News-Info-Alerts

Re: WW II: Diary of Captivity

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: June 02, 2002

"James H. Watts, 84; kept diary of hungry Nazi prison months
        
By Jack Williams
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

James H. Watts didn't know what hunger was until he spent six anguished months in a Nazi prison camp during World War II.

Confined to Oflag 64, a converted school in Szubin, Poland, the future colonel saw some fellow U.S. ground-force officers collapse from hunger during morning roll calls.

Once, on the verge of starvation, he fainted while leaning over to tie a shoelace.

Writing in a diary that he tried to hide from his captors, Col. Watts acknowledged his hunger and indulged his imagination by listing foods he would eat and books he would read once he was free.

Liberated by the Russians in April 1945, he went on to serve 24 more years in the Army and earn a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and two Legions of Merit.

He died of pneumonia May 9 at Riverside Community Hospital. He was 84.

A longtime Rancho Bernardo resident, Col. Watts was a key member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars-Military Order of World Wars committee that created the Rancho Bernardo Veterans Memorial in Webb Park, said Glen E. Lackey, a longtime friend.

As a regional commander of the Military Order of World Wars, Col. Watts received several awards, including the Gold Patrick Henry Medallion for patriotic achievement.

Born in North Bend, Neb., he graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln before entering the Army as a second lieutenant in World War II.

Attached to the 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion, he landed at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. His two superior officers were killed and by the end of the day he had been promoted to company commander.

"Jim was a modest, unassuming man who never talked much about his experiences on that terrible day in Normandy," Lackey said.

The following November, Col. Watts was taken prisoner. Two months later, with the Soviet army nearing the Oflag 64 camp, he was forced to join fellow prisoners in evacuating the area amid a raging blizzard.

Walking through the snow and wind all the way to Germany, the prisoners braved numbing temperatures as they carried the blankets they would sleep under at night.

Col. Watts began keeping his diary two days after being captured. When it was confiscated by his captors, he began a second one – filling it with maps and calendars as well as the foods he craved and the books he wanted to read.

Among his culinary entries: Apple goose, roasted with cheese and fruit, and Italian ice cream.

After his liberation, Col. Watts reached the Elbe River, from which he saw the lights of U.S. troops camped on the opposite bank. His feelings? "Absolute elation," he told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the May 8 V-E Day.

Col. Watts specialized in weapons testing and evaluation after World War II, serving in Brazil, Great Britain and the United States.

He retired from active duty and moved in 1970 to Rancho Bernardo, where he was active in the Gen. J.P. Holland Chapter of the Military Order of World Wars and Post 766 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

In 1998, he moved to Air Force Village West in Riverside..

His wife, Janet, died in 1999.

Survivors include two daughters, Judith Watts of Poway and Jacqueline Watts of Baltimore; a son, James Jr. of Corona; a sister, June Milne of Detroit; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

A memorial service was held May 20 at Air Force Village, Riverside.

Jack Williams: (619) 542-4587; jack.williams@uniontrib.com
© Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. "