities in Europe finally ceased. This may have again, avoided the niceties of war, but to the pragmatic Swiss, who had carried out a continual programme of repatriation of both evaders and internees it was a programme of one less mouth to feed, and one less body to accomodate, and one more uninvited guest to leave their country.

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
SGHQ - G-3 Special Projects
Camp Johnson, VT

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Kilroy was here