donaldbyers
4/13/2011 10:25:59 PM | If you have ever wanted this book and weren't able to get it then it is again available at, http://johnkatsaros.com/index.htm, this web site.
Synopsis:“Code Burgundy- The Long Escape”, edited by G. Steve Chirigotis, Col USAF (Ret); is a true story authored by John Katsaros, a 20 year old aerial gunner on his 11th bombing mission, flying on the B-17 “Man O’ War”, piloted by Lt. Jack Dunaway, out of England 20 March 1944 on a raid to destroy an FW-190 aircraft factory at Frankfurt, Germany, is shot down by enemy ME-109 aircraft cannon and .50 cal. machine-gun fire. Three crewmen are killed on station during the attack, two engines are blown out and the wing is in flames when the alarm is given to bail out. The navigator is the first man to bail out, his chute “candled” and he did not survive the landing. John, seriously wounded with a splintered right arm, assists his crew mates with their wounds before he bails out. Only John experienced the fear of pursuit by the Gestapo after his rib-cracking landing, from a 25,000 foot free fall. Twice he is captured by the Gestapo and escapes with the assistance of the brave Free French Resistance who hide John over a three month period to nurse him back to health and to assist him in his travels from the north of France, south to climb the Pyrenees and to Freedom, only to be locked up by the Spanish Constabulary.
John, “under secrecy oath by the government and, under heavy penalty of punishment”, was unable to reveal his story until recently when the oath of secrecy was lifted.
John’s medical treatment in France, while on the run, is owed to a Dr. Levy, a Jew, who is hiding out from the Gestapo in the cellar of his clinic. With the insistence of the Free French Underground, punctuated by a pistol to his head, Dr. Levy performed three surgeries within three days on John’s gangrenous arm to save it and his life.
Don
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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