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ESCAPE AND EVASION REPORT   (1 of 7)
Cpl Jack W. Schlegel

E&E Report,
Cpl Jack W. Schlegel

Page 1

S E C R E T
HQ EUROPEAN THEATRE OF OPERATIONS
 P/W and X Detachment
Military Intelligence Service

20 August 1944

E & E REPORT NO. 888 (I.S.9)(WEA)8/3/37
ESCAPE FROM FRANCE

Jack W. Schlegel, Cpl, 12190855
         508 Para Inf Regt, 82 AB Division
MIA 6 June 1944
Arrived in UK
       8 August 1944
MET OTHER
MEMBERS OF
UNIT
     the objective of my battalion was to secure the ground to the NW of ETIENVILLE.  The 19 of us in the plane made our jump successfully.
On reaching the ground I discovered that I was alone, so I started to
walk NE in order to pick up the other members of my squad.  I proceeded
to the NE for about 200 yards and picked up 52 members of my battalion, but
none of them had MG's.  They all insisted that I lead the group as I
spoke German.  We walked throughout the night, in the course of which we
lost 22 men, ending up with 30.  The next day we met Capt. CREARY of the
battalion, joined forces with him, and went on.  Soon we came upon a
German position which we attacked.  We had them about to surrender when
some tanks appeared and forced us to abandon the attack.
SURROUNDED
AND CAPTURED

PRISON CAMP
AT STE CHA-
PELL SUR VIRE

     That night we hid out, and the next day we were trapped in a field
and forced to surrender.  We were taken to STE SAUVEUR LE VICOMTE where
we met 300 other prisoners all from the 82nd and 101st AB Divisions.
There we were loaded into trucks which had no PW markings on them and
taken in the direction of ST LO.  S of ST JEAN DE DAYE we were strafed
by P-47's.  The trucks stopped and the guards went to the side of the road
from whe4r they covered the trucks with MG's.  However a lot of us
did get out and took cover, suffering heavily from the strafing and
the German MG fire.  I stopped to bandage some of the prisoners and
then I took off with those unwounded, hiding in the hedgerows.
My group then head N, and had gone about 8 miles when I heard my name
called out.  The others had followed us with the guards and had
spotted us, and the colonel wanted me back to interpret for the
wounded men.  The guards then recaptured us and marched us of to ST LO.
The city was in flames from bombs, so we the the night on the N side.
The next day we were walked to the prison camp at ST. CHAPELLE SUR VIE S of ST LO.
PRISON CONDITIONS      I arrived there on 9 June and stayed until 28 June.  I was kept
as an interpreter in order to help run the camp for the Germans and
see that as much as possible was done for the prisoners.  We lived mainly
on soup, sometimes with a little bread and milk.  We had to sleep on
hard floors with one dirty blanket.  I was interrogated briefly - they
asked me my name, rank and serial number and then had me stand at attention
for six hours when I refused to give the number of my regiment. The
place was built to accommodate about 600 prisoners, but there were always
at least 900 there.  I know of three escapes while I was there, all
were caused by hunger, and all three were unsuccessful.
TAKEN TO RENNES      On the evening if 27 June I heard that I was going to be evacuated
the following day, so I decided to escape.  I crawled through the fence,
but half an hour later was discovered some guards who returned me
without mentioning to the commandant that I had escaped.  The next day
we started out on foot and walked 48 km and then stopped for three days.
Then we were taken by truck the rest of the way to RENNES and put in
the prison camp there, arriving 2 July.

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