The Name On The Wall By Frank N. Aten Captain, United States Army (Retired) This book represents a collection of my experiences as an American Soldier in WWII, especially the 724 days spent as a Prisoner of War. It is dedicated to my fellow Kriegies, my family, and to the citizens of Tyler, Texas, who during my imprisonment, followed my plight in the papers and supported my family and me with their prayers and thoughts. Figure 1-Lt. Frank Aten at Oflag 64 Table of Contents THE DUTY OF OFFICERS .......................................................................................................... ii CAPTURE NOTIFICATION AND ROLL OF HONOR ..................................................................... iii THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, SUNDAY, MAY 9, 1943 ........................................................... iii TYLER’S ROLL OF HONOR ...................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER ONE-THE FIRING SQUAD ......................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO-KRIEGIES…ALL OF US .................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER THREE-CAPUA, HOME ON THE ITALIAN RANGE ...................................................... 24 CHAPTER FOUR-THE BITTER TASTE OF FREEDOM .................................................................. 33 CHAPTER FIVE-THE NAME ON THE WALL ... AGAIN ............................................................... 46 CHAPTER SIX-MY FIRST POW CAMP ..................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER SEVEN-CANADIAN POWS IN CHAINS...................................................................... 64 CHAPTER EIGHT-THE PRISONERS BUILD ROCK GARDENS ....................................................... 73 CHAPTER NINE-THE KRAUTS GET MAD AT ME! ....................................................................... 87 CHAPTER TEN-WE MEET THE FERRET! ................................................................................ 103 CHAPTER ELEVEN-MY RUSSIAN FRIEND! ............................................................................. 112 CHAPTER TWELVE-THWARTED AGAIN! ............................................................................... 124 CHAPTER THIRTEEN-POWS BROUGHT HERE TO BE SHOT .................................................... 131 CHAPTER FOURTEEN-FREEDOM IS A LONG ROAD HOME..................................................... 149 CHAPTER FIFTEEN-WARSAW--ONE STEP CLOSER ................................................................. 159 Figure 1-Lt. Frank Aten at Oflag 64 .................................................................................................ii Figure 2-Silver Star Orders ........................................................................................................... 13 Figure 3-Photo of Silver Star Presentation .................................................................................. 14 Figure 4-Red Cross Care Package ................................................................................................. 62 Figure 5-Christmas Package ......................................................................................................... 63 Figure 6-German POW Camps ..................................................................................................... 85 Figure 7-Life in a German POW Camp ......................................................................................... 86 Figure 8-Fisher Letter ................................................................................................................. 102 Figure 9-POW War Book Log ...................................................................................................... 104 Figure 10-Letter Home (April 10, 1943) ..................................................................................... 105 Figure 11-Letter Home (May 31, 1943)...................................................................................... 106 Figure 12-Letter from Poland ..................................................................................................... 133 i THE DUTY OF OFFICERS The following passage was written by George Harsh. It appears in the Introduction of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill. There is something demoralizing about being taken a prisoner of war. At first it stuns the mind and one is overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness, and hope is only a dim, dim shadow. The new prisoner is sorely tempted to sit back quietly, co-operate with his captors and thus make life comparatively easy for himself. In fact that is the philosophy the Germans were constantly trying to drive into our minds. They offered us many alluring inducements in the form of extra privileges and rations to “behave,” to co-operate and to give up our vexing escape attempts. But it is the duty of any officer, should he have the bad fortune to be taken prisoner, to do all in his power to escape. If escape is impossible it then becomes his duty to do everything within his means to force the enemy to employ an inordinate number of soldiers to guard him, to do all he can to harass the enemy and to convince his captors that they have caught a very large, very active and troublesome bear by a slippery tail. If the carrying out of this third duty can be heavily spiced with a rollicking, ribald sense of humor and a sharp sense of the ludicrous such as is possessed by most Americans and British then this duty becomes more a game than a duty, a game to be entered into with fiendish glee. And as such it is considered by all the thousand-odd officers whom the Germans have corralled in the North Compound of Stalag Luft III during the war. ii CAPTURE NOTIFICATION AND ROLL OF HONOR WAR PRISONER—2nd Lieut. Frank N. Aten, son of Reverend Floyd Eugene Aten, last night was reported captured as a prisoner of war in the North Afrika area where he has been with the Tank Destroyer Command, United States Army. In a wire to his father, the Adjutant General’s Department stated: “The Secretary of War desires me to express his regrets that your son, 2nd Lieut. Frank N. Aten, has been reported captured in the North African area. Additional information will be sent you when received.” Lieutenant Aten, a native of Tyler, attended Tyler High School and formerly was employed by the Currier-Times Telegraph. He received his commission in October at Camp Hood, Texas, and volunteered for foreign duty shortly thereafter.” Tyler Currier-Times [No date listed] THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, SUNDAY, MAY 9, 1943 Prisoner in Germany Writes to His Father Tyler, Texas, May 8—The Reverend Floyd E. Aten has received a card from his son, Lieut. Frank N. Aten, a prison of war. The card bore the picture of Adolph Hitler and was postmarked Germany. Aten wrote he was well and being treated “fairly decently” and that he was in an officers prison camp. He added that he would send a list of things that might be sent to him at a later date. The Adjutant General’s department has issued an address to which Lieutenant Aten may be sent mail. Lieutenant Aten was with the Tank Destroyer Command in North Africa. A native of Tyler, he was commissioned last October at Camp Hood, Texas, and immediately volunteered for foreign duty. He left the states on December 15. The last word received from him before the card received this week was a letter written on February 13, a day before his capture. TYLER’S ROLL OF HONOR Lt. Frank N. Aten Home After Long Stay in Germany Looking fit and fine in spite of the fact that he was in a German prison camp for almost two years, Lt. Frank N. Aten, son of Rev. and Mrs. Floyd E. Aten, is home for the first time in three years. He arrived about midnight Saturday from Fort Sam Houston, having reached the United States a week ago. He was liberated from the German camp last January 21 in the dash of the Russians toward Berlin. Last night Lt. Aten attended church services at the First Baptist Church in Lake Park where his father is pastor. For more than an hour he answered questions from the audience as many of these questions came from persons who have relatives also in German prison camps. Those that involved national security, however, he politely deferred. Lt. Aten is high in his praise for the Red Cross declaring their boxes of food often times relieved their hunger and for the Russian soldiers and the treatment accorded them during and after the release. iii CHAPTER ONE-THE FIRING SQUAD The Gestapo had us slated to be shot at sunrise! I was a second lieutenant in the US Army and a prisoner of war in Poland. Was this the ignoble end I was to reach after 12 years of wearing my country's fighting uniform. I was not a spy, and yet I was going to be shot because I had tried to run away from their filthy, lousy prisoner of war camps four times? I wanted the feeling of a full belly once more; to eat, something besides soup made from a hog's eyeballs and ears; to be warm once more, especially at night time; to rejoin my comrades and make use of those many years of training my country had invested in me, on the other side of the wire. I knew I was scheduled for the firing squad. I had been told this by the Polish women prisoners in the camp. They had risked their shaven heads by sticking them up to my isolated cell window and talking to me with a mixture of Polish, broken English and sign language. My escape partner, Bill Higgins, and I knew we had aroused the ire of the Kommandant