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IPTC: Caption
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United States Army 8th Air Force heavy bomber crewmen surrender to German authories after their aircraft went down off the North Sea coast of Germany. Even after surviving bailing out of a severely damaged plane and parachuting to safety, downed aircrew faced many hazards. Enraged German populace would shoot or lynch downed aircrew in revenge, especially in 1945 when area bombing was widespread. Some, lucky enough to evade capture, faced a difficult and dangerous journey through occupied territory to return to Allied lines. If they were captured, they were taken to the local police station where they were often denied medical attention and food consisted of stale bread and ersatz coffee. After staying at the local jail for 24-48 hours, the captured airmen were taken to Durchgangslager Luft (air transit camp) Auswertestelle West (evaluation center west) or Dulag Luft for short, in Kupforhammer, a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, for up to 30 days. At Dulag Luft the prisoners were separated from their surviving crewmembers (if arrested with them) strip-searched, photographed and often placed in solitary confinement. English-speaking German intelligence officers used "friendly" tactics of verbal abuse and gaining the prisoner's trust, as violent interrogation used early in the war rarely revealed any information. Airmen with little tactical or strategic information might be kept for a few days; officers and pilots might be kept for a month. Only the most seriously injured were taken to the Dulag Luft Hospital in nearby Hohemark; some prisoners arrived at their permanent camps weeks later with the dirty bandages they originally received the day they were shot down. Some 2,000 airmen a month were processed in 1944; in July of that year, 3,000 prisoners were processed, leaving five men to a cell at times. After interrogation at Dulag Luft, the Kriegsgefangenen (prisoner of war) would be taken to one of seven Luftwaffe Stalag Luft (Air Prison Camp), where the Allied prisoners
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IPTC: Copyright Notice
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Caption ©2007 MFA Productions LLC
Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission
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