Herk was a U.S. Army Air Corps World War II veteran and served as a radio operator and gunner on a B24 Liberator Bomber. He was shot down on his 50th and final mission in Europe and spent a year in a German prison camp. Daringly, he was able to escape and return to Allied hands.

This is his story:  

“Herk” started with an anti-aircraft unit in Texas (C Battalion 69th Coast Anti-Aircraft). Then, in December 1941 after Pearl Harbor, he was sent to San Diego (Balboa Park). While there, he tested for aviation cadet, passed the exam, became part of the Army Air Corps, and learned to fly. He soloed on a PT-19A; but during the next course, he “washed out.” He still wanted to fly; and since he had gone to a gunnery school, he was able to join a bomber crew of ten men on a B-24 Liberator and trained in New Mexico; Charleston, SC; and Mitchel Field, Long Island, NY. There they picked up a new B-24 and flew the Southern route: NYC-Miami-Brazil – Dak Kur, South Africa- Tunisia- Marakesh-and finally to Lechte, Italy where they were based as part of the 343rd Bomb Squad, 90th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force.

Circumstances of capture: Herk was flying a B-24 Liberator bomber plane on a mission to Vienna, Austria, when anti-aircraft guns took out two of the plane’s engines. “We
couldn’t keep up with our formation. The plane was shot down, and two men were killed. The other nine of us were immediately captured by Nazis.” They were put on a train to Budapest, Hungary where they were held in a prison for 18 days. They were then taken by train to Vienna, Austria arriving mid-July, then marched three miles to a prison camp. The camp had four compounds, each having ten barracks that held 240 men each. During the winter, the Russians started closing in on their location. On February 6, they started an 86-day march north to Camp Falling Parcel 11B, spending many nights sleeping in the snow-covered fields when a barn couldn’t be found. They arrived in early May. After a while, the Americans and British began closing in. They were put on the march, again, this time in columns of 200 men, separated by a horse and wagon, which was filled with straw and driven by a German soldier. This was called the “sick wagon” for those who couldn’t walk.

Escape: Herk and two other men escaped by having one man pretend to be sick, while the other two tended to him. When the column went around a bend in the road and before the wagon came into view, Herk and the other two soldiers ran into the woods and hid for six days before meeting up with British soldiers, who returned them to the American forces sometime in June 1944.

They were first taken to Brussels, Belgium where they were able to get cleaned up and properly clothed. Then, it was on to La Havre, France, and a slow boat to New York City. After some much-deserved R& R, Herk was discharged from active service. He later went on to use his GI Bill to earn a degree in marketing and sales from St. Johns University. Then he went to work in NYC marketing beer for Rheingold Brewery working his way up to be the Director of Marketing for the Northern New England region.