Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Christmas In a German POW Camp by PITT DICKEY Too much holiday cheer got you down? Consider the Christmas that Vince Fonke spent in 1945 in a German POW camp, Stalag Luft III. On Aug. 16, 1944 at 10:50 a.m. Vince was a 22-year-old Army pilot of a B-17 on a bombing run over Germany. The bombers were accompanied by P-47 fi ghters that were supposed to be replaced by P-51 fi ghters from Italy. Robert Burns once said, “The best laid plans o’ mice and men gang aft agley.” The P-51 fi ghters arrived about fi ve minutes too late after a squadron of German fi ghters swooped down on Fonke’s plane and shot up his engines. Fonke was a bit concerned because the wing that was burning contained 1,000 gallons of gas. At 25,000 feet, the surviving crew members parachuted into the clear blue German sky. Fonke banged into a tree in a dense forest but remained in one piece. As he was hiding his parachute some gun-toting German farmers arrived on the scene. They were not happy with him. He was kept in a shed until the Gestapo appeared. A Gestapo agent took a large stick and banged Fonke across the head, knocking him out briefl y. Fonke arrived at Stalag Luft III in September 1944. This POW camp was designed to hold captured Allied airmen. It had been the scene of the Great Escape in March 1944. The Germans were touchy about POWs leaving without permission by the time he got there. Fonke was assigned to a barracks in the South Compound with about nine other POWs. Today, Fonke remains one of the most positive people you will ever meet. When he says the POW food was not great, you can rely on it. They got one meal a day served at 3 p.m. The food was mostly soup with a canteen of water and an occasional boiled potato. Fonke went from 172 to 132 pounds as a POW. Merle Haggard sang “I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole.” Fonke turned 23 in a POW prison with no idea how long he would be there. Our POW’s were resourceful guys. Martha Stewart would be proud. They made him a birthday cake out of crushed crackers and millet seeds. Tooth powder substituted for yeast This Holiday Season... DON’T GIFT THE LANDFILL! • Wrapping Paper & Greeting Cards (no foil or mylar wrap) • Gift Boxes & Cardboard • Aluminum & Steel Cans • Plastic Bottles & Containers • Glass Bottles & Jars The Environmental Services Department Wishes You a Happy & Green Holiday Season! For more information 433-1FAY www.cityo ayetteville.org (Resident’s Section) WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Create Holiday Memories at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux Indulge in the spirit of the holiday season with ease this year as you celebrate with the Holiday Inn Bordeaux. Join us for Christmas Brunch on Saturday, December 25, 2010, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom Featuring two carving stations, traditional Christmas sides, desserts galore and omelet and waffle station. Price includes coffee or tea. Then wrap up the year with our special New Year’s Eve package, which includes: (Faydogwoodfestival.com) DECEMBER 22-28, 2010 UCW 7 www.hibordeaux.com 1707 Owen Drive Fayetteville, NC 28304 1.800.325.0211 or 910-323-0111 Voted “Best Hotel in Fayetteville” to raise the cake which they baked in a small oven in the barracks. The frosting was made of carefully saved sugar and margarine. The cake fed nine people. The POWs sang Happy Birthday to Fonke. They were the Greatest Generation. Fonke was allowed to write to his parents and could receive fi ve cards a month from home. Imagine getting letters from your son in a POW camp. The mind boggles. A German POW camp at Christmas could dampen anyone’s morale. Fonke and his buddies were made of sterner stuff and celebrated Christmas anyway. A British paratrooper POW they called Padre McDonald conducted a Christmas service for the group. They had a small tree and each had a bite of a plum pudding as Christmas dinner. They sang Christmas carols including “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” I leave it to the reader to imagine the emotions that must have fl ooded each man when they sang that song in a Nazi prison camp. In late January, the POWs were ordered to leave the Stalag as the Russian army was approaching. They marched more than 50 miles through the snow to a train station where they were sent in boxcars to another Stalag at Moosburg, Germany. The trip took fi ve or six days and they were fed only once during that time. Fonke had a harmonica that he played to keep up the morale of the boxcar riders. He still has that harmonica. He remembers playing “Shenandoah” and another POW shouting “Keep playing that sucker!” Moosburg is close to the Dachau concentration camp. The Germans had the POWs take a shower in a large facility that apparently was also used to gas prisoners. Fonke said they didn’t know it at the time but “if we had known there would have been a certain reticence in using the shower.” General Patton liberated the POWs in late April 1945. Keep Vince Fonke’s Christmas in a POW camp in mind if you feel like your Christmas isn’t all it should be. Merry Christmas and many thanks to our military. PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com.