Bernard H Young

Commissioned

LT. BERNARD YOUNG
Bernard H. Young, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Young, Chippewa Falls, received his bombardier's wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps at graduation exercises at Childress Field, TX on January 15.

Besides hundreds of hours of practice bombing over prairie targets built to simulate actual enemy objectives, the newly graduated bombardiers took classroom study in bomber sight maintenance, meteorology, camouflage and camouflage detection, pilotage and dead reckoning navigation, target aircraft, and naval vessel recognition.

William J. Young, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lillian Young, 25 Summit Avenue, Chippewa Falls, was commissioned Second Lieutenant and awarded silver pilot's wings in a brief ceremony at Foster Field, Texas on June 27.

Lieutenant Young enlisted in February 1943. He received his training at Sheppard Field, TX; Jonesborough, AR; San Antonio, TX; and Vernon, TX. From Vernon, he reported to Foster Field for advanced pilot training.

He is now receiving single-engine fighter pilot training at Foster Field.

His brother, Bernard, is a Second Lieutenant Bombardier, stationed at Casper, WY.

by Harold (Diz) Kronenberg

B. H. (Bud) Young, Chippewa Falls postmaster after World War II, was a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber during the war. His crew was flying with the Fifteenth Air Force out of a base near Foggia, Italy.

During Young's seventh mission, he was shot down over Ploesti, Rumania on August 17, 1944. His plane was hit hard over the target by both fighters and heavy flak. The crew managed to get its crippled plane back to the Adriatic Sea, where all aboard parachuted safely into the water. There, they inflated their "Mae West" life jackets and spent eight or nine hours in the water, before being picked up by a German patrol boat and becoming prisoners of war.

The men were sent to various prison camps before ending up at Stalag 111, located near the Polish border. After three days and nights there, they were forced to march in the extreme January cold to Stalag 7A, near Munich.

While in prison camp, Bud met two men from Eau Claire. Tom Litchfield, a fighter pilot, had been strafing German airfields when his fighter was hit and he had to bail out. He survived with just enough altitude for his chute to open safely, before he hit the ground. Litchfield was taken prisoner immediately. Ironically, two men, who had played football against each other in high school, found themselves in the same prison camp far from home.

The other soldier from Eau Claire was Max Shaver. Shaver's capture came during the Battle of the Bulge. As prisoners, these men were treated decently, but often were hungry and thirsty. Although the Red Cross was able to provide some relief, food and water were always in short supply.

General Patton's son-in-law was a prisoner in the same camp. He was liberated, along with the others, when General Patton and his troops overran the prison camp late in 1945.

Tom Litchfield's younger brother was the pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress and flew out of England.