"I served in the Air Force, went into combat in October 1943 and flew 18 missions as a tail gunner on a B-l7. We were shot down before the D-Day invasion, on the first daylight bomber raid on Berlin, March 6, 1944. That day 68 bombers were shot down. We got hit, so the crew bailed out and I broke my ankle. I got captured and taken to Frankfurt. I spent about 15 months in prison camps. We changed camps three times; The Germans kept moving us around so the Russians couldn’t liberate us. They took us to Stettin, a port on the North Sea, and crammed us into the hold of a ship for two days. There must have been 2,500 of us in there, hot as hell, no water, no toilet. You had to go on deck to take a leak, but no way you could have a bowel movement. When they took us off the ship, they chained two guys together at the wrists, and ran us about three miles to: "Stalag Luft VI." Another prisoner and I escaped, and were on the run 10 days before locals turned us in. The penalty for escaping was to work for a week cutting timber for fortifications, digging trenches and burial pits, and stuff like that. The burial pits were for the Russians, who didn’t get a military burial like the Allies under the Geneva Convention; They were just dumped into the pit. After about three months, the Russians liberated us in April, 1945." Augie Donatelli. Professional Baseball Umpire. With Willie Mays and Ray Fosse.