First Lieutenant John Virgil Colson

B-24 Liberator Pilot, P.O.W.

By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

Aviation Art Store

This was his 25^th mission. First Lt. John V. Colson was looking forward to being rotated out of combat missions and then back home. When John joined his unit the Army Air Force only required 25 missions before a pilot and his crew would be rotated. Otherwise the odds of being a prisoner of war went up, being wounded went up more, but going home dead went way up.

However John wasn’t going home after this mission. Why? Because, the war was now in favor of the American and the Allied forces. The odds for your demise had dropped since our fighters and bombers were eliminating the strength of the Luftwaffe. Now the odds were against the German pilots going up against six to eight hundred bombers escorted by hundreds of fighters. The requirement for missions flown was now thirty-five. Thirty-five mission and then you can go home. What a time for things to change. Colson was really looking forward to a relief from combat.

John was over the target and the bomb bay doors were open. The bombardier was flying the huge B-24 Liberator to its target. This is were John and the rest of the bomber pilots had to sit and wait for the bombs to drop. Then they could then take the controls of their aircraft back from the bombardier and head back to base. That is after they fight their way back out of German airspace.

This was a stomach wrenching time. The pilot and co-pilot had to sit there helpless as brown, black, red, and yellow explosions were detonating around their formation. The anti-aircraft guns on the ground were desperately trying to hit the bombers. They were flying at 23,000 feet. The Germans now had the proper altitude and were firing as fast as their guns could belch their cargo of munitions that would explode at the desired altitude.

John with his co-pilot and the rest of the crew watched as the explosions appeared around them. Some were close. Close enough to rock the heavy bomber with their concussions, which peppered the aircraft with chards of twisted sharp metal. They watched as the puffs hit near the other bombers. They had to sit there and watch. They were all helpless to the might of the gunners on the ground. They had been on enough missions to experience damage from flak and they have had to watch other bombers in their formation catch on fire and trail off dragging smoke and flames through the air sending their mighty liberator or fortress with their crews to their deaths below.

Each man was wearing his flak jacket and helmet. It was important to keep the crewmembers from being injured by flying debris if the bomber was hit by the flak. The crew still had to be able to fight once the bomb run was over. As the formation turned back to England the Luftwaffe fighters would hit them again. If a man was injured he could be rendered helpless and would be unable to help defend the bomber. In many cases another of the crew would be taken from his defensive gun to help his wounded comrade. Two unmanned guns would be a loss for the bombers defense.

Approaching the target was the worst time for the crew, as they endured this torture of waiting and knowing they were venerable. Meanwhile the bombardier coolly flew the bomber looking through his bombsite waiting for the cross hairs in the target finder. John along with his crew were unaware that this was in fact, their last mission.

The formation of bombers was approaching German railway yards located at Nuenkirchen, Germany. It was below freezing in the bomber on November 30, 1944. The time of the year didn’t matter. It is always freezing cold at this altitude. It was bone chilling even though everyone was warmly dressed.

The target was over cast and the Americans were using their new radar devises to locate the target below while the Germans were using their radar to locate the bomber formations above. The bomber crews had learned a few good lessons during this time of advancing technologies. Some of the bombers were dropping strips of thin tin foil to give the German radar operators false readings. The Germans crews were confused somewhat but other old style methods helped like visual tracking of the approaching bombers.

The German countryside was awash with the deafening and penetrating roar of the thousands of bomber engines. There was no escape of the thunderous sound. As John sat helpless in his seat he noticed that the Germans had their altitude accurate with the anti-aircraft munitions exploding exactly at their altitude. This is a cat and mouse game right now because neither can see the other. They are both searching for each other with the help of their new technologies.

The bomb bay doors were open and everyone was tense. The cold air floods the bomber bathing the crew in the rear with a chill. The gunner in the bottom turret rotated around scanning the sky for trouble. And trouble was all around. He could see the cotton puffs of detonating anti-aircraft fire exploding all through the formation of bombers.

The crew was looking out of their windows and witnessed some bombers smoking and loosing their place in the formation. These poor crews had their aircraft wounded from the AA fire, or by previous attacks from the German fighters. The men in Colson’s Liberator knew that the bombers falling away from the formations would probably crash condemning what members of the crews that survived the certainty of capture and imprisonment in a German POW camp until the war ended. Some of the smoking bombers would make it back to England, but definitely not all.

There was nothing more unnerving than to see a bomber cartwheel through the air out of control. It is impossible to get out of an aircraft once centrifugal force pins you to the interior of the bomber. The very thought of the horror of being pinned to the inside of your bomber as it spins and spins until death takes you. Crewman would loose sleep more than once thinking about this event. In the beginning of the war some bomber squadrons lost forty percent of their men and many of the others would be wounded.

The roar of the engines and the whistling of the cold wind were deafening to everyone on the bomber. Even with headphones they could barely hear with the crackling static the captains instructions or comments from the others. Everyone held on tight as their bodies vibrated. The bombardier looks through his site like a marksman with his finger on the trigger ready to release the cargo of 500-pound bombs.

The bomber crew knew that their bombs would destroy the enemy’s capabilities to transport reinforcements and supplies to their front lines. At this time the Germans were fighting the advancing Allied Armies. But they also knew that the bombs would bring death to not only German soldiers, but to civilian workers, and innocent men women and children in the surrounding area of the train yards.

Colson remembered when he was interviewed for pilot training an officer who was screening him to see if he would make a good pilot asked Colson if he would be able to drop bombs on military and civilian targets. Colson was asked this question because his records showed that he had been studying for the seminary before he entered the military. John had considered registering as a conscientious objector but decided not to after he was drafted. Colson replied to the question by saying that if this is what it took to bring this war to an end, and then he would do this service for his country. Colson continued with his training and received his wings.

Finally the Liberator lunged upward with the nose tilting slightly lower than the tail. The bombs were gone. Colson and the copilot started to correct the flight imbalance, which was normal considering that they just lost 8,000 pounds of weight. The copilot reached for the lever to close the bomb bay doors when they were hit. The Liberator was squarely hit in the open bomb bay compartment by a German anti-aircraft shell. Colson remembered nothing of what happened.

The only thing that Colson remembered next was that he was asleep. He was completely unconscious. Colson was in a free fall twenty three thousand feet over Germany. Colson felt something slapping his face. Colson awoke to the fact that he was falling to earth. His mind snapped alive with thoughts of survival. All of the training he had received came back into perfect order.

He knew not to panic as he reached for his ripcord. At this altitude Colson knew that he would freeze to death in his chute. He needed to fall some more. As he fell Colson he stopped his tumbling and began falling straight. He decided to pull his chute at cloud level. He wanted to see what the countryside was like on the other side of the clouds. Making sure that nothing would get caught in the cords of the chute, Colson braced himself as he pulled the cord releasing his chute.

Floating over enemy territory, Colson surveyed his fall. As he descends he saw that he may drift towards an apartment building. Colson pulled on the cords of his chute in order to help change his direction towards an orchard. Once on the ground Colson disregards the precaution to hide his chute and abandons it where he landed.

He started right away to walk towards the tree line that he had studied from the air. Colson hears someone call to him from behind. Colson chooses to ignore the call and kept walking towards the trees. Once hidden by the trees he looked for a place to hide and get himself oriented. He found an abandoned foxhole. Once in the hole Colson looks up and sees waves of American bombers overhead. He sees antiaircraft fire exploding in white puffs among the bombers. He also saw aluminum foil falling from the bomber formation.

Alone, Colson assets his situation. He was weak and still dazed. The realization of what just happened to him has not yet sunk in. He hasn’t even been able to think about it. Right now he needed to avoid capture and try to make it back to Allied battle lines and return to his unit. He had been injured.

He had some lemon drops, one shot of morphine, a compass, and his papers. He had no food or water. Colson could feel his body start to go into shock. He gave himself the shot of morphine and chewed up his papers. The fireball that engulfed his bomber had burned Colson’s face. Colson had been blown out of the bomber straight up through the glass over his seat. His oxygen mask that covered his lower face and cheeks kept that part of his face from being burned.

The flight helmet saved the top of his head and the front of his forehead was also protected, but the area around his eyes, and his upper cheeks were burned. He had no eyebrows or eye lashes. The armor plating in the back of Colson’s seat protected him from the blast and shielded him as he was rocketed out of the cockpit. His elbow and leg had been injured. He felt cold and lonely. He was behind enemy lines, wounded, the last of his crew and the sky was turning gray. Sleep fell on Colson were he sat.

With his compass Colson planned his rout back to Allied lines. He only moved at night and tried to sleep in the day. He did this for several days. He then became bolder and tried to trespass in the daytime. Colson’s real enemy was thirst. It rained once. Colson had nothing to catch the rainwater in so he just sat there with his mouth open as he tried to catch more in his hands. He was in a haggard condition. He approached a small town with railroad tracks running through it.

Colson decided to try to walk right through town. He was not fully aware of what he looked like. He was visually injured and not a German citizen. But Colson tried to walk right into the town. He was not that much further from the Allied lines. A day or two more he needed. But he was becoming aware of his injuries and that his time was coming to an end in one-way or another.

The Allies were shelling the town from an undetermined distance. Colson made several attempts to enter town but he then decided to wait until dark. As Colson moved into town he headed towards the train yard. He began hiding in and out of the railroad cars. He had been seen several times and each time just acted normal like a local. The pain, five days without food and water except from mud puddles was starting to blur his better judgments.

He stuck his head out from under a railcar, as two uniformed men looked right him. They called to Colson who simply stood up from under the railcar and walked away in the opposite direction. The two men ran up behind Colson and grabbed him by each arm. Colson offered no resistance.

The men probably were railroad employees and not soldiers. They took Colson to a building where a couple of German soldiers were. These were the first interrogations that would end with Colson in a P.O.W. camp. The Germans tried to get Colson to talk. They even threatened to shoot him on the spot if he did not answer their questions. Colson was as mentally collected as one could be. He had made peace with himself so if he was killed. He would accept that end. If they shot him, what could he do, so he acted as if he did not care if they shot him or not which really annoyed the Germans.

He had been briefed in advance with his pilot training on what might happen if he had been captured. He knew what questions the German would ask. But you just had to be there to know what it is really like to be interrogated by a professional German Officer screaming in your face. After having German officers screaming in your face over and over wore on him. Colson had lost a lot of body weight, and some mental strength.

He was finally imprisoned into solitary confinement where he used his thumbnail to scratch into the wall the passing days. It appeared that others had been in this cell before leaving behind their marks. He noticed that the marks made by other prisoners were only five days. Colson summarized that the others had been there for only five days each. Colson had now been in the cell twenty-three days.

Colson was processed from solitary confinement to a barracks building. Because of his rank as an officer Colson was assigned the charge of a group of junior men. John obtained a pocketknife and picked up pieces of wood. He carved a model of his B-24. Life in the camp was miserable. Sanitation conditions were basic. Food was in low supply and heating of the buildings was minimal. Colson was released after the camp he was in was liberated by English troops. Colson returned to America leaving the military and resumed his educational studies. He did become a minister and served his church for the rest of his life.

Colson was awarded the “Purple Heart” for his wounds fifty-one years later. He also learned that when his B-24 was hit the blast was so fierce that it took out another bomber in formation and damaged several others. A top turrent gunner in another bomber who witnessed Colson's bomber hit said that the man in Colson's top turrent was shot out of the top of the bomber along with his gun and glass top like a skyrocket. It was truly amazing that someone could be blown free from such a horrific explosion and live.

That is why John turned the rest of his life to his god and religion.

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Started 2-9-07