George Harris papers

Collection — Container: Single Folder Collections - 2000 Box 23 (00.0657-00.0699), Folder: 00.0694

Identifier: 00.0694

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

George D. Harris (Army Air Corps, 1942-1945) trained as a radioman and gunner on a B-17 and was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group in England in 1943. His collection contains a photocopy of three articles from the American Ex-Prisoners of War Bulletin from January 1996 and a copy of his oral history interview conducted on February 26, 2003.

Dates

Created: 1942-1945
Other: Date acquired: 08/07/2000

Creator

Harris, George D., 1923-2012 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

George D. Harris (Army Air Corps, 1942-1945) trained as a radioman and gunner on a B-17. Harris was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group in England in 1943. He completed fifteen missions before being shot down and bailing out over the North Sea. He drifted to Holland where he was picked up by the SS. He describes the interrogation process, and what it was like to be a POW in several camps (Stalag 17, Stalag Luft 1, Stalag Luft 6, Stalag Luft 4). He tried to escape at Stalag 17 and Stalag 1. When the Russian Army advanced, POWs at Stalag Luft 4 were forced to march for nearly three months. They were liberated at the Elbe River at Halle, Germany by General George Patton’s Third Army. Harris comments on the prisoner rehabilitation camp in which he stayed prior to his journey to the United States. He was discharged after taking sixty days of R & R.