Page 2, Louis Loevsky AX-Prisoners of War Biography

When I finally opened my parachute I found I was being shot at from the ground. Slipping and spilling air I became an instant expert in maneuvering the chute despite admonitions to keep our "cotton-picking’ hands" off the shroud lines. I got away from a small camp where they were shooting at me toward another small camp where they were not. Selecting a small tree in Berlin, crossed my legs for posterity, crashed branches off one side of the tree, chute caught on top, feet whipped over head, back injured, blacked out briefly, came to with toes touching ground. A Home Guard (Volkstrum) shaking…had gun in my ribs, repeating: "Pis-tole?, Pis-tole?" Two Wehrmacht troops appeared and took over my custody. While still getting out of the parachute harness three S.S. arrived, apparently from the small camp where they had been shooting at me. The S.S. argued with the Wehrmacht, they wanted to take custody of me (and since my parents sometimes talked Yiddish, I could understand). Fortunately, the two Wehrmacht troops retained my custody.
As they marched me through the streets of Berlin to their headquarters, the angry civilian mob were yelling in perfect AMERICAN "string him up," "hang him," "lynch him". . . they wanted a necktie party. As they were closing in the Wehrmacht troops had to draw their sidearm to keep the ugly lynching mob at bay. I believe "Bill" Terry was shot from the ground as he floated down in his parachute.
I was now a POW at Stalag Luft III Sagan, Germany until the Russians got close in January 1945. After that we were evacuated at 2:00 a.m. in a the freezing blizzard. From there we reached Stalag VII A, in Moosburg by marching in sub-zero weather and being crammed into (40 & 8) boxcars. We were improperly clothed or fed; our conditions were unsanitary and inhumane. Imagine hundreds of American officers and enlisted men lined up evacuating their bowels when the train stopped at a station in full view of German women and children. . . we were treated like swine!
We were liberated by General Patton’s troops on April 29, 1945. Joe Greenberg, flight engineer of "Terry" and the Pirates" folded his wings in early 1993. Fifty-five years after the mid-air collision, the three survivors of both crews are C. Wayne Beigel (Brand crew), Len Smith and Lou Loevsky (Terry crew). Lou lives in North Caldwell, NJ with a lovely lady, his sexy wife, Molly.
Lou Loevsky was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, on January12, 1999, 55 years after the 2 doomed B-24’s collided over Berlin, on March 22nd, 1944. To see awards and photos Click Here.