Here is Richard Grandpre’s story as written up by Donn Grandpre
PRISONERS OF WAR
World War II was a war of many nations and of millions of individuals. Young men were fighting and serving literally thousands of miles from their homes. Whether it be a German soldier in the Steppes of White Russia, or the American G. I. in the Ardennes of France, it was truly a World War. But just as important as that aspect of the war, was that individual soldier. Soldiers from all over the world were gathered together to participate in one of the greatest struggles that the world has ever known. What about these soldiers? What did the second world war hold in store for them?
It would be unrealistic to provide a chronicle for the millions of soldiers who served in the Second World War. This chronicle, however, will deal with a single; American soldier from Conde, South Dakota. The soldier’s name is Richard Grandpre who served in the United States Army Air Corps. This is his story.
Grandpre was inducted into the Army in August of 1941. Earlier that year he had just taken his first year of college at what is now Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Upon receiving his draft notice, Grandpre proceeded to Fort Eustis, Virginia. America wasn’t at war yet and he received training in coastal artillery.
Upon completion of his basic training he was permanently assigned to Fort Hancock, New Jersey. Here Grandpre served as part of a coastal artillery unit. Then on December 7, 1941, America found itself at war. First with Japan and then a few days later with Germany and Italy. Following the attack upon Pearl Harbor, Grandpre along with several other men from his unit transferred to the Army Air Corps.
Initially he was sent to Trenton, New Jersey where he took both a written and physical exam. He passed his written exam but was having some difficulty passing his physical exam. After being returned to Fort Hancock, his Commanding Officer had him take blood pressure tests at the camp hospital until his level was finally acceptable Having finally passed the exams, Grandpre was accepted and transferred in April of 1942, to Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Grandpre was to find out that Fort Dix was just a reporting depot and was then routed to Miami Beach, Florida; then Panama City, Florida, and finally in August of 1942, to a new base at Monroe, Louisiana.
Because of his aptitude he received navigation training. Training consisted of rigorous ground school and then advanced training which dealt with the actual navigation of an aircraft. For training purposes the Army Air Corp used Beechcraft AT-7s. There was a twenty percent washout rate but Grandpre passed and was then commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve in February of 1943.
Following graduation Grandpre was sent to Boise, Idaho where he was placed into a newly formed crew. From Boise, the crew was sent to Utah to form a bomber group, the 384th Bomber Group. The crew was then sent to Sioux City, Iowa where they trained with a new bomber known as the B-17. While in Sioux City, the B-17s would fly to satellite fields in Watertown, South Dakota; and various fields in Nebraska.
It was here that the B-17 he was assigned to buzzed the South Dakota towns of Conde, Turton and Doland. This was all done to the amazement of his father and neighbors. According to Grandpre; “In those days they were quite liberal with their flight plans and altitudes. . . we buzzed Turton, we buzzed Conde, and we buzzed Doland . . . that was what everybody did . . . they would head for their home town”.
Finishing their training at Sioux City, the 348th was sent to Kearney, Nebraska as their embarkation point. Upon arriving there, all the crew were given a ten day leave before they would be sent overseas. After returning from leave the 384th got its routing assignment to Bangor, Maine where they laid over for two to three days to get shots and pull maintenance on their bombers. Leaving Maine, the 384th flew to Gander Bay, New Foundland where they refueled and headed across the Atlantic towards England.
While on the flight across to England, some of the bombers encountered difficulties and had to turn back. Grandpre’s aircraft didn’t experience any difficulties until they were approaching the coast of Northern Ireland. Grandpre remembers that the pilot had a tendency when he hit land . . . to take over navigation. He liked to fly radio beams and the radio beam he was tuned in on was that of Prestwick, Scotland. The Germans had bent the beam and he starts questioning me and I gave him the heading to Prestwick. The pilot said that wasn’t the way the radio was pointing and I said, well don’t you follow it!” Following Grandpre’s advice the aircraft arrived at Prestwick, Scotland. The Germans were, however, successful at luring a few aircraft away from Prestwick.
From Prestwick the 384th gathered together at the base from where they were to operate out of. The Bomber Group spent about thirty days pulling maintenance on their aircraft, attending classes taught by combat veterans and awaiting later arriving members of their outfit. Finally the 384th Bomber Group was placed on combat duty.
On June 22, 1943 the 384 took off on its first bombing mission. Along with the 381st Bomber Group, the 384th was to make a diversionary raid in Antwerp while another bomber force went to strike Kiel, Germany. The target at Antwerp was a General Motors and Ford Plant that was being used by the Germans for repair work. The mission got off on a bad start and never quite recovered. The 381st arrived at the rendezvous point late because of fog, thus the bomber group as a whole was late meeting their fighter escorts. They were to stay in tight formation following their lead bomber as they approached their target and dropped their bombs. It was here that they discovered that the lead bomber was going too fast but because of radio silence the group continued on. At the Initial Point on approach to the target the lead bombers speed was 210 knots when it should have actually been 180 knots.
Upon approaching the Initial Point of the bomb run it was discovered that the superchargers on Grandpre’s aircraft, a device used in conjunction with the motor of the aircraft to increase its speed, would not activate and thus the bomber was unable to obtain the necessary speed to keep up with the other bombers. Dropping behind the formation of bombers, their aircraft was hit by flak and then alternately hit by German Focke-Woulf fighters. The number two engine on their aircraft was hit by flak and started leaking oil from under its cowling. Continuing on the bombing run the aircraft dropped its bombs and completed the run. Grandpre’s bomber was now alone, save for the Germans.
Once again the B-17 was hit by flak and this time the number three engine was hit and burst into flames. With this the pilot gave the command to bail out. Before anyone had left the aircraft, it broke into a downward spin. Grandpre, who was stationed with the bombardier in the nose of the aircraft, moved to an escape hatch. Grasping the release wire handle, Grandpre found the hatch to be stuck and injured his hand in forcing it open. Following much persuasion the hatch gave way. Still the aircraft was spinning downward.
Having received no training in how to abandon ship, Grandpre went through the hatch feet first. Upon doing this, his legs were immediately flattened back against the aircraft by the force of the spin. Regaining himself, he finally got free, forced his way through the hatch, cleared the aircraft and lost consciousness.
The pilot, co-pilot and bombardier, seeing the difficulty Grandpre was having bailed out the bomb bay doors, these doors are located on the underside of a bomber through which the bombs are released. An instant later the aircraft exploded.
When Grandpre regained consciousness he was being pelted by the debris of his aircraft. He was still uncertain as to how his parachute had opened. Floating for what seemed like an eternity, he finally landed near the Dutch-Belgian border, in a wheat field. Unfortunately, he had landed very near a German anti-aircraft battery. But before the Germans arrived, Grandpre was greeted by some Dutch farmers. One of the Dutch men spoke English and explained that they would like to help him but they couldn’t.
Realizing capture was imminent, Grandpre gave the Dutch farmers a chronometer, which is a time piece used in navigation, and an escape kit, which was issued to each member of the bomber prior to every mission. It contained maps, foreign moneys, and chocolate bars. Minutes later seven to eight Germans showed up and ushered Grandpre into a Volkswagen. The co-pilot landed near Grandpre and he also was rounded up. The bombardier was reportedly shot on the ground trying to escape.
The Germans took what remained of the crew to a small hospital where they were treated for small injuries. Then later the crew was moved, this time to a small guard house located at a nearby airfield.
The following morning they were shipped to Amsterdam by rail. Reaching their destination a day later the crew was taken to another hospital where x-rays were taken and their wounds were treated. It was after this that he was temporarily separated from the rest of the crew. Following the x-rays, he was told his leg was broken and was taken and placed in a small two bed cell. Grandpre spent two weeks in the cell and was intermittently interrogated. Off and on during the day the Germans would come in his cell and ask him questions. The questions seemed to center on the names of the crew, particularly that of the bombardier. Unable to gather the information they wanted the Germans moved a R.A.F. airman into his cell. The R.A.F. man had been burned badly and within a couple of days became irrational and incoherent. Two weeks after his arrival, Grandpre was moved out of the cell, never to know what had happened to the R.A.F airman.
After leaving Amsterdam, Grandpre was taken to the German Interrogation Center at Frankfurt-am-main in central Germany. The installation was called the Dulag Luft Interrogation Center. He spent another ten days to two weeks being interrogated by the Germans. In this case the only question that he was asked was where he had been trained. Grandpre wouldn’t give up this information and the Germans threatened to put him in a POW camp for enlisted men. Grandpre told them he really didn’t care. In the end, he was placed with a group of Allied POW officers and was prepared for transfer to a POW camp.
While at Frankfurt he encountered a group of British doctors who staffed a hospital there for the wounded allied prisoners. While being treated for the broken leg he had obtained, Grandpre formed the impression that British doctors rather enjoyed their position at the hospital and wanted nothing to do with jeopardizing it.
Following his stay at Frankfurt, he was sent to Luft Stalag III which was located in what is now western Poland. Cities of Dresden and Berlin weren’t very far from Luft Stalag III he spent roughly a year and a half at this camp. Luft Stalag III consisted of British and American airmen who were kept in separate compounds. The compounds had approximately twenty to thirty barracks in which the POW’s stayed. The barracks were arranged in rows of ten, and these were called blocks. There was a cook house for each block where meals were prepared and water was heated.
The prisoners of Luft Stalag III constructed their own theater. The Germans supplied the materials and the prisoners built the theater. There were never any films shown in the theater, but the prisoners put on a lot of plays. Some of the POWs had played in big dance bands back in the U.S. and they provided the music. Also, the Y.M.C.A. and the Red Cross sent the POWs some costumes of which they used in the plays. Because of the limited seating in the theater, tickets were printed and so many were given to each block. Also the Germans would attend some of the plays.
Besides the theater, the prisoners raised gardens in their compounds. The soil wasn’t very good for farming, but the prisoners did manage to raise some vegetables.
The prisoners had to make a lot of the things that they needed in the camp. Cooking utensils, a softball field which had to be cleared of the stumps of fallen trees, and they also made seats for the theater. These theater chairs were constructed from spent Red Cross packages. There was a lot of recreation activity for the POWs. After the completion of the softball field, all the blocks got teams together to form leagues. Using names like the “Yankees” and the “White Sox” the POW’s played out a camp series.
It is interesting to note that it was at Luft Stalag III that the “Great Escape” occurred. At first the camp was primarily composed of British fliers who were captured in the early part of the war. However, upon America’s entry into the war, American POWs started coming to Luft Stalag III. Among these Americans was Grandpre. The “Great Escape” was the brain child of the British. They in turn solicited the aide of the Americans. The idea of the escape was to occupy as many Germans as possible in hunting down the escaped POWs.
Three tunnels were started, Tom, Dick, and Harry. Along with the tunneling there was the manufacturing of uniforms, construction of counterfeit papers, the collection of German money, and escape security. Grandpre worked on escape security. Taking a position near the compound gate, he would watch for German guards. Whenever a guard would enter the compound, he would lower a window in a nearby latrine. This would alert members of the security group and they in turn would send a man to follow the guard. If the commander of the guards entered the compound, all of the latrine windows were closed and all escape activity stopped.
Bed boards were collected to support the tunnels. Barracks drew lots to see who would forfeit the bed boards. An air pump was constructed to provide fresh air to the tunnels. A trolley network was set up in the tunnels to help in personnel movement and in the removal of dirt. Small sacks were constructed for the removal of dirt from the tunnels. A strap was worn over the shoulders and under a coat and the sacks rested in the POWs pant legs. When the POW was ready to release his load of tunnel dirt, he would simply pull two pins out of the sacks. These POWs were known as “pinguins”.
Around sixty POWs escaped during the “Great Escape”, of the sixty, forty were captured rounded up and shot. A few escaped by boat via Bremen, which is a port in northern Germany. A couple of POWs made it as far as the Swiss border but they in turn were captured and shot. The reprisals for the escape were quite severe. Spot inspections were held night and day, often in the middle of the night in the cold and rain. Orders were given that in the event if any future escapes the guards would shoot on sight.
The POWs had various means of obtaining information and for distributing it throughout the camp. There was a P.A. system which the Germans would use to talk to the POWs. The prisoners put out a newsletter throughout the compound and had a war room in the theater. This war room was a large map of Europe in which the prisoners would log and plot the various war movements. The POWs also constructed radios by sneaking parts in through packages sent in from the outside. With these radios the prisoners could listen to the BBC and get the other side of the news. To communicate information from the American compound to the British compound, the POWs used codes. Hand signals such as those used by the Navy were often employed. At one time, there was an individual in the British compound who could speak Gaelic. The Germans were unable to understand Gaelic, so information was passed in this manner.
The POW camp’s morale always seemed to be good. The Americans, who were the more recently captured, must have realized that the war’s end was just a matter of time. According to Grandpre, the American POWs kept their humor intact. “When you get a bunch of Yanks together they are gonna make their own fun. We would harass the Germans and even harassed the Gestapo! When they would come into the compound to make one of their searches, we would steal their briefcases and their hats and defecate in them . . . and the Germans would say; “All the world fears us and you Yanks just laugh at us”.
Grandpre also recalled the Fourth of July in 1944 when the POWs had a celebration. To celebrate the Fourth one of the things we did, I suppose you could call it recreational, is that some of POWs made what must have been a White Mule [liquor] . They would use potatoes and sugar and brew it in a big white lamp globe. Some of the guys that knew the trade a little better would get more sophisticated and make a still out of an old trombone and tin buckets. Anyway, come the Fourth of July there was really quite a celebration.
There was a little black market activity with in the camp. POWs would get Red Cross packages, one per man per week. There was a lot of trading of surplus items such as cigarettes, chocolate bars and anything else that the camp POWs might have too much of.
In January of 1945, the POWs were moved from Luft Stalag III. The Russians had moved perilously close to the camp, so the Germans moved the POWs to a camp located at Sagam. The allied prisoners marched 80 Kilometers in the cold weather of January to a rail head. The march was rough on the guards as well as the POWs. Rations were also scarce toward the end of the war. Due to the bombing of transportation lines even the Red Cross packages were becoming scarce Many of the prisoners were losing weight, Grandpre went from around 160 pounds to 120.
At their new camp, Stalag VI A, the prisoners came under the guard of the Wehrmacht, which was the German Army. Previously they had been under the watchful eye of the Luftwaffe, back at Luft Stalag III. It was be considered that being under the care of the Luftwaffe was better than being under the Wehrmacht. Needless to say at this stage of the war in reality it probably didn’t matter.
Life at the new camp was very chaotic, rumors from new Allied POWs spread throughout the camp. Rumors of pending liberation and that other camps had already been liberated made the rounds at Stalag VII A.
Grandpre recalls their last days at Stalag VII A; we were right outside of the town of Sagan and the biggest battle was between German S. S. troops and the German Army guards that were stationed at our camp. The guards had more or less slacked off guarding us anymore, in fact they kind of turned the camp over to us. They knew that we were about to be liberated. The S.S. troops came by the gate where the Wehrmacht guards were and wanted them to come out and help defend the town. Well, the Wehrmacht guards wouldn’t hear of it. So the S. S. troops fired a Panzer Faust, a rocket propelled grenade, into the Wehrmacht barracks and a fire fight broke out between the Germans. “We laid low and waited for the battle to end which it did when the Stars & Stripes came up over the town.
Stalag VII A was liberated by elements of Patton’s Army. One captain had a brother that was in our camp. So this captain takes off with a couple of crates of oranges in his jeep and heads for our camp. Well, he hadn’t heard that our camp hadn’t been liberated yet, so he drives right through German lines. The Germans were surrendering to him right and left. A half a day later a tank came rolling into Sagan and our camp, Stalag VII A, was liberated!
In April of 1945, Grandpre was freed as an American POW. After being routed to Camp Lucky Strike, a temporary transient camp in the northern part of France, the prisoners were grouped together according to their geographic homes in the states. From Camp Lucky Strike, he was routed to the French port of Le Harve and on June 3, 1945 he was on a Liberty Ship headed home.
Upon his arrival back in the States, he was sent to Fort Snelling where he was to marry his college sweetheart, Lois Clocksine. Following their marriage he was given a sixty day leave, after which he was to report to San Lamonica, California. At San Lamonica he had the option of re-enlisting or accepting his discharge from the military. In October of 1945. Grandpre accepted his discharge and returned home to South Dakota.
Following his discharge he made his home in Aberdeen, South Dakota and for the first couple of years he worked for the railroad. Later, he went to work for the Postal Service and worked with them until his retirement a few years ago. Richard and Lois are now living in Aberdeen, and in the summer, visit their lake cottage in the northeastern part of South Dakota.