[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with Vincent Pale showing the interviewer a shadow box containing the decorations he was awarded for his service.] Vincent Pale was born in 1923 in Salerno, Italy. His father was an American who joined the Italian Army. He met and married an Italian woman and Pale was their first child. His two sisters were both born in the United States. Pale was four years old when the family moved to the United States. Pale and his mother both had to attend English language classes. Neither of them knew how to speak English. The family first lived in Port Richmond near Philadelphia where Pale grew up. He never made it to college. Pale's grandfather was a cheese importer in Italy. One day, he and his wife took a trip to the United States. Pale's grandmother was pregnant and gave birth to his father while they were in America so his father was born an American citizen. The family returned to Italy and Pale's father grew up there. Back in Italy, Pale's father was taught to speak English. Pale's father was a custom tailor.

Vincent Pale was in Philadelphia when he learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor. He and some friends decided to enlist in the Army Air Forces so they could avoid being drafted. Pale was the only one in the group who had graduated high school and was the only one accepted into the Army Air Force. His friends all ended up in the field artillery. Pale got a job working in a shipyard on the USS New Jersey (BB-62). They started off working five days a week for eight hours a day. When the schedule changed to seven days a week for ten hours per day Pale quit and joined the service. Pale's friends were not happy with him for being the only one to get into the Army Air Forces. Pale was sent to Miami Beach for basic training. He was issued a rifle which he refused to carry. He was then flown to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for radio school. Radio school lasted five months after which he attended gunnery school in Kingman, Arizona. Pale did not do well in gunnery school. They observed radio silence when they were on a bomb run.

They had never seen rockets before they were attacked with them one day. A rocket hit Vincent Pale's B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] right next to his position and blew a big hole in the side of the plane. That is what saved Pale. The pilot called for everyone to get out and Pale went out through the hole in the side. They had been hit very badly. When Pale bailed out, he saw 40 to 50 parachutes in the sky. Pale was very low when he bailed out. He hit the ground so hard that his knees were jammed into his chin and busted all of his bottom teeth. He was captured shortly after that. He had come down near some woods. He buried his parachute and ran to the woods but when he got into the tree line he heard someone speaking German. He then moved into a ravine and hid there for about an hour when he heard more Germans nearby. The Germans were looking for downed airmen. When they were right next to him, Pale surrendered. Pale was shot down on his fifteenth mission and the mission was to Brunswick [Annotator's Note: Brunswick, Germany]. Pale and the other prisoners were marched off. Pale's crew had been decimated. The only reason he survived was because of the enemy rocket that had hit his plane and blew a hole in the fuselage right next to his radio compartment. The prisoners were all taken to an interrogation center. Pale was still wearing his flight gear which was very heavy. The Germans would not let him take it off. The German interrogators knew a lot about Pale and everyone who flew missions over Germany. Pale's pilot was Lieutenant Bergman [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant August V. Bergman]. Pale and his copilot were very close and would go out on the town in Pittsburgh together.

After being captured, Vincent Pale was sent to Stalag XVII. The prisoners were assigned to bunks in a barracks. At mealtime, Pale was surprised that they only received one meal per day and the food was usually full of weevils. The guards in the camp were good. They were older men who were too old for combat duty. Pale and the other prisoners would play tricks on the German guards and all get a laugh when the guards fell for the tricks. Pale had no idea what to expect when he was captured. During his interrogation he was asked questions about his bomb group [Annotator's Note: Pale was a member of Crew 34 in the 733rd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. After interrogation he was sent to the prison camp. The conditions in the barracks in Stalag XVII were very tight. Sometimes, American aircraft would fly over the camp. When they did the prisoners would bring out an American flag and open it up so the airmen above could see it. Pale worked in a tailor shop repairing uniforms for the prisoners in Stalag XVII. The prisoners were able to write letters home after entering the prison camp. It took four months for Pale to get a letter from his father. It was difficult for his mother to write to him because she did not speak English. The location the airmen were shot down over determined which prison camp they went to. One day some American fighters flew over the camp. Pale had made an American flag which he would lay out when they flew over. The pilots would wag their wings to let the prisoners know that they had seen them. Pale was in Stalag XVII for exactly one year. On his birthday [Annotator's Note: in April 1945], Pale and the other prisoners at Stalag XVII were marched 347 miles toward another camp. When the Red Cross truck came once a month each prisoner would receive a small package. When they got the package the Germans would poke holes in all of the containers so the prisoners could not horde food. Winter in Stalag XVII was not bad. When the Russians neared the camp the Germans force marched the prisoners out of the area. They had one blanket for three men and had to rotate when they stopped for the night. There was a little lazarette [Annotator's Note: lazarette is the German term for a hospital or infirmary] which treated the men who got sick. Pale got sick one day and had to go to the lazarette. The French doctor performed an operation on him then sent him back to the camp. There were sick men on the march too. The prisoners were determined not to die while in captivity. Pale learned from German civilians that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had killed himself. Eventually they arrived at a new camp which was located in a ravine. One day, General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] arrived and drove into the camp in a tank. The German guards all dropped their weapons and surrendered. Pale was liberated on 3 May 1945. They had marched for a month across Germany into France. Of the 4,500 men who left on the march they only lost a handful of men. Pale was liberated by General Patton's troops. They put the prisoners in a field for five days. They fed the prisoners and gave them new clothes. Planes arrived and flew the prisoners out.

There was a chaplain in the camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag XVII-B] who went around in an effort to keep up the morale of Vincent Pale and the other prisoners. To keep themselves entertained, the prisoners played cards. They also walked the track around the camp. The prisoners lost a lot of weight while in captivity. The way the prisoners saw it, the lighter they were the more of them could be piled into the plane to fly them out of there. They played some sports in the camp. The summer months were ok but not the winter. During the summer they would sit under the trees in the shade. During a forced march they were stopped at a road where they saw a line of Russian prisoners. As the Russian prisoners fell out, the Germans shot them. The road was littered with dead bodies. When they got to the location where they were to be held they noticed a deep ravine where the Germans would burn bodies.

When Vincent Pale and his fellow prisoners were liberated by General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] they were fed then flown to Le Havre, France. They were placed in Camp Lucky Strike where they boarded the Queen Mary. They were piled into the ship then spent three days crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They steamed back with the USS New Jersey (BB-62) which Pale had helped build. When they arrived in New York Harbor they all kissed the ground. They were then taken by bus to one of the camps in New Jersey. They were then split up depending on where they were from and bussed to camps near their homes. When Pale got to Philadelphia he got to see his family. There was a big celebration.

They held Stalag XVII reunions which Vincent Pale used to run. The reunions were held all over the country. One of his daughters lives right across the street from the location in Myrtle Beach where they held the last four reunions. Pale's daughter was the head of the Salvation Army in that area. Pale misses the camaraderie of being in the Army. They always had something to talk about. When they were in the prison camp they were all curious about what everyone else did.

Vincent Pale would not do anything different if he had to do it all over again. After the war, Germany became America's ally. When they bombed Berlin they would continue on to Russia where they would land and rearm then they would bomb Berlin again on the way back to their base. They liked those missions because they had plenty of escort. After the war, Pale visited Berlin and France. Pale loved to fly. He started his flight training in Riverside, California. That is where they came together as a crew. They made 11 stops between California and Florida before they flew to England. Pale held the rank of master sergeant for one day. He had been a tech sergeant prior to that. He was surprised to see his family when he arrived at home. When they were bombing cities, Pale knew that they were bombing people and that brought tears to his eyes. They also bombed targets in France where the Germans had munitions. When they were assigned to bomb rail yards in France they would ask if there any Frenchmen present. When he was first captured, Pale and his fellow prisoners were put in boxcars. They were packed in 100 men to a boxcar. Pale helped make the American flag that they flew when American bombers flew over. That way the pilots knew there were Americans present.