This is the story of my grandfather, B-24 Liberator Co-Pilot, Flight Officer and later Lieutenant, Francis Joseph Morrissey. This book chronicles his life: from growing up in Dayton, Ohio; becoming a factory worker just out of high school; enlisting in the Army Air Forces in 1942; completing Pilot School in Lubbock, Texas in August 1943; training to fly a B-24 Liberator; forming and training a crew in Clovis and Alamogordo, New Mexico with Pilot Francis S. Rzatkowski and Navigator “Handsome” Harry E. Parr; being assigned to Crew #302-9-59 in one of the four squadrons in the 450th Bombardment Group - the 722nd Bombardment Squadron (H); flying half way around the world from Herington, Kanas to Manduria, Italy in November and December 1943 with Rzatkowski and Parr on B-24H Liberator Serial No.41- 28603 - the “603” - - painted the “Chiquita Mia” around 10 November 1943; flying missions from Manduria Airfield on three ships; being shot down over Krizevci, Yugoslavia on 30 May 1944 on his 27th mission while Co-Pilot of B-24H Liberator Serial No. 42-94901; interrogation and processing at Dulag Luft; internment at Stalag Luft III; “The March” to Stalag XIII-D Nurnberg Langwasser starting on 27 January 1945; internment at Stalag VII-A; liberation by Patton’s Third Army on 30 April 1945; time spent in the Cigarette Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France; the voyage home on Liberty Ship USS Monticello (AP-61) from 23 May to 3 June 1945; marriage to my grandmother on 16 June 1945; the remainder of his active duty service at Wright Field until October 1946; and post-war service in the Reserve and National Guard until 1972.

Interview with Earl Sharp, Army Air Forces veteran (533rd Bomb Squadron, 381st Bomb Group, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot and a prisoner-of-war in the European Theater during World War II. Enlistment in the Air National Guard (154th Observation Squadron), 1939; enlistment in the Aviation Cadet Program, 1942; pre-flight training, Maxwell Field, Alabama, 1942; primary flight training, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1942; basic flight training, Newport, Arkansas, 1942; advanced flight training, Blytheville, Arkansas, 1942-43; transition to B-17s, Sebring, Florida, 1943; formation of his combat crew, Pyote, Texas, 1943; additional combat crew training, Dalhart, Texas, 1943; journey from Grand Island, Nebraska, to the British Isles, 1943; assignment to the 533rd Bomb Squadron, 1944; his first mission, January 30, 1944; his detailed description of the mission when his plane was shot down, May 19, 1944; hospitalization for battle wounds; transfer to the interrogation center at Dulag Luft; Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, 1944-45; evacuation from Stalag Luft III and march to Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany, 1945; liberation.

Interview with Ira L. Simpson, Army Air Forces veteran (566th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-24 navigator in the European Theater during World War II; also his experiences as a prisoner-of-war in Germany. Enlistment in the Aviation Cadet Program, 1942; basic training, Miami Beach, Florida, 1943; pre-flight training, Santa Ana, California, 1943; his selection for navigator training, Santa Ana; aerial gunnery training, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1943; advanced navigation training, Hondo, Texas, 1943-44; combat crew training, Charleston, South Carolina, 1944; his description of the flight characteristics of the B-24; the flight to England and assignment to the 339th Bomb Group at Hethel, 1944; his first mission, October 1, 1944, to Hanau, Germany; base living conditions; off-base social activities; German fighters and flak; Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, December, 1944-January, 1945; forced landing due to flak damage on a mission to Magdeburg, Germany, January 3, 1945; his plane being shot down and his capture, February 14, 1945; interrogation; train trip from Holland to Germany; solitary confinement and further interrogation at Dulag Luft, Frankfurt, Germany; processing at Wetzlar, Germany; incarceration at Stalag Luft XIII-D in Nürnberg, Germany; his description of the physical layout of the POW camp; POW camp life; his bouts with mental depression; internal camp organization among the POWs; Red Cross parcels; relationship between POWs and German guards; forced march from Nürnberg to Stalag VII-A at Moosburg, Germany, April, 1945; living conditions at Stalag VII-A; liberation on April 29, 1945; his postwar career in the U.S. Air Force.

Howard DeMallie, a young American pilot, and his crew are forced to bail out of their B-17 airplane over Holland. He is helped by the Dutch underground and imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp.

Interview with Thomas Richard Young, artist and Army Air Forces veteran (463rd Bomb Group, 774th Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot and a prisoner-of-war in the European Theater during World War II. Basic training, Miami Beach, Florida, January, 1943; primary flight training, Mira Loma Air Base, Oxnard, California, 1943; basic flight training, Mirana, Arizona, 1943; advanced flight training, Marfa, Texas, 1943-44; B-17 training, Roswell, New Mexico, 1944; crew assignment at Lincoln, Nebraska, 1944; crew training at Sioux City, Iowa, 1944; trans-Atlantic flight to England, 1944; assignment to the 15th Air Force, Foggia, Italy; living conditions at Foggia; experiences with the Tuskegee Airmen; various missions to Munich, Germany; his account of his B-17 being shot down on the nineteenth mission, November 16, 1944; details of his capture by Italian troops; interrogation by German personnel and solitary confinement; Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, December, 1944; evacuation of Stalag Luft III and forced march to Spremberg, Germany, January-February, 1945; Nürnberg, Germany, 1945; forced march to Moosburg, Germany; liberation by 3rd Army troops. Appendix includes a photocopy of a drawing titled, "North Compound, Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, January, 1945."

Interview with Robert Bruce Kilmer, Army Air Forces veteran (547th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II; also his experiences with the French Resistance and as a prisoner-of-war in Germany. His educational background; his reaction to the Pearl Harbor attack; enlistment in the Aviation Cadet Program, April, 1942; basic training, Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, 1942; primary flight training, Sikeston, Missouri, 1942; basic flight training, Majors Field, Greenville, Texas, 1942; advanced flight training, Pampa, Texas, 1942-43; B-17 transition training, Windover, Utah, 1943; stationing at Grafton Underwood, England, 1943; his description of preparations for a bombing mission; post-mission debriefings; description of missions and his getting shot down, October 14, 1943; rescue by the French Resistance and his six-month experience operating with them; capture by the Gestapo and incarceration at Fresnes Prison, Paris; solitary confinement and interrogation at Wiesbaden, Germany; transfer to Dulag Luft, Frankfurt, Germany, for further interrogation by the Luftwaffe, 1943; transfer to Stalag Luft-III, Sagan, Germany, 1943; physical description of Stalag Luft-III and his compound; daily life in the POW camp; value of Red Cross parcels; evacuation and forced march to Nürnberg, Germany, January, 1945; forced march to Moosburg, Germany, 1945; liberation and reunion with his brother at Moosburg; processing at Camp Lucky Strike, Le Havre, France, and return to the States by troopship.