Kriege Memories- Stalag 17B

My grandfather was a B17 tail gunner in the 351st bomb group, 510 squadron, and was shot down over France on December 31, 1943. He flew 20 missions as a tail gunner, but switched with someone else and was a waist gunner on his last mission, his 21st.

On the last mission, targeting airfields at Cognac-Chateaubriand, France, his plane was hit by flak and then shot down by fighters. The man he switched with was killed in the tail gunner position, along with the pilot and navigator.

He parachuted directly into a group of waiting German soldiers and became a POW at Stalag 17B in Krems, Austria until mid-April 1945.

When he passed, I was given a book of his called Kriege Memories. It was written by a fellow POW named Ben Phelper, who bribed a guard for a camera and film. The book is handwritten and has a bunch of photos from inside the camp and from the forced march away from the Red Army in the final weeks of the war.

I recently scanned it and want to share it with the group. Turns out, it's also available as an ebook on Amazon.