Oral History Interview with Albert W. Boam, December 8, 2009
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Oral History Interview with Albert W. Boam, December 8, 2009 (Text)
Transcript of an oral interview with Albert W. Boam. Born in 1923, he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He attended gunnery school at Buckingham Army Air Base in Naples, Florida. He describes his navigation training at Selman Field in Monroe, Louisiana. He was assigned to the 846th Squadron, 489th Bomb Group, 95th Combat Wing, 8th Air Force. He describes the flying the Southern Route to England as well as the navigation methods used. In 1944, he flew thirty-one missions as the navigator on a B-24 bomber. He talks about missions over France and Germany with targets such as shipyards and submarine pens. He describes his thirty-first mission in which his plane was led off course by a Pathfinder and damaged by antiaircraft artillery. He bailed out and was captured near German-controlled Hagenau in the Alsace region. He talks about his interrogation. He describes life and conditions in Stalag Luft III. In early 1945, the POW camp was evacuated by the Germans because the Russians were advancing from the east. He describes the forced march and traveling in a boxcar to a POW camp (Stalag VIII D) in Nuremburg as well as conditions at the camp. In April 1945, when the camp in Nuremburg was evacuated by the Germans, they were force marched to a camp in Moosburg. He shares an anecdote about learning of President Roosevelt’s death from a German farmer while on this march. When the camp was liberated, General Patton gave a speech. He spent approximately ten days in Camp Lucky Strike in LaHavre, France before being transported back to the U.S. He separated from the military in November, 1945. He used the GI Bill to attend Columbia University.
Oral History Interview with Albert W. Boam, December 8, 2009, [transcript] ark:/67531/metapth1605724
Oral History Interview with Albert W. Boam, December 8, 2009, audio recording, December 8, 2009; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1609536/: accessed June 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.