A couple of years ago I was going through a small blue notebook my father kept while a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft IV. In there he had a list of 26 fellow POW that were in his barracks. I did some internet research and found information as to bomb group, aircraft, last mission date, on ten of them. At that point I ran out of leads.

Then last week, my bother gave me a copy of a recent edition of the Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA). In it was an article written by Steve Kramer. His father, Harvey Kramer, had been a B-17 navigator in the 398th Bomb Group. Mr. Kramer had been shot down on June 21, 1944 and was a POW in Stalag Luft III. I looked at the 398th Bomb Group's website. They have a list of the men who were shot down and became POW. Comparing that list to mine, I found the name Herbert G. Cooper. Not only was Mr. Cooper in Mr. Kramer's group, he was in fact the radio operator on Mr. Kramer's airplane! It is a small world, isn't it?

The article makes for interesting reading and appears here.

Rick Centore Author, Deadly Decision