| Notes |
Born in Chicago, Illinois, 4 December 1918.
14 December 1944 - Status changed officially from Missing In Action, to
Prisoner of War.MACR No. 05735
George Peterson tells his story: At the time I was shot down I was a
2ms Lt. and on my 7th mission. Anti-aircraft fire hit my right
engine and it quit. Then a fire started all over the right side and
I had gasoline in the cockpit, so I decided to bail out.
I had a hard time bailing out, I forgot the seatbelt and the quick
disconnects didn't loosen, so I had to remove my helmet. By this
time I was quite low and I guess flak or the plane hit me as I finally got
out and was injured over my back. I pulled the ripcord and stuck my
hand in a large tall tree - thank God.
I landed feet first but my parachute fell out of the tree and covered me
up. I got out from under the chute and here came two German soldiers
and of course, for me, the war was over. They tore up my chute in
strips and bound me up and saved my life. All this happened on 16
June 1944, about 7 P.M. The soldiers took me to Abbeville, France,
and a German doctor operated on me. I stayed at Abbeville for 30
days and then was taken to the big German Air Force hospital in Paris.
On the 10th August 1944, I came down with diphtheria and was put in
isolation. The Allied troops found us on 7 September 1944, and I was
evacuated to England and then home on a hospital ship in November 1944.
(Reproduced with the kind
permission of Mr. Robert M. Littlefield, from the author's book, Double
Nickel, Double Trouble.) Passed away on 18th December 1998 |
