Oral history interview with Robert Seidel, 1999 September 07.

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Oral history interview with Robert Seidel, 1999 September 07.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/419266245

Interview with Robert Seidel, Army Air Forces veteran (763rd Bomb Squadron, 460th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a flight engineer on a B-24 in the European Theater and his subsequent experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans during World War II. His youth and education in Elkhart, Indiana; enlistment in the Aviation Cadet Program, 1943; basic and pre-flight training at Keesler Field, Biloxi, Mississippi, 1943; washing out of pilot training and reassignment to flight engineer school at Tyndall Field, Panama City, Florida, 1943; crew assembly and B-24 transition training at Chatham Air Force Base, Savannah, Georgia, 1943-44; assignment to the 763rd Bomb Squadron at Spinazzola, Italy, 1944; his first combat mission to Ploesti, Romania; comments about enemy flak; his description of a typical mission; the downing of his plane on a mission to Munich, November 16, 1944; his adventures in bailing out and landing in a blizzard in the Alps; evasion until capture on November 29 by German ski troops; temporary incarceration in Salzburg, Austria; interrogation at Dulag Luft, Wetzlar, Germany; incarceration at Stalag Luft IV, Gross Tychow, Germany, December, 1944-January, 1945; train trip to Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany, January 6-14, 1945; internal POW camp organization; liberation by Soviet troops, April 29, 1945; rehabilitation and recuperation at Camp Lucky Strike, Le Havre, France; his return to the States and readjustment to civilian life. Appendix includes photocopies of photographs (three leaves), photocopy of POW information (one leaf), photocopy of cover of POW log book (one leaf), photocopy of a confidential report (three leaves), photocopy of a letter from an uncle (one leaf), and photocopy of an envelope that was stamped "Return to Sender" (one leaf).

146, [12] leaves : facsims. ; 29 cm.

University of North Texas Library, UNT

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SNAC Resource ID: 7441763

University of North Texas Library, UNT

Related Entities

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University of North Texas. Oral History Collection.

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World War II Prisoners of War Oral History Project.

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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...

Camp Lucky Strike.

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United States. Army Air Forces. Bomb Squadron, 763rd.

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Seidel, Robert., 1925-

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Auswertstelle West.

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Stalag Luft IV

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Lane, Peter B., 1939-

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Stalag Luft I

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