The Home Front

Jim Hoel, our father, was transported and processed into Stalug Luft III about 10 days after his capture, on May 17,1943. Though he was able to write home, apparently the brief posts he sent were not received until months later.

Although the date is not precise, it appears that Jim's parents, Omer and Olive Hoel, learned as early as May 19, 1943, through newspaper articles and Red Cross messages, that their son was missing in action. They did not learn he was a prisoner of war for another 50 or 60 days. Undoubtedly, thoughts of the worst passed through their minds but Jim's parents were people of faith and had, as all earlier generations do, lived through and learned from difficulties before.

During that frightening period Jim's parents received incredibly moving letters from friends, government officials and local statesmen expressing sorrow and praying for the best. These letters will follow in future posts.

Olive and Omer were tough folk and they withstood this period of "not knowing", with a deep faith that "Jimmy" was not dead.

Olive was born in Sparta, Wisconsin and Omer, as described earlier, in Canby, Minnesota. They met when Omer had some emergency surgery and Olive was his nurse. The fell in love and married. Omer was Norwegian. Olive was Swedish and despite the traditional jokes about antagonism between the two Scandandavian cultures, we never saw anything but love.

When World War I began, Omer enlisted and became an ambulance driver. One day while stationed in New Jersey, his ambulance became stuck on a railroad track and was hit hard by a train, killing all but Omer. He was taken to the hospital where the first report was that he had "a gut that was slit wide open." All present, save one, said essentially, "He's a goner." But one young doctor wanted to "give it a try to save this young man's life".

Olive heard about the accident in Canby and immediately gathered her first born, daughter Milnore, who was six months old at the time, bought a train ticket to Chicago and from there a ticket to New York and then on to the New Jersey Hospital.

Olive arrived with her baby Milnore to learn that one brave doctor's efforts had saved her husband's life.

Our grandmother always seemed to be about three feet tall to us. In fact she was probably a few inches less than five feet tall. But her courage and faith only now becomes clear to me. The letters you will see in the upcoming posts were carefully saved and responded to despite the fact that the better bet was that her son was dead.

A Glimpse of Freedom

As described in Jim Hoel’s letter to his mother written during the late evening of May 16, 1943, it hardly seemed as if a war was been fought as he rode his bike through the English countryside appreciating the beauty of the English garden in the early summer. Our father always created beautiful gardens in our yard as we grew up and his love for our gardens perhaps originated in these peaceful settings. He also wrote that he expected the Axis to crumble soon. He was optimistic, but unfortunately he was wrong. The next day, May 17, 1943, Jim was a captured airman after his B-26 Marauder was shot down. Sitting on the banks of the Maas River he had no idea what would happen next

Three of four hours later a small pickup truck with a canvas top on it backed up to the German "gun emplacement" and again, Jim had no idea what was going on. The four survivors from the B-26 Marauder were then summoned. Four guards from the truck came over. They had rifles drawn and they pointed to all four of the men to get into the truck, which they did.

The four Marauders sat in the truck, on the inside, with the four guards toward the back, and started driving someplace but at that point they didn't know where. Wherever Jim and the others were, it was clear that it was a rush hour because all around the truck (it had to be Amsterdam or a suburb) were bicycles, just dozens and dozens of bicycles. They were all workers evidently travelling home from work. The four Americans would occasionally, when the guards were looking out in back, give a “thumbs up” to this Amsterdam crowd and they would all wave and shout and cheer. Eventually, the German guards knew something was going on, so they stopped that in a hurry by turning around and threatening Jim and the others.

They were taken to what appeared to be some type of police headquarters. It was a stucco building and the Marauders were taken to the second floor into a room with three guards sitting there and holding them at bay.

One of the guards took one of the Jim’s crew out of the room. Jim had no idea where he was taken and the German guards still wouldn't let the Americans talk to each other. The first airman didn’t return. A little while later, the second guard took a second airman out of the room and they didn't come back. Still later, the third guard took another airman away, leaving Jim alone in the small room.

In an instant, Jim recalled what little escape training he had received. An RAF flying officer had given the Americans a short briefing on what happens. And all of a sudden, it dawned on Jim, that he had said, "The only and best time to escape is immediately when you've been captured". To this point Jim and the others had no opportunity to escape - until now. Jim then recalled that the RAF officer had also said, "The only other time is just any time after you've been captured whenever you see a good opportunity. But do it before you get into Germany because once you get into Germany, you're literally locked in a German prison and chances to escape diminish dramatically.”

All of a sudden it dawned on Jim and he walked over to the window in this second story building with the idea that he might just drop himself out of the window and take off. He looked down and there was a cobblestone street down below and rather than being just a second story, it was a high, high second story and he thought, "Well, I might drop myself down there and might break an ankle or something or other."

Before Jim had any chance to make up his mind one way or the other, the door opened and he turned around. One of the guards had returned, saw Jim standing by the window evidently looking like he was going to do something. The German guard got very nervous and he pointed his gun at Jim. Jim thought he was going to shoot him and put his hands up and said, "No, no, no." And at that point, Jim didn't know who was the most nervous, the German guard or him. At any rate, Jim sat down and that was the end of that.

The next opportunity for escape would not occur until much later with the carefully engineered and constructed tunnels at Stalug Luft III.