Oral history interview with Ira L. Simpson, 2000 October 12 & 13.

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Oral history interview with Ira L. Simpson, 2000 October 12 & 13.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/352926102

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.

142 leaves ; 29 cm.

University of North Texas Library, UNT

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SNAC Resource ID: 7371603

University of North Texas Library, UNT

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