She met DeFrancesco at a 384th Bombardment Group-related event in Ocala several years ago. Her father, George Edwin Farrar, served in the same outfit as DeFranceso, though they never met. The couple have two adult children.Ĭindy Bryan, who lives in the Stone Creek community in southwest Ocala, also has ties to the 384th Bombardment Group. Getting to Marion CountyĭeFrancesco served after the war with the Connecticut State Police for 14 years and then moved to Florida in 1981, where he currently resides with his pit bull dog, Zoey. "I saw Patton drive by in a Jeep," he said.ĭeFrancesco was shipped to Paris, then by boat to Trinidad, and then to the U.S. "Old Glory was being seen hoisted to the top of a church steeple in Moosburg" and 8,000 American POWs "came to attention and saluted, all with tears of pride in our country and pent up emotion trickling down our cheeks," the Facebook post statesĭeFrancesco said he recalled an American Sherman tank smashing through gates at the prison. George Patton "crashed through the gates."
Many POWs jumped into trenches as the bullets flew.Īccording to the Facebook page for the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945, when troops under Gen. bombers striking near the camp. He said just before the camp was liberated, the POWs were lined up by German guards and machine guns were fired at them. He said at the prison camp some POWs continued to tunnel, and he was one of a number of soldiers who helped scatter and spread the excess dirt around the prison grounds.ĭeFrancesco said the POWs knew the Allies were closing in and he could see U.S. Life, and liberation, as a POWĭeFrancesco said he and a fellow POW made an attempt to escape at least once while on a march but had to blend back in with prisoners in a Red Cross group. He was cleaned up, given dry clothes and held in a POW camp near the crash site and later moved, mainly at night, to Stalag Luft 7 A at Moosburg, Germany, south of the bailout site. As he moved about he looked into a parked vehicle and was seen by a German soldier, who took him into a farmhouse. He understood the aircraft's position was near or in Allied friendly territory surrounding France, so he ordered the crew to bail out.ĭeFrancesco was last to leave the aircraft, which was traveling about 385 mph.ĭeFrancesco said he hid out in snowy woods for about three days and then emerged.
3 caught fire.ĭeFranceso thinks it may have been due to lack of maintenance because the plane was pressed into service quickly in a "maximum effort."Īs the fire continued, bombs were jettisoned, but DeFrancesco learned a 500-pound bomb was jammed in the bomb bay. He explained the missions lasted from eight to 12 hours, and the temperature at 25,000 feet often fell to 50 or 60 degrees below zero.Īs the plane flew toward the target, engine No. "We flew two missions over Berlin," among others, DeFrancesco said. The next leg took the crew to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then to Grafton Underwood Airbase in England, where they would be based for 35 missions as part of the Eighth Air Force’s 384th /544th Bomb Squadron. The crew was issued an aircraft fresh from the factory and flew from Savannah, Georgia to New Hampshire and then to Goose Bay, Newfoundland. He described his crew member who handled the ball turret machine gun located in the belly of the B-17s as a muscular "bull" from Arizona. We learned to operate together," DeFrancesco said. "My crew ranged in age from 21 to 35. One member had already served in the South Pacific and one was a career (Army) man. The crew included a co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radioman and gunners. DeFrancesco had pilot training in Sebring and at a base in Avon Park, Florida, where he joined nine other crew members as the aircraft commander.
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