As I said previously we were exactly where we thought we would be but so were the Germans. I had dropped down to about 300 feet above the ground and we had the bad luck of going over a submarine pen exactly when a submarine was going into it for some reason. The Germans told us later that they would not have fired at us if we had not seen the sub. We discovered later that they had 12 sub pens there and they were very carefully camoflaged. They were built with 12 feet of concrete walls and actually had about the same amount of dirt on top of the concrete with small trees and bushes growing on the dirt on top of the concrete.
The first burst of flak that hit us set us on fire in the nose. Shortly thereafter they shot the left engine out of it's mounts on the wing and it fell into the water. Crash got up and went back to get off a flare with colors of the day for we still thought it was the French shooting at us. Our intelligence officer had said that he had personally checked and there were no Germans there! They were really raking us over with machine gun and 20 mm fire along with a bigger gun of some sort. I had my left arm wrapped through the wheel so that I could use my right hand on the throttle to try to help control the planes direction. I remember specifically going over a pier so low that I could see the gunners eyes! I had the plane down to about 10 feet above the water when they hit the plane just above my left leg with a big shell of some sort which knocked me out. The riflemen said that the plane came down in the water pretty easily in comparison to a real crash. The first that I remember was hitting the cold water when Kriechbaum came back up and pushed me out the hole the shell had made. I knew that Crash was in trouble so they said that I climbed up on the wing, jumped up and down and said, "Take care of Crash!" Then dived off the wing and began to swim for the shore which was about a mile away. I remember three things distinctly. One of the riflemen had pulled off his "Mae West" (flotation gear) grabbed it with his hand and was lettinfg himself all the way down in the water and coming back up then yelling, "Help". He then disappeared into the water and drowned. I was also puzzled for there was some gray stuff getting into my eyes so I rubbed my forhead and discovered it was blood. A boat then came directly at me, I swam to one side and shook my fist at the gunner pointing a machine gun at me. The boat went by me and picked up the others. I was still swimming for shore until the boat came alongside and hoisted me aboard with two boat hooks. That was very humiliating! We were so cold that lying still on the deck we were moving all over the place from shivering so badly. The Germans took us into port, unloaded us onto the dock and then some soldiers marched us down the street to a hospital. Crash had his leg shot almost all the way off below the knee so he could not walk. Equi, the radio operator had 55 holes in him total. One machine gun bullet had gone in on the left side of his neck, missed the jugular vein and come out on the right side of his face just even with his mouth. He is stil alove to the best of my knowledge! Westoven had several wounds but I laugh now for one of the riflemen looked at him and asked, "Why are you limping, you are not hurt." He took his thumb and inserted it into a hole in his butt and said, "Don't tell me I'm not hurt for I just stuck my thumb in a hole!"
The Germans did the best that they could for us but they were cut off and in a pocket. They did not have much supplies and were only getting more by air drops which were infrequent. They took the flak out of us without any anasthetic but nature is kind for when something hurts too bad, you just pass out! They interrogated us several times and played mind games with us. The officer that did the interrogation said that he had graduated from the Massachets of Technology, one of the best engineering schools in the United States and had lived here for 23 years. He was one sharp individual. He really wanted to know if we had gotten off a radio message after we had been hit prior to going into the water. Some of the riflemen that were not seriously hurt were put into a POW camp. They took us out by the recovery that we made. I was not wounded too badly so went out in about 4 days. We got to the camp by a narrow lane. The camp had two sides to it, one for officers and one for enlisted personnel. The Germans were sticklers for rank. I was the only officer in the camp so was immediately put into solitary. The main camp was surrounded by high storm fence with barbed wire on top, with another fence outside that which was insulated and marked as high electrical fence. There were two machine gun towers on diagonal corners. Outside that the fields were marked with warnings for mines. Shortly after I was put into the little room where I was to stay, I had to go to the latrine. The guard went with me. Shortly after I was inside the latrine, a little French man came in and handed me a note. I waited until I got back into the little room and then read it. It said in broken english,
"Dear Friend,
Be of good cheer, we are your friends, we are the Maquis and will help you." I chewed it up and swallowed it for I would have been shot if the Germans found it. The next morning I was interrogated for hours. A guard had been killed with a knife right out in front of the gate. They asked me over and over,  "How did you kill him?" I don't know
how they thought that I had done it for there had been a guard outside my door all night long. They said that it had to be me for it had not happened before and only after I had gotten there!
I almost starved for they did not have supplies. As an example, they would make soup for their troops using the vegetables and ours out of the tops of the veggies. I also got a cube of schmaltz about an inch on each side. It was ground up pork fat with salt in it. They also gave me a piece of swartzbrot (black bread) about an inch and a half thick.
This was my supper and breakfast which I could eat any time I wanted.

There were other things that happened that I prefer not to talk about.

We were there only a little over a month when we were told that we would be exchanged to the Free French (the Maquis) for German prisoners. This took place and we went to a town named Rochefort. Lo and behold, this was the last place that Napoleon spent his last night before he was exiled! There are several stories about the happenings in this town but they are too lengthy to go into here.
Finally, a French Captain, his wife and I made our way to Paris. The American MP's made a big mistake for they would not help me and did not arrest me either. I made it a point to get their names. When we finally got into Paris, most of the Americans would not help either until finally one of them told us to go to the hotel Francia on the Rue de LaFayette.
As soon as we stepped inside, the soldier at the desk knew what I was for this hotel had been set up for evadees and escapees! He and I thanked the French Captain and his wife, the soldier gave them something and they left. I was told to go to room number xx and that I could take a bath and new clothing would be waiting for me when I was clean. They took all my sizes and I took a luxurious, hot, lovely bath!

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