A POW vet visit.

Ztex · **Posted:** Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:41 pm

Some of you guys may remember me talking a while back about a customer of mine.

Fred Disney. (His brother Dick was an early CAF guy)

He was a B-17 pilot, 384th BG, 547th BS. and was shot down on the Group's 1st mission to Antwerp, Belgium, on June 22, 1943. Only 3 of the crew survived that day.

He spent the duration in Luft Stalag 3.

Over the years I have been able to have a few conversations about his wartime experiences. A few weeks ago we had a conversation about his capture and a bit about his POW camp experiences. Needless to say it was quite interesting.
Last Friday afternoon he came in to the office with a box under his arm...
He brought his war loot in for me to see!
I was blown away!

He had a large civil Nazi flag, a small car flag. A stack of armbands, most of them with the RZM stickers in place on the back, post cards, a bag of dried tea, razors etc.

About the time we were finished I remembered my camera. and took a few shots of the stuff.
Thought I would share.

His U.S. dog tag

His POW dog tag!

A box of matches

Some aluminum of the forks they used in the camps

A packet of tooth powder

After the guards left he and a couple of other guys left the camp and found some U.S troops and hung out with them for a few days before being forced to go back to the camp for transport home. These are some of the things looted from a farm house and a building.

An SA ID book he found stashed away!!!

Patches and stuff

the nicest of the armbands

And a Luftwaffe Dagger

"Spoils of war" he called it.

1st Lt Frederick Disney ret.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:48 am

nice booty :wink:

those items are fabulous, especially the dress dagger!!

Roger Cain · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:08 pm

Very interesting, thanks for posting

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:15 am

Triangle,

Thanks for the links and the information.

To my knowledge, Mr. Disney has not attended a reunion. I don't think he will...but you never know.

It's is interesting that the mae west is in Poland. It's a long way from Holland or Belgium to Poland.
Fred was shot down near the coast and he said he was picked up by a Dutch fishing boat in the channel. (the website says "ditched" but he tells of jumping from a burning spinning airplane at altitude. That story is quite interesting as well) He was held in Holland for a few days then moved to Germany for interrogation, he remembers a German officer by the name of Bodi asking the questions...very polite guy but he would not share his cigars with Fred...then of being moved to the stalag.

At first he was in a camp mixed with British officers but they soon were segregated and moved to camp 2. He was there during the great escape.
He said he job in the camp was to help hide the escape tools. Uniforms, civil clothes, papers etc. He said they occasionally found some of the clothing but they never found the papers.

When the Russians got close they were moved, in a blizzard on foot and by train to Germany. Moosburg, Stalag 7A, and remained there until the GI's came. He said they woke up one morning and the German guards were just gone...they knew it was close but they didn't know what to expect at the end.

It is amazing to talk with these guys. Sometimes it takes a while to get the story but it's worth it.

Warbird Information Exchange

A POW vet visit.

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