Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
I had a relative that was a co-pilot on the B-17 rains on the Polesti oil fields in Rumania- they were shot down by ME-109's, but the crew got out and parachuted to the ground, where they were all surrounded by Nazi partisans. So they spent 17 months in a Luftwaffe Stalag- maybe a bit like the one portrayed in the movie "The Great Escape". Jack spoke fluent German, as a Captain he was assigned to clean up the Commandant's office and quarters, but he never let the Germans know he could understand what they were saying- said the American cigarettes were like gold, for trading to the guards for "special treatment"-many of the German guards understood English, so he never had to disclose that he could understand German. They all wanted for the camp to be taken by the Allied Forces (American) and NOT the Russians.