· RUEL SK

82 CRUbLSKY
"Later, a Gennan officer on a horse came galloping up. Things were getting
crowded. From another direction came a three-wheeled motorcycle with sidecar and three
young kids in some kind of brown unifonn bouncing around, hanging on for dear life while
riding over the rough field. The officer searched us for guns but in vain. Harry, the other
waist gunner, Dwight, and I were taken to a basement in a jail in Eisenach, only a short
distance east of where Harry and I landed."
Pilot Ralph Pearson (PEARSON crew)
"When my chute opened, it jerked me so hard that my beautiful fleece-lined flight
boots came off. As I floated down in my stocking feet I thought, 'Nuts, some Gennan kid
is going to be wearing those comfortable boots. '
"On the way down, the fighters who had shot us down made a couple of turns
around my parachute. I tried to play dead because we had heard that sometimes pilots had
been machine-gunned after parachuting out.
"When I landed, there were three or four soldiers waiting for me. As a matter of
fact, the soldiers looked friendlier than the farmers with their pitchforks who were standing
around. One of the soldiers said something and it sounded a little like the Swedish word 1
had learned as a kid which meant 'smarting or burning.'
"1 said'Ja' because my face felt like it was burning up.
"The Wehnnacht soldiers put me in a motorcycle sidecar and drove me to a
Luftwaffe hospital nearby. It was obvious that their pilots got fIrst-class treatment. The
hospital was clean and well-equipped. They put me into some kind of holding area."
Copilot Gerald Kathol (POTTS crew)
"I had opened my chute too early with only one strap buckled. I landed in a field
where young ladies were putting hay in piles. I was unable to walk but not in great pain. I
buried a few personal items and gave my chute to one of the 'pretty girls. '
"Shortly, an old man came to the spot on the side of the slope with a young lady in
his presence. He said: 'Ich shiess dich.' He had a relic of a handgun but made no further
advances and his lady partner told him to put the gun away. Soon after, a soldier in
unifonn appeared and told the little old man to haul me into town."