Re: G.I. "parolees?" status

[James Robert Dennis III <jrdennis@earthlink.net>]

>
>>John,
>>
>> >>Hi John-
>>
>>    This sounds highly suspicious to me, I don't believe it.
>>
>>Ron (ex USAF and pilot)<<
>
>Adding to Ron's statement:  Repats or escapees during WWII were not allowed 
>to return to the theater of operations where they were captured.  This 
>said, there are cases where a pilot/crew escaped in Europe and later served 
>in the Far East.
>

There are some cases where Infantry in Europe were captured, logged in 
through the German POW system and escaped, usually killing a guard or 
two.  The soldier, and especially Officers were generally assigned to a 
rear unit.  

There is a College Classmate of my Father an Infantry 2d LT, who was with 
28th Division, that was captured during the battle of Schmiedt (sp?) and 
on the way back to the POW area jumped the guard, killed him and made it 
back to American lines.   The Germans sent a message through the Red 
Cross that if they ever caught him again they would kill him.   So they 
put him in Division HQ.  When the Germans broke through and the Division 
HQ had to run for their lives, he was left with 300 cooks, clerks and so 
on and had to infiltrate them 10 or so miles back through enemy lines, 
surrender wasn't an option.  As I remember, he and his group got out, the 
Division HQ ran into a Panzer Column.

Then there was the Artillery LT (another classmate) that when his Battery 
was overrun hid in a haystack (one layer of hay, one shitload, one layer 
of hay, one shitload (they don't stack hay that way in Texas)...  The 
Germans captured and released him.  He had severe nitrogen burns over 
most of his body.  He spent most of the war in the Hospital recovering.  
Got a Bronze Star (V) for the defense of the Battery and a Purple Heart 
for the burns.