Newspaper Articles

New York Times, 29th March 1945

1,000 Bare Backs Spelling 'POW' Save Allied Prisoners From Fliers: Captives Pile Out of Attacked Train and Stand Six Hours to Prove Identity to Their Own Planes

        With the United States First Army, in Germany, March 28 - A thousand American and British soldiers who had been captured by the Germans stood in sunlight for six hours with their naked backs spelling out in giant letters 'P O W' - prisoners of war.

        They were attempting to save themselves from pilots of P-47's who were diving and strafing under the mistaken impression they were shooting at Germans. The story was told today by an American lieutenant who talked from a stretcher in a hospital.

        The quick thinking of the officers who ordered the men to strip off their shirts and get into formation to form the letters saved many lives. So did the courage of the prisoners, many of whom held their formation in the face of expert and terrifying dive-bombing. Of all the men who were in formation, only one broke and ran for cover, the lieutenant said.

        Eventually the Allies' pilots got the signal that was being flashed to them from the naked backs down below. But they did not get it until some of the prisoners had been killed and others had been wounded.

        Two men wandered out of the formation occasionally. One was an American Catholic Chaplain and the other was a British chaplain. All through captivity they had been bringing the men the consolation of religion and in this grim hour they were performing the last rites for the dying.

        "Those red-nosed P-47's were diving right at us," the lieutenant said. "You just prayed to God that you wouldn't get it."

        The ordeal took place last Sunday afternoon, but the story of the prisoners' grim struggle for survival begins much earlier. The men were aboard a prisoner train that the Germans were trying to move closer to Berlin in the face of the First Army's lightning advance across Germany.

        The lieutenant said that the men were jammed into freight cars and were left there for thirty-six hours without food. There was no marking on the train to indicate to American pilots that the freight cars were filled with friends.

        On Wednesday night the train started eastward from Limburg, but American planes pounced on it. Reaching the shelter of a tunnel, the engineer halted the train and stayed there for thirty-six hours. Many of the men became ill from the stench that filled the crowded cars.

        On Friday the Germans decided to make a run for it, but by Sunday American planes spotted it and scored a direct hit on a car in which thirty-three men were crouching. Eight men in this car were killed and eight were injured.

        The German guards ran for hiding and the prisoners began forcing open the doors of the freight cars. Bullets were popping all around, but the Allied officers assembled the men in a field and ordered them to strip to the waist. Then the officers instructed the men to bend over until their backs formed the letters "P O W."

        When the dive-bombing pilots saw the expanse of naked backs they came out of their dives without firing and then circled slowly as if trying to figure out whether this was a German trick. The officers kept yelling at the men to hold the formation.

        "Two flights of P-47's came down on us later," the lieutenant said, "their guns blazing away, but out of those thousand men only one ran for cover. The others held."

        Finally all the pilots seemed to get the idea. The lieutenant said they dipped their wingers in salute and flew away.

        Some of the men fainted from the heat, but all afternoon they held the formation for fear other Allied planes might return and strafe them. But apparently the word had been passed along to the air force because they were not bothered by fliers again.

        On Sunday night the German guards returned and took charge of the prisoners again. The men were marched about twenty miles when suddenly American tanks were sighted on a super-highway. The German guards fled and the American tank men began sending the prisoners back to the Allies' lines.

        "How did it feel when those planes were shooting at you?" the lieutenant was asked.

        "I didn't have much feeling," he said. "So many times I thought I was dead that I just didn't care any more."