WWII airman recounts plane crash and POW experience
When Charles Heinzel and Jack Florip graduated from Rogers City High School in 1941 they could not know that they would have their first high school reunion in a German POW camp a couple years later. Both men enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and became staff sergeants. A small item in the September 2, 1943 issue of the Advance read, ?Charles L. Heinzel left for Chicago Thursday to report for training in the Army Air Corps in which he enlisted in July.? They were trained at different places and different times but they both became gunners and were dispatched to Italy. Florip was sent to Taranto and Heinzel went to Cerignola. Anyone familiar with the book and movie by the same name, ?Catch-22,? will recognize the planes and the Italian countryside that these men came to know intimately.
BOTH MEN flew aboard the B-24 bomber. A consortium of companies that included Ford Motor and Douglas Aircraft built this versatile aircraft. It was dubbed the Liberator and was designed to drop high explosives on enemy positions well behind the front lines. The planes had little protection against flak, anti-aircraft artillery, or from attacks by German fighter planes. Flying these planes was very dangerous, in fact, only 50 percent of the B-24 aviators made it home. Despite their vulnerability to attacks, the planes were effective in delivering thousand-pound bombs to targets deep within Germany and Austria. War historian and writer Stephen Ambrose wrote the book, ?The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who flew the B-24s over Germany.? In the book, Ambrose said, ?It would be an exaggeration to say that the B-24 won the war for the Allies but don?t ask how they could have won the war without it.? Heinzel said he tried to link up with Florip once he got to Italy but they were not in the same location and travel was limited. On May 24, 1944 Florip was on a mission over Germany when fighter planes attacked his plane. Only half of the ten men on board managed to get out of the crippled aircraft before it crashed.
FLORIP?S PARACHUTE brought him down safely but the Germans soon captured him. He was eventually transferred to Stalag Luft IV, which was a prison for noncommissioned officers located in Pomerania, about 30 miles from the Baltic Sea. On July 4, 1944 Mr. and Mrs. Florip received a telegram from the war department that their son was shot down over Austria and was being held prisoner. Florip had 30 missions to his credit at the time. Heinzel was on his tenth combat mission when they came under heavy enemy fire. He explained they had dropped out of the formation due to an engine malfunction and this made them a sitting duck for the fighters? machine guns. He bailed out of the plane with three other crewmen. As he drifted toward the ground he could see the plane slam into the ground engulfed in flames. The other six crewmen never had a chance. A German Messerschmitt circled overhead. ?I thought I was done for but the plane kept on going,? he said. Heinzel managed to evade the patrols for two days but was finally apprehended in a barn where he had spent the night with a pig in the other stall. ?I think he squealed,? Heinzel quipped.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS posted on a website about life in Stalag Luft IV reports that the POWs were made to run from the rail station to the camp with vicious police dogs chasing them and guards prodding them along with fixed bayonets. The POWs were told they would be shot if they didn?t keep up. The guards beat any prisoner fell behind. The new inmates arrived at the camp bloody and bruised. This was their introduction to Stalag Luft IV. Heinzel explained that life in the prison camp was pretty boring and the food was very limited. Most of their meals consisted of potatoes or kohlrabi.
?Meat was very scarce, what we did get was probably horsemeat. Our coffee was burnt barley. It wasn?t too bad once you got used to it. We would even eat the leftover grounds,? he said. In his first letter home, Heinzel wrote: ?I hope you haven?t worried about me too much. I suppose you have. We got clothes from the Red Cross a few days after we were shot down. We also got food and smokes. I give my smokes to the other fellows. Will be here till it?s over. Hope it?s soon. Sure will have lots to talk about when I get home. Been through quite a lot since I left home.?
CHARLES SAID the men in the camp got to talking about their hometowns one day. He mentioned that he was from Rogers City and someone said they knew another soldier from there was being held in the same camp. They managed to link up together for a while. It was the first time either one was aware that the other was in the prison camp. Heinzel mentioned that it was always amazing to him that two men from a little town like Rogers City would end up in the same POW camp. Jack Florip passed away July, 10, 1993 at the age of 70. The men incarcerated at Stalag Luft IV received occasional Red Cross visits and, eventually, care packages and mail from home. The delays in delivery made the letters and packages infrequent but as welcome as a lifeline. When the Allies got too close, they were moved to other camps. The prisoners were forced to march on foot, taking months to reach their destination.
THE MARCH ENDED for Heinzel and a few others when they stole a truck and headed south toward Allied Forces. They came upon British troops and were transported by air to Brussels. >From there they went by train to the American facility kno
From Le Havre they boarded the troop carrier ?Admiral Benson? and sailed home, arriving at Pier 88 in New York City at the end of April 1945. Charles reached home 60 years ago this month. For his services to his country, Heinzel was awarded the Air Medal, ?For meritorious achievement in aerial flight while participating in sustained operational activities against the enemy from May 29 to June 6, 1944.? Heinzel also received the European Theater Ribbon with two battle stars and the Good Conduct Medal.
?I was glad I made it home okay when so many other fellows didn?t. I will never forget them,? he said.