Hitler Heads for Sacrifice
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
Herbert Dubois 's Plane, Riddled by Flak, Crash Lands
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
London, England: A captured German general told front correspondents today that Adolf Hitler plans to die in battle at the head of SS Elite Guard troops especially picked for the honor of dying with the fuehrer. SS units already were being designated for the sacrifice, German Maj. Gen. Hans Boehlsen said in an interview with a London News-Chronicle correspondent on the 3d Army front. [Compiler note: Interesting rumor, but this never happened. Hitler died a suicide in a Berlin bunker]
Herbert Dubois 's Plane, Riddled by Flak, Crash Lands
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
15th A.A.F. in Italy--Over the target, the Liberators ran into a wall of flak. One plane was torn from the tight formation and sent diving to the ground.
"I couldn't even try to do anything," said Sgt. Herbert V. DuBois, of Masonville [Delaware Co., NY], waist gunner on a 15th A.A.F.B-24 Liberator bomber. "The flak concussion had me bouncing from one side of the fuselage to the other. In a matter of seconds we were down to 17,000 feet and only 13,000 when the pilot got the ship under control. We were in a bad hole. Three and a half hours from home, over enemy territory, alone."
A check of damage to the ship showed that the hydraulic system, the trim tabs, which kept the ship in level flight, the automatic pilot and the oxygen system were destroyed. Plus a gas leak in the bomb-bay and a windmilling propeller.
"Over Yugoslavia we ran into more trouble. It began to rain, then hail and snow. Visibility nearly zero and with the controls almost gone we kept weaving all over the sky. For all I knew we could have been heading straight for Germany. Finally we came through it and reached a landing field. Without flaps to slow us down, or brakes into the waist to drag the tail, a crash landing. Everyone except the pilot and co-pilot crowded into the waist to drag the tail, a partial brake. our wheels touched in the first few feet of the runway. Then the tail came down and we started skidding. We ended up 75 feet off the runway in the mud. It's hard to believe that we made it. The ship is being salvaged."
Before entering the Army on Feb. 16, 1944, Sergeant DuBois attended Oxford High school [Chenango Co., NY]. He received his training at the Buckingham Gunnery School, Florida. His wife, Mrs. Laura DuBois lives at Masonville.
Local Soldiers Killed in Battle or Imprisoned
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
Private First Class Homer Dutcher, of Afton [Chenango Co., NY], was killed in action on Nov. 3 his wife has just been informed by the War Department.
Mrs. Thelma Estus, Walton [Delaware Co., NY], received a message from the War Department a week ago that her husband, PFC Theodore R. Estus, was killed in action in Germany on Mar. 15. He was with the 308th Field Artillery, 78th division.
Mrs. Grantley Cooke received a card from her husband, under date of Jan. 25, stating that he is a prisoner of war in Germany. Corporal Cooke was first reported as missing in action, as of Jan. 2, 1943.
PFC William T. Yearry, of Halcottville [Delaware Co., NY], son of Mr. and Mrs. James Yearry of that place, was killed in action in Germany Feb. 24. This information came to the parents last week in a government telegram.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Benson, of Susquehanna [PA], received a telegram from the War Department Saturday stating that their son, Harry Ward Benson, is missing in action as of March 26. He was a member of General Patton's 3d Army.
Bernard Ayres, of Oakland, who was wounded in action in Germany on Mar. 20, died in an army hospital on Mar. 22, according to a message received by his wife from the War Department. Before entering the army the young soldier conducted a garage on the Oakland side. He is survived by is wife, Mary Simmons Ayres, and six children, the oldest eight.
Second Lieutenant Kenneth E. Kinter, Co. I, 15th Infantry, of Afton, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement in actual combat: Citation--Kenneth E. Kinter, Second Lieutenant (then Private) Infantry, Company I, 15th Infantry Regiment. For meritorious achievement in actual combat, on 26 May 1944, near Italy, Second Lieutenant Kinter led a group of six men through enemy machine gun and flakwagon fire to a ditch where all the officers and platoon sergeants in his company lay wounded by this deadly fire. Although machine guns bullets dug into the ground around his body, and "flak" barely missed him, he picked up his company commander and carried him 1000 yards to the company's position where he could be evacuated to an aid station.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Benson, of Susquehanna [PA], received a telegram from the War Department Saturday stating that their son, Harry Ward Benson, is missing in action as of March 26. He was a member of General Patton's 3d Army.
Bernard Ayres, of Oakland, who was wounded in action in Germany on Mar. 20, died in an army hospital on Mar. 22, according to a message received by his wife from the War Department. Before entering the army the young soldier conducted a garage on the Oakland side. He is survived by is wife, Mary Simmons Ayres, and six children, the oldest eight.
Kenneth Kinter Awarded Bronze Star Medal
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
Second Lieutenant Kenneth E. Kinter, Co. I, 15th Infantry, of Afton, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement in actual combat: Citation--Kenneth E. Kinter, Second Lieutenant (then Private) Infantry, Company I, 15th Infantry Regiment. For meritorious achievement in actual combat, on 26 May 1944, near Italy, Second Lieutenant Kinter led a group of six men through enemy machine gun and flakwagon fire to a ditch where all the officers and platoon sergeants in his company lay wounded by this deadly fire. Although machine guns bullets dug into the ground around his body, and "flak" barely missed him, he picked up his company commander and carried him 1000 yards to the company's position where he could be evacuated to an aid station.
Only 5 American Prisoners Survive of 1805 on Jap Ship
Bainbridge News & Republican, April 12, 1945
Over 1,800 American prisoners of the Japs were jammed in the floating hell of a prison ship when an American torpedo struck amidships. Of 1,805 prisoners only five lived to tell of the horrors of the prison ship and how the prisoners prayed for death to release them from the agonies of their confinement. Master Sergeant Calvin Robert Graef, of Silver City N. Mex., a survivor of the Bataan "death march," tells graphically of their experiences in "We prayed to Die" in the April issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. When Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet carrier-based planes struck in force at Luzon for the first time, the Japs began transporting American prisoners to Japan.
"You've read of hellships" Graef declares, "Well this little tramp was the No. 1 hellship of all time. The No. 2 hold, into which 1,805 Americans had been crammed, wasn't big enough for 200 men. There wasn't room to sit on the floor, much less lie down. The Japs gave us eight five-gallon cans for latrines. The place was alive with lice, bedbugs and roaches; the filth and stench beneath the tropic sun were beyond description. While men were dying of thirst, Jap guards, heaping insults upon us, would empty five-gallon tins of fresh water into the hold. Men caught the water in pieces of clothing and sucked the cloth dry. Men licked their wet skins. It was hell. Men went mad."
After 10 days the men began to pray that the prison ship would be attacked and sunk. they didn't have long to wait for deliverance. On Oct. 25 an American torpedo struck amidships.
"Men died in that moment as other cheered madly," Graef states. "The Japs hastily slammed the hatch covers on the No. 2 hold so we would drown like rats. They cut the rope ladders leading into the coalhole."
With the strength born of desperation, the emaciated prisoners forced a hatch cover and streamed onto the deck. Kids who couldn't swim a stroke leaped into the sea and were drowned. Those who couldn't get off the prison ship perished when its boilers exploded.
With four others, Graef managed to fashion a makeshift raft which eventually brought them to the China coast. Friendly Chinese escorted them to an American airport, from which they were flown back to the United States, five survivors out of 1,805.
"You've read of hellships" Graef declares, "Well this little tramp was the No. 1 hellship of all time. The No. 2 hold, into which 1,805 Americans had been crammed, wasn't big enough for 200 men. There wasn't room to sit on the floor, much less lie down. The Japs gave us eight five-gallon cans for latrines. The place was alive with lice, bedbugs and roaches; the filth and stench beneath the tropic sun were beyond description. While men were dying of thirst, Jap guards, heaping insults upon us, would empty five-gallon tins of fresh water into the hold. Men caught the water in pieces of clothing and sucked the cloth dry. Men licked their wet skins. It was hell. Men went mad."
After 10 days the men began to pray that the prison ship would be attacked and sunk. they didn't have long to wait for deliverance. On Oct. 25 an American torpedo struck amidships.
"Men died in that moment as other cheered madly," Graef states. "The Japs hastily slammed the hatch covers on the No. 2 hold so we would drown like rats. They cut the rope ladders leading into the coalhole."
With the strength born of desperation, the emaciated prisoners forced a hatch cover and streamed onto the deck. Kids who couldn't swim a stroke leaped into the sea and were drowned. Those who couldn't get off the prison ship perished when its boilers exploded.
With four others, Graef managed to fashion a makeshift raft which eventually brought them to the China coast. Friendly Chinese escorted them to an American airport, from which they were flown back to the United States, five survivors out of 1,805.
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