PODubs

Howard Thornley-Prisoner of War (POW) By: Caroline Buehl, Theresa Sulminski, Shelby Zelek, Chelsea Kovalcsik

​ In the beginning of the 1940's World War II had broken out and many European countries went into chaos. Hitler took over many countries and captured prisoners of war in the act. His followers, the Nazis, tortured and killed almost anyone they captured and tried to gain valuable information about their military bases and the armies Hitler should be ready to fight against. When the war was over, some of the captured prisoners were released, while others were finally able to rest in peace.

I joined the service at the beginning of the war, but after not too long, I was drafted into the English Army and was on base at Bassingbourn, England. On December 22, 1943 I was captured by Dutch civilians and parachuted to a small town in Holland. From Holland, I was taken to a confinement area in Amsterdam then was held in an interrogation center in Frankfurt, Germany. While I was being interrogated, I realized that the Germans had a spy somewhere on the English base where they have been stealing military records. I stayed in the prisoner composition (camp of imprisonment) Stalag 17 and other national prisoners were also captured and stayed in the same composition but were seperated into different compounds (sections) and we all were treated differently. The Russians were fed even less than the Americans and no one escaped. Many of us worked on tunnels, but as soon as one tunnel was close to finished, it was discovered.

All outside contact was forbidden including radios. Any supplies we received were vital and we took care of them very well. Rations were small normally hardtack or a small piece of bread, if meat it would be horsemeat, and a very thin watery soup. Much of the bread or hardtack was infested with small black insects. Cheese was a blessing and the forced marches took everything out of us. I weighed less than a hundred pounds and even less after the marches. We often slept in open fields or if we were in a barrack, they had no heat, but were pretty well built. We had no medical doctor and I had my wisdom teeth removed by an infantry dentist without painkillers-held down by other prisoners. Though it was rough I was very glad that we were treated in a somewhat humane way. Still today, I carry around the scars I received as a prisoner in this horrible war. Near the end of March 1945, we were marched out by the Germans and while they looked away some of us were saved by a civilian family we were passing, we were taken under the floorboards and could her the gunshots when the German officers came back with many less prisoners. Near the end of 1945, an American Lieutenant blew up a nearby bridge and found the prisoners. Since the war, I have not been back to Germany but I visited the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England and saw the walll of the missing-5,000 names. Over time, my attitude towards the Germans and Germany has changed greatly. I have tried to put aside my differences with the German people and besides the way they have treated me, the war was ended and I was saved.





