Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was born February 1924 in Memphis, Tennessee. His family was in the bakery and restaurant business during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. As a youth, he enjoyed attending school. McLaurine felt he had everything he needed. Although operations slowed down a bit in 1933, his parents managed to keep the family business going through the Depression. McLaurine was studying English at home when his parents informed him that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was surprised but had studied history enough to know that Japan had done a similar deed to initiate the Sino-Russian war [Russo-Japanese War 8 February 1904 to 5 September 1905]. They attacked Vladivostok [Annotator's Note: Vladivostok, Russia] and China without any warning. McLaurine completed his high school education the following June. His father sent him to Georgia Tech [Annotator's Note: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia] but he transferred to Mississippi State [Annotator's Note: Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, Starkville, Mississippi] when he saw the handwriting on the wall. On 12 December 1942, Air Corps recruiters convinced him to join with the promise that he would be among the last to be called up. Instead, he received his call on his birthday two months later in February 1943. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] Aviation had been a long term interest for McLaurine. His scout master was a pilot and the young man enjoyed flying with him.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was called up in February 1943 and sent to Miami [Annotator's Note: Miami, Florida] for training. He was billeted [Annotator's Note: billet is a place where soldiers are lodged temporarily] in a former luxury hotel converted for Army use. He then went to Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina for college training detachment. He played a huge saxophone in the marching band. He took regular college classes as well as physical exercise. He took first semester college training again even though he had previously taken it at Georgia Tech [Annotator's Note: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia] and then Mississippi State [Annotator's Note: Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, Starkville, Mississippi]. From Davidson, he went to the classification center in Nashville [Annotator's Note: Nashville, Tennessee]. He took multiple examinations where he discovered that he had a slight vision deficiency in color recognition. That prevented him from becoming a pilot. He had previously taken ten hours of preliminary flight training at Davidson and was disappointed. He chose to be a bombardier because it required less waiting time for the training. He had bombardier preflight at Santa Ana [Annotator's Note: Santa Ana Army Air Base in Santa Ana, California]. His seven day cross country rail transit was not very comfortable. The most memorable thing about his preflight training was learning Morse code. Next was gunnery training at Kingman, Arizona. He enjoyed that. He fired shotguns at moving clay targets while he was on a moving vehicle. He learned to work a gunsight and fire with the butterfly switches in the middle of the gun. He became proficient at gunnery. That training was completed just prior to Christmas in 1943. He had leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] but the trip to Memphis [Annotator's Note: Memphis, Tennessee] would have been consumed with travel time so he went to Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] instead. Following a week of leave, he went to Denning, New Mexico for advance bombardier training. He practiced with the Norden bombsight Norden [Annotator's Note: Norden Mk. XV, known as Norden M series, bombsight]. It was a gyroscope with a telescope on it with controllers for the plane to turn and alter its rate of speed. He dropped 80 practice, and one actual bomb on target circles on the ground. It was necessary to drop within a 230 foot radius of the center. Flying straight and level was critical for accuracy. Bombers in formation were about 100 feet apart so dropping their ordnance exactly on target was not precision bombing. McLaurine's second bombing mission was in a flight formation of 12 bombers attacking an Italian bridge. Only two bombs hit the bridge but the remainder hit railway lines leading to and from the structure. The bridge was put out of service for quite a while.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. had not yet been assigned to a squadron when he graduated from advanced bombardier training. That came later. He graduated on 29 April [Annotator's Note: 1944] then was sent to El Paso, Texas. He was initially grouped with the pilot and copilot prior to the rest of the crew joining them. They trained together as a full crew. The copilot bounced the aircraft around so much that the men became sick. There was a requirement to fire so many machine guns rounds during the flight. McLaurine found himself dumping unspent rounds in order to reach the requirement. The men were too sick with the erratic flights to fire the mandatory rounds from their weapons. McLaurine first flew in the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] at Biggs Field [Annotator's Note: Biggs Army Field] in El Paso. He had previously trained in a Beechcraft AT-11 [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan advanced trainer aircraft] as a bomber introduction. McLaurine had taken navigation and gunnery training including operation and repair of the turrets. The ball turret gunner was a highly technical duty plus it necessitated the gunner be small in stature. The B-24 was a large aircraft. Although it did not climb as high or have as many guns as a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], the B-24 was faster and carried a heavier bomb load over a greater flight range. The B-24 forward gunner acted independent of the bombardier nearby. Following a week's leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] after Biggs Field, he returned to Lincoln, Nebraska for transfer to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey [Annotator's Note: in Piscataway Township, New Jersey and Edison Township, New Jersey]. He boarded a Swedish liner, the Kungsholm [Annotator's Note: MS Kungsholm, redesignated MS John Ericsson], bound for England. Formerly a luxury liner, officers were assigned to different decks for four hours a day. McLaurine was in the bottom of the ship over the shafts. The troops there were in six high bunks crammed together. McLaurine was in a stateroom with three sets of three bunks. He was a second lieutenant. The Kungsholm landed at night in Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England]. He was trucked in a convoy across England with very low beam headlight shining ahead of the truck. Reaching the base, the new arrivals would be buzzed at night by low flying bombers and fighters. One unfortunate pilot died after he flew too low and hit a telephone pole. Subsequent to reaching their English destination, the men were given a week leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went to London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. Later, there was a brief stop at Newquay [Annotator's Note: Newquay, England] from which the crew was flown to North Africa in a transport version of a B-24. Along with them on the flight was another crew, plus a Black Englishman, and Benjamin Davis [Annotator's Note: later US Air Force General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr.] who was famed for the 332nd Fighter Group [Annotator's Note: also known as the Tuskegee Airmen]. Davis was a great man who briefed the new crews on what was happening in the combat zones. The Black Englishman was interesting for his dialect and knowledge. McLaurine really enjoyed the flight before landing in Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers, Algeria].

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. landed in Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers, Algeria] in North Africa and was billeted [Annotator's Note: billet is a place where soldiers are lodged temporarily] in the sultan's stables. It was all marble. After a week, they were taken to Naples, Italy. Finding nothing to eat, an Italian family took them in and fed them a good meal. It was July 1944. He was trucked to a replacement center where he was assigned to the 464th Bombardment Group. McLaurine wanted to go to the Pacific because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He had lost a classmate on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942-9 February 1943; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] so McLaurine wanted to fight the Japanese. When he joined the 464th, he was assigned to the 778th Bombardment Squadron [Annotator's Note: 778th Bombardment Squadron, 464th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force]. McLaurine joined an established flying outfit when he reached Italy. The group had been flying missions since February. The outfit lost 126 crews. Replacements like McLaurine had a job they were trained to do and they did it. Pilots flew their first mission as a copilot for an introduction to combat. McLaurine and his full crew flew their first mission over an oil refinery in Budapest [Annotator's Note: Budapest, Hungary]. It was a screwed up mission for the crew. McLaurine had to rescue the gunner who was trapped in his ball turret. As a result, the navigator, not bombardier McLaurine, had to drop the bombs. It was not a good mission for the crew. The bombs did obliterate the target so overall the mission was a success. Post-mission photographic evidence revealed the effectiveness of the bombings. McLaurine found the Norden bombsight [Annotator's Note: Norden Mk. XV, known as Norden M series, bombsight] to work very well but it was dependent on the abilities of the bombardier. McLaurine never used the sight to drop his bombs. Instead, he toggled his bomb switch and released his ordnance based on the lead bombardier actions in a preceding aircraft. McLaurine flew 13 missions.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was based in Italy in 1944. Card playing consumed a big part of the idle time spent on base. The men were able to go into the town of Gioia del Colle [Annotator's Note: Gioia del Colle, Italy] on occasion. The 464th [Annotator's Note: 464th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] and the 465th [Annotator's Note: 465th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] were both based at the airfield [Annotator's Note: Pantanella Airfield, Foggia Airfield Complex, Province of Foggia, Italy]. It was a flat plain between two hills. The living quarters were 16 by 16 foot tents with cots and sleeping bags. It was not luxury living. Slit trenches were available for protection from German aircraft but actually turned into places to dump trash. Mission briefings were very early in the morning preceded by a breakfast of dried eggs and spam with ersatz coffee [Annotator's Note: coffee made of non-specific ingredients to replace real coffee]. The briefing included maps with routes to and from the target of the day. Time would be synchronized between air crews. Little air opposition was anticipated for each flight. The Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German air force] was pretty well overwhelmed at that time. Each air group was made up of four squadrons with 12 crews to each one. There were six to nine aircraft assigned to each mission. Squadrons would alternate being the mission lead. McLaurine enjoyed the 325th group [Annotator's Note: 325th Fighter Group] escorting them. They flew by the book as long as their limited fuel supply allowed them to remain with the bombers. The bombers had a far greater range of flight than their escorts. Bombers usually flew nine planes to a mission for each squadron but were sometimes beset by mechanical issues which normally reduced that planned number. McLaurine usually flew every seven to ten days. While spending down time in town, McLaurine found the local population to be friendly. An airman of Italian descent served as their translator. When flying the first few missions, the crew did not have flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] jackets. Those came later. There was a sequence for the aircraft to warm up, line up and take off. Taking off sometimes strained the airplane in getting sufficient lift off the runway. The squadrons then had to form up together using unique identifying insignias on the fuselage before flying to the objective. The bombsight was kept constantly in the bomber. McLaurine had been trained to destroy the bombsight with his .45 caliber pistol [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] in case the plane was shot down. When his plane was lost, he did not do so but was sure it was destroyed anyway.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. remembers the mission flown to Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria]. Although the 8th Air Force threshold was 25 missions prior to crew rotation home, the 15th Air Force had 50 as the requirement. That was due to the fact that the latter allowed credit for a second mission if the bomber crossed a certain distance on a single mission. Most missions were in southern Germany and Austria with some as far as Poland and Czechoslovakia. The mission to Vienna had two weather stand downs prior to go ahead on the third day. The crews were anxious that the Germans knew the bombers were coming. The flight path was initially over the Adriatic Sea. The B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] crews observed heavy antiaircraft fire at Split, Yugoslavia [Annotator's Note: now Split, Croatia]. Before reaching the IP, or initial point to commence the attack, the bombers starting receiving flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. The subsequent 27 miles to the target were filled with flak. McLaurine's aircraft was hit and a sizeable portion of the wing was blown away. The bomber acted erratically when it turned over on its back and stalled out. That motion caused McLaurine to trigger the release of the bombs. The crew bounced around as the plane dropped 3,000 feet directly below the other bombers. McLaurine emphatically urged his pilot to dodge the planes dropping their loads above. Casualties were heavy that day. Losing friends had to be blotted out of his mind. He focused on the missions. Only recently has McLaurine found himself crying over the incidents. The 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm, multi-purpose artillery] exploded with a black cloud and streamers coming under it. The 120mm flak guns [Annotator's Note: German 12.8 cm FlaK 40 antiaircraft gun] had pink bursts which McLaurine found odd to observe. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] The German antiaircraft gunners were very effective. The American bombers attempted to toss aluminum chaff [Annotator's Note: radar countermeasure] to disrupt enemy radar. It was effective but a mess to clean out of the plane after the mission. McLaurine's bomber was never attacked by an enemy fighter. There were reports of missions over France being attacked by German planes without propellers. The aircraft were jets [Annotator's Note: likely the German Messerschmitt Me262 jet fighter aircraft]. McLaurine had never heard of a jet prior to that.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. flew his final mission on 16 November 1944 [Annotator's Note: McLaurine was bombardier aboard a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber in the 778th Bombardment Squadron, 464th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force]. It was about his 13th mission. The day started as any other day when a mission was planned. The objective was the rail yards in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. Flying through clouds over the Alps [Annotator's Note: European mountain range], the bomber developed mechanical issues with its number four engine [Annotator's Note: engines are numbered starting with the outboard most engine on the left or port side of the airplane]. That was followed by the number three engine's supercharger having problems and the plane fell out of formation. When number two engine was lost, the men knew the plane was going down. The pilot refused to fly to Switzerland which was relatively close. His rationale was because of their two previous incomplete bomb runs due to mechanical issues. He opted to go to Yugoslavia and an airfield held by partisans. Switzerland was much closer but the pilot refused to go there. En route to his planned destination, the plane continually dropped. Eventually, the crew had to bail out. McLaurine was tossing out ammunition and did not hear the warning to bail out. He did not have his parachute on when the copilot stepped on his shoulder to exit the plane. McLaurine managed to get his chute on and get out of the plane before the pilot did. His chute finally opened to noticeable quiet after hearing the noisy bomber engines. The aircraft flew on and crashed into a mountain. McLaurine landed in a tree and then flipped upside down into a snowbank. He lost consciousness. When he came to, he had trouble righting himself in the snowbank. When he did, he heard fellow crewmen nearby. Gathering themselves, the Americans spotted two German boys with a rifle who had been hunting. One of the boys went for assistance. One American crewman was in a tree and had to cut his parachute shrouds. He nearly killed himself when he fell. The four crewmen approached the remaining German boy with the rifle. McLaurine was not about to pull his .45 pistol [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] on the youth. Another crewman joined the other four. A German soldier arrived and took his captives to a small village where they were put in a jail for two days. They were left alone except for the allowance to go to the bathroom once a day. They were taken away in a truck that was powered by wood fire. At Munich, the officers were separated from the enlisted men and interrogated by a German officer. In English, the German asked the men about their projection on the end of the war. The Americans said six months and the German agreed but he said they had a secret weapon which would provide them the victory. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] The German next asked if the captives were hungry. They had not eaten in over two days so they responded positively. They were fed a thick potato soup.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was taken by train to Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany] with his crew and four other captive Americans [Annotator's Note: after bailing out of his Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber on 16 November 1944.]. After exiting the train, the men were double timed to the interrogation center. The whole time, the local citizens were throwing bricks, rocks and sticks at the prisoners of war. McLaurine did not blame them for being mad. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] He was placed in a room with about 40 other airmen. They were given a sheet of paper to fill out with an extensive amount of information. He refused to provide information beyond the minimally required name, rank and serial number. He was placed in solitary confinement for ten days without contact with anyone outside. Once a day, he was given thin soup and two thin slices of rye bread. He was allowed a bathroom break outside the room once a day. The room had a heater which caused him to either sweat when it was on or freeze when it was cut off. His bunk was not comfortable so he put his straw mattress on the floor and slept that way. The German major who interrogated him spoke excellent English. The officer knew much about McLaurine and his past life. It surprised the captured American about the extent of his personal and the B-24 technical information the German revealed in the ten minute inquiry. The German did not know about the bomber's ordnance instantaneous fuses and McLaurine certainly did not tell him about them. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] There were various timers on the fuses and they were all booby trapped to explode if tampered with by the enemy. The fuses were safe until removal of cotter pins that prevented their propeller from spinning. The spinning of the propeller after release activated the arming mechanism to explode the bomb. Those cotter pins had to be turned in after the mission to show the bombs had been readied for release over target. If the bomb was returned to base in the aircraft, it was not a problem because the propeller had never spun out to arm it. McLaurine was not mistreated during his incarceration. He was given access to shave and clean up. He was placed in a room with about 40 other airmen before being shipped to a Red Cross camp that was populated with Swiss personnel under the watch of the Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: German military]. He met Tom Young from his hometown Boy Scout troop in the camp. His friend had been shot down the same day as he had. While traveling by train, the captives had been carried in normal passenger cars under armed guard. The German citizens did not hinder or attempt to communicate with them. At the camp, the Red Cross provided a package of fresh clothing for the airmen because they had only their regular uniform. Their flying clothes had been taken from them. They were kept at the Red Cross camp for about ten days. The men were housed in one of two barracks. There was a meeting hall where the men were fed one meal a day. The food provided was either potatoes or turnips.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was transported by passenger train to Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: Stalag Luft III in Zagań, Poland]. Although P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] zoomed overhead, there was never any friendly fire on the passenger train. He arrived at the camp in the middle of December [Annotator's Note: December 1944]. He entered the camp and came to the realization that he was a prisoner. He spotted three or four of his bombardier classmates as he arrived. The camp was over the top of the tunnel used by the British for the Great Escape [Annotator's Note: 24 and 25 March 1944; Stalag Luft III; mass escape of 76 prisoners]. It was surrounded by 12 foot high barbed wire and an additional inner spiral of wire. There were covered guard towers at each side and some interspersed between. The sturdy barracks were large as were the rooms inside. McLaurine was in a room with 12 people. The colonel interrogated each new man to make sure the newcomer was not a German plant. McLaurine acknowledged that he knew several men he recognized when he entered the Stalag. That was when his depression set in. The 12 in his room included three Americans, a 70 year old Brit [Annotator's Note: slang for British people] captured on Crete [Annotator's Note: Crete, Greece], a fighter pilot from Belgium, and others from Britain. The English had been there a long time there. Some of the men had been there for three years. McLaurine only spent six months in prison. He felt the war would end within six months of his capture. The prisoners were left alone except for a headcount each day. There was a barbershop, a shower for a weekly bath, a theater for plays, basketballs and a band where McLaurine played saxophone. An American group had contributed the equipment through the Swiss Red Cross. There were ice skates available and hockey was played in a makeshift rink. It was the country club of prison camps. The food in the Red Cross parcels kept the men alive. Each package contained cheese, SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation], corned beef, dried milk, and beans which comprised about 20 pounds of food. Each week, six parcels were provided to the 12 men in McLaurine's room. They also had thin soup and minimal bread provided by the Germans. The latter alone would not have sustained them. The cigarettes contained in the parcel were used by McLaurine to bribe guards. He quit smoking while he was captured. If a German guard was bribed, he was controlled by his captives because they could turn him in for punishment or execution. Most items traded for cigarettes involved escaping. Paper for forging documents was particularly useful. McLaurine developed his own escape plan for review by the committee in charge of facilitating attempts. There were three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, being dug, but McLaurine chose not to investigate what was transpiring with them. He did help spread excavated tunnel soil throughout the camp to assist in the escape of others. The German inspectors for the barracks and prisoners were called Weasels. They were the enemy personnel that the Americans had the most contact with in the Stalag. One was particularly huge in comparison to McLaurine. He stopped McLaurine one day to demand to be state his prison number. It was 8970 and that was issued in December [Annotator's Note: December 1944]. By their exit on 22 February [Annotator's Note: 22 February 1945], there were many more in the camp beyond that number. McLaurine was among the last group to leave the camp.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. and the others heard the guns approaching the camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag Luft III in Zagań, Poland]. They anticipated moving away from the front lines. They were allowed to go into the Red Cross parcel storage location and take what food they could find. He made a container to pull behind him with the food. When he slept the first night, someone took all of his food except six cans of salmon. He does not like salmon to this day. Christmas Day [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944] after his arrival at the camp, he made goodies for the group in a makeshift oven. Mail never came for McLaurine. Others who had been there longer received mail and uniforms. He wrote postcards home but none arrived. His buddy, Tom Young, wrote his mother that he had seen McLaurine after his capture. That was the way McLaurine's mother found out that her son was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war.] [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.] Until then, he was just listed as missing in action. German propaganda was countered by a covert prisoner radio that told the facts. The Russians were pushing toward them. The prisoners spent days on the road from Zagan marching away from the oncoming Russians. Stopping at a tile factory in Muskow [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], he found a heated furnace location that protected him from the harsh winter outside. It was wonderful. The temperature never got above 20 degrees on the march. When McLaurine stumbled on the march to Muskow, he was tossed up on a wagon to continue. He reached the town where an American flight surgeon was taking care of a huge number of injured prisoners. The surgeon had volunteered to jump into Germany to take care of POWs. McLaurine decided to not be treated but instead found the warm place with the furnaces. Eventually, he was transported by train to Nuremburg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany] in 40 and eight railcars [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses]. He reached there in March [Annotator's Note: 1945] and stayed until the middle of April. Chaos reigned during the evacuation. He never saw any of the men assigned to his Stalag III room after they left the camp. McLaurine stayed with Paul Foster and Lloyd Clark. They were the same men who had tossed him onto the wagon before Muskow. The three stayed together the rest of the time. Food was sparse at Nuremberg. There were six barracks with 200 men in each. It was a small camp. The Italians who had been there before were no longer there. Water was only available one hour per day. The POWs were in bad shape before Red Cross parcels reached them. The constant topic was not women. It was food. After Nuremberg, the captives were marched to Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany]. They heard the overloaded power lines humming loudly and saw them glowing white as they marched along. They reached Moosburg about 21 April 1945.

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. was liberated on 29 April [Annotator's Note: 29 April 1945]. A pitched battle was fought near the camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany]. Ten Tiger tanks [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI heavy tank; known as the Tiger] were destroyed by the Russians after a 30 minute engagement. Afterward, a Russian tank came through the camp's gate and was immediately covered by celebrating prisoners who had just been liberated. Only one prisoner was injured during the process. Before the Russians came, a wagon used to pump out the latrines was hit by a rocket. It blew the mess all over McLaurine and his mates. It scared him badly. He had to stay soiled until the Russians arrived. Gooney birds [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] took the men from the camp and flew them to France. They were warned not to eat too much. He had dropped from 138 pounds to 98 pounds during his incarceration. All their clothes were destroyed and the men had to continuously shower for 30 minutes. Afterward, they were doused with DDT [Annotator's Note: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; developed as an insecticide]. They were given new uniforms and then taken to the mess line. They were given enough food to feed them for weeks. McLaurine could only eat a few bites. He then took a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] from Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] to England. Onboard, a broadcast from BBC [Annotator's Note: British Broadcasting Corporation] said the air raid sirens would sound for the last time. The former prisoners ducked until they realized it meant the war was over. A few nights after the homeward voyage began, his ship rammed another vessel. McLaurine got his lifejacket and got to the top deck. A jeep carrier [Annotator's Note: escort aircraft carrier or CVE] came alongside and threw lines to his ship. There was no way he could have gone across that line. The ship crew threw timber and cement bags in the nine foot hole above the waterline. The ship made it to the United States with the repair. When the tank battle broke out near the camp, McLaurine knew the end was near. The German guards had already disappeared. When the Russian tank came through the front gate, he knew he was free. Long after, his church pastor mentioned going to Moosburg. McLaurine told him he experienced the best and worst of times there. He was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] and then he was liberated there. He will always remember 29 April as a good day. His ship arrived at New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. It was marvelous to see the Statue of Liberty. He never knew on his combat missions if he would be returning. After the war, he went to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: in Piscataway Township, New Jersey and Edison Township, New Jersey] and then returned to Memphis [Annotator's Note: Memphis, Tennessee]. He was there until the war in the Pacific ended. He wanted to stay in the service but was processed out. He joined the active reserve and became part of a troop carrier group flying C-46 aircraft [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft]. Missions were flown across the eastern United States. It was like being in a truck. The Korean war [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953] broke out and the group carried troops. It was discovered that he was not trained to be a navigator so they put him in B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber].

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. flew as a bombardier aboard B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] for two years active service during the Cold War [Annotator's Note: Cold War, period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and United States, 1947 to 1991]. He flew with an electronics countermeasure group. Training missions flown against Eglin Field [Annotator's Note: now Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Florida] in Destin, Florida showed the ineffectiveness of the countermeasures. The B-29 was far better than the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. The wing design of the B-24 made it hard to fly without power, but the B-29 could fly really well. Nominal speed was about 220 miles per hour. It was an enormous airplane. He witnessed a B-24 crash directly into a mountain while attempting a take-off. He flew a mission through thunderstorm clouds when the crew saw Saint Elmo's fire [Annotator's Note: weather phenomenon] circulating around the aircraft. By the time they exited the clouds they found they had flown a complete circle despite flying due west by their reckoning. [Annotator's Note: McLaurine laughs.]

Luke Layton McLaurine, Jr. left the service in April 1951 as a first lieutenant. He used the G.I. Bill to take flying lessons to become a commercial pilot but forgot that idea because of vision problems. He has had limited success working with the VA [Annotator's Note: United States Department oof Veteran's Affairs]. He is suffering from macular degeneration and has had some positive results in treating it through a private physician. His hearing is failing so he may go to the VA for a hearing aid. World War 2 changed his desire to become an aeronautical engineer. He dropped the idea after the war. He stayed with the family bakery following his return from Europe. His father had bought a bakery from a Japanese-American who was being sent to an internment camp. They never heard from that baker again. McLaurine used his sugar ration to make donuts and had enough sugar left to sell to his father at a significant profit. He made quite a bit of money. He had two Black [Annotator's Note: African-American] ladies assisting him. They were excellent workers. Memphis [Annotator's Note: Memphis, Tennessee] has, over time, lost all its small bakeries except for a few cupcake shops and such. McLaurine became a stronger Christian as a result of his time in the war. He made his declaration of faith after he returned from the war. It is important to have The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. There should be even more institutions of that nature. Interviewing veterans by the Museum is great. Not enough education is provided to students about the war. McLaurine's heritage goes back to prior to the Revolution. His ancestor fought in the Revolution [Annotator's Note: American Revolutionary War, or, American War of Independence, 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783] and the War of 1812 [Annotator's Note: War of 1812, fought between the United States and Great Britain, 18 June 1812 to 18 February 1815]. Two of his ancestors fought in the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865]. An uncle was killed in World War 1.