Posted on 11/11/2002 9:50:32 AM PST by CFW
CUMBERLAND -- For 54 days in 1944, prisoner of war Wilfrid E. Hebert lived in a dark underground dirt dungeon living on bread, water and hope. The only source of light was a feint wisp of daylight coming from the opening of a ventilation pipe protruding through the dirt roof of his prison.
"It was basically a hole in the ground with a door," is how Hebert describes the dungeon, located in the woods just outside the main camp of Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany, where Herbert was a prisoner of war from Jan. 28 to March 23, 1944.
Hebert was a crewmember on a 17G bomber that was shot down on Oct. 23, 1944. The aircraft bomber sustained heavy flak damage during a raid over German-occupied Czechoslovakia and crashed in the Alps. All 10 crewmembers were captured by the Germans and held in prison camps until the war ended in 1945.
Before being transferred to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Hebert and other American prisoners of war were imprisoned in Landeck, Austria, Innsbruck and then Frankfurt, Germany. He was taken to a concentration camp at Hidekrug, Lithuania, and then to Stalag Luft 4 after that. From there he was taken by train to Barth where he spent almost two months in a dank, dirty hole.
Hebert was a flight engineer, but the Germans thought he was a spy.
"When I left Italy to go on that mission I forgot my dog tags," he says. "When they captured me and saw that I didn't have any tags they assumed I was a spy. They tied me up by the wrists and beat the crap out of me to get information, but all I gave them was my name, rank and serial number."
One November morning, the Germans lined Hebert up before a six-man firing squad.
"I refused to be blindfolded," he says. "I told them I was going to die like a man and look them in the eyes."
Just as the order to shoot was about to be given, a German commandant ran out and ordered a cease-fire. Hebert believes the captured pilot of his plane was able to finally convince the SS that he was, in fact, not a spy.
On Jan. 28, Hebert and a fellow prisoner, John, attempted to escape the camp.
"I had a metal wire cutter and as we got nearer to the gate, I dropped it," Hebert said. "It bounced off the ground and made a loud noise. Suddenly the lights were turned on and they started turning machine guns on us. John was killed and they made me bury him."
Said Hebert: "That is the one thing that I can't forget and will always blame myself for. I see John in my sleep even today and he talks to me."
But it was his 54 days in the underground dungeon where there was no light or human contact that really tested Hebert's will and resolve.
"I was in that dungeon for 54 days and never saw light," says Hebert, a Cumberland resident who turns 81 in January. "Every day this red-haired German sergeant would taunt me and shout 'bal du sterbern," which means 'some day you will die."
"I used to shout back all kinds of obscenities to him," Hebert says with a slight grin. "Even at that point I still had some piss and vinegar in me."
He lived on one cup of water and a single piece of crusty bread tossed down to him each day. More often than not, Hebert, who's weight would eventually drop to 69 pounds, was too weak to find the bread in the dark.
"There was nothing left after the rats ate it," he says. "And when the rats were done with the bread they would start biting me while I was asleep. I was so weak I could hardly fight them off."
It was at that point that Hebert started praying to God.
"I prayed and prayed and prayed," he says. "After a while you believe you're really speaking to God. And I remember Him telling me that I would get out of this mess."
A starving Hebert was close to death in his barracks when the camp was liberated on March 23, 1945. His emaciated body was placed on a stretcher and brought outside for burial.
"Colonel Hubert Zempke, who oversaw the burials, thought he heard a croak come out of my throat," Hebert said. "When he came over and felt a slight pulse he realized I wasn't dead."
Hebert woke up out of a coma a few weeks later to find Zempke standing over his hospital bed and saluting him. He started to cry.
Almost 58 years later, Hebert is still trying to heal the emotional scars.
"The wiring in my head is still messed up," he says candidly. "I eventually realized that I had post traumatic stress syndrome so I started getting therapy about 15 years ago. I was shattered emotionally, disillusioned and full of hate. My body came back, but a good part of my mind is still over there. Even though the therapy has done enormous good I'm still filled with rage."
Despite his own traumatic experiences, Hebert hopes today's generation of young men and woman would rise to the challenge if freedom is ever threatened.
"Freedom doesn't come without a price," he says. "You have to fight, bleed and even die for it if you want to keep it. Freedom is the most blessed thing God ever gave man."
Hebert, who has four grandchildren, six great grandchildren and a great great grandchild, is watching closely the saber rattling going on between President Bush and Iraqi President Suddam Hussein. While he doesn't want a war, he feels it is justified in the case of Hussein.
"My personal belief is that we have to stop this guy," he says. "I don't want to see young men and women have to go over there and suffer the things that I did. What happened to me ruined me and it ruined my marriage, but this country and protecting the freedoms we enjoy today are more important."
Any judge or jury member who has exonerated cold-blooded killers because of "underpriveleged childhoods" should read that statement. This man underwent a real, unrelenting hell on earth, and survived. And yet, I see no information on murderous rampages, child beatings, or other atrocities that supposedly stem from such horrors.
I guess he's just another garden-variety hero, left to his own, while the scum of the planet are coddled and defended to no end....
Yep, and if Bush has his way, then men like this and other disabled vets will continue to get shafted by concurrent receipt.
He was finally picked up by the German authorities.
The 56th under his leadership was the most successful U.S. fighter group. He was actually flying with another group when his plane, a P-51 Mustang, betrayed him.
Walt
I assume that's the practice of counting disability pay towards pension disbursement? If so, yes, it appears they're getting shafted. HOWEVER, I'm not close enough to the arguments on either side to rally around the cause. Care to point me to some resources?
I know I mentioned to you, g'nad, that Dad was a combat soldier in that war.
"Freedom is the most blessed thing God ever gave man"
The United States is the only country ever founded specifically on the basis of freedom, individual freedom, the only kind that means anything. That's why, IMO, the United States, in spite of its blunders and misfires, is the most precious country ever to exist.
Yet I find this attitude about the founding of our country pretty rare, even among conservatives. No one seems to believe it any more.
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