2 Lt. Milton Wallace Stern, a navigator in the 532nd Bomb Squadron of the 381st Bomb Group, was shot down on March 8, 1944, during the 8th Air Force’s mission to the ball-bearing works at Erkner, a town on the southeastern edge of Berlin. Parachuting to earth with his nine fellow crewmen, he evaded capture until May 27, 1944, when he was apprehended by the Gestapo. Temporarily interned with his fellow evadees in Saint Leonard Prison, Liege, Belgium, he was eventually imprisoned at Stalag Luft I, and like all his fellow crew members, survived the war.
You can read an extensive and detailed (and extensive) account of his wartime experiences, along with excerpts of an interview I conducted with him in 1993 here, in the post Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: March 8, 1944 (In the Air…) – Navigating Survival: Milton W. Stern.
“This” post, however, is an French-to-English translation of an account of Milton’s temporary evasion from German capture, written by Philippe Connart, Michel Dricot, Edouard Renière, and Victor Schutters, from The Comet Network, which was last updated on June 24, 2022.
But first, some introductory photographs…
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Milton’s wartime portrait.
Milton at his home in northern new Jersey, photographed October 21, 1993. (From a 35mm Kodachrome slide.)
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Here begins the translation of the story from The Comet Network:
Boeing B-17G-25-DL Flying Fortress, serial number 42-38029, VE-M
Shot down by an Me109 fighter during a mission to Erkner, near Berlin, on 8 March 1944
Crashed around 16:00 at 11 Bathmenseweg in Oude Molen (Lettele), 1 km from the road from Deventer to Holten, (Overijssel) Netherlands
Duration of evasion: 2 ½ months
Arrested: Liège, 27 May 1944
Additional information:
MACR 3002 Crew Loss Report.
RAMP [Recovered American Military Personnel] Report signed on May 31, 1945.
The B-17, on its first mission, took off from Ridgewell and was hit by flak as it approached Berlin. The No. 1 fuel tank was on fire and the aircraft was reported as having been seen with its bomb bays open and the No. 3 engine feathered. The belly gunner confirmed this, adding that the No. 4 engine had lost pressure and that the B-17 had lost contact with the rest of the formation. The MACR reported it as last seen south of Berlin, turning back to return to base. According to Sgt. Kinney, belly gunner, the aircraft was then attacked by three German fighters, one of which was shot down by a gunner on board the B-17, one of the other two giving it the coup de grâce.
Lt. Pirtle’s Crew
Standing, left to right:
George W. Cassody, mechanic; James W. Warren, right gunner; James C. Estep Jr., left gunner; Robert W. Burrows, radio operator; William L. Bull, rear gunner; William C. Kinney, belly gunner.
Front, left to right:
pilot Thomas A. Pirtle; his regular co-pilot (name unknown, who was not aboard 42-38029 on the mission and had been replaced by Paul Schlintz); Milton W. Stern, navigator; and Harry F. Cooper, bombardier.
Positions and names determined by James Warren in December 2016.
The Fortress losing too much altitude, the pilot, 2nd Lt Thomas A. Pirtle, gave the order to evacuate it as it approached Deventer in the Netherlands. Pilot Pirtle broke his leg landing in a field and was immediately taken prisoner. His co-pilot 2nd Lt Paul H. Schlintz, managed to escape, helped by Dutch and Belgian Resistance fighters, but was denounced and arrested on June 16 in Antwerp, where he was interned in the Begijnenstraat Prison before being sent to a camp in Germany. Bombardier 2nd Lt Harry F. Cooper and ventral gunner Sgt William C. Kinney, having landed near Laren, about 15 km southeast of the crash site, were the only ones to succeed in their escape. Cooper was released in early September in Liège and returned to England on 15 September 1944 (Escape Report E&E 2110). Kinney, who had also gone to Belgium, remained hidden in the Neeroeteren region of Belgian Limburg and was released on 22 September by troops of the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade (returned to England on 24 September 1944 – E&E 2272).
All jumped from an altitude of less than 300 meters. In addition to Milton Stern, James Warren, Robert Burrows, George Cassody, James Estep and William Bull initially managed to escape before being arrested.
Milton Stern lands in a tree and is quickly surrounded by a crowd of civilians. He is advised not to stay there, as German soldiers are probably looking for him. The civilians take care to hide his parachute and Stern first heads towards the column of smoke which he believes indicates the place where his plane crashed. Changing his mind, he prefers to move away from it and goes to hide in a nearby ditch.
Shortly afterwards, a young Dutchman named JANSEN helped him hide in a haystack in the middle of a field. The young man returned around 9:00 p.m. with bread, coffee and golf trousers. In his haste, he forgot to give Stern the coat that was meant for him, which remained in the second pannier of the bike. JANSEN told him that he had to stay hidden there for a few days while the Germans continued to look for him.
The next morning (March 9), after a very cold night, Stern starts walking along a watercourse (presumably the Overijssels-Kanaal), towards Belgium. In the evening, he approaches a farm where he is given something to eat. The farmer’s son sets off on his bike and brings back another young man, Don, who speaks very good English. After questioning Stern for a few minutes, Don picks him up on his bike and takes him to Deventer, where he is installed in the room that Don was renting there. Don goes to see another contact and returns around 23:00, informing Stern that he should stay hidden there for a few days, adding, however, that the landlady of the place was afraid of the consequences.
So it was that the next day at dawn (March 10), Stern accompanied Don back to the farm. He was given blankets and took shelter in the barn. The farmer’s 13-year-old daughter brought him breakfast and a basin of hot water to soak his feet in. He remained in his shelter until the morning of Saturday, March 11.
Don reappears, Stern is given the farmer’s son’s bicycle and they ride together towards Deventer. They arrive at a house where Stern meets three other Americans: S/Sgt. Maurice Hargrove, Walter Kendall and John Zolner.
A new guide, “Pierre”, gives them railway tickets and the airmen head towards the station, each following the other at a certain distance. On the train, they split into groups of two, and into different compartments. They had been advised to play deaf and mute in case of questioning. They get off at Echt station, near the Belgian border, where they meet men who take them home.
At 8:00 p.m., after eating, shaving and washing, they set off for Maastricht in a car that also included two Frenchmen who had escaped from a prison camp. In Maastricht, under a full moon and with German sentries patrolling the border area, they crossed the Meuse in a small boat. In his RAMP report, Stern only states that he made the crossing on March 11 in the company of a Dutch policeman living in Echt, with whom he had stayed…
On the other side, in Belgium, a farmer, André, is waiting for them to walk them to his farm. The journey takes them about two hours. They stay on this farm for six days, hidden during the day in a barn, at night in a room in the main building.
On the fifth day, around March 16, another guide, Jules, arrived with five of Stern’s teammates: Burrows, Bull, Cassody, Estep and Warren. The airmen were informed that they were to be evacuated, two at a time, by small plane. It was decided that Stern and Burrows, who had sprained his ankle while landing, would leave first, so that Burrows could be treated quickly. The group was taken that night to a manor that belonged to a French nobleman, an airman during the 14-18 war. [This was “La Clairière” in Rekem-Lanaken, owned at the time by Stéphane de Bissy and Germaine Moreau de Bellaing] They slept in a small wood at the back in a shelter built underground and hidden by branches. There they met two Yugoslavs who had also escaped from a camp: Stretsko Pajantitch, a pilot officer, and Voja Jovanovitch, a bombardier/mechanic.
The next day, Saturday 18 March, “they” (we assume that this is just Stern and Burrows, as reports and accounts often use “we” without further details…) are taken to Hasselt by tram by the daughter of the owner of the manor, Monique de BISSY, 21, who takes them to 17 Thonissenlaan to the home of Florent BIERNAUX and his wife Olympe, née DOBY. This is where they can take their first hot bath. They are served a real meal and given Belgian identity cards.
On Monday 20 March at 5:00 in the morning, “they” (Stern and Burrows alone) were driven to the station by Mrs. BIERNAUX, who accompanied them to Liège where a man and a woman were to meet them. As this couple did not show up, Mrs. BIERNAUX made a few phone calls before leading the group to a café. The couple finally arrived an hour later and Mrs. BIERNAUX said goodbye to them. The group, led by their new guides, walked for two hours through the streets of Liège, trying to avoid German patrols. They even had to hide for 45 minutes in a church to escape soldiers who were apparently following them. They finally arrived at a large house, which turned out to be the headquarters of the local resistance. It was there that they were separated from the two Yugoslavs whom they would never see again. They were introduced to “Joseph”, the head of the network, and Stern and Burrows were taken to another house where they had supper. This “Joseph”, Stern does not specify, is in fact Joseph DRION from Liège, head of the DRION Group which organizes the accommodation and travel of escaped airmen in the Liège region.
Later that evening, the daughter of the house, Flora, drives Stern and Burrows to another house across town. They are the guests of an elderly couple who will put them up for “about two weeks.”
One evening, Flora came to tell them that they could be evacuated to Switzerland in the following days. In the meantime, she took them to Grâce-Berleur, where they were housed by two ladies, both aged 75, one widowed, the other single, who looked after them “very carefully”. The plan to have them go to Switzerland fell through, as one of the two planned guides was tired from his previous expedition, the other was ill. [The activity report of the Joseph DRION Group, from Liège, also mentions that Stern and Burrows were handed over by Miss Monique de BISSY to Léon CHRISTIAENS, 58 Rue du Hoyoux in Herstal-Liège.]
They then stayed with another family in Grâce-Berleur. Stern believes he remembers that the father made and sold ice cream and that he had two daughters, Jeanine, about 15 years old and Victorine, 19 years old. Stern’s RAMP report specifies that these were the VAN LESSENs in Grâce-Berleur, with whom he stayed for 3 weeks in April 1944… [The list of Belgian Helpers includes Georges VAN LESSEN and Marie MATRICHE at 13 Rue de l’Hôtel Communal, which is in fact on the territory of Grâce-Hollogne, very close to Grâce-Berleur.] He does not mention Burrows in this part of his report, but his teammate also stayed there, for 2 weeks.
On April 20, Stern and Burrows were taken back to Liège itself, where they stayed in a large abandoned building, which appeared to them to have been an inn or a hotel: there were 25 to 30 rooms, on three or four floors. The concierge, “small and charming”, served them good meals, which they ate in the company of a lieutenant in the Belgian Army, living in Namur, who was also hiding from the Germans. One day, during a roundup, the three escapees had to hide in an attic where they heard the little lady joking with the German soldiers in order to divert their attention. During their stay, Liège suffered its first bombing (on May 1), the target being the railway installations. Having seen the approach of the B-24s from the top of their room on the top floor, they ran down the stairs to take refuge in the cellar. Several other bombings on the city during this month of May delay the continuation of their trip and Stern, unable to bear it any longer, asks to meet “Joseph” (DRION) at his headquarters. It is there that Stern and Burrows see their other teammates again as well as two other American airmen: 2nd Lt. George G. Wedd Jr. and Sgt. Floyd A. Franchini, respectively co-pilot and gunner on board the B-17 42-39801 (94th Bomb Group / 332nd Bomb Squadron) shot down on March 4, 1944. [B-17G, “XM * B”, “Double Trouble II” / “NORTHERN QUEEN”, Pilot 2 Lt. Julius O. Blake, 10 crew members, 9 survivors; MACR 2978, Lufgaukommando Report KU 1063] They will also be arrested in Liège on May 27.
It was decided that Wedd, Franchini, Burrows and Stern would leave by train for Switzerland early the next morning. Unfortunately, a new bombing raid in the evening and the destruction of railway lines and bridges made this journey impossible. A landing on the Channel coast seemed imminent, so they resigned themselves and decided to wait for their release. In his RAMP report, Stern mentions that during April and May 1944, it was “Mr. MONNICE”, from Liège, who served as his guide in his movements from hiding place to hiding place. [The list of Belgian Helpers includes Maurice MONISSE at 24 Rue des Airs in Liège.]
On May 11, a man, Joseph “Gophard” (Stern’s RAMP report mentions Joseph Goffard), led Stern and Burrows to another hiding place, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jean and Virginie TITS and their two children, Dorine, 16, and Joseph, 17 or 18. Their house, at 38 Rue des Anglais, surrounded by a psychiatric institution, a hospital, and a long wall, was located on the same hill as the Citadel of Liège. Out of sight, Stern and Burrows were able to enjoy the large garden with the children.
Around May 20, the two airmen were warned of the arrival of a German patrol searching the houses in the neighborhood. Frans CAUBERGH, who worked at the neighboring asylum, brought them to his workplace and ordered them to act crazy like the other residents. They acted very well because the patrol noticed nothing and left the establishment after its search.
On the morning of Saturday 27 May 1944, Stern was awakened at the TITS by noises on the floor below and heard footsteps running in the stairwell. German soldiers burst into his room and he was arrested. Amid shouts of “Jew! Jew! Jew!”, he was hit on the head and face and collapsed. Afterwards, he was allowed to get dressed and was pushed down the stairs to find Burrows on the ground floor where he was chained with him to a radiator. The Gestapo also arrested Mrs. TITS and her two children, Jean TITS, her husband, having managed to escape by jumping over a wall. (Stern would visit him in Liège in May 1945 after his release). Burrows’ RAMP report mentions that these arrests were due to a denunciation by a person whose name he has forgotten [it must be Antoine Everts, from Montegnée-lez-Liège, Belgian traitor and agent of the GFP – Geheime Feld Polizei] and who had brought the Gestapo to this address]. Milton Stern’s RAMP report, however, indicates that it was Joseph Goffard, mentioned above, who arrived at the TITS with the Gestapo 2 weeks after his arrival at their place; that this Goffard was very well treated in the Liège Prison where he was with him and that this man received additional food rations and was not beaten like others in the members of the DRION Group also interned there. Stern indicates that Joseph DRION, head of the organization, was arrested at the same time as him. This does not mean at the same place. The activity report of the DRION Group mentions the arrest on the same day of Jean and Virginie TITS.
Driven by truck to a Gestapo headquarters in Liège, Stern and Burrows met other airmen there: Bull, Cassody, Estep and Warren from their crew, as well as Wedd and Franchini mentioned above. Also there were two American airmen they had not yet met: Captain Gerald D. Binks (Command Pilot of B-17 42-30280 shot down on February 21, 1944) and Lt. Everett G. Ehrman (pilot of B-24 42-52175 shot down on March 8, 1944). Denounced by a double agent, “Joseph” (Joseph DRION) and about fifty men and women from his network were also there. The traitor had told the Germans that Stern was Jewish and he was not spared by his torturers: unlike his fellow prisoners, Stern was not allowed to sit on a bench, but was chained for twelve hours to a radiator in the waiting room of the building, beaten from time to time on the head and shoulders and made to endure verbal attacks related to his status as a “Jew”.
The airmen were taken to the Saint Léonard prison, where Bull, Cassody, Estep, Wedd and Stern found themselves in the same cell. On Tuesday 30 May, they were separated and each of them was placed in a cell with 3 or 4 Belgian patriots. Confined in this small space, sleeping on the floor, generally poorly fed, except once a week when the meal prepared by the “Winter Rescue” arrived. The Germans could no longer stand the insults of one of the prisoners in the cell, the resistance fighter Roger VAN EVERCOREN, about 25 years old, so they took him away one day for interrogation. When they brought him back, he was unconscious after having been whipped and beaten and could not move or speak for two days.
Around 3:00 a.m. on June 6, Stern and nine other Americans and 200 to 300 Belgians were transferred by truck from the Saint Leonard prison to the Citadel of Liège, the place where the Germans usually executed resistance fighters. Fortunately, they were not shot, but simply separated from each other. Stern was put in solitary confinement in the cellars where he remained for 30 days, living only on bread and water, sleeping on the stone floor of his cell, questioned several times to find out how and by whom he had been brought from Holten to Liège.
On July 15, 1944, the day of his 21st birthday, fourteen Belgian patriots, including a priest, Father André, were shot in the courtyard of the Citadel. Stern was brought to this courtyard and threatened with the same fate if he did not reveal the identity of his helpers. He said nothing and five days later (July 20) he and his fellow airmen were informed that they were going to be transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Germany.
On July 21 they passed through the Luftwaffe headquarters in Brussels where they stayed for a few days before beginning their journey to the Luftwaffe interrogation center in Oberursel near Frankfurt.
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Here’s an image of a fragment of Milton’s POW Personalkarte, the image at one time available via the Library of Congress Veteran’s Project.
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Stern was then interned at Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, where he arrived on July 29, 1944.
On January 18, 1945, Stern and other Jewish airmen were transferred from the camp’s North 2 Compound to the “Jewish Barracks” (Block 111, Room 16) in Section North 1. Stalag Luft 1 was liberated by Russian troops on May 1, 1945, and, like the other American prisoners, Stern was flown first to France, then to England, and finally returned by ship to the United States.
Curiously, he is mentioned on an EVA list in February 44…