News-Info-Alerts

Re: POWs Reunite

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: August 04, 2003

"POWs reunite, recall fateful event 58 years later

By Cari Quam/Austin Daily Herald

Jim Simmons of Independence, Ky., left, points to where a piece of shrapnel entered his forehead as Paul Bosworth of Olathe, Kan., and Pete Peck of Austin look on Thursday at Peck's home in Austin. The three men shared memories of their experience as prisoners of war during WWII in Germany. The men -- Simmons as a technical sergeant and Bosworth and Peck as staff sergeants -- were on board a B-17, like the model in the middle of the table, when it was shot down on March 2, 1945. They, along with the five other survivors of the plane, were prisoners of war until April 29, 1945. Christine V. Johnson
   
They weren't supposed to go up in the air that day.

But a plane had engine trouble and a spare one was needed for a mission over Germany. So a nine-man bomber squadron in the 305th bomb group was ordered to go.

By the end of the operation, the men were taken by Germans into a prisoner of war camp.

Fifty-eight years later, three of the men sit in Pete Peck's dining room in Austin. Jim Simmons of Independence, Ky., and Paul Bosworth of Olathe, Ks., came to Austin Wednesday night to visit Peck until Saturday.

"That was a long time ago," said Simmons, 78, of the unforgettable event forever etched in their memories.

Bosworth, 77, quipped, "I think it happened to somebody else."

"We're all pretty much bonded together like Siamese kids," Peck, 77, clarified.
Their experience together as a World War II B-17 crew and in a German POW camp is a bond that would last a lifetime.

Eight of the nine crew members survived when their B-17 bomber was shot down on March 2, 1945. Since then, the eight men kept in touch through letters and occasional visits.

All of them got together for the first time in 1990 and have been meeting every five years or so. Peck, Simmons and Bosworth are the only ones still living.

On that day in 1945, Peck and Bosworth woke up late. They hustled to get on their crew's B-17 and missed breakfast.

The crew then flew from their base in Chelveston, England, to their target, an oil refinery in Germany.

Simmons, a technical sergeant, was positioned above the cockpit in the top turret.

Peck was a ball turret gunman, located in the belly of the plane and a place so small he couldn't wear his parachute in order to fit in it.
Bosworth said he had the best position, the tail gunman. While everyone else saw the black puffs of smoke signaling shots fired, he saw them float behind him as the plane passed.

"I could see what we went through and (that) I'm still alive," he said.

While in the air that day, one engine was shot and the plane began to shake.

"I saw (the propeller) just zoom right off like that," Simmons said, circling his hand in the air.

Then the plane steadied.

They were given two choices, fly to England or to Russia. They decided on Russia because they thought it was closer.

But on their way there, the navigator admitted he forgot to bring the Russian maps.

"And the navigator said, 'Go west, go west,'" Simmons said.

They headed back toward England, alone in the sky, without any other aircraft with them.

As soon as the clouds cleared near Frankfurt, Germany, they were an easy target and another engine was shot.

Simmons gave the thumb sign to bail out.

During the early afternoon of March 2, 1945, eight men parachuted out of the B-17 right before it crashed into the mountainside.

Simmons landed in a tree, Bosworth a field and Peck in the mountains.

Each were taken either by German soldiers or civilians into a POW camp in the woods.

Soon after they were forced to march to Munich. They spent most of their time as prisoners marching to different camps throughout Germany as the German military tried to avoid American and Russian advances. They were among 10,000 other prisoners in that camp. Bosworth didn't even know Peck and Simmons had been captured along with him.

They had little food to eat. They ate soup and what the men call "black bread," which is made from "about 25 percent sawdust," Bosworth said, cracking a smile.

"It stayed with you," he said.

They slept outdoors most of the time, wherever they found a spot after a day of marching. The bathrooms were outdoors and were only a plank of wood or a log.
Their camp was liberated on April 29, 1945. Peck remembers the American soldiers brought white bread with them and threw it out to the POWs.

"Geez, it just tasted like angel food cake," Peck said.

After liberation, they were taken to Camp Lucky Strike in France and then back to New York. Bosworth remembers returning home on a ship to Ellis Island.

There, the Statue of Liberty and a crowd of smiling faces greeted them.

"There was waterworks all over the place," Bosworth said of their emotional arrival.

The men were discharged from the Army Air Corps later that year and retuned to their home states. Bosworth became a traveling salesman of printing supplies and lived in the Chicago area.

Simmons returned to California and taught social sciences and physical education for 32 years.

Peck moved back to Austin and worked for Hormel Foods Corp. for 40 years.
And the whole time they kept in touch.

The men said because of their experience, they truly know the price of freedom.
"It just isn't given to you, you gotta earn it," Peck said. "And I did my part."

Bosworth nodded and added, "We're really fortunate we're at the age we are."
Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at cari.quam@austindailyherald.com

©2003 Austin Daily Herald Inc. "