Article Photos

JOHNSTOWN - Russell Daley now lives in the Wells House, where his doting daughter, Drucilla Infantino, visits him every day. He has lived there for seven years, and his family recently brought him Bloody Marys to enjoy on his 90th birthday on Oct. 18.

But his current home is a far cry from a place he lived for 20 months, from 1943 to 1945, when he was forced to spend his days in a German prisoner-of-war camp in Austria during World War II.

"They didn't feed us much," Daley said.

On Friday, he went on to describe many horrors he and his fellow soldiers faced both in the camp and during a long march over hundreds of miles. A shirt covered in an American flag was wrapped around his shoulders as he told his story.

Humble beginnings

Daley enlisted in the military in 1943 while he was a student at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. He graduated college, but went off to basic training before he could pick up his diploma. His father came to get it for him.

He became a member of the Air Corps, which was the precursor to the Air Force. It was part of the Army at the time, and Daley underwent basic training in Mississippi and Missouri. He then was sent overseas, where he was stationed in what he called "a little town" in England.

"It was a whole outfit of Army Air Corps," he said. "They had everything there that you would need."

His plane was a B-17, and its name was Cat o' Nine Tails. Daley was a staff sergeant, and he and his crew flew missions over Germany, during which they bombed various cities.

His American planes flew during the daytime and the British flew during the night, which made the Germans dislike the British more than the Americans.

"They didn't care what they hit," Daley said.

Daley flew 20 missions with his team before his plane went down.

Fallen aircraft

In October 1943, Cat o' Nine Tails was flying a mission with another plane when the other plane was hit.

The other plane was higher in the air when it was shot. In an attempt to lighten the plane's load so they would not quickly fall to the ground, crew members from the hit plane began tossing machine guns and other items out the window.

A gun hit Daley's plane, and it nosedived toward the ground. Crew members managed to deploy parachutes before they hit the ground, and were able to float downward.

Daley's landing spot, however, was anything but safe.

"I landed in the front yard of a German," he said. "He came running out with a big ol' pistol. And I yelled, 'Americano!'"

Soon, the German army arrived on the scene to capture Daley and his men, much to their relief. Daley had been afraid the German man was ready to shoot him on the spot.

"It was the first time and only time he was happy to see the German soldiers," Infantino said.

Daley knew some German. Military personnel interrogated him on several sensitive matters, but Daley refused to tell them anything.

Soon afterward, he was temporarily taken to an underground holding facility in Frankfurt. From there, he was put on a train to Stalag 17B - the notorious prisoner of war camp in Krems, Austria, where he would stay for nearly the next two years.

Stalag 17B

The camp housed captured American and Russian soldiers. It was not a work camp, and Daley said the Germans had its members walk round and round to get exercise.

There were three loaves of bread and a small amount of thin soup made available each week for every three people.

"It was so few and far between," Daley said.

The soldiers became malnourished, and some died. The camp's Russian soldiers would prop up their dead comrades to make them look alive so they could continue to get the same amount of food rations.

The American Red Cross was allowed to send some food to the camp, but Germans would often poke holes with their bayonets in any fresh food in order to make it spoil quickly.

"Two Americans tried to escape," he said. "But they were gunned down by the Germans."

The march

The Russian army began to make advances against Germany and its Axis allies in 1945. Fearing the Russian presence, German soldiers told the prisoners they had to get up and leave Stalag 17B.

The prisoners began walking. And walking. And walking.

"They marched us, oh, several hundred miles across Austria," Daley said. "And during the trip, they stopped for us to watch a German soldier shoot a prisoner in the head. They brought him out and the guy just pulled the pistol.

"And he looked at us, and he says: 'Yeah, that's what's going to happen to y'all.'"

As he walked, Daley felt something on his right side, and saw his rib through his skin. The constant malnourishment was taking its toll.

One day, the German soldiers woke them up with a horrible noise. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died in Warm Springs, Ga., and the Germans wanted to mock the prisoners.

"The Germans were cackling-that's the best word for it, cackling," Daley said. "They said, 'Your president is dead. Your president is dead.'"

The prisoners eventually arrived at the Rhine River, which forms a border between Austria and Germany. They stopped there, and one day, they woke up and the Germans had vanished.

"There was no fighting," Daley said. "We just woke up, and one day they were gone."

A few days later, prisoners heard gunfire, and saw the American Army approaching to liberate them. They greeted the men with joy.

"The lieutenant got on top of a tank," Daley said. "And he said, 'You are not prisoners of war anymore. You are regulars in the U.S. Army.'

"And that was what we wanted to hear."

Daley was liberated in May 1945. The prisoners were flown to France and, from there, were put on a boat back to the United States.

The camp inspired a Broadway play called Stalag 17, which opened in 1951.

Aftermath

After spending time recuperating physically from his experiences, Daley went to work as a newspaper reporter for United Press International in Atlanta. He then moved on to work for the news service in Jackson, Miss., and Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.

He also worked for the Georgia Veterans Service and wrote for the Forest Service, where he wrote slogans for Smokey the Bear. He was a speechwriter for the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and traveled extensively with his wife, Vonceil, who died in 2001.

He eventually moved to Johnstown to be closer to Infantino, who lives here. And as he celebrated his 90th birthday, his family allowed him to get the treat he loves so much.

"He always celebrates with Bloody Marys," Infantino said. "And they let him have it."

Zach Subar covers rural Fulton County news. He can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.