Liberty Lady is a book by Pat DiGeorge, based on the experiences of her parents during World War II — her father flew as a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force and later engaged in counterespionage against the Nazis, working alongside his future wife with the OSS in Stockholm, Sweden. This blog gives a glimpse into the author’s research, her discoveries, and the unfolding drama.
As a B17 lead pilot explained, there were some decisions you could make that would give your crew a better chance of survival, but there was no decision you could make that would guarantee your survival. It was like playing Russian roulette....
This week, I found a tiny photograph of a plane in my Dad's scrapbook from World War II Sweden. I blew it up and discovered some creative nose art -- a scantily-clad blonde!...
Sadly, the last living crew member of the LIBERTY LADY B-17 passed away in January....
Finally, Frank Gleason of Marietta, GA, has received his OSS Congressional Gold Medal!...
As I watched the Rev. Billy Graham’s funeral, his final crusade, on Friday, March 2nd, I heard his daughter say, “everyone’s got a Billy Graham Story. I thought, yes, I have a Billy Graham story too....
A new trailer for the book Liberty Lady: A True Story of Love and Espionage in WWII Sweden...
On the 19th day of January 1945, the Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm published an article about the marriage of my parents, Americans Herman Allen and Hevig Johnsson (sic), pictured with Count Folke Bernadotte, nephew to the king of Sweden....
In 1938, at the age of 15, Eric G. Newhouse left his native Austria to escape Nazi persecution. Even before he became an American citizen, he wrote the Secretary of War, requesting permission to enlist in the Army....
The National Library of Sweden, Kungliga Biblioteket (translated “Royal Library”) is located in the heart of Stockholm in the area Humlegården. ...
On July 6, 1944, the royal family made an official visit to Thurleigh Airfield to christen a B-17 honoring Princess Elizabeth. ...
What life was like in London amidst Hitler's now infamous "Baby Blitz" and "Buzz Bombs."...
The White Buses expedition ended up being the biggest rescue effort inside Germany during the entire war....
As it had since the early 1800s during times of war, Sweden affirmed its policy of neutrality when World War II became a certainty. ...
73 years ago. The landings on the beaches of Normandy, the largest invasion fleet ever assembled ...
In January of 1944, the Luftwaffe resumed mass bombing of London in what was called the Baby Blitz. ...
The most obvious early player in the espionage game in World War II Sweden was Germany. ...
Swedish filmmaker and author Jan-Olof Nilsson recently visited me while he and his family were vacationing in south Florida....
Over the course of Kim Philby’s 30-year career as a double agent, thousands of people died because of his traitorous betrayals. ...
Five American journalists went to Sweden in the spring of 1943. One of the five was Nathaniel Albert "Nat" Barrows, a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. ...
The owner of this code worksheet was Herluf Rudolf Alexander Ryel, a gentleman born in Akureyri, Iceland, in 1913....
Dr. John Alexander Lönnegren, at 65 years old, was known as an independent Swedish businessman. By the end of WWII, he would be involved in one of Sweden's most publicized spy scandals....
For the past couple of months, I have been helping the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association index names from the 1942-1945 MACRs, Missing Air Crew Reports. It has been an emotional experience....
I have read and reviewed so many World War II books, and now it's hard to believe that mine is finally written and published!...
One of the most dedicated and beloved officers to serve the 306th Bomb Group was Dr. Thurman Shuller, group surgeon. ...
After 70 years, the six men who hoisted the U.S. flag in the iconic Rosenthal photograph are identified....
A long overdue tribute to one of the great ladies of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and the CIA. Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh...
After each mission, the men of the 306th BG would take a candle and smoke the ceiling of the officers’ club with the date and target for the day’s mission. ...
Commander-in-Chief of the German Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring did indeed have important Swedish connections. ...
Michael J. Roskovich was the first airman to reach the goal of twenty-five missions. He was eligible to return to the States, but that is not what he did!...
The leather A-2 bomber jackets that were so proudly worn during World War II had been the standard Air Corps flight jacket since 1931. ...
Early on in the war, the Germans discovered a weakness in the B-17 and attacked the vulnerable nose straight on....
Trivia Question: Of all the bombers that force-landed in Sweden during World War II, how many are left for us to see? Sadly, only one....
A book published in 1943, Skyways to Berlin: With the American Flyers in England, told the story of Jack and Mark Mathis, the bombardier brothers....
Captain Donna Rowe gave a meaningful tribute to all veterans and especially to those who served with her in Vietnam....
Korean War veteran John Paul Howard was with the Navy Photographic Laboratory when he met sculptor Felix de Weldon, at the time in the process of making the Marine Corps War Memorial....
In just one day at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, I was able to experience both the history and the future of our nation's infantry....
In 1948, students who had survived Hiroshima wrote of their experiences and much, much more to sixteen-year old Lee Evans of Pittsburgh....
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre is the amazing story of World War II double agent Eddie Chapman....
By the time World War II was over, more than three hundred aircraft from various countries had force-landed or crashed in neutral Sweden. ...
On August 25, 1944, a B-17 in dire distress is escorted to safety by Swedish fighter pilots. Just in time....
Paris in April of 1945 is where a group of OSS personnel celebrated VE Day. Can you think of anywhere more fabulous to celebrate? ...
Favorite (2015) Lucky Strike: When the Americans Came to Our Village is a new documentary film by Jan-Olof Nilsson based on his 2013 book about the Allied crews who came to Sweden during the Second World War....
Last week I made my second trip to the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. This is where historical documents of the Air Force are stored, over seventy million pages....
After his B-17 force-landed in Sweden on March 6, 1944, my father, bombardier Herman F. Allen, spent the rest of the year in Stockholm working in the office of the Military Air Attache. One evening, he met the beautiful singer, Rosita Serrano. ...
Whenever an American airman escaped or evaded capture in Denmark or Norway, he would be taken to the Legation in Stockholm to be questioned by the American Air Attache and his aides, one of which was my father....
The featured speaker at this year's Memorial Day in Roswell, GA, was Christina Olds. She wrote a book about her father, Robin Olds. Her father! I perked up right away. Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds. ...
On May 7, 1945, word came to Stockholm that Germany had signed military surrender documents. It was a glorious sunny day....
Favorite (2012) Based on the WWII era life and career of Torgny Segerstedt, the editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper, the Gothenburg Trade and Maritime Journal. ...
A year or so ago, Joakim, a gentleman from Sweden, sent me a 1943 luggage label from the Hotell Siljansborg! Out of the blue! ...
Favorite (2014) The story of Soviet spy Kim Philby and the two friends, one British and one American, that he so handily betrayed....
Sgt. Carl A. Heuser was the engineer and top turret gunner on the Liberty Lady B-17. He was born in Germany, and his nickname was "Tiny" ...
(1988) Newscaster and journalist David Brinkley tells the story of the transformation of the capital city during World War II. My mother, Hedy Johnson, was there!...
(2012) Two Jewish refugees are recruited by the Office of Strategic Services for a dangerous mission into Nazi occupied Austria....
(2014) Shot Down by Steve Snyder is the true story of the Susan Ruth, a B-17 shot down over Belgium on February 8, 1944. ...
Albert McMahan flew B-17s both as tail gunner and ball turret gunner. He was the first person to personally tell me about life with the 306th Bomb Group at Thurleigh where both he and my Dad flew combat missions during World War II....
(2014) This PBS six part series is a fascinating history of the lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the best known members of the most influential family of the 20th century. ...
Anatoli Granovsky authored the 1962 book I Was an NKVD Agent. It is the story of his life growing up in the Soviet Union under Stalin....
What I recently discovered was actress Hedy Lamarr's World War II connection. She was famous, not only for her looks but for her genius....
Janna Doolittle Hoppes just happens to be the granddaughter of General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle. She has forged an impressive career as an author, educator and speaker. ...
This is the seventeenth year that Roswell Rotary and the City of Roswell, my hometown, have jointly sponsored Roswell Remembers, a tribute to all our veterans and the men and women who are serving in our military today. Thousands of people come from all over...
Last year I wrote about the Penny Marshall movie A League of Their Own. It featured the All-American Girl’s Professional Baseball League organized in 1942 when it was feared that the men’s major league would be cancelled due to the war. Then I learned...
On April 2nd the Roswell Rotary Club sponsored their 6th Honor Air trip of World War II and Korean veterans to Washington, DC to see their memorials. There is no cost whatsoever to our veterans. Their Guardians pay their own way....
In 2011 I posted a photograph that I found in Herman F. Allen's (my Dad's) wartime scrapbook. A group of mostly Americans were seated around a grand banquet table. I knew it was somewhere in Stockholm, and I knew it was in 1944....
Dragongården was the family home of Count Folke Bernadotte. During World War II, Bernadotte was the representative of the Swedish government responsible for the airmen interned there. ...
On April 2nd the Roswell Rotary Club will charter a plane to fly just over sixty World War II and Korean War veterans to Washington DC to visit their memorials. One of our veterans, Bob Moore, wants to honor Father Cormac Walsh, the most decorated...
Seventy years ago today, March 6, 1944, the B-17 Liberty Lady force-landed on the Swedish island of Gotland just hours after the first large scale daylight raid on the city of Berlin. ...
Favorite (2014) The story of the men and women who, during and after World War II, engineered the rescue of the great works of art stolen by the Nazis. ...
When my parents were in Stockholm during World War II they befriended Count Folke Bernadotte, the nephew to the King of Sweden. I am searching for information about his secretary Barbro Torén....
Stureplan is a city square in Stockholm, one of the most popular for the young, hip, and affluent. It is located along the street Birger Jarlsgatan, one of the longest streets in town and where you can find exclusive high end shops and restaurants....
Edith F. Rising was a young lady who worked for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) alongside my mother during World War II. ...
On our last evening the "Siblings in Sweden" decided to do a "Pub Crawl" of our parents' favorite wartime Stockholm hangouts ...
Since I first wrote about Berns Salonger in 2011 I have been to this famous Stockholm restaurant three times! It was a favorite spot for my parents during World War II....
The trams began to service Stockholm beginning in 1877 with small horse-drawn carriages. Then in the early 1900s they were run by the electric lines which ran throughout the city. ...
My sisters and brother were thrilled when, thanks to the assistance of Lars Åke Näsman at Skansen, we found the very garden where in 1944 our father proposed to our mother. Then we met a member of the Swedish royal family!...
The day the “Siblings in Sweden” went to Skansen we were on a mission to find the garden where our father proposed to our mother in late September 1944. I had found a tiny snapshot in their wartime photo album that read “taken in...
My parents spent New Year’s Eve 1944 at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. In 1898, this gilded hall was created, and it is much the same today. According to what I have read it was modeled after the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles....
One of the highlights of my trip to New Orleans for the 306th Bomb Group reunion was a visit to The National WWII Museum, just a few blocks from our hotel....
The 306th Bomb Group Historical Association held its annual reunion the weekend of October 3-6 in New Orleans. Our hotel was just a short walk from the National WWII Museum....
In 1944 and 1945, while World War II was raging all around neutral Sweden, our parents Herman Allen and Hedvig Johnson often dined at the Grand Hôtel. Not only was it the finest hotel in Stockholm (one of the finest in Europe!) it was headquarters...
Skansen is the world’s first open air museum, a vision of what Sweden was like in centuries past. My mother wrote on the back of a photo that it was at Skansen that our father proposed to her in 1944, right at the height...
When my sisters, brother, and I (Siblings in Sweden) arrived on the Swedish island of Gotland our mission was to visit the crash site of our Dad's B-17 Liberty Lady....
The first stop for our "Siblings in Sweden" trip would be the Swedish island of Gotland where on March 6, 1944, the B-17 Liberty Lady made an emergency wheels-up landing after it was badly damaged during a bombing raid over Berlin....
For as long as any of us can remember, our family has talked about Sweden. It’s where, during World War II, our parents Herman and Hedvig met, fell in love, and got married. Now, we were on our way!...
In September, I'm going back to Sweden! My two sisters and brother will come with me to revisit Gotland and Stockholm. I'm busy mapping out everything we need to see....
(1944) This American army training film was designed to teach U.S. Army Air Force crews to resist interrogation by the Germans....
It didn't take long for Herman to find a typewriter. He began to put out a newsletter named "The Beaver's Spur," in honor of the nickname given to his bombardment squadron at Thurleigh, the 368th ...
On May 8, 1944, the crew of 2nd Lt. Louis F Matichka with the 306th BG was forced to ditch their B-17 into the Baltic Sea. In 2006, two Swedish divers explored the grave of the 888 and took an amazing film....
On August 9, 1950, my Uncle Ace was killed in Korea. We've never known much about what happened. I'm writing this in hopes that there might be someone "out there" who remembers him....
Miss Daisy Bonner, the President's cook while he was at the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA called this his favorite dish....
In January of 2011, I was excited to receive an email from a gentleman who wrote to me “from the sunny island of Gotland, Sweden.” Ulf Gahm was the editor at Gotlandsguiden -- the biggest and most comprehensive tourist magazine on the island. ...
The Bedford Corn Exchange was constructed in 1874 and was designed to be a concert venue. The most famous American musician to play at The Corn Exchange during the war was Glenn Miller, but he wasn’t the only celebrity to perform there. Bob Hope, Bing...
(1982) First Over Germany: A History of the 306th Bombardment Group by Russell A. Strong is the history of the 306th Bomb Group....
Last weekend the B-17 Memphis Belle came to town! This is not the original Memphis Belle, the B-17 piloted by Robert K. Morgan that was celebrated so highly in 1943 for finishing 25 missions. That plane is grounded and being lovingly restored in Dayton, Ohio....
Strandvägen 7 is the complex on the famed "Beach Road" in Stockholm where the American Legation was located. In the back corner of the Legation offices were the top secret desks of OSS Stockholm, the Office of Strategic Services. ...
On March 6, 1944, the day of the first large-scale daylight bombing of Berlin, the assigned target for the Liberty Lady B-17 of the 306th BG was the VKF Ball Bearing Works at Erkner, an eastern suburb of Berlin....
(1064) A former OSS agent living in London takes the Night Train to Paris in order to deliver a tape recording of secret military information to the French government....
The Hotell Rättviksgården is another little hotel where the American internees in Rättvik were housed during 1944. ...
Another small hotel that hosted the American Internees during World War II Sweden was the Turisthemmet (Tourist Home) in Rättvik....
When the railroad came to Rättvik in 1890 the area quickly became a travel destination for both summer and winter excursions. A beautiful large hotel was built right next to the train station. It was called Turisthotellet, the Tourist Hotel....
In May of 1945 a magazine titled “A Journal for Nurses” featured a story about the sick and injured soldiers who were being flown in ambulance planes back to the states. The name of the article was "GI Joe Comes Home."...
Buried on September 12, 1944, the engine of the B-17 Umbriago was found by a crew out of Germany. ...
Someone from Germany wrote a message (in German) on the armyairforces.com forum that “We have found wreckage of the B-17 “Umbriago” at Üdersee … the engine # SW-010 721....
The 306th Bomb Group website is an excellent resource for World War II historians....
The 306th Bomb Group Historical Association held its annual reunion the weekend of October 25-28 in Savannah, Georgia. ...
Right on Lake Siljan, I found an old sign that marked the spot: Persborg. Above that word has been added: Kulturpalatset. "Palace of Culture."...
Last year I wrote about the Hotell Siljansborg in Rättvik, a famous destination for affluent guests since it was built in 1909. During the winters of 1911 and 1912 the entire hotel was taken over by Sweden's King Gustav. ...
Rättvik, in central Sweden, was one of the most popular sites for the American internees. Enjoy some "Now and Then" photos....
After their belly landing on the Swedish island of Gotland, the crew of my Dad's B-17 "Liberty Lady" was sent to the village of Rättvik for their internment. Their "domicile" was the Hotell Lerdalshöjden....
Rättvik is where, during World War II, my Dad and his crew were interned after their crippled B-17 “Liberty Lady” belly landed on the Swedish island of Gotland....
The center of all entertainment in early Manchester was the Picture Show. Legend has it that Franklin Roosevelt was attending a high school graduation here when he received a phone call from New York asking him to seek the Democratic nomination for President. He accepted....
In 2012, I toured the university town of Uppsala to retrace the steps my Dad had taken in 1944....
During World War II, British and American airmen lived in Falun at Solliden Pensionat while they were being interned....
On October 1, 1943 Falun was opened as an official camp for interned American flyers. The internees were put up in various hotels and boarding houses. Some even stayed in private homes....
As I learned more about the crew of pilot Lt. Willard D. Reed, I uncovered details about a horrific massacre of American airmen. ...
A series of articles for the Manchester Star-Mercury by Monroe F. "Buddy Stamps" titled "Manchester Memories" included several accounts of the comings and goings of President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
(1942)"Why We Fight" is a series of propaganda films created during the war primarily to show our soldiers why we were in the war. ...
While my son Johnny and I were on the island of Gotland we stayed in historic Visby, Gotland's largest city. ...
We headed for the Swedish island of Gotland. At the end of the day on March 6, 1944, this is where the crew of the Liberty Lady made their final landing, wheels up on a boggy farmer's field. Miraculously all ten crew members climbed...
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the sales associates and employees of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Atlanta the Roswell Rotary Club will hold its fifth Honor Air day trip to Washington DC on October 10th, 2012....
The 306th Bomb Group Museum is at the site of the airfield at Thurleigh where the Liberty Lady crew flew from the end of 1943 until March 6, 1944....
The Queen’s Head Hotel in the Bedfordshire hamlet of Milton Ernest is near to Thurleigh Airfield, just over 3 miles. Reportedly it was the last place that Glenn Miller was seen in public before he took off from a nearby airport on the night of...
One of our favorite stops was Duxford at the Imperial War Museum, housed on the grounds of the former First and Second World War airfield....
Grosvenor Square, in the exclusive Mayfair district of the city, is where during World War II most of the Americans could be found. ...
When we visited the site of the forced landing of the Liberty Lady B-17, we had two possible crash sites: Mästermyr A or Mästermyr B....
Most of Churchill's War Room is just as it was back then. A few rooms have been faithfully recreated and all give a sense of simplicity and sparseness. They only contained what was needed to make critical decisions...
All we knew was that in 1944 my mother Hedvig Johnson lived at "Park Close" in a 5th-floor apartment ...
We found the building that housed OSS Counterespionage, known as X-2, during World War II ...
Today is Day 1 of "The Grand Tour" for my son and I as we trace the World War II footsteps of my parents....
Walter Irving Lawson already had his pilot’s license when he joined the 99th Flying Pursuit Squadron, better known to all of us as the Tuskegee Airmen....
The story of FDR’s refusal to be defeated by the paralysis of polio is well known....
Buddy Stamps was the radio operator on February 2, 1952, when his B-50 crashed on the runway at Offutt Field in Omaha, Nebraska. ...
Organized in 1986, the Atlanta World War II Roundtable meets monthly over lunch with a commitment to hear and record the experiences of that war....
This week I attended an excellent program called "Beyond Rosie: Women in World War II", a traveling exhibit at the Kennesaw University Museum of History and Holocaust Education. ...
Over and over again I have heard about (in WWII movies) and read about (in WWII books) that the Savoy is London's most famous hotel....
(1995) Author Philip Ziegler documents what was happening in the "greatest city in the world" during the wartime years. ...
Like the American Legation during World War II, the German Legation had several locations for their offices. I am trying to clarify what was where....
In anticipation of my trip to Stockholm in May I have created this walking tour of Old Town Stockholm. During World War II this island was known as Staden, and now Gamla stan....
In 1944 Stockholm. there were many restaurants available for the dining pleasure of the members of the American Legation and the American airmen who were interned there....
One of the more elegant restaurants my Dad, American internee Lt. Herman F. Allen, visited in 1944 Stockholm was “Berns Salonger.” ...
One of the popular hotels in Stockholm during World War II was The Strand, located at Nybrokajen 9, overlooking the harbor. ...
During World War II one of the restaurants convenient to the American Legation in Stockholm was Konstnärshuset on Smålandsgatan 7, barely more than a five-minute scenic walk away. ...
Uppsala, the fourth largest city of Sweden, is the site of the country’s oldest university, founded in 1477. (An older spelling is Upsala.) The city is located on either side of the river Fyrisån, the more historic part of town being to the west....
(1940) This movie is about the World War I exploits of the 69th Infantry Regiment, a military unit dating back to before the Civil War, primarily of Irish-Americans from New York City....
Gustav Wally was a well known Swedish entertainer who was in Stockholm during World War II. He was manager of the Oscar Theatre (Oscarsteatern) during the World War II years and produced lavish musical productions....
A restaurant in Stockholm that has been mentioned in OSS Stockholm wartime reports is the Bellmansro....
Östermalm is another district in Stockholm where much of the activity occurred for the Americans who worked at the American Legation and the OSS....
Stockholm’s Royal Palace (in Swedish, Kungliga slottet) is located on the island of Staden ( today known as Gamla Stan or Old Town.) ...
Recently I created an Open Group on Facebook named "American Internees in WWII Sweden."...
According to a 1945 OSS report I discovered in the National Archives, the Gestapo was said to have its meeting place in Stockholm in a restaurant called Regnbågen. The word Regnbågen translates to mean Rainbow. Today the building houses the "Spy Bar."...
When I was going through sixty-year-old files and boxes from WWII OSS Stockholm at the National Archives this past week, I found several references to "Penetration" of the USAAF Internees by German agents. ...
On Monday, I flew to College Park, MD (just outside Washington, DC) to spend four days at the National Archives facility there. This is where the declassified records of the Office of Strategic Services are stored. ...
Djurgården, another section of Stockholm east of Staden, or Old Town, consists of an island as well as an area to the north of it, known as Norra Djurgården (Northern Djurgården) separated by the bay of Djurgårdsbrunnsviken....
One recent morning when I opened my email, out of the blue there was a message from Lifecruiser Travel, an international travel blog! ...
During World War II, the Norrmalm district of Stockholm, as well as Östermalm, is where most of the day to day activities of the people who worked at The American Legation seemed to occur, in particular, the southern part closest to Staden....
I want to understand as much as I can about the areas of Stockholm where my parents lived and worked during World War II. So I will be familiar with the names of the districts, the bridges, the main roads, the landmarks I’m going to...
(1997) "Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Tricks and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today" is like a Wiki for spies....
I was delighted to find some excellent resources for what it was like in Sweden during the war in the Rotarian Magazine archives....
I have just discovered a group of aviation historians and enthusiasts from Sweden who have created a website dedicated to the World War II forced landings there. ...
This past weekend, I was inspired to go back through my photographs of the Liberty Lady B-17. Most of them have come from the scrapbooks of our Dad, Herman F. Allen, the bombardier. Several have come from other crew members or their families....
I recently had the opportunity to take a flight on the restored B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" when it was visiting the Waterbury-Oxford CT airport. The plane is one of a handful of B-17s that are still airworthy ...
On September 21st and 22nd 1944 four rusting ships left Närpes, a city on the west coast of Finland, and on a stormy night crossed over the Gulf of Bothnia (upper portion of the Baltic Sea) to two cities on Sweden’s eastern coastline, It...
Since Sweden was a neutral country during World War II, internationals from all over the world congregated there. They would mingle freely in the cafes and restaurants. ...
Gustav Adolfs kyrka (or in Swedish, Gustaf Adolfskyrkan.) It is a beautiful historic church located in the Östermalm area of central Stockholm, just 2 km from the World War II's American Legation at Strandvägen 7....
Another Swedish gentleman who knew my parents in 1944-45 is Olle Åkerlund. At that time, his address was Karlavägen 85, Stockholm....
The beautiful wedding gift given to my parents included the name “Lars Hill-Lindqvist.” I have not been able to find the name spelled with a "v" (even in Google Sweden) but have found the name spelled Lars Hill-Lindquist. I am trying to uncover how this particular gentlemen knew...
Another gentleman who, along with Count Folke Bernadotte and seven others, together gave a wedding gift to my parents was "Ryttmästare Carl Rosenblad." The word Ryttmästare Google translates to "Captain."...
I have been told by an American airman who worked with him that my Dad, Herman F. Allen, met with Arne Uggla for lunch at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm. This would have been in 1944....
There were two gentlemen who worked for the Swedish American Line, known as SAL, who knew my father (Herman F. Allen) well. I am searching for clues....
July 20th, 2011. is the 67th anniversary of the plot conceived by German Army Officer Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ...
Right in the center of Stockholm is an island called Djurgården. Djurgården as a whole belongs to the National City Park under the jurisdiction of the Royal Court. The island, rich with green spaces, is home to historical buildings, an amusement park, a small residential...
Herman and Hedy were in Rättvik on Christmas in 1944 and had dinner at the Hotell Siljansborg. Here is what they ate!...
My brothers and sisters have heard about the Hotell Siljansborg in Rättvik for as long as we can remember. It is where our parents spent their honeymoon in January of 1945. ...
The Royal Opera House in Stockholm was known as the Royal Theater, or "Kungliga Teatern." It is located in central Stockholm at Gustav Adolf Square and is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet. ...
OH, NO! Yesterday, Monday. June 13th, the Liberty Belle made its final flight. Shortly after taking off the crew smelled smoke, and the pilot was alerted by another plane that an engine was on fire. He skillfully made an emergency landing in a...
The Grand Hôtel in Stockholm was built in 1874 by Frenchman Régis Cadier on the street Blasieholmshamnen, just across from "Old Town." It was indeed Stockholm's first "grand" hotel....
In front of the Stockholm Concert Hall is the Orfeus group sculpture created by Carl Milles and finished in 1936. ...
Stadshuset is Stockholm's magnificent City Hall. Designed by architect Ragnar Ostberg, it was finished in 1923 and sits on the waters of the bay named Riddarfjärden. ...
It is done. Our Dad joined our Mom at 3:20 on Thursday morning. It is what he was praying for....
The American Legation offices in Stockholm during WWII were located on Strandvägen, the city’s most fashionable avenue....
On Tuesday, May 10th, the Roswell Rotary Club escorted sixty-four WWII veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit their memorials. It was a glorious day....
Favorite (2005) After Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio he visited a rustic resort in Warm Springs, GA, to bathe in their mineral-rich warm spring waters and prayed for a cure....
Miss Hedvig Johnson's photograph was also published in the Stockholm newspaper during the year 1944....
Last year I asked Ian Engblom, a Swedish college student who in 2006-2007 was a member of our Georgia Rotary Student Program, to translate this 1944 newspaper article for me....
Captain Carl Florman of Swedish Airlines (AB Aerotransport) was active in the Stockholm scene during World War II....
"Swedes at War" Willing Warriors of a Neutral Nation 1914-1945 by Lars Gyllenhaal and Lennart Westberg...
For most of his life, Herman Allen has written poetry. The earliest poems I have are from the late 1930's and then the war years, the 1940's. ...
On October 8, 1944 General Edward P. Curtis and his entourage visited the American internee camp of Mullsjö. The internees played softball, and to everyone’s delight the General pitched a no-hit, no-run inning....
General Axel Georg Ljungdahl served with the Swedish Air Force during World War II and was therefore very much involved with the Americans who were interned there....
Åke Stavenow was a lieutenant in the Swedish military and a close associate of Count Folke Bernadotte....
Accompanying the American General Edward P. Curtis on his trip from England to Sweden in October 1944 was Gunnar Hägglöf, who was, according to 8th Air Force Historian, at the time the Swedish Minister to Holland....
Edward Peck Curtis was an American ace during the first World War. He shot down six German planes and was awarded the distinguished flying cross....
Yesterday, March 6th, was Liberty Lady Day in the Allen family. It has been sixty-seven years since the B-17 Liberty Lady was forced to crash land on the Swedish island of Gotland....
Rosita Serrano, born in 1914, was a beautiful World War II era singer and actress who grew up in Chile. With her mother, an opera singer, and her father, a diplomat, she moved to Germany in 1936. There she became very popular and performed for...
Eldon E. Posey left college in the summer of 1941 to join the Army Air Corps. By April of 1942, he was a fighter pilot ...
The navigator of the Liberty Lady on the day of their March 6, 1944, emergency landing on the island of Gotland was 1st Lt. Stanley N. Buck. ...
Victor Marcotte was the Liberty Lady radio operator, and he also operated the gun that was at the top of the radio room on the B-17. When he wasn't on the radio, he was watching for enemy fighters. ...
Update: Most of this post has been updated, thanks to a new photograph I received in 2013. Please see “The Dealers” dine at Tattersall Restaurant, written on March 27, 2014....
Bernt Balchen (1899 - 1973) led a remarkable life. He was an Arctic explorer, then during World War II he established US airfields in Greenland. Then he continued to work with the US Airforce on many projects which also involved the OSS....
(1958) An Autobiography was written by Bernt Balchen in 1958. Balchen was many things but would probably have wanted to be remembered as a great explorer. He was....
Being a neutral country, Sweden was a haven for travelers from countries all over the world. Many countries had legations (or embassies) there, including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, as well as others....
Jumpin' Jimminy - a World War II Baseball Saga. American Flyboys and Japanese Submarines Battle it out in a Swedish World Series, written by Robert Skole...
Favorite (1947) An OSS team parachutes into France in order to apprehend a German spy....
This week I spent two days at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama., at the Air Force Historical Research Agency....
The Washington, D.C. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was headquartered in a complex of buildings northwest of the Lincoln Memorial on what is known as "Navy Hill."...
For as along as our family can remember, Hedy would talk about the time she lived in Washington DC, in an apartment at the “Slaughter Guest House.” She was friends with “Lee Bean,” and we remember her referring to him as “LL Bean, Jr.”...
[caption id="attachment_8087" align="alignright" width="302"] Charles Huntoon in his working office, July 15, 2010.[/caption] On July 15th I had the pleasure of interviewing USAAF veteran Charles Huntoon in Portland, Maine. 1st Lt. Huntoon was the pilot of the B-24H Hoo-Jive that on the 25th of August 1944 left...
Paul J. Paterni was a good friend of Hedy's that she met in Washington DC during her first years with the OSS....
Leo Sager, Swedish diplomat, was the assistant to Count Folke Bernadotte and was in charge of several of the internment camps....
In 1928, Count Bernadotte married Estelle Manville, the daughter of Hiram Edward Manville, Chairman of the Board of the Johns-Manville Corp. ...
Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg was born in 1895. His father, Oscar Bernadotte, was the 2nd son of Oscar II, King of Sweden from 1872 until 1907 and of Norway from 1872 until 1905. ...
Major Floyd. A. Potter, MD was with the American Air Attache's Office in Stockholm. Major Potter was responsible for supervising the care of the hospitalized internees....
This is the thirteenth year that Roswell Rotary and the City of Roswell have jointly sponsored Roswell Remembers, a tribute to all our veterans and the men and women who are serving in our military today. ...
Harley was Assistant to the Military Air Attache from August 1944 to January 1945, and as such Harley would have worked closely with the American internees....
On August 10, 1944, an administrative team arrived from the Eighth Air Force to handle the administration of the interned personnel in Sweden. ...
Photographs scanned from my parents' World War II scrapbook. The year would have 1944. I would love to know where these gentlemen or their families are today....
Lt. Col. Felix M. Hardison arrived in Stockholm in February of 1944 as the Military Air Attaché....
On Wednesday, April 14th the Roswell Rotary Club from Roswell, GA spearheaded a trip to escort 96 World War II veterans to see their World War II Memorial. ...
I drove to Columbia for a quick overnight visit with the Colonel. When I walked into his apartment at The Atria, his assisted living home, and after a hug, he said, "Sit down, Patti, there are four things I need to tell you!...
X-2 Stockholm was established in April of 1944 by Carlson. He arrived there under diplomatic cover ...
In 1944, the United States' diplomatic offices in Stockholm were known as The American Legation....
Rättvik is a small resort town in central Sweden, 190 miles northeast of Stockholm, on the shore of Lake Siljan. In 1945 it had a population of 900....
As the war progressed, several American internee camps opened in Sweden, as shown on the map. In addition, there were auxiliary internee camps at various Swedish airfields where qualified US airmen would repair and maintain the damaged B-17's and other interned aircraft....
Once the crew arrived in Stockholm, a representative from the American Legation told them, "We're going to take you uptown, let you take a bath, get your hair cut and buy you some clothes....
Now it’s time to return to Herman’s story. He has just traveled with his crew from the crash site to the coast of the Swedish mainland. The lights were on!...
In September of 1940, Hitler began heavy bombing of London and other cities in Great Britain. In the beginning, there were bombings every day and every night. Countless homes and buildings were destroyed, and many civilians were killed. The "Blitz" lasted until May of 1941....
Before leaving Washington DC, the OSS office gave Hedy "A Short Guide to Grosvenor Square. " At Grosvenor Square, located in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, was the headquarters for the American Embassy. ...
On January 1, 1944, Hedy boarded the Aquitania, a massive British ocean liner which had been converted to a troop ship. Just imagine what an adventure this had to have been for this 22-year-old from Hibbing, Minnesota. ...
Hedy served as secretary for the American Legion post in Columbia, SC for many years. In addition, she was active in the American Legion Auxiliary. She and her lady friends would sell poppies in order to raise money for veteran causes....
On October 15th, I was honored to spend a couple of hours in Ashleigh, Mississippi, with Don Courson, the Liberty Lady's right waist gunner. ...
Hedy had three roommates in Washington D.C. I have talked with all three of them in the past few months. Thelma Kane now lives in Washington State, and she has shared many stories with me....
Because jobs were so scarce in Hibbing, Hedvig and her friends took the civil service course so they would qualify for a job with the U.S. Government. They wanted to travel....
At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, I found evidence that both my parents were involved in espionage activities!...
On September 5th, it was my privilege to interview Merle P. Brown, co-pilot of the Liberty Lady, at his home in Lakeville, Minnesota ...
Hibbing, Minnesota, was a melting pot for all the European immigrants -- Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Greece. All kinds of foreign tongues were spoken, and the Johnson family had friends of every nationality....
In custody of the local military unit, the ten airmen, miraculously safe and sound, were taken by truck to the folk high school in nearby Hemse. After two nights, the crew left for the Swedish mainland....
Favorite (1998) Making for Sweden, part 2 - The United States Army Air Force. This is the #1 resource for information on the American airmen who landed in Sweden during World War II. Part 1 covers the RAF....
Albin Larsson, of the Home Guard, armed with the rifle and bayonet, neared the area of the smoking plane and called out to the crew of ten in his foreign tongue, "Are you wounded? Are there any bombs?"...
The man walking toward the plane was Albin Larsson, workshop owner and member of the Home Guard. From what I have read, the Home Guard was comprised of local armed volunteers, likely former soldiers, who were "on guard" to protect the island. ...
Captain Charles W. "Smithy" Smith, with assistance from co-pilot Merle P. Brown, skillfully guided the crippled B-17 for about 2500 feet before it came to rest. The crew members, all ten of them, were stunned but unhurt. It was 4:55 in the afternoon....
There is a place on the island known as "Mastermyr." It is a bog west of Hemse where significant medieval artifacts have been found. This is the spot where the Liberty Lady pilot Charles W. Smith and the copilot Merle P. Brown chose to bring...
Our wilting B-17 Liberty Lady is flying over the island of Gotland, a Swedish province. Remember that the crew had no idea where they were and suspected that they were still flying over enemy territory. As waist gunner Don Courson remembers, when they came...
Lasse Svensson, a little boy who lived in the tiny village of Hemse on the island of Gotland, heard the noise of a plane flying low. Because his Dad owned a photoshop in Hemse, there was always a camera nearby, and it was always loaded...
In an effort to hide from the furious enemy fighter planes, our wounded Liberty Lady slipped into a cover of clouds....
The pilot knew they could never make it back to England. It was impossible for the wounded fortress to stay in the formation, and as a straggler, it would be an easy target for enemy fighters. In order to hide, Smithy quickly flew the Liberty...
My hometown of Roswell, Georgia hosts the largest Memorial Day Celebration in the state. A joint effort between the City of Roswell and the Roswell Rotary Club....
This would be Herman's 12th mission, the Liberty Lady's 13th. The last mission for each. In an old notebook filled with his writings, I found a few pages that Herman had written about this morning, typed and on yellowed onion skin paper. My guess is that...
I am in Columbia, spending the weekend with the Colonel. We went to the Pancake House....
The weather in Europe during these winter months was hard to predict and dangerous. In an ideal situation, the crews needed to safely take off, fly deep into Germany, see the target, and return home. It was never ideal....
It is mind boggling to imagine how the 8th Air Force was able to communicate to each base the complex plans for the combat missions ...
I have reached a point in my research where I need to study and delve more extensively. On Friday I spent an incredible day at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA. ...
The target for the Liberty Lady was dreaded Schweinfurt, the major ball bearing factory center. Now that the bombers had fighter escorts flying into Germany the orders were ...
The German city of Schweinfurt was the major center for ball bearing production during the war. When it was bombed by the 8th AF in 1943, the losses of bombers and men were devastating. October 14, 1943, which became to be known as "Black Thursday,"...
Day three of Big Week. The Liberty Lady crew's target is Bernburg where there was a factory for Junkers JU88 fighter planes....
Monday, February 21st. the target was Lippstadt Airfield. A 7 ½ hour trip for the Liberty Lady crew. This was a difficult mission because of the thick overcast. When the cloud cover obscured their principal targets, the heavy bombers had to go to secondary targets...
February 20th was on a Sunday. This was the 1st day of Operation Argument, Big Week, the Allies' week-long offensive against the enemy aircraft industry. For the first time, the 8th Air Force sent more than 1,000 bombers deep into Germany....
While Herman was out of commission with the ruptured eardrum, his crew flew seven missions. At the end of each flight day those not flying would wait in anticipation for the B-17's to return, counting each one as they appeared in the sky....
The assigned target was I G Farben Industrie plant at Ludwigshafen deep into Germany. This was an important chemical factory, critical to supplying Germany's war effort. An interesting aside is the fact that IG Farben also had a plant near Auschwitz which used slave laborers...
The long-range fighter escorts that Herman refers to in his diary were the P 38's, P 47's, and P 51's. These were welcome competition for the German fighter planes....
The target on this mission was the port city of Ludwigshafen, deep into Germany. The city was at the junction of two rivers and was an important Allied target because of its oil refinery and chemical factories....
According to Miriam-Webster's on-line dictionary, the word "flak" is from "Fliegerabwehrkanonen" ...
Luftwaffe is the name for the German Air Force. The two German fighter planes that Herman mentions in his diary are the "FW" (Focke-Wulf Fw 190) and the ME 109. ( Messerschmitt Bf 109.)...
On Sunday, December 5th, 1943, Herman was awakened for his 2nd missions at 2:30 am. The target for the day was the factories at the airport near La Rochelle, deep in France, southwest of Paris....
Herman received Bombardier training at Victorville as well as navigator training at Carlsbad. He had been taught to use the Norden bombsight, that highly guarded military secret. ...
Herman's' first bombing mission was on December 1, 1943. He flew with another B-17 crew whose bombardier had been grounded. Since he had arrived at Thurleigh barely ten days before, and his flying equipment hadn't been issued yet, he had to "beg, borrow and steal"...
Charles L. "Steve" Stevenson was the navigator of Herman's original crew. He and Herman flew side by side in "the nose" of the B-17, and they became close friends....
Merle "M.P." Brown was the co-pilot of Herman's original crew and also on the Liberty Lady. After their interval in Sweden, he and Smithy flew together for several more missions. ...
Smithy (pronounced "Smitty") was the pilot of Herman's B-17 crew and of the Liberty Lady. Smithy and Herman were like brothers. ...
Well, it's time to formally introduce "The Colonel." Herman lives in Columbia, SC in The Atria, a Senior Living community. ...
I want to know more about what it was like for the bomber crews at Thurleigh. The movie “Twelve O’Clock High” might be the best “visual” we’ve got because it was about Thurleigh. But what I want to know is what was it like?...
The 8th Army Air Force was activated as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces January 28, 1942, at Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed about a month and a half earlier. ...
In October, Herman's crew went together to New York for the trip to England. In winter months, instead of flying across, the airmen would sail across the Atlantic on one of the ocean liners which had been converted to troop ships....
From Moses Lake, the crew moved east to Kearney Army Air Field in middle Nebraska for additional Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Training. Kearney was a heavy bombardment processing center, a "staging area" where the crews were prepared for overseas duty....
Yesterday, February 9, 2009, I rode on theLiberty Belle, a restored World War II B-17. It was an amazing opportunity, an experience of a lifetime, to visualize what their plane must have looked like to the crew of our Dad's B-17, the Liberty Lady....
Moses Lake Army Air Base is where combat crews were assembled and given their initial flight and gunnery training in preparation for going overseas....
By 1943, the USAAF was training bombardiers to use the Norden Bombsight. This piece of equipment was a carefully guarded secret and crews were instructed to destroy the bombsight if forced down in or near enemy territory. ...
Lt. Allen received his bombardier wings upon graduation from the Victorville, California Bombardier School. All students at the Carlsbad school, the only one of its kind, are commissioned bombardiers who come to Carlsbad to receive a special intensified course in 'dead reckoning' navigation. ...
The Bombardier Training School that Herman went to after he left Sequoia Field was located at Victorville Army Air Field, later called George Air Force Base, just north of Victorville, California. ...
Propwash is the title of the Sequoia Field class books. That is where I found Herman's poem that explained why he didn't become a pilot....
Sequoia Field is in Visalia, California, is where Herman was sent for flight training in order to become a pilot, Things didn't quite work out....
Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) was a huge classification and preflight center on the west coast where new Aviation Cadets were indoctrinated into military life. ...
I must now give credit to the website and message board at www.ArmyAirForces.com. It was here in 2008 that I first found Mattias from Sweden searching for information about the Liberty Lady....
On March 18, 1942, four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) ...
I saw Herman's flight jacket this weekend. The back of the jacket has a picture of an airplane and the name "Liberty Lady." ...
In late 2007, the Roswell Rotary Club voted to undertake a huge new project. We began to raise money to fly World War II Veterans to see the World War II Memorial. ...
I want to go ahead and post the names of the Liberty Lady crew who flew with Herman on March 6, 1944. These airmen flew out of Thurleigh Air Field, 306th Bomber Group, 368th Bomber Squadron....
The B-17's were built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, beginning in 1934. There were several models built until the final and largest model which was the B-17G....
In August of last year when I first began to search for information about the Liberty Lady, I was amazed to find a post on forum.armyairforces.com about my Dad's crew!...