Jerry Wolf, US Army Air Corps (Full Interview)

our guest this week on Veterans chronicles is Jerry wolf he's a world war ii veteran of the u.s. army air corps he served as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on b-17 bombers he was also a prisoner of war in Germany for a year and Jerry thank you very much for being here and sharing your story where sir were you born and raised Brooklyn New York one April 27 1924 everything was just as normal as any you know anybody else and I guess I did a little better at school I graduated high school I started college I don't think I was 18 okay and I remember asking permission to smoke a pipe because like went to have lunch with someone in the College cafeteria they were offering you cigarettes or whatnot okay so I started smoking or to make it look like I was older with a pipe ah-ha-ah-ha so were you a senior in high school or a freshman in college when the Japanese I had a year and a half almost two years in at college no when Pearl Harbor happened okay high five my friends we're in a pool shootin pool yeah okay and everybody stopped suddenly and you're hearing where is Bob you know well what's going on watch this and then of course we're going home okay and then you went back to school the papers and everything carried we will bomb to we were attacked and that was a big amount when the ship went down to it oh then they made the draft okay I went back to college I was an 18 I wanted to fly my mother said no please don't and I made a promise to my mother I would not fly okay and we were losing professors and then Along Came an offer that we couldn't refuse it was getting near Christmas as a gift all of us who were gonna go to service to the service would get credits for the term without taking any exams or what not because you were going to parties you were going again see people that you didn't see you're going to be leaving soon or you thought you're gonna be up front in the trip well anyway I decided to enlist when I went fact it was Thanksgiving I was about six of us from the college Oh at first I was trying out or working out with the wrestling team and the Marines came in and they said don't enlist and we'll stop you from the draft okay we'll take you when we want you but I didn't want any part of the reason I went to the Air Corps okay when I said you know it was a pilot gun they had didn't want any flying personnel or no Gunners no pilots navigator Bombardier its intently most of the navigators and bomba tears were washed out pilots the reason being either they didn't have the reflexes or the quickness or what it was and they showed that they didn't get airsick that was a major requirement because if you got a sec you're no value up in the end anyway I went there okay you're taking a battery of tests why not and they said no we have nothing flying a white night I had been working my dad had his own little business plumbing and heating candle tools and different things some electricity all burners and different things and I said I'm gonna go enlist I was now a little over 18 so I listed in the Army Air Corps as a airplane mechanic we went from camp up to New York to Miami for basic ok who stayed in basic a couple of weeks marching around for Miami oh we had a beautiful hotel on the waterfront and it was really very nice ok I remember New Year's Day we was on the train okay Pete and we were on our way tamarillo Texas where I was going there to go to sort of basic training and basic airplane mechanic ok you arrived in Amarillo they warned you if you hear somebody yell duck drop to the ground the sandstorms were terrible okay and I guess as an 18 year old I had my first taste of anti-semitism how we got to walk on the Main Street there were two blocks I don't know but we headed in that direction there were about six of us and we picked up some young ladies and we started to walk this is the town I mean two blocks and that's Amarillo ok and it was a big Levine's department store and this one guy forgot his name always was picking a cherry a relative of yours and I didn't like the tone I don't know could be I have to wait today we go back to balance PS I got a letter from home go to the Levine's department store you have a cousin then Dave vodka we went back the next day again we met the girls and we're walking and this girl started to cry she was really boiling and again I ran up they were about maybe a half a block ahead of us the rest of the group and hey Gerry show her your horns she thinks Jews have horns oh yes I never spoke to that guy again I mean what's I never heard you know that story you wanted and you're finding out the attitude for some reason which you don't know they didn't like you you're Jewish okay well anyway I got to see my cousin and it was Easter I spent Passover with them okay and then when I came back to go back to school they graduate I did well I graduated and they sent me to Seattle Washington to Boeing okay work I was now on b-29s and b-17s and we were testing them as a plane that they came out okay we went to Salt Lake City and I thought we were going to be geared to go to the Philippines on b-29s okay the b-29 was not going to be used the European theater and such that I knew about because you didn't have the newspapers or or you know things that that you can tell well anyway we got there to Salt Lake City the colonel had us come out and then he said to all of the whole group there must have been eighty to a hundred you all volunteered for gunnery what we're flying yes kingman arizona las vegas you became a gunner the good old army there were a lot who did not make it because they got here sick i wanted to fly and I was the happiest guy okay he was a twin cockpit you had the backup with the pilot in the front there was a machine gun mounted on it and they took you out over water and you had to follow a tow target and then he would take you a certain distance and you try to hit the target so it each day you had a different color bullet so they would count how many blue holes how many red holes because there was wet paint on the edge of each of your bullets okay it was really very interesting or you had to stand up sort of aim your machine gun and then if you finished you were to wave your machine gun and he would just go and then the next plane was coming in firing at the target okay and when I got back you were sort of guaranteed you're gonna pass was about halfway through the course one of the instructors came over and said how you're doing okay introduce me to the pilot and they looked at it what was my record they said you're doing okay what do you mean otherwise we would take you right up to the target and then he actually told me you didn't get sick you know what we need okay PS okay you've finished we had to really learn the 50 caliber machine gun we could break it down blindfold and then we went on ok the places I never heard of afraid of Washington Walla Walla Washington okay and now your meeting or the Amman charlie tax bud and myself the four of us Charlie was also a mechanic okay we met our pilot AJ Mathias for a long time he wouldn't tell us what the initials were AJ and then we found out Adolph J Mathias and he didn't like that okay so you never called amazing yes sir yes sir anyway he went interviewing all of us and when he heard that I had gone to Boeing for special b-17 especially okay that he didn't want me in the ball turret I was the shortest guy he wanted me behind him as his counselor guide or tell him what it was okay we started to Train we didn't have a co-pilot we had a navigator and a Bombardier okay I would get the Norden bombsight you practice with four or six 100 pounds a sandbox and we were just flying I had with him almost alone about 20 landings you come in land taxi out and go up again and it was like for him he can graduated and he was a p38 okay and and now he's driving a big big 18 Mack truck a b-17 but we became pretty good friends and I enjoyed going with him to the link trainer and I would taxi the plane and said in the copilot's seat okay then we went to Ardmore Oklahoma and again we were told that we have to complete so many days and the last procedure would be you had to fly over Texas from Ardmore Oklahoma three miles out into the ocean and do target practice with an airplane and a big tail thing okay and if we get there earlier we will get leave okay we did it we went through we finally got out there I did my first piece of mechanic it was flying today through over Texas and we had a refuel and one of the planes it was six of us one of the planes get the fuel pump went I replaced it okay we will probably went out through then came back and how we graduated and we got our wings why they picked me I don't know maybe I was a loudmouth I don't know but they said go to answer the general when are we going home went over general looked at me I'm too is sort of left did you honestly believe me my arm went back my pilot just picked me up and walked me away I never been home they hadn't seen me in uniform I had known Doris okay that's a picture was taken 1940 in Coney Island I carried that and first I called home and said I'm not coming home okay they were gonna come out to say goodbye to me okay my mother had never left Brooklyn okay I called Doris and said I think I like her I don't know I'm not coming home but I want to get you a gift my sister is coming PS when I come home I would you know we placed the gift ugh yet you would gift anyway my mother left the day she got home we were called out seams and other crew members and got the general lulu leo and said you wrote and said any veteran or any soldier going overseas would get a leave of absence we got a nine day to lay around I found out what furlough and the lay around furlough you're going back to the place that you're going you can leave things to lay around you have to take everything your parachutes your this even though you didn't carry it the thoughtful day the before bag I mean you had everything heavy leather so PS I got home okay I have a cousin who's a cute look he did not want to get me a watch he said to no good but they had something new a cocktail ring it's got chips and some semi-precious stones but yes Taurus agreed was a friendship ring we went I worked on her ring I left okay and we went according to brisket okay we received or pistols 45 because you wore a parachute on us and the main West you had a carrier 45 there's a shoulder holster okay we learned how to clean the cosmoline off the 45 and do different things I was the only one who was given a lot live clip and okay and my top turret got about fifty to a hundred on a belt of ammunition okay and we were referring a b-17 to England okay we left we couldn't ride home but the look magazine had to route we went from Kearney Nebraska to Presque Isle Maine to prayer to Newfoundland to Prestwick Scotland okay we became airborne with we left at night and we had a strange person now coming with us and we have getting a new navigator what happened well where's John okay John a little and then they said they didn't want to tell us the offices okay he came down with a venereal disease so we got a no navigating there was some break out for him to scan the sky going over the ocean but the no navigator but he was good welcome back to veterans chronicles on the radio American network I'm Greg karumba honored to be joined in studio today by Jerry Wolfe he's a World War two veteran of the US Army Air Corps serving as a flight engineer and top turret gunner b-17 bombers he was also a prisoner of war inside Nazi Germany for a year and Jerry just before the break you explained how you and your team got to Scotland and just during the break you were telling me about the first time you were asked to fly go ahead and share that story okay well again I was to be a replacement in this they were gonna use our plane okay don't not I'll plate it but I was not gonna fly the top turret because they had a gunnery system okay I was asked to fly the waist okay which made it even worse to me as you know to come up oh well anyway I looked you know around I said am I the only Jew that that's afraid yes I'm afraid oh so what I trained I'm supposed to because my gunnery was good well anyway I went okay it was very interesting to learn their method the top turret controlled who sees who or what not basically everyone on the plane sees out you can't see your area if you see an airplane they were to report to the top turret let's say the tail so and playing at 6 o'clock ok Tex you got him which meant said Texas gonna stay with him till he knows Friend or Foe if it's full everybody can shoot or turn towards him because top tourist ball turret tail knows which can go 360 ok so you can you know you're going around ok and we also had they gave us in the plane a box of silver paper called chaff bundles of silver paper and I said what you know what's this my job was to throw it out okay that is supposed to divert the German radar to follow the chaff well anyway we didn't see any fighters but I swear that flak was enough to walk on and the first flight was Berlin it is the worst target in Europe 1088 guns no matter what angle you're coming in the 88 is shooting at you you're a 24,000 there gun will shoot higher than that okay and they use proximity fuses they knew your altitude and they knew your speed the didn't have to hit you the show would explode and you're going through the shrapnel so it's almost like on the bottom on the ground cannon bursting and the pieces of shell flying everywhere hopefully they hope that it would hit the engine pieces of shell was something okay when I got back we didn't fly till about seven days or eight days from it but something which I I didn't understand at first and then he came to me when I met the crew that I flew with the first mission they asked me my name okay in rank okay and handed me before we took off handed me a piece of paper with my name on a little piece of cheese paper we got back okay they told you put you in the hot sands tie you down you take out take off your Irish shoot will put it will odds was of the HUD okay and up drives a truck it's like a station wagon I mean like a sandwich Wigan the lunch wagons they and who's driving it and who's on board to doctors flight surgeons you hand in the piece of paper I want Canadian Club double shot hey Doc we can't drink a fly I got the briefing you know that we didn't know it was the beginning he said if we don't calm you you're not coming back so I got 24 double shots more I fight the 25 missions and if the strange thing was there was a group of women in England who wrote us up in the paper that the Americans teach the teenagers to drink but the books would not you know say and from what I understand the flight surgeons they carried it on at the beginning of the Vietnam if not they gave you Fino of Earth or something like that okay it was the beginning okay some of the crews were refusing the flight what you saw were planes going down you got and we didn't know the numbers that was there I only know the number of planes that I had on the day I was shot down because of that mission but a plane had at least I think over a thousand planes okay they're on fire are you seeing guys jump out you're seeing their power should open and burn or they pull too soon the chute owes 30 40 feet above you and just appalling flame was a wing okay so you don't want to open it too late for them and you make up your mind if I have to jump I'm gonna count to 50 forget the 25 okay it went on and our own mission okay we did pretty good but we got to replacements and we didn't see any fighters but we saw again plenty of flack I forgot which target it was but let me get to we did another Berlin I don't know if that was the eighth the ninth or 10th we're on the bomb run okay now you had the northern bomb site which can drop a pickle in the barrel and you can do it and it 10-minute bomber but because you had so many planes they had to get you centered in a way so anywhere from the initial point which could be here and you're the target straight level no up no down no change in the speed you got anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes flying and I dare care that is just pounding away and all you can do stay there hump down and you can hear again the aluminum you can hear the pieces bursting through and you know we landed you start counting holes but nobody was hurt or what okay now this went on for couple missions we were fortunately I don't remember exactly where we were in view of saying okay six six six six six six and you're 10 feet apart you're flying somebody's wing if you're on the inside and get hit there could be a crash you're losing out well anyway we were on a run to Berlin okay number two engine which is the left engine was hit because I heard it and and you can see the smoke bellowing or whatnot okay we put the fire out okay we didn't leave we were still flying on the three engines with the other five guys okay and we went in dropped the bombs and you do 180 go okay and something was bothering me we did the 180 and engineered the ball towards gonna Charlie come back what check number two number two cause back clean cowling holy Moses that means gasoline sport I can transfer fuel behind me or the valves you can transfer from to tank the one three or four okay and we're writing okay I transferred I don't know how much from each from that tank to each thing okay and I'm still a feeling at calm and you need a navigator okay I was like a shot could hear a pin drop navigator engineer go I want an ETA estimated time of arrival he says I know what you're talking about give me a couple minutes call back seven and a half hours okay okay anything else no how what's what's how bad cuz I don't know I transferred fuel I don't know we have an emergency airfield when you cross the channel I'd like to go in there let me know when we hit the coast okay we're flying along no fighters that they either we saw them off in assistance but again plenty planes were hit like we were flack okay and we get to the coast and I want to talk to the pilot now and got the copilot he's the only one that's on end to come oh let me just say that the only malfunctioning thing we had attend with was your oxygen mask for some reason they heated the gloves so clubs underneath the heat of the boots they never heeded that okay which meant that there's a condensation and it freezes and how do you go you're not gonna die but you're out okay so you keep breaking your mask to keep it from you know hardening or what's the way to whatever it is well I will anyway that's normally -52 but anyway we're coming around and I said to the copilot after he asks for another for an oxygen check that I'd like to go to the airfield the emergency and we'll see what happens then so he switched with the violin and now have the pilot how bad is it Jerry you can transfer fuel I don't know again that's the same story we're holding with the three no no we'll go in with the coop I don't know how many miles it is from the coast to re a few okay went over seven to land and you're circling number one screwed up how you starting all over no way Jose I took the very pistol put it into a red flare i disobeyed direct order he turned around to me and by this time I'm hearing his radio crackle aunty the w William prepare for crash landing he came now he turned to me I was gonna be a buck private okay because i disobeyed his direct order he was going in with the group he did a beautiful landing taxi down the runway turns off the runway three engines cocktail he turned to me and said don't ever let me do it again we became the best of friends we didn't even have fumes we are out of gas so yes I learned right right it was just a hunch other times I think we came in with three engines about four or five times okay you transferred fuel okay you had enough I guess do you had a good win or you know to help you because the hours were different and things like that but again so you had now you know the plane to worry other than that but but again he never you know did anything like that again mr. wolf let's take another break we'll be right back with your amazing story of great service to our country on Veterans Chronicles we are back on Veterans Chronicles on the radio American network I'm Greg Caramba shown in studio today by Jerry Wolfe World War two veteran of the US Army Air Corps he served as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on b-17 bombers and was a prisoner of war in Germany for a year and Jerry it was your 25th bombing mission where your plane was shot down tell us what happened that day you all started we the target was Magdeburg an oil refinery it was a one hour delay okay we were not supposed to fly that day okay the night before we were told first that would do a week's leave the flak leave okay and that they were gonna use our plane or whatnot why are we flying a pilot volunteered the plane and the US so we took off an hour late okay so we started out with a little easiest okay we had nothing wrong and we saw anything and we're now approaching the outskirts of the target of Magdeburg PS I don't know where it start explode okay and I saw this me-109 okay his first shells hit with a bombardier a navigator almost blew the navigators leg off and something came into the top turret and knocked me off the pedestal that I stand on and Here I am standing okay I have no oxygen would rip the lines I have no intercom okay but I took off the one glove I had to so close and you could feel in here okay we had heated suits I felt the suit on the wires and broken and later I saw the when I got on the ground that the long-johns will cut so something that hit me was sharp on the sides hit me flight okay I yelled I'm heads but nobody heard me because my intercom was off okay I'm looking around we dropped the bombs okay you cannot wear the parachutes in the airplane there all of us had chest shoots and they're big and they're white you can't cook it on you would not fit in the turret or you were not fitted to the cockpit I mean the things like that so the parachutes is a big oxygen tank to my left the plane will you go down to the Navigator and Bombardier compartment the three parachutes pilot copilot my soap or then okay but the first thing to hit you drop your bombs the bombs are wrong so the bomb bay was open I don't think he closed it I watched the navigator crawl to the hatch okay and it's on a curve okay the big door is out in the back back of the plane okay you can't you walk out in the front there's no you gotta grab the top of the hatch and kick yourself out because there's a curve and you don't have full height don't to stand oh I watched him go out okay then I turned around again and there's the co-pilot pointing to his chest and I said he's not it and I'm pointing to my leg it hurts me like hell okay and points again something oh my god there's the shoot I jumped grabbed gave him his gave the pile in his snap my nan he pointed I could feel the pilot breathing against my back okay when I got down the power they had already left the door slammed okay because you opened it forced his way out the air scream closed it so the bomber there had pulled the pins it didn't go out I kicked the hatch it went out and I got co-pilot he I watched the Bombardier go copilot I went okay screaming because they tell you it relieves that pressure to what it is I don't remember anything else I blacked out I came to I was bouncing and I was in pain I had just gone to the bathroom and the harness was not in the crotch right that bounced hurt me I'm starting to crawl up and then you know try to move the harness into the real part of the question which I did and then to look up amazing you don't know you're falling you have nothing to measure your floatin I expected to hear music all you see is sky the only way you know you're dropping did you see your cloud layer below you and you're going through it it was beautiful the feeling and then reality sets in but just before that a109 came at me did a hundred and eighty and left me swinging I did not know that was a kamikaze if I swung high enough I'm dead overturns the parachute he didn't shoot me so he would not be blamed was a malfunction know what so I went to straighten the honest thing and I put my hands up there I'm seeing red drops and I'm looking and then I can see pieces of flak in my left glove and on so did everything we don't work my right and it sets in I'm gonna kill my mother the MIAA goes home tomorrow this was Sunday what plays ahead and you live in the whole life married I had children I had this okay and it's just you're floating you float and I came to this big forest and I looked down I can see ground now and those trees looked awful tall I'm gonna get hung up and I remember if you take three strands and pull down and let go you're gonna go in that direction so I'm coming in and I didn't like that and I see I did that and I see a beautiful opening a hut okay a big big round bush and I had a house and I see this blue uniform come running out with the rifle he runs to the bush puts us back to the bush and points the rifle I made a mistake of watching him and now I'm really close I had to do what the they jump over the lay level in other words that you're sort of flattened out because I was a high power lines so instead of coming in forward I came sort of hair forward backwards and I did they sort of shoulder back roll okay and Here I am laying on the ground and three soldiers found out there were civilians okay pistola pistola la pistola and they were saying NIC's we stopped carrying the 45 their world notices that I am and opening up to shoot okay that up and down would make the 45 come up and you can get a broken jaw it would rip your pants thing and come up so we stopped you know carrying it so they can see you know no personal PS I got undressed I did everything washed I was black and blue already okay and on your honest there are four pouches first one is medicine sulfur powder of benzidine escape stuff to keep you awake a different things second was maps silk maps okay France Germany third was money and the fourth was a language cart haben see I toss a Vasa you Phyllis my grandmas are talking to me he answers me back and they understand them Yiddish now I'm looking for words in its Yiddish okay this time we walk into the heart he closed up okay and I didn't see this woman come come out from one of the rooms and she came over to me they brought me instead of water a warm bottle of beer and it had that snap thing but I had already washed and did but she said in German do I need help and I answered her without thinking her boyfriend came running over ah expressions he thought we had a conversation as long as I could slow them because I hadn't spoken Jewish in you know quite a while so some of the words I'm looking for on the sheet so again not only the Bible's I'm the only one that has on his prison record that I speak Yiddish so they had me as Yiddish alright well so now I know okay he apologized he had to go we had to watch walk to come assess was coming to get me okay beautiful mercedes-benz with the top down I was approaching I see my wife's gonna PS they came to pick me up the SS got out six-foot-two all he had was a pistol and he come over to me real close looks at me in a perfect English what's the matter you didn't have time to shave and I didn't have time to shave because the night before I was told I'm not flying but because the pilot didn't know if we're waiting an hour or more he was afraid to let me go shave okay and he tested you put on the oxygen and if there's not leaking you're all right because if the stubble will keep it away well anyway and we're now in prison camp and we come they didn't do anything there was some fighter pilots there was whatnot well anyway I started in talking when I walked into the room we had made up that you don't know each other because there was something that they hated the flying because the machine gun and everything well anyway they marched us to this hospital okay and everywhere there was a school you went around the block three times to make it look like you have three times the number of prisoners okay oh you went to the interrogation and there was this guy he was already up at the table with the interrogator his face was black and blue American pilot was behind me okay and my turn now came oh he said something about ah are you Jewish he said yes okay now it's my turn well I watched him tear the dog thick so I took the dog tag and threw it on it my own and threw it on the table and said I'm going to and done proud he got up he looked at me his monocle truck we don't kill Jews perfect English PS the dog tag goes to the German Red Cross that goes to the Swiss Red Cross which goes to the American Red Cross which goes to the War Department and that's why the second telegram said from information from the International Red Cross he is now a prisoner that's how they knew I was because and then you're coming to camp okay in camp again on the train load going from West LA Germany to Pomerania whoo between Satine and dancing star little for the there were three types of camps in Germany your concentration camp for the European Jew a Stalag for the work group the infantry the everyone of below sergeant okay and then the Salah Khalaf the echo but we were the only ones that were really interrogated okay what do you call it confinement the first night okay all alone in the morning somebody walked in with an American uniform gave me cigarettes where you're from Brooklyn who's our first basis of targes okay we're talking baseball and then suddenly says who's your gunnery officer said to myself wait a minute what the hell is that got to do with Brooklyn shut up okay you got your uniform but every shoes certain things from the Red Cross spoon fork knife you're sure I have it okay the knife broke but anyway you now I think we stayed there three days four days we're on a boxcar going to Pomerania between Stettin and dancing and he German guards walking around with the newspaper and I figured well let me it was a big picture of Roosevelt no hands but claws holding on to the Rock of Gibraltar I went over to the German God my Yiddish can it then [ __ ] invasion okay and he says yes inflation so it was June 6th we knew of the invasion that's when I knew arrived again but one of the prisoners heard me talking to him and you know he thought I spoke to our real German well anyway when we got the cam okay they wanted me to watch the sky Mike tricky okay they thought he was collaborating if he got up I got up okay we're locked in the barracks but sometimes they locked the German in there too they did so I was asked to become room leader so I would have access to walk around so I had access I met disguise friends and he took me and whose leader was Paul okay I was introduced to him and I said I can no speak broken what not first thing I got was Clippers okay you clipped your hair okay now it's the cam it was a place of no no running water no hot water no showers no food no cleaning utensils no brooms don't brushes okay no oven no heating in the barracks no food okay a piece of bread an inch and a half thick okay I took slices of a silver bezel this bread okay for potatoes and something that they called a chicken soup okay the supposed to be supplemented with a Red Cross possum that had 12 pounds okay I have the sheeting and so what it is got a can of bully beef you had a can of spam Addie ba seekers for packs crackers I think either salmon or tuna fish some pate something that was Jam cheese okay instead of lasting what's supposed to one week for one prisoner it was two of us for three weeks okay I gave up my chocolate for cigarettes Stanley I said he gave me his portion of cigarettes and I gave him my portion of the chocolate does he and then it was all up to you I mean it was really no we didn't work so basically it was like baseball time and our leader made everybody get up okay with no showers so you go out in each room with 12 to 14 pictures okay you went at 4 o'clock 5 o'clock filled them up and put them in the room from the big pump ok winter they froze so there were times we had no water but you dancin use that water to wash his socks or even brush your teeth that was shrinking water we would hospice eyes you if you drank the water we would punish you because that was the only liquid that you know we can drink in in the barracks and you know life went on you ran out of cigarettes I mean everything that flew crawled or walk shared with you if I had a piece of spam under my pillow if I had a piece of bread under my pillow so everything that you left under your pillow how come we think it's on me diarrhea and dysentery ran rampant by the time I got to the camp it opened three weeks early earlier than it should have they already picked the kitchen crew they would take the potatoes with cholera bees with the ruler Baker dehydrated cabbage everything that would give you dysentery and diarrhea it ran rampant everyone in camp had diarrhea or dysentery lice was everything okay and you just followed okay three times a day roll call and then they brought in a couple thousands of British okay they've been prisoners two three years they yes to take over okay they said no we're not gonna fall out for the afternoon roll call the Germans couldn't count you're out there for two hours they can't get a count PS and the British would drive him crazy hide somebody or whatnot okay they were always doing something like that well anyway we sort of minded our own business so your guards used to come in to the room okay they were just carrying a pistol we had this one God called a big stone from the TV cilok 17 something okay I called him every name under this one day playing Monopoly okay and this guy jumped up and bumped into him and he said ouch I was not German his hand went through his pistol and he looked at us and he turned to me he the perfect thing to use you called me every name we became good friends he they put in there because they had been such a cargo or to New York what to the garment district who spoke English and understood English and listened to watch stories so again it was you know what it was as they say we've got a whole stack of reading books from the Red Cross who even got should have gone south the netting bug netting you know insect netting and things like that but they sent everything good you could use it was good okay and most of the time like when we first started the exercise so we made somebody was very ingenuity and then took a piece of tree limb made of back we made softball we would play softball one room against the other and then who is that barracks to barracks to barracks plays other for the World Series and that particular day okay was in June was I so long you know walk these two they had to be field marshals or something but leather from head to toe and I edged over close it and enjoy their because they didn't know I could understand it okay we're losing to these kids that's what one you know said to the other but nobody you know said anything and it's you know again as I say it went on what I used to do is I would take two three puffs somehow I got some French cigarettes and it was strong as hell okay you take a lot of water you lay down in the afternoon and sleep as much as you can because your stomach is growling you're gonna get that goddamn potato mush maybe you got a small piece of beef left okay if there was any meat in the stew it was horse meat and very little of it okay and you're dreaming you want to go home but you're gonna be that stubborn no matter what they do to you you're gonna make them have X number of soldiers guarding you because that was so called your secondary job to what the morning I went over to hold that particular day I forgot somewhere in the end of January I said what do you want me to do today he said Germans are complaining somebody stalled an empty milk and we had in the Red Cross possum was a can of powdered milk what they gonna do with it one kid is a million in the floor locker outside the barbed wire well anyway I went over to where is the can on the potbelly stove on the outlet it fit the outlet now how do you get to the roof to the chimney I know that a tea and if you could take three cans and cut and do those things okay you could make a team those days you see you look at with specialist I mean it was still asbestos okay well anyway I went to who's in charge of her lager there were four lockers like ABC did we wait and I said up my vault if I I know we spoke English if I trade I can trade but she is that will come parboil is you better not okay I said but do you have a steam fitter we can make a tea maybe we can make some teas and get some heat with freezing our behinds off it was cold you got two blankets and your winter coat and you never took it closer I did not take my pants to shut it off from the day I was in the dual lock look they gave it to me the Red Cross package okay till we were freed well anyway I had some guys make drawings and we sat down and the steam fitter says in German yes both was interpreting the English can we do this can we do you know and you know he answered him yes and I said well he said we can do it let's go he says I got still got a problem what's your problem he says I can't give you him I can't give you an interpreter you just I can't spare anybody I'm looking oh and I'll do it so for three weeks I was the interpreter I come to the room locked I go running fool hey what gives gosh it slows since I'm gonna make you happy oh you're sending me home this is No he says we're losing the war the Russians just broke through we're evacuating the camp where are we going solid love three Oh No what's the matter I got a package full Home Coming cigarettes or salami clothing you're not gonna fold it to wherever we go he says gee I never thought of it but he says anyway I spoke with the commandant and to show you our thanks for what you tried to do we have something for you a gift and he brought me the book it was a Greek Bible oh he says he is another one wait a minute and he ran out to the outer barracks and brought in the five books of Moses in Hebrew that's how I got the second Bible which is stamped from the and then of course we went by boxcar to norman Berg forced march it was the time that I'll never forget it because we were marching and I knew some of the gods who came with us and they would they got a bicycle and they'd go out and get a barn maybe two miles four miles so we don't sleep in the open and maybe have the woman bake us some bread or give each a cigarette she got a hundred and fifty guys following okay you don't have cigarettes things like that and we're hearing taps being balloon and warning what the hell is going on and he won't up with the bicycle and I asked him do you know what says your president died last night so it was Roosevelt's death who's President Truman who the hell is he nobody knew and then the story goes that they used to have your betweens so there's a picture of course they had a tanker and with an explosive device with created a you're literate and it created a suction and they would suck out the latrines and take it out to the field and use it as a fertilizer the tank had to join two Russian prisoners and a German God which is the pistol he ran into an American tank okay the tank told them to go back tell everybody at the first shot lay down we're coming in okay and sure enough we had a meeting okay they did a straw I think six short straws would become a prisoner and the rest went on to Munich okay sure enough this was today on my birthday it was 21 April 27 April 29th Patton came rolling in and knocked the officers gate down which I would say the enlisted men was so angry at him he went to the officers not to the enlisted men and Geneva Convention said that officers and enlisted men will be separated but that wasn't the thing the tanks would roll up on the highway way ahead of everybody and free acam and then get caught themselves because they couldn't keep up with the tanks at times he was really you know movie and then we went I had to be the last they had a we waited two weeks or three weeks for them to bring in water tankers make showers water the lousing is a shower with a heavy caustic lotion okay and then they flows to camp Lucky Strike where we came home by boat they sent this home for 60 days and then I was discharged I got home mid-june home for 60 days that I was discharged in October on score points I was the second go-around you needed 80 I had 79 I'm the first go-round sir it's an amazing record of service both in the air your endurance through the time as being a prisoner of war is extraordinarily inspiring thank you so much for sharing your story with us today and thank you for your service to our country I think that the will to live was somehow and still in all I I don't know of anyone who was that melancholy okay yes okay you didn't have the fear anymore okay you now didn't see in your dreams a parachute burning you didn't see airplanes spirally okay didn't see a wing fall off in a way nobody shot at you okay there was no flat had you you didn't hear the noise if you in between we're all course you could lay down go to sleep whatever you wanted to walk or whatever you want to do but I think one looked at the other and he didn't look afraid he didn't look scared we had three doctors okay they were captured in Africa they were given a choice be prisoners of war or be prisoners in a prison camp as doctors and they chose us doctors okay the German doctor was better than the American doctors I got three stitches I got playing baseball okay I had to go from one compound to another to the infirmary or little hospital that we called it and they had to make signals of towers and make sure because if they crossed over the warning fence the tower would open up only two prisoners were killed one was shot he they claimed he jumped out the window from the barracks and we found the Adam wouldn't bullet that poisoned him through and the other one was an Englishman they were so jammed up with prisoners that in between the barracks you had 10 men huts 9 3 6 9 there was a thunderstorm lightning the myth barracks blew up imagine the poor one around 1:00 and into the mid we revived eight or nine one we couldn't survive from the lightning so you know again then it was just getting used to okay I was fortunate darson when the corresponding was me and I picked up yeah but I didn't talk about it we didn't and I didn't for 10 years for 2004 and then one day we took a couple of years we became snowbirds and we were going to Florida of Miami okay for the three months four months and the it just made it that that was it I didn't you know talk and my brother-in-law's both three of them were getting their medicine from the VA and I was paying a hell of a lot more over and Doris did some research he found that there was a clinic in Virginia God for two blocks from Fort Belvoir so we went there and I guess it was the right time I went in they register you and then what did you do and I showed him the prisoner of war record hold everything here's the phone they gave me somebody's number and he starts interrogating me how does your feet are they swollen I'm filing your complaint it was from the VFW they mr. Carl I mean it it was like boom boom boom boom and then you get a call you have an appointment with this guy with that guy a heart specialist and so I got yes as a PLW because of any percent or whatnot you audio dental vision as a prisoner you were taken care of only fitting Jerry it's been an honor to have you with us today sir I've been speaking with Jerry Wolfe World War two the US Army Air Corps flight engineer and top turret gunner on a b-17 bomber also a prisoner of war in Germany I'm Greg Caramba this is Veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 11,946

Rating: 4.869091 out of 5

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, jerry wolf wwii veteran, us army air corp wwii, top turret gunner b 17, pow in europe during wwii, jewish american veterans in wwii, b17 bombing missions wwii, wwii veteran interivew

Id: BeDCTthCBCQ

Length: 76min 16sec (4576 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2019