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.

Reflections

(Our father pondered the fate of the men lost on May 17, 1943 though at this time he had no real idea of the full extent of the loss. He digressed in his own thoughts at this point and thought of the tragedy of his friends, the Mathis' brothers, separately described in this Blog at "Interlude" http://warandtime.blogspot.com/2009/03/interlude.html

Jack Mathis was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for the events our father thought back upon that day at Gulag Luft, when he first started to learn of the details of May 17, 1943 Ijuidmen Misson. He is pictured in the back row at the far right of this picture. Here are our father's reflections in his own words.)

One day one of our bombardiers in my squadron, Rudd "Mathis", called his brother who was a bombardier on a B-17 in England. His air base was very close to ours. His brother, Jack, said, "Come over tomorrow afternoon and I'll see you then". Well, that probably meant he was going out on a mission that day.

So Rudd went over there that afternoon and it was protocol for any B-17 (or any airplane) coming in for a landing, that first priority went to crippled airplanes that were ready to crash, and they would fire a red flare out of the airplane and then they would come to the head of the formation to land.

Planes with wounded men aboard also sent out red flares to tell the crew on the ground that they needed second priority. Well anyway, a flare went out from the plane that Rudd "Mathis'" brother Jack was flying on. It landed and Rudd went out to the airplane and helped carry his dead brother off the airplane.

What had happened was they were making their bomb run and he was in the lead airplane. It was characteristic that the lead airplane was the one that used the bombsite to locate the target and the drop point and then when all the airplanes behind him saw the bombs falling, they would drop their bombs. Well, shortly before they hit the drop point, the bombardier, Jack Mathis, was hit with a burst of flack and he was grievously wounded. Nevertheless, he stuck with his bomb site and dropped the bombs on the target and died. For this, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Well, Rudd was all upset about this, obviously, and he requested of our Commanding Officer that he be transferred into that B-17 group. They accommodated him. And several days later, he went out with that group and the B-17 he was flying on radioed "May Day" as it was returning over the English Channel. May Day means, we're in trouble, we're going down. That was the last that was ever heard of Rudd "Mathis" and the airplane. Evidently, it crashed into the North Sea and no debris was found, which meant it probably just kept on going to the bottom of the sea. Both brothers were dead.

Reality Sets In

This is a picture of our father at the site where he swam ashore after the crash of his B-26 Marauder on May 17, 1943. It was taken by my brother Gil in 2005 when he accompanied our father on his first trip back since his Marauder ditched in the the Nieuwe Waterweg River.

When Jim Hoel finished his interrogation at "Gulag Luft" and his meeting with the German Corporal who grew up blocks from Jim in Evanston, Illinois, all he knew for certain regarding the Ijmuiden Mission and his particular flight was that Jim and the other two officers, the pilot and co-pilot, had survived. From the point of capture, officers and enlisted men were separated and the radio operator in Jim's B-26 Marauder, an enlisted man, had been separated from the others. They had no idea where he was taken.

That was the way the European armies operated, so only Jim and the other two officers were interrogated at Gulag Luft. Following the days of interrogation, as the young men were enjoying their first time together and their first taste of freedom in the Gulag Luft yard, a pilot of another plane on the Ijmuiden Mission, Lieutenant Colonel Puritan, walked into the yard and joined the other young men.

The plan for the May 17, 1943 Ijmuiden Mission was to have the B-26 Marauders split off; five of the planes were going to the target in Ijmuiden, Holland and the other five to a target in Harlem, Holland. Lieutenant Puritan was leading the five planes that were targeting Harlem.

Jim and the others, for the first time, began to glimpse the true nature of the tragedy of the May 17, 1943 mission. Only Lieutenant Puritan and his co-pilot had survived the crash of his airplane. The rest of the crew had been killed. Jim and the others knew that Colonel Stillman's plane had gone down and Puritan reported all of them dead, as Jim had to accept as he had seen the crash. Jim knew that his plane was down with four survivors. He also now knew that Puritan's plane was down with only two survivors.

Then Puritan added, that when he saw Stillman's plane go down, he saw the next B-26 Marauder in formation move forward to take the lead. In doing so, however, that plane collided with another B-26 and they both exploded. Puritan believed that all of the airmen on those two planes had been killed.

Jim knew at this point that they were on their way to a permanent camp, though he didn't have any idea where. All Jim did know was that five of the 322nd Group's B-26 Marauders out of ten airplanes that had crossed the North Sea on May 17, 1943 had gone down. Neither Jim nor the other airmen had any idea at that point that all ten planes had gone down and 40 airmen friends were dead. The "adventure" that these young soldiers envisioned when entering the Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor had turned to tragedy.

When Jim and the others were loaded onto a train, they had no idea where they were going. They rode on the train all day long, going east, and finally stopped at Sagan, Germany, a hauntingly desolate area. In fact, it was in this very area that Napoleon made his last stand fighting the Russians as he was being driven back. Most of what they saw was a reforestation project that had been started perhaps 30 years earlier; row after straight row of pine trees that seemed to go on forever. Jim didn't see anybody as they were placed in trucks and taken to a camp. They didn't run into any civilians of any kind. Sagan was a very small town; a railroad cross section that lived off of that.

After a ride of another half an hour, Jim and the others arrived at what was known as Stalag Luft III. They entered the gates of this prisoner of war camp to find it was a British officers' RAF camp and this is the place where all of the American officers shot down and captured year to date, were housed.

They would soon hear from others who were brought to Stalug Luft III of the true extent of the Ijmuiden disaster and learn of the deaths of so many of their friends and fellow airmen.

Pearl Harbor Changes Everything

Our father's decision to enter the military was made that Sunday evening when his family listened to reports of Pearl Harbor. Again, his decision is best described in his own words.

Right after Pearl Harbor, almost immediately, the Air Force reduced its requirement of two years of college to only a high school diploma. I had a year and a half of college. I went and immediately enlisted in the Cadet Program, passed the exam and was accepted just that fast. The Cadet Program was designed to train pilots, navigators and bombardiers. It was quite a program because first of all, it paid $75 a month, which was absolutely staggering compared to a Private's pay in the Army, which was only $21, and the food was better and the accommodations were better, so it was a pretty good deal in training.

Then, once one graduated from Cadet Program, as either of the three, pilot, bombardier or navigator, you were commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army. That paid $150 a month and that was absolutely sensational. That was a big hunk of dough in that time. Also, if you were a flying officer, you got paid half of that again in flight pay. It was $150 salary and then $75 flight pay. So it was a total of those two. So that's what we signed up to do.

Within a matter of weeks, I was notified to report to the Chicago Post Office to be transported to Santa Ana, California. I went on the appointed day in January of 1942 and there were approximately 350 of we boys from the total Chicago area; all of us just as brimming with enthusiasm and fun as you could imagine. We were looking forward to a great adventure. Needless to say, some of them didn't come back alive, but nevertheless, at that time we all felt it was a great adventure.

We were told to bring a small bag with a change of underwear and that's all-no big suitcases. We were taken from there down to the railroad station and we got onto Pullman sleeper cars. I think they were probably the same cars that were used in World War I to transport troops around; real old Pullman cars. We were assigned two guys to the lower bunk and one to the upper bunk. Again, as we went across the country on our way to California (it probably took us 3 days to do it); it was just a lot of fun and great enthusiasm.

The train was an old, old sleeper train and there was no provisions for any food of any kind. Many years before, when the railroads were built, all the way to the West Coast there were Fred Harvey Restaurants built in towns right beside the railroad track and these were designed for trains because they didn't have the kind of diners that we know of in some trains. Every time that a meal was to be had, the train stopped, everybody got off the train and went into the Fred Harvey House.

They were reputed to be a very innovative kind of thing, I don't know when, in the 1800's sometime, and they featured the Harvey Girls. These were young girls who came from all over the country to work in these restaurants. I was reminded of this a little bit because Howard Johnson in the East started sort of the same kind of arrangement when motor touring was relatively new, I suppose in the 1920's or thereabouts. They built them along the highways with the same concept. At any rate, that's where we would stop, have a meal and get back on the train and get going.

Eventually we got to Southern California and the weather was beginning to warm up all the way along the route. We came on the train from the South of Los Angeles into the city. To describe this, it's difficult for you to imagine it. Today you have a city sprawl for hundreds of miles up and down the West Coast. Well, what we came into with the train going north, sort of near the coast, was countryside. It was just open country and then we come to a little town and then the open country again. And along the way in that particular area there were almost all solid orange groves and the oranges were full size at that time, the sun was out, the train was going very slowly and going from one little town, through the town, then the next town, and eventually into LA.

A Look Back

Jim Hoel's encounter with a German Corporal who had, at one time, been a neighbor in Evanston, Illinois, must have caused him to reflect on the many unbelievable ironies of war; but also, the early circumstances that led him to this point, a prisoner of war in Germany. Here is Jim's description, in his own words of his perceptions of the state of our nation before the United States entered World War II and his thoughts about serving his country.

As a start, I think it's important to do a little background on where we were when World War II started, as long this undoubtedly is going to be directed to people who are younger. We had been in a Depression for 10 years up until the start of World War II. The United States, following World War I, became an isolationist country. All of the people in the United States, or at least the majority, and the government itself said we don't want any part of any wars any place, any time, and therefore we don't have any military. The war, at the time we got involved in it, had been raging in Europe from 1939 on until 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened.

It's hard to believe, but we as a country just absolutely paid very little attention to that war going on in Europe. Germany almost conquered all of Europe. It's amazing that they didn't invade England because England itself had been an isolationist country; had a weak military in comparison to Germany's. So, there we were, not willing to become involved and happy with the whole thing.

Personally, I had gone to college for a year and a half and just became a little discouraged with it, I don't know why, so I quit and I was negotiating to go to Canada and join the Royal Canadian Air Force for flight training. In fact, I was all set to go in early December 1941. My father had been in World War I, and in discussing it with him, he said he understood my feelings completely. He had tried to get from the Ambulance Corp which he was in in World War I, into the Air Force then, but he couldn't pass the physical test to do it. So, as I say, he understood what I wanted to do.

He did suggest that I wait and get into our service, which I couldn't do because I didn't have 2 years of college credit to do it. So he prevailed upon me to stay through Christmastime with the family because he was convinced that it was going to be a long war and then eventually we were going to get drawn into it. Again, bear in mind, here we come up to early December and the American people wanted no part of any war and Congress wouldn't pass an appropriation for a nickel's improvement in our military situation.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, we were sitting in the living room (my whole family--my sister, my brother and myself and our parents) when the announcement came on, "Pearl Harbor has been bombed." This was a complete shock to everybody in the United States that you couldn't believe.

The following morning President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and that automatically became a declaration of war against Germany because the two of them were allies. And of course, the American public at that point, incensed at this attack said, "Let's go get 'em," and the mood of the country switched overnight. We've got to get involved and really do it and we'll get it over in a hurry. What they didn't know, or didn't think through, was we didn't have any Army, we didn't have any Navy, we didn't have any Marine Corp, we just really didn't have a military machine.


That we have to know going into this story I'm about to tell.

Friend or Foe?

In the previous post, the importance of Jim Hoel’s dog tag was mentioned. The tag had his home address on it which was not the norm, but an apparent mistake. It generated, however, a miraculous “reunion” of sorts.

While the prisoners were for the moment freed from solitary confinement and enjoying their first few minutes simply talking to other friends and Allies, a German soldier walked out of a little shack or office that was adjacent to the area where the men were talking and enjoying a smoke. As he got closer, Jim saw that he was a German Corporal.

"Is Lieutenant Hoel here?" the Corporal asked.

"Yea, that's me," Jim replied. Bear in mind that Jim and the others had just been interrogated by the best of the Germans. Jim was wary and he hadn’t told them anything. Though they tried every trick in the world, Jim finally understood what they were doing. So anyway, here, he simply said "That's me," and left it at that.

The German Corporal said, "Well, would you come over here? I'd like to talk to you."

So the two young men went over in a corner by themselves and the Corporal said, "I see in the office from your dog tag records that you live in Evanston, Illinois.

"That's right." Jim said cautiously.

"I'm from Evanston also." And Jim thought, "What the hell are these Germans up to anyway?" Jim figured this was another trick.

Jim asked the Corporal a series of questions about intersections and parks and locations of places in Evanston, where Jim and, allegedly, this German solider were both raised. The Corporal got every question right and Jim thought, “These guys are good!”

Finally, Jim tried to trick him and asked, “Do you remember the ice cream store at the corner Main Street and Hinman Avenue?” The Corporal said yes of course he did. “When you walked in,” Jim went on, “and you turned to your right to the fountain you…”

“No, no,” the Corporal interrupted, “You turned to the left,” which was correct of course.

Jim was stunned. Convinced now that this was no trick, Jim, incredulously asked “What on earth are you doing here?”

The young German Corporal went on to explain that he really grow up in Evanston and that he was a citizen of the United States, but prior to that was a citizen of Germany, thus a dual citizen. The European rule of citizenship at that time was, if you became a citizen of another country, you still remained a citizen of your country of origin.

As a citizen of the United States in 1938, the young man, my father’s age, was offered (as a lot of German-Americans were) a "free" vacation from Hitler to come back to the “fatherland” to see their relatives.

The young “Evanstonian” took the vacation and when he stepped off the boat he was greeted by the German military who told him "Welcome, you're a nice good German citizen”. With that, he was "conscripted" into the German army. That happened to a good many people, as Jim understood it.

Otherwise, both of these young men would likely still be fighting in the War, but on the same side. On the other hand, circumstances could have placed them yards apart, each with a “duty” to kill the other.

The first section of the poem “Brothers” written by Wayne Benson about the Civil War reads:

The sounds of rolling thunder fills the air of the nation,
A cry of despair comes from the founders of this creation
A family against family, brother against brother;
For a war has begun, a war like no other.

Jim has never forgot this encounter though he never saw the German Corporal again.

The Dulag Luft Interrogation

Jim Hoel’s interrogation center was called "Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe" or "Transit Camp of the Luftwaffe". Eventually, it came to be called "Dulag Luft" by the Allied airmen who “passed” thought it. Nearly all captured airmen went through the Dulag Luft where they were held for indeterminate periods in solitary confinement and subject to a sophisticated German interrogation process. There is an excellent website that has gathered information about POWs and includes a link to “The Interrogators” which describes in powerful detail the role this “transit stop”, played in the War. The site is called “Stalug Luft I Online” and can be located at http://www.merkki.com. It has also been added as a permanent link to our Blog.

An important point to remember is that, Jim and the other B-26 Marauder airmen brought to Dulag Luft, were the very first prisoners from a B-26 ever to arrive at the site. The first European B-26 mission was conducted on May 14, 1943. Every plane made it back from that mission. The May 17, 1943 mission was very different, all but one of the eleven planes were shot down and Jim’s B-26 Marauder was one of the first. It was therefore very important for the German interrogators to learn as much as they could about these planes and their strategies and tactics.

After days of solitary confinement for Jim, people started coming in. The first was a very nice guy. He was in a German uniform with a red cross on his sleeve and he said he was sure that Jim was concerned about his parents and that if he were in Jim’s position, he would be concerned also. He said that they wanted to notify Jim’s parents just as soon as possible that he was a prisoner of war and not “missing in action”. So he said, "Just fill out this form and then I'll take it and I can notify your parents immediately." Well, Jim and the others were under strict orders to give only their name, rank and serial number. (Jim adds that early on in the war some of the men got dog tags and he doesn’t know if it was a mistake or not, but anyway, the tag had Jim’s home address on it. That will come into play later in an extraordinary way.).

Jim filled out his name, rank and serial number and put the pen down and the German said, "I've got to have more information." Then he started quizzing Jim, "Where were you flying from? How many planes were there in your formation?" Jim said he could say no more. "Well," he said, "I'll try to do what I can, but without that information I'm not sure I can get this information through to your parents." And with that, he left. He was a nice guy, but he left Jim wondering if his folks would ever find out that he was a prisoner of war. That was the whole name of the game - just get your mind going.

They served Jim the same old boiled potatoes and hard dark bread and "ersatz" coffee. That was about the extent of his food, with a bowl of soup occasionally. The third day a Gestapo-type officer entered. He was just a tough and mean guy. He said, "Now, there's some information I want from you. I want to know where you were flying from." He asked Jim a lot of questions and after receiving no answers said, "Never mind, you don't have to answer any of them. I have the answers to all of those things anyway." And Jim thought, "Ha, the wise acre."

Another day or so went by and in came the same Gestapo officer. He said, "I know you were flying out of Bury Saint Edmond and I asked you where you took your training and I know you took it in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I know you left for overseas from West Palm Beach, Florida. We have all that information, so I don't need any information from you."

But he kept coming back to, "What kind of formation were you flying in?" And obviously, that was what they were trying to find out because they had never, to this point, interrogated anyone from a B-26. Jim didn't tell him and that was the end of that. The Red Cross worker came in a couple of times again and talked to Jim and he was always quite nice. Jim and the others were there about seven days.

At the end of seven days of solitary confinement, Jim was taken out and met again with his compatriots, including the P47 fighter pilot. They were taken to an area outside of the building, sort of a little rendezvous point. There they were met with maybe 25 or 30 British officers, American officers and guys that had been interned the same way that they had been. They were all waiting there now to go on to a permanent prison camp or so they thought.

After all of those days of being alone, having nobody to talk with, Jim can’t express the joy of meeting all of those guys and talking with them. Incidentally, they had cigarettes, so they all had a cigarette for the first time in a long time. They had some chocolate bars out of Red Cross parcels. They had something to eat.

It was absolutely like a party.


Tomorrow – An Unlikely Reunion