Stalag Luft III

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the oral history interview of Lieutenant Colonel Everett Walker conducted by the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience. Walker was forced to bail out very near the target on his eighteenth mission as a bombardier and gunner on a B-24. He discusses his rescue from the water, his interrogation experience and the conditions of his internment. He also talks about the many different escape attempts made by the American POWs at Stalag Luft III.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of published material, newspaper clippings, interviews, and published unit histories, collected by the Gordy brothers about their wartime experience. Both brothers served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and as POWs in German camps.

Scope and Contents

This collection includes photographs and documents pertaining to aerial operations over Europe during World War II. Lt. Herman Simler flew over 30 bombing missions over Europe during his service. The squadrons specified in this collection are the 8th Army Air Force, the 15th Army Air Force, and the 716th-719th bomber squadrons.

Scope and Contents

The Edwin Ivy papers illustrate 2nd Lieutenant Ivy's service in the Army Air Corps in the 485th Heavy Bombardment Group, 831st Squadron, from 1942-1945 in Italy, France, and Austria where he was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III. Ivy's oral history encompasses the majority of his collection and provides detail of his military training, time spent in the Army Air Corps, as a prisoner of war, and being discharged. His papers also include the first chapter of Old Man in a Baseball Cap by Fred Rochlin. The chapter describes the significance of remembering the past and passing down experiences to others.

Scope and Contents

The collection of First Lieutenant James Feerick contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Feerick served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as part of the 8th Bomber Command, 1st Bombardment Wing, 91st Bombardment Group in the European theater. He was based in London at Bassingbourne.

The collection also includes a copy of a magazine article from 2000 about a U.S. government agency that smuggled out contraband (radio parts, etc.), into German POW camps and letters along with other information. The agency also helped Allied POWs escape.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to Joseph L. Cittadini who served as a Navigator with the 384th Bombardment Group.  The collection includes photographs, letters, and official documents from his time as a navigator with the US Army Air Corp and his time as a prisoner of war during World War II. Photographs include several of Cittadini with his crew of the "Goin' Dawg" and "Nutalls Nut House" B-17 bombers. Cittadini was a prisoner of war for a year after being shot down on a mission over Berlin and was held in several POW camps, but primarily in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany. His account of this is told in detail in both a manuscript and an oral history...

Scope and Contents

The Loren E. Jackson manuscript "Epilogue to a War Story" documents Lieutenant Colonel Loren E. Jackson's experience as a prisoner of war when he was shot down during D-Day from his B-17 that he piloted with the 385th Bomb Group during World War II. His manuscript details his encounter with the German Gerhard Graf von Schwerin who he met in the 1960s after not seeing him since he was interrogated by him. Jackson recounts the conversation he had with General and touches on multiple subjects, such as German memory of war, behaviors of the Germans, morale, and the surrendering of Germany.