Oral history interview with John Ray Lemons, 2001 January 30.

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Oral history interview with John Ray Lemons, 2001 January 30.

Interview with John Ray Lemons, tax consultant and Army Air Forces veteran (702nd Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a crew member on a B-24 in the European Theater; and his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans during World War II. Conscription into the Army, December, 1942; basic training, Camp Wolters, Mineral Wells, Texas; transfer to the Air Force, February, 1943, and further basic training, Miami Beach, Florida; aerial gunnery training, Fort Myers, Florida, 1943; aircraft mechanic training, Sheppard Field, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1943; crew assignment, Kerns, Utah, 1943-44; combat crew training, Peterson Field, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1944; ocean voyage to England aboard the Queen Elizabeth, June, 1944; assignment to the 702nd Bomb Squadron at Tibenham; base living conditions; his description of the war damage in London; his first mission, August 6, 1944, to Hamburg; comments about flak; procedures on a typical mission from beginning to end; mission to Dessau, Germany, August 16, 1944; his plane being shot down on a mission to Kassel, Germany, September 27, 1944, and his subsequent capture; initial hostility of German civilians; Dulag Luft, Wetzlar, Germany, October, 1944, and interrogation; Stalag Luft IV, Gross Tychow, Germany, October 10, 1944-February 1, 1945; comments about prison camp life; Red Cross parcels; evacuation of Stalag Luft IV and train trip to Stalag Luft XII-D, Nürnberg, Germany, February 1-7, 1945; evacuation of Stalag Luft XII-D and forced march to Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany, April 4-16, 1945; liberation on April 29, 1945; Camp Lucky Strike, May 8-June 7, 1945; postwar adjustments and career.

234 leaves ; 29 cm.

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University of North Texas. Oral History Collection.

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United States. Army Air Forces

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The Army Air Forces War Adjustment Course was established in 1944 at several locations in the U.S., one of which was Harvard Business School. The HBS program involved eight weeks of training in the business of contract terminations, cutbacks, and property disposal necessitated by changes in Army Air Forces tactical requirements. Approximately 4,200 officers received instruction throughout the country, about one sixth of them at HBS. The goal of the program was to train men for participation in t...

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Simpson, Patrick

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