Photo of two ex-P.O.W.'s one Japan, one Germany

[douglas]

Here is an old photo taken of me standing between two of my favorite people.

A training exercise at Camp Rilea, Oregon Military Department.

 

First is Clarence "Cal" Graham; during WW2 his unit the 60th Coast Artillery

was on Corregidor when the "rock" surrendered to the Japanese.

He was held in several camps under horrid conditions; Cabanatuan, Bilibid and

the hell ship that took about 59 days to arrive in Japan, to Fukuoka #17, and

worked in the mines until the war was over.

He wrote the book "Under the Samurai Sword" that tells the story of the total

horror being a Japanese prisoner of war.

.

On the other side of me is James "Jim" Davidson, he was a tail gunner with the

340th Bomb Group, 486th Squadron during WW2, stationed on Corsica, flying

bombing raids over the Brenner Pass.

He was shot down on 13 February 1945, while flying in 6Y, Yankee Doodle Dandy,

and captured. In one of the Warbirds Illustrated there is a photo of 6Y with

the front of one engine blown off. Nick Loveless, a tail gunner in another plane

took that photo, and John Sutay gave it out for publication.

Jim was taken to a POW camp in Nuremberg, Germany for a short time and then

forced marched for 12 days to Stalag 7A in Moosburg.

(It is interesting that NARA has him in Luft 3 Sagan and moved to Nuremberg,

which always irritated Jim).

I talked Jim into going with a bunch of us on a WW2 tour of the Battle Fields of

Europe and we stopped at Moosburg and Jim got to look around and stand

by the POW memorial in the park.

Many times I had Jim accompany me during my WW2 presentations at

high school history classes. He enjoyed talking with the students about his

experience.

Jim wrote the book, "The Final Mission of 6Y" about his experience in the

Army Air Corps and being a POW.

He passed away a few years ago.

 

[easterneagle87]

How awesome to have known these people!

[bobgee]

Great post! Thanks......Bobgee