Lloyd Burns was born in Bossier, Louisiana but grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana during the Great Depression. He had ten siblings. His family greatly depended on him and his brothers to bring home money from their newspaper route to feed the family. Burns won a college scholarship from a competition with his newspaper route, so he was able to attend college before joining the service. He became a Certified Public Accountant after World War 2. His three older brothers served in the war. Burns joined the service in July 1942 and went to Kelly Field in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] to take the test for cadet school in the Army Air Corps, which he passed. He was sent to Oklahoma City [Annotator's Note: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma] for primary flight school training on the PT-19 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft]. Burns already had some training in flying before he joined the service. For his basic training he flew a BT-13 [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft, nicknamed the Vultee Vibrator]. He was then sent to Texas for advanced training and learned twin engine flying. When he completed his training, he chose to go to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana so he could be close to home. He flew a B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber] in the transport service.

Lloyd Burns remarks on the reputation of the B-26s [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber]. They were very dangerous planes to fly and many of the crews crashed while at Barksdale [Annotator's Note: Barksdale Field, now Barksdale Air Force Base, in Shreveport, Louisiana]. Burns moved up to flight commander while stationed in Shreveport. He had several jobs, but he mainly instructed new pilots for 15 months. He also tested new planes that came to the base. He shares a story about a trip to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] to pick up a plane and ferry it back to Barksdale. It took them three days to figure out a problem with the plane while Burns and his crew enjoyed flirting with girls. Burns always wanted to fly since he was a little boy and flying in the service opened his perspective on the world.

Lloyd Burns enjoyed his time at Barksdale [Annotator's Note: Barksdale Field, now Barksdale Air Force Base, Shreveport, Louisiana] because he could live at home and drive to work every morning. He was required to fly to various parts of the country to keep up with his skills. He enjoyed this part of his job. After a couple of minor infractions, Burns requested to be sent overseas. In October 1944, he left for Europe on a ship without a convoy. Burns disembarked in England and then was flown to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He spent three days at a large, fortified chateau. He was told to stay armed when he left the grounds, even though Paris had already been liberated. Burns enjoyed the Parisian entertainment. A few days later he was sent to an airfield in France and was assigned as a copilot for a crew. Their first few missions were to supply front line support. Burns explains how the crews were briefed on their route and mission the morning they took off. On his third mission, during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], he received his first heavy antiaircraft fire and all Burns could do was brace himself because he had no control of the plane since he was copilot.

Lloyd Burns was on his ninth mission when his airplane was shot down [Annotator's Note: Burns was a pilot in the 598th Bombardment Squadron, 397th Bombardment Group, 98th Combat Bombardment Wing, 9th Air Force]. That morning he was briefed on his mission and then went to his plane to inspect everything. He took off and assembled in formation with the rest of the group of planes. As they neared the target, the lead plane changed course and exposed himself and Burns. German fighters got on the lead plane's tail and shot it down. Burns decided to get back to the group formation so he could get some fire support. His crew was able to fight off one German plane, but his plane was shot up as they fought the enemy off. [Annotator's note: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes at 0:56:00:000.] When his plane lost its left engine, they began to lose altitude. Burns began to receive antiaircraft fire in addition to the German fighter planes. When his engine caught on fire, he told his crew to bail out.

Lloyd Burns had to bail out of his plane. When he jumped out, he blacked out right after he pulled his ripcord. His chute collapsed on some trees and the Germans were there waiting for him. They immediately disarmed him before Burns knew what was going on. They brought him to headquarters which was in a building nearby. For some reason, Burns was not interrogated like most captured pilots. The Germans put Burns in a truck and brought him to a barn with about 150 other prisoners. Burns and the other prisoners traveled with the German Army as they moved from town to town. Burns recalls that some of the civilians tried to attack him because the Allies had bombed their town just prior to him arriving. Burns recalls when they went through the town of Koblenz [Annotator's Note: Koblenz, Germany], it had been bombed severely. Houses and buildings were on fire or collapsed into rubble. The German guards struggled to find a way across the Rhine River but were finally able to find a bridge and the Germans and prisoners crossed it.

Lloyd Burns was forced to walk with other prisoners for seven days. They slept in barns at night and traveled during the day. The Americans were dropping bombs everywhere, so Burns did not sleep well. The Germans put the prisoners in a railroad boxcar and locked them in there for three days until they reached a prisoner of war camp. The German guards were cruel to the prisoners. Burns stayed at this camp for several weeks before he was sent to the Hammelburg [Annotator's Note: Oflag XIII-B in Hammelburg, Germany] prisoner of war camp. Burns lost quite a bit of weight by the time he got to the camp in Hammelburg. There was a fence that separated two camps and Burns would talk to the other prisoners through the fence. Burns saw two prisoners shot by the German guards for no real reason.

[Annotator's Note: Lloyd Burns was a prisoner of war in Oflag XIII-B in Hammelburg, Germany.] Lloyd Burns began raiding the food trash and collected carrot tops. He brought them back to his barracks, cleaned them up, and ate them. His commanding officer made him stop doing it because he thought it was unbecoming of an officer. They would eat just about anything because they were starving. The prisoners offered to give classes to other prisoners, but that did not last very long. The prisoners were starving and losing ambition.

[Annotator's Note: Lloyd Burns was a prisoner of war in Oflag XIII-B in Hammelburg, Germany.] One afternoon, Lloyd Burns heard machine gun fire from the guard towers. He hit the floor to protect himself. He realized that General George S. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] sent tanks to liberate the camp. The Americans began releasing the prisoners in the evening. Burns hopped on a tank and rode on it through the night, eating k-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. They hit a roadblock and the Germans shot the lead tank with a panzerfaust [Annotator's Note: a German single shot anti-tank weapon]. Burns was on the second tank which turned around but hit another roadblock. They sat there for hours waiting to receive contact. When a jeep finally arrived and led them back to the group. They were told that they would not receive any air support but would still try to get to the front lines which was about 50 miles away. Most of the prisoners decided to return to camp and wait until they were liberated again but Burns and 30 other prisoners decided to stay with the tanks. The next morning, they were ambushed by the Germans and Burns was caught in the crossfire. He was able to find cover and escaped through a group of trees with some others.

[Annotator's Note: Lloyd Burns was a prisoner of war in Oflag XIII-B in Hammelburg, Germany and escaped during the Hammelburg Raid in late March 1945.] Lloyd Burns and a dozen other prisoners were taken to a house then they were taken back to Hammelburg. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] separated out the prisoners, separating the officers and enlisted men. Burns was forced to march for several days. They would stop at farmhouses to rest at night. Burns would steal and eat chicken eggs which infuriated the German officers because they did not know he was the thief. Burns remarks that most of the conversations between the prisoners were about food. He was almost shot by a German guard because he snuck out of line to find food when they were passing a village. During this march, he found out that President Franklin D. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died.

Lloyd Burns knew that the war was coming to an end because he could hear the machine gun fire and artillery fire nearby. He and a fellow prisoner decided to hide and not march with the rest of the prisoners so they could meet up with Allies, however, they were worried about being captured by an SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] officer, so they decided to catch up with the prisoner march. On their way, they met a German who told them that the Americans were coming, and Burns would be free tomorrow. Burns finally caught up to the prisoner march and they came upon a hospital town where they stayed for the night. The Americans came that evening and liberated the prisoners and occupied the town. During the march, Burns could see a change in the German guards' demeanor because they knew they were about to lose the war. The Americans sent the prisoners to the Moosburg prison camp [Annotator’s Note: [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany] for a night then flew them to La Havre [Annotator's Note: La Havre, France], where they boarded a ship and returned to the United States.

[Annotator’s Note: Lloyd Burns was a prisoner of war in Europe.] Lloyd Burns recalls that he was deloused and given new clothing before he boarded a ship back to the United States. The ship came into the New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and Burns was very happy to see the Statue of Liberty. After a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he reported to Miami, Florida where he was interviewed and diagnosed with combat fatigued. He was sent to a hospital for a month to rest and while he was there the war in Japan ended. Burns was discharged in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] then used the G.I. bill to attend college.

Lloyd Burns was on a prisoner march and had gone through the town of Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany] during an air raid by the Americans who were trying to bomb an ammunition dump. Burns and other prisoners took cover in a patch of trees near the road. He evaded a couple of bombs that dropped near him, while other prisoners were killed. The ammunition dump began exploding and Burns and the other prisoners were feeling the effects, so he took refuge in a house. When the explosions were over, German guards found him in the house and put him back in the march. On the second night he was captured he witnessed the British bombing the area nearby.