Herman Molen was in the 305th Bombardment Group. They spent a lot of time training because of the weather. They would fly one or two missions a month at first. They were no match for the German fighters. They hoped the British Spitfires [Annotator’s Note: Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] could help them. They were told they would get P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] as escorts. Molen was shot down on his second Schweinfurt mission [Annotator’s Note: The second Schweinfurt raid, also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943 over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm.] and over 1,200 people were captured that day. On 4 July 1943, they went to France to bomb submarines. Molen was shot in the face and head that day. Two other men were shot that day as well. They lost their flight engineer on the first Schweinfurt mission. They lived in tents and shacks. The living conditions were not good in England. They did not do a lot of combat because they did not have planes. The first Schweinfurt mission was his sixth mission. The second Schweinfurt mission was his 25th mission and he would have gone home if he had not been shot down. They got hit in the nose by rockets twice. The pilot bailed out and left them. Molen was wounded. The co-pilot was flying the plane. Out of the 10 people in the crew, nine survived. The co-pilot died as the plane crashed, and he made sure everyone else made it out. In combat, people react differently. The navigator was wounded. He could not walk. Molen had to carry him for about a mile.

Herman Molen was born in August 1923 in Greenville, Texas. He was studying to be a minister. He was ordained. When the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor on 7 December [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] he and a friend decided they wanted to join. They put the bible in their pockets and would do what they could on the side. In 1942, Molen was an Air Force recruit. He was in World War Two, the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], and the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. He has 32 years of federal service. He wanted to be in the Air Force because he liked the air and airplanes as a child. He had basic training in Mineral Wells, Texas. He was in the Army Air Corps. He signed up to be a gunner. He went to gunnery school in Texas and then moved on to Florida for more training. He started in the original B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], then he went to Washington for crew training for overseas. He was going to Germany. When he got overseas, he was sent to the 305th Bomb Group [Annotator’s Note: 305th Bombardment Group]. It was one of the oldest groups. When he started training in Florida, they did not have guns in the planes. They did some submarine patrols in the Atlantic. When he went to Washington, they had modern B-17s to train in. They flew patrols up and down the coast of California.

Herman Molen remembers his first mission with Captain Ted Tyler, nicknamed “Hard Luck” Tyler. He did not fly a mission that did not get shot up. At this time, they were flying very few missions to Germany. Molen was flying as a waist gunner. They got shot up from underneath. No one was hurt, and they made it back to England. Captain Tyler had one person killed on the first Schweinfurt mission [Annotator’s Note: Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, 17 August 1943 over Schweinfurt, Germany] and three bailed out. Molen’s pilot was a good pilot. Molen was taken prisoner. The engineer was killed. The bombardier got combat fatigue [Annotator’s Note: post-traumatic stress disorder occurring under wartime conditions that cause intense stress, also known as battle fatigue, shell shock, or war neurosis]. The navigator made his 25 missions. They never got to Schweinfurt because they had engine trouble. They aborted the mission over France and went back to England. He was on his 25th mission when he was shot down. It was his last mission. People did not want to fly with Hard Luck Tyler. They saw some Spitfires [Annotator’s Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] over France. They did not see any German planes.

Herman Molen remembers some pilots had good records and others did not. The lead plane had two engines out [Annotator’s Note: Molen is referring to his 4 July 1943 mission]. There were six planes out of formation. They did not have fighters to help them. The Germans shot them up. Molen got credit for shooting down two Germans and two probables that day. The last plane fired on them and Molen was shot. Everyone reacted differently to being shot up. Molen’s crew was good and solid. He enjoyed flying with them. The German pilots would come in close and shoot them. They were good pilots. They were always looking for the other plane that was flying with the one they saw. He was not nervous. He was trained well enough that he knew what he had to do and when to do it. They had some people bail out, and some got shocked. Molen was in the ball turret gun position when he was shot. He was hit in the face in line with his sight on his gun. He had shrapnel and plastic wounds. They were taken to the 98th Hospital [Annotator’s Note: 98th British General Hospital] in England. They were the first wounded people to use that hospital. He was in the hospital for 10 days. He still was not healed up when he flew his next mission. Normally, he would go back in the ball turret, or he would fly in whichever position they needed him.

Herman Molen volunteered to go on the second Schweinfurt mission [Annotator’s Note: The Second Schweinfurt raid, also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm.]. He did not know the crew at all. He was not friends with them in the prison camp either. He did not know where they were going until he was on the plane. He told the navigator they would never make it back. The navigator was wounded and could not walk. Molen had to carry him for about a quarter of a mile. The Germans were shooting rockets at them. They got hit in the nose section by two rockets. When the pilot bailed out, there were some flames. The pilot did not signal to anyone. The co-pilot was flying the airplane. He signaled to Molen to bail out. Molen had to help the navigator bailout out of the bomb bay. The tail gunner was in the bomb bay because he knew something was wrong. Molen pushed the navigator out of the plane. He came down within 100 feet of him. The pilot landed in the same area. The Germans made the pilot carry the three parachutes and the flight suits. Molen had to carry the navigator. They got to the village in their underwear. They did not see too many fighters because the rockets were being fired from a good distance away. It was a soft landing in a plowed-up field. There were workers in the field. They took their pitchforks and motioned for him to take his clothes off. The navigator was wounded in his leg, and Molen had to help him. They were told they were prisoners of war. They were put in a basement of a German hangar for the night. The next day, they were put on a train to Frankfurt [Annotator’s Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. He was in Frankfurt for a week.

Herman Molen was interrogated by the Germans [Annotator’s Note: Molen was taken prisoner of war after bailing out during the Second Schweinfurt Raid in October 1943 and moved to Frankfurt, Germany]. They needed him to fill out a form so they could give it to the International Red Cross. The pilot he had was kind and gave the Germans all their names and positions. Molen did not give them any information. He had minor amounts of blood from his wounds. The Germans performed first aid on him. Then he was put on a troop train and was sent to a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. He saw a lot of guys he knew who got shot down and he did not know what had happened to them. He was trying to get out of the camp. He escaped once and tried to escape two more times. When he escaped, he was in Austria digging up sewer lines. He escaped on Easter Sunday of 1944. The snow was deep and it was cold and miserable. The guards suffered too. They were expanding the American area in the camp. There was an empty compound. They cut the fence and were gone for a week before they were caught. On the second attempt, they were stretcher bearers for the POW camp hospital. The first time, they never got completely out of the camp. They tried to bluff their way onto a work detail, but they recognized them as the two Americans who were missing. The base commander wanted to get involved and help get people out. They bribed the guards. They went on a work detail to Austria which was on the way to Yugoslavia. They escaped from the work detail and a Frenchman came and picked them up. Then they were on their own again. They walked at night. They met troops on the trail one time, but they did not get stopped. Then they got caught again.

Herman Molen stockpiled things they needed for food. This helped them on their escape [Annotator’s Note: they escaped from a POW camp]. They gave the family some chocolate bars and let them sleep in the house. They had to get up early and leave. They had to find British and French foreign workers and stay with them at night. They would tell them where the next person down the line was. The girl wore a red, white, and blue sweater. Molen thought this meant she was friendly. They had to get on a Frenchman’s bus. As they went along, they had to give stuff away to pay people back for helping them. The group took over a village. It had a nice church and statues. They used the statues for gun practice. On one farm, they killed a cow for meat. Sometime in the night, the old farmer disappeared. The group was like a bunch of outlaws. Molen’s partner was from France originally. They communicated mostly in French. The gun they gave Molen was an old World War One pistol and it was more dangerous to him than anyone else. When they were on the mountain, the Germans were bringing in a lot of troops. They got out of there by going down the back of the mountain. They did not trust Molen or his partner. They watched them. Then they were on their own again. They stayed with farm people. They stopped at the wrong house with a guy who looked like Santa Clause. The old man had a gun. He was a German soldier and told them they were his prisoners. Six or eight German troops came and got them.

Herman Molen remembers that they had to stay on the same floor as the German troops. Molen was eaten up by fleas and lice. Every day they would get them up and they would tell them they had orders to shoot them. This did not happen. They made their way back to Stalag 17 [Annotator’s Note: Stalag 17 was a prisoner of war camp near Krems, Austria]. They would say Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] gave the orders to get rid of all the prisoners. Molen had pneumonia. They were in front of the Russians in Vienna [Annotator’s Note: Vienna, Austria]. They blew up the train tracks that day. The Russians started shelling the train station and they wanted them to run. The next day they were put on a train and went back to the prison camp. They told the guards that Molen had pneumonia, but they did not treat him for it. He was in solitary confinement for 10 days. Then they went on a 123-mile march across Austria. They could not keep up because they were in bad shape. They were given to a group of others who were in bad shape. It took them a while to get where they were liberated. They were put in a forest and lived like animals. Guys were eating bark off the trees. Trucks showed up and gave them food. They took over a plant and brought them there to help them. The Americans liberated them from the forest. It was safer to stay in the group.

Herman Molen remembers when they found out they were free. [Annotator’s Note: Molen and others were liberated from a prisoner of war camp]. They were told the aluminum plant would be their shelter. One guy found a wagon and some horses and gave the men rides to the plant. The Army gave them K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. They were there for two or three days before planes came and flew them back to France. They were given a bath and clean clothes, then they were put on a boat. The water was rough. They arrived in New York. They got clean clothes and they were allowed to call home. He went from Fort Shanks, New York to San Antonio [Annotator’s Note: San Antonio, Texas]. Molen walked from the highway to his father’s house. He got to his father’s house on Father’s Day. His wife was in California. They had four daughters. Molen had a little theater in Las Vegas [Annotator’s Note: Las Vegas, Nevada]. The play went over well with the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. The second Schweinfurt mission [Annotator’s Note: The second Schweinfurt raid, also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm.] was the biggest loss they ever had. Several guys went back in during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953].

Herman Molen spent time in the VA [Annotator's Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs] hospital in Houston [Annotator’s Note: Houston, Texas]. He had an ulcerated stomach and diabetes. His health was horrible. When he got out of the VA hospital, they told him not to expect to work for at least a year. Molen found out that if he was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] they would waive the disability and let him back into the Air Force when the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] started. Molen volunteered to get back into the Air Force. He was in and out of the hospital for a while. When he started working, he started getting his health back. His whole body was in bad shape. Molen had flashbacks for about 20 years.