The guy who first trained me at RCA in 1981 retired that year. He was a crewmember on either a B17 or B24 over Germany. They were shot down, and he broke a leg either in the hit, or on his way down under a parachute.

He was captured right away, he said that was a good thing, as civilians treated them badly, treatment from the German military machine was not so bad. He spent considerable time in a POW camp. He said that, while he received virtually no treatment for his injury from the Germans ( they really had problems treating their OWN wounded), the war, by then, was not going well at all for the Germans and they had little to offer their own, let alone prisoners.

He said that he was never tortured, but the food was not good - again, things were bad for Germany at the time.

He commented that it wasn't like "Hogan 's Heros", but that he and his fellow POW's DID have reasonable conversations with the Germans at times. "It was war, and most of us on both sides were following orders and doing what we had to, to survive. Of course, by then, there was a movement in Germany against the war and against the leadership. They were losing their country because of the war and knew it."

Larry is gone now, he died in the 90's. But not before telling his story (finally) on the printed page. If you visit the Kalamazoo Aviation History museum, his story might still be on display. It was in the late 90's.