At our base camp, the squad lived in tents and ate dehydrated eggs and Vienna sausages for breakfast. At the time, they thought they were really being picked on to have to eat that kind of food every day. There wasn't much to do in town so they just stayed at camp and flew every mission they could finish so they could go home. I went on the first American shuttle raid into Russia, flying straight across, bombing a target too distant from Italy to return to base. We stayed in Russia seven days and bombed targets using Russia as our base, then returned to Italy. On my 49th mission, we were shot down over Vienna, Austria, on July 16, 1944. I was immediately taken prisoner; and after interrogation camps and a lot of serious praying, I ended up at 'Stalag Luft 4' in East Germany. Stalag Luft 4 had four one-block compounds with a high barbed-wire fence around each compound and guard towers at the corners. There was a warning wire twenty-five feet from the fence. Each compound had 2,000 men in it. The guards weren't quite like the ones in Hogan's Heroes; they were trigger-happy goons. We had one man shot for stepping over the warning wire to get a ball; another for jumping through an open window for roll call. I was reported missing in action on July 1 7, 1944, in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. After eight months or so of life in a prisoner of war camp, the Russians were getting too close to our camp to suit the Nazis, so they moved us out on January 2, 1944. 'About a week's march to another camp,' they said. That week lasted over four months. We walked over 900 miles in East German winter weather. We were liberated May 5, just two days before the war ended on May 7, 1945. In those months, I really learned to appreciate things that I had always taken for granted here in the U.S.A. My twin brother, Corporal Ray F. Bryner entered the service on May 2, 1941. Fay W. Bryner received the Air Medal with seven Oak Leaf Clusters and the POW Medal. Submitted by Paul Bryner, son Ray F. Bryner Ray attended Weber from 1941 through 1942 and again periodically from 1945-1950. He enlisted after Pearl Harbor in the Army Air Corps and served as a mechanic in the ground crews for B-17s. Ray entered the service on May 2, 1941. His twin brother, Fay W. Bryner, enlisted on October 26, 1942. Ray became a crew chief and flying technician. He participated in bombing raids on Germany from England and later in the invasion of Southern France from bases in Italy. His squadron had over 300 missions and received six unit citations. E. LaMar Buckner It was on our third mission that we really got our 'baptism by fire.' We were awakened at 1:45 am for a 3:00 am briefing. From the start we had trouble. First, our number four engine would not run smoothly and then after we were over Germany at 9:47 am we had additional problems. We had our #1 engine go out on us. Well, I transferred fuel and got it going but fuel became precious and we didn't have much left for #1. At 10:30, we had 'bombs-away' over Dresden, Germany We saw a little flak and a ship went down from a group in front of us with an engine on fire from enemy ships. Five minutes after bombs-away, I lost #1 engine (the farthest one to the left) which I feathered. We caught up in formation for as long as I could on three engines. I throttled back and prayed. We all prayed. We watched the bomb groups pass us and occasionally a friendly P-51 would come and fly cover over us to protect us from enemy aircraft. It was an overcast day, and I used the cloud cover to fly on top of, for some protection. In the event we should be attacked by enemy aircraft, I could then dive into the clouds. Our challenge was to get back far enough to either bail out or land in France behind friendly lines. Mel, our navigator, kept telling me how much gasoline we had left and how far he thought it would take us. He thought we had enough to fly across the battle lines in France. As we rationed the gasoline, our time became short and finally with less than ten minutes of gasoline left, I had to make a decision of either to let down through the clouds 10 or bail out. We were not certain of our position or whether or not we would be over German held territory or the Allied-held territory. Sanderson, our radio operator, received my permission to send out an emergency radio call, and he received an answer that told him that there was a small airstrip in a field that was used by Allied Photo Reconnaissance planes about five miles to our left. If we could make it to that field, we might get down safely. With this radio help, we spotted the temporary airstrip laid out in a large pasture. The landing strip was the type of metal that was often used by lightweight fighter planes as a runway but was never designed for heavy bombers like ours. With our gas gauges reading empty, I glided down onto the airstrip and was blessed to set the plane down okay. The landing strip was like a long cheese grater made out of metal, and I had to apply my brakes in order to keep from running off the end of the strip. I could not taxi off into the pasture or go anywhere so I just shut the engines off at the end of the temporary fighter strip. A soldier in an Army jeep drove up to us and advised us that we were just twenty miles inside of friendly lines from the German troops. He had been the individual who had responded to our radio appeal. We learned, as we had a joint prayer, that we could all pray together as a crew, even though our religious faiths were represented by various denominations. We felt extremely grateful to be down safely and not as prisoners of war. The left tire on the plane was about ruined in the landing as the metal strip sheared off some of the rubber because I had to apply the brake in setting it down. We also learned that we had lost our engine and fuel because of a defective carburetor which had created a gasoline leak in the engine. ...We had witnessed what we felt was a true miracle in our own minds since we had flown longer than we were supposed to be able to with our limited fuel supply. We were near Janty, France, and could hear the sound of guns in the distance from the actual fighting that was taking place at the front lines. We were taken to a small French schoolhouse where we were able to stay overnight. As I was looking around, the French schoolmaster came in and through an interpreter began to thank, very profusely, us and the Allied Forces for the liberation of the French people from the German Army. Surrounding the classroom that we were in, was a small shelf located about seven feet above the floor. On this shelf was located some small metal bust statues of different individuals. Right above my head was a statue that to me looked a great deal like President Joseph Smith, the original prophet of the LDS Church. The school principal noticed that I was admiring the statue. I asked through the interpreter who the statue was and was told that it was an early French statesman. I told the principal that it reminded me so much of the founder of our Church and was startled and amazed to see the likeness in another individual. He immediately reached up and took the statue down from the shelf and gave it to me as a souvenir. He insisted that I take it with me. I was pleased to get it. I have always valued it and oft times displayed it at speaking assignments. Ninety-nine percent of the time people will look at it and think it is a statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The fact that it wasn't, didn't deter me from my feelings that it was the Prophet. After we had landed, we sent word through the Army to advise the 8th Air Force that we were down safely and that there were no injuries. The next day as I awoke from a restless night's sleep on my Army cot in the schoolhouse; I learned that my engineer, Jim Lawson, thought he could have the ship ready shortly after noon for take off. He had located another tire from a crashed B-24 and also a carburetor from a crashed plane nearby that he felt he could put into our plane. He was able to arrange for the Army to provide us some airplane fuel and by 1700 hours we were ready to leave. E. LaMar Buckner strike photo over Germany We took off at 1710 (5:10 pm). Since there was no way to taxi it, the plane had to be turned around with a small tractor and crane. Our occupying the small landing strip had prevented it from being used by fighter planes that might want to land there for refueling and for Photo Reconnaissance work. It was a very short runway and posed some risk in flying a large Bomber off of it. I had to set my brakes and 'rev' up the engines with much power before releasing the brakes. But we made it.... We had learned in our previous training that there were certain emergency procedures to be followed in case we ever were to become "stragglers" or didn't return with our regular group to England. It would be necessary to identify ourselves properly or we might 11