It is with great sadness that I report on the death of another friend and former POW. John Bing Crosby. I met John and his lovely wife Lorraine at The Ride Home in Andersonville, GA several years ago. I always reserved my back seat for Lorraine for the parade of POWs through Americus and on to the infamous POW camp and home of the National POW/MIA museum in Andersonville. I looked forward o seeing them every year. Rest in eternal peace my friend. John Crosby joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. His company was held back from duty, initially. He was stationed multiple times stateside, in Wichita Falls at Shepherds Field, at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, and then to Santa Ana, Calif., for training. Crosby, or as he later became known, “Bing,” was picked for pilot but, preferring navigation, requested a demotion. He finished navigation training and then completed gunnery school in Texas. He was in the 15th Air Force Heavy Bombers. His crew flew a B-24 Bomber down to Trinidad, South America, to Recife and then they “crossed the pond” to Europe. He told the incredible story of how he was a POW for 11 months in 1944-45. “We were getting an awful lot of flak,” Crosby began, recalling the day, May 31, 1944. He said his crew had flown four or five missions to that point, but this time Crosby was assigned to a different crew. He navigated the B-24 over Munich where he said they “overtook the town.” Ten thousand men, women and children were killed, according to Crosby. “I will carry that to my grave,” he said. “The pilot pulled into a flak bed,” he continued. In the turmoil the plane lost two engines and communications were knocked out. The crew knew they couldn’t make it across the Alps into Italy. “I gave a heading toward Zurich,” Crosby said. The plane was losing altitude. The crew elected not to jump because the plane was flying too low. Instead, they endured a crash landing with landing gear down. After the landing, the crew destroyed the inside of the plane so the enemy would not be able to gain any information from the wreckage. It was three days after D-Day. Crosby said he was burning his flight plans when he felt a gun in his back. The crew was captured by the Luftwaffe, the German Army, opposing the Nazis. The Luftwaffe protected Crosby and his crew from the German people as they marched them along the countryside. Crosby said that he understood why the Germans were angry. The B-24 crew were taken to a castle and fed. Later they were then taken to Nuremberg by train to an intermediate camp where there were 10,000 men. He said food was scarce and they survived on barley soup and blood sausage, which Crosby didn’t care for. He received one Red Cross parcel every two weeks, that contained corned beef, Spam and biscuits. Crosby said he also took up smoking while at the camp. Crosby recalls one night he and the others were told to get up, gather their belongings and march. It was below freezing and a heavy blanket of snow covered everything. They marched for three days and three nights to Moskau, Poland. He said the Americans were employed to carry the guns of many of the Luftwaffe guards, many who were as old as 60, he speculated. The Americans were told that if they escaped they could fall into the hands of the Russian army. After some time the men were transferred by train again, 40 men per box car. Crosby and his comrades suffered horrible conditions at their new camp at Moosburg, having no running water, but their suffering would soon be over, as Crosby explained. One morning the prisoners awoke to find that the camp was no longer being guarded. Positioning themselves to see over the stockade wall, they saw Gen. George S. Patton’s Army coming over the hill. “Patton liberated us,” Crosby said, rubbing tears from his eyes. He recalled the General walking by him, close enough that Crosby could see the pearl handle of Patton’s pistol. “He was a soldier,” Crosby said. While awaiting transportation back to the U.S. at Camp Lucky Strike, in the heart of France, Crosby was reunited with his co-pilot from his first bomber crew. Crosby learned that his old crew had been shot down and the co-pilot was the sole survivor. “I’m here for a reason. I try to make every day count,” Crosby said, acknowledging the circumstances of his survival. After returning to the U.S., Crosby would not accept the commendation of Purple Heart and despite being offered a promotion to captain, Crosby ultimately decided to leave the service and returned to Milwaukee where he worked as a tool engineer.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:46:19 +0000