There were several combat vets in the small, rural town in which I grew up, but there was one there who had a unique combat experience.
He was a waist gunner on a B17. In late 1943 on their 22 mission over Germany, his plane was shot down. He parachuted out, was captured, beaten up (The Germans resented the airmen who bombed their cities), and sent to a Stalag. He spent the rest of the war there, and said there was nothing "fun" about being there. He said he was lucky to be alive.
He was also credited with shooting down two German fighters .
It was not combat on D-Day, but those USAAF pilots and crews were being shot at every day.
L.W.
