Liberated

On the 5th of June Allied troops entered Rome and we were liberated. By then, there were forty of us in the group: Americans, British, South Africans and one from Yugoslavia.

We had a hard time getting back to Twelfth Air Force Headquarters as all the troops were so busy they just didn't have time to help us. Finally we made it to Ban on the 9th and were interrogated. After Intelligence was through with the three of us we were returned to the 320th on Sardinia for a short visit June 10th and then we were sent back to the States.

After the war I learned that Lt. McDaniel came down in a tree and suffered a broken arm, the only one of our crew hurt to any degree. The Germans captured him and he spent the rest of the war in a prison camp in Germany. Lt. Banaiki never got back. He was fine after the jump, some of the other crew members talked to him, but he never returned.

I was told later that when the two Italians went back for Gardner and DeLisle they learned that the Germans had captured them in Rome! They too spent the remainer of the war as POWs. Bill Harrison evaded capture and eventually got back to the outfit.