Universal York

I recently received a call from veteran Rodger Maul about my recent York Sunday News column on World War II Prisoner-of-War Walter Zeigler. He said, “That was my story.” He was absolutely right.

The two York airmen were shot down over Germany two weeks apart in late-winter 1945, one near Vienna and the other not far away, near Dresden. They were evidently in the same group of prisoners, sleeping first on straw under large tents at Stalag 13 D near Nuremberg and then marched on to the huge Stalag 7 A at Moosburg. In an incident along the way, they were strafed by fellow members of the U.S. Army Air Force until it was found that the marching columns were made up of POWs. Rodger told me that discovery came about when some of the men spelled out POW with toilet tissue.

On April 29, 1945 General Patton’s 14th Armored Division liberated 110,000 Allied prisoners at Stalag 7 A. Maul and Ziegler were among them. Maul, of the 600 block of South Queen Street, and Ziegler, who lived in the 300 block of Roosevelt Avenue, never met, never realized the common story of capture and survival they shared. Ziegler passed away early this year. Maul is still with us, and he graciously shared his story, which is briefly recapped below. I’m also repeating the Sunday News column on Ziegler at the end of this post, so you can see how very similar their experiences were.

Rodger Maul was a member the 8th Air Force, 385th Bomb Group, 550th Squadron, based at Great Ashfield, England. He served as flight engineer and top turret gunner. The tail gunner was lost when they were shot down March 2 near Dresden; the rest of the squad stayed together as POWs, first at Stalag 13 and then at Stalag 7 A.

After liberation Rodger recuperated at a Miami Beach, Florida hospital. He continued his career in the Air Force, serving from April 1943 until he was discharged in 1963. He was back in Germany by 1946 and had the opportunity to attend the trial of Hitler’s second in command, Hermann Goering, at Nuremberg.

Rodger Maul was honored as Veteran of the Year at the 2011 York County Veterans’ Day breakfast. He has graciously donated his medals, ribbons, papers and other items to York County Heritage Trust as part of the Veterans’ History collection.

Maul’s medals are currently on display in the Front Porch to Front Lines exhibit at York County Heritage Trust, 250 East Market St. The museum galleries are open 10-4 Tuesday through Saturday.

Below are Ziegler’s very similar experiences and his medals.

York Man POW after B-17 shot down over Vienna

Mrs. Mary L. Ziegler received a disturbing telegram on February 26, 1945. It read:
“THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES ME TO EXPRESS HIS DEEP REGRET THAT YOUR SON SERGEANT WALTER B ZIEGLER HAS BEEN REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION SINCE THIRTEENTH FEBRUARY OVER AUSTRIA. IF FURTHER DETAILS OR OTHER INFORMATION ARE RECEIVED YOU WILL BE PROMPTLY NOTIFIED.
J A ULIO THE ADJUTANT GENERAL.”

The telegram that Mrs. Ziegler received months later, on May 28, 1945, was much more welcome. It said:
“THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES ME TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON SGT ZIEGLER WALTER B RETURNED TO MILITARY CONTROL.
J A ULIO THE ADJUTANT GENERAL”

Where had Walter been? Letters to Mrs. Ziegler signed by N. F. Twining, Commanding General of the Fifteenth Air Force, and J. A. Ulio, Adjutant General of the War Department, indicated that the B-17 on which Sgt. Ziegler was waist gunner had been shot down on a bombing mission over Vienna. The Flying Fortress carried a crew of nine, and five parachutes were observed deployed as the plane went down. One of the letters speculated that the survivors might be Prisoners of War, but the Army Air Forces and War Department passed no concrete information along to Mrs. Ziegler until the May 28 telegram above.

Walter luckily survived having his plane shot down and spending the next few months in German custody. He later wrote a narrative of his ordeal. He passed away early this year, leaving much of his estate to ForSight Vision, who shared papers and information on Ziegler’s Army Air Corps experience with the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives.

Walter was drafted into the Army in February 1943 and first trained as an X-ray technician. A year later he was sent to Aerial Gunnery School and then assigned to the 15th Air Force, 5th Wing, 301st Bomb Group, 419th Squadron, arriving at his post in southern Italy in late October 1944. He lists 33 sorties his crew conducted until his Flying Fortress was shot down February 13, 1945 just southeast of Vienna, Austria. He normally would have not have been on that plane with that crew, but a photographer took up his place that day with his usual crew.

The B-17 took a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire to the No. 2 engine and wing. As waist gunner he was very close to the hit and had a hard time getting out of the plane as it spiraled downward. Three of the nine-man crew didn’t survive the crash. Walter sustained a fractured nose as he landed in two feet of snow, almost going into the Danube River. He eluded capture for the next several days, surviving on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, moving at night and tying himself in trees during the day to get some rest up out of the snow. Dogs patrolling with German soldiers discovered him on February 17. He was interrogated by a German officer at a nearby farmhouse headquarters and taken the next day to a Luftwaffe (German Air Force) airfield near Parndorf, Austria, where the navigator and engineer from his plane were already being held.

They were fairly well treated by the German guards, but the Americans pushed to be moved to a regular POW camp. From the sound of artillery fire, they knew the Eastern Front was near, and they didn’t want to be there if the Russians attacked the German base. Two older Luftwaffe men were assigned to take them by train to Oberursel, Germany near Frankfurt. That was not a pleasant experience; their guards were kind, but the civilians were not friendly to anyone in American Air Force uniforms; bombs from Allied planes had been raining down on the German countryside in full force. Forced to stay overnight in Vienna because of Allied destruction of train tracks, the only place they were allowed to sleep was in the city jail. They were verbally and sometimes physically abused by civilians, especially at a stopover in Dresden, and glad for the protection of their guards. They didn’t know that the center of Dresden had been about 90 percent destroyed by Allied bombs a week before.

Ziegler was separated from his crewmates at Oberursel, interrogated again, and then sent to Dulag Luft POW camp at Wetzlar. RAF (Royal Air Force) bombers raided nightly, and Allied Forces were coming close, so the prisoners were taken to a POW camp at Nuremberg. He recorded terrible conditions there—hardly any food and so crowded that there was hardly room to lie down on straw on the ground under large tents. Again, the Allies were advancing; the prisoners were forced to march on to Stalag VII A at Moosburg. On the way the POW column was mistakenly strafed by U.S. Army Air Force P-47s. Three were killed and others wounded before the Americans realized the mistake.

The POWs were detained at Moosburg for the next two weeks, until liberated by the Allies on April 29, 1945. Ziegler recorded that there: “We were truly reduced to a SUB-HUMAN EXISTANCE.” He notes that he lost 40 pounds in his 76 days of captivity.

After liberation Walter was sent to RAMP (Recovered Allied Military Personnel) Camp No. 1 near LeHarve, France. Even though Mrs. Ziegler didn’t receive the official Army telegram quoted above until May 28, the Red Cross had notified her of his liberation on May 11. On May 14 a short article in a York paper shared the good news.

Ziegler was sent next to the Army’s Valley Forge General Hospital. He was discharged November 19, 1945. He married West York native and nurse Jean Greer, who had served in the Naval Cadet Nurse Corps, and settled down to a career as an engineer with several York manufacturing companies, including York International. Walter later obtained his pilot’s license for small aircraft.

I’m sorry I never met Walter Ziegler, but I am glad he left an account of his experiences behind so that we can appreciate what his generation did for us all. Many other York Countians could also relate stirring stories. If you are a veteran, or know one, please record your experiences or contact the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives, which, in conjunction with York College’s oral history department, participates in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Your sacrifices should never be forgotten.