Martin C. Chavez
home: Albuquerque, NM
Master Sergeant
Aerial Engineer and Top Turret Gunner
398 BG 600 BS
Pilot Ike Alhadeff
B-17 # 42-102467 J
MACR 7886
1. On way to 24th mission - August 6, 1944; Brandenburg, shot down by flak
2. by truck to German air base - then to German interrogation outside Frankfurt (1 week)
3. by train - camp was old German motor pool with fence around it. No doctor, no latrine. We used a "ditch" - eliminated at night in old wine barrels - dumped into ditch in a.m.
4. we walked - don't remember it being far
5. no
6. 6 weeks
7. no doctor, about 100 POWs - only US soldiers - not to many German guards. Don't recall German officer
8. 1 building - old truck motor pool. never left camp - secured by fence + a few German soldiers
9. nothing special - no books - walked and talked all day - very boring, boring
10. believe we were walked to train station. 5½ day boxcar ride - across Germany to Kiefheide, Poland - arrived late September 1944
11. also in the camp enlisted crew members of my crew - too many to list; I recall Russian prisoner - Dead of winter - wooden shoes, no socks, no gloves, no jackets, pumping the super-dooper "shit scooper" clearing out latrines daily.
12. no
13. no