Chuck Comer, Mike Ledford and Ray Rowe at Zarzour's
Chattanooga's Mike Ledford tells this incredible story of a World War II rescue from a prison camp of his father, Chattanoogan Ray Rowe and others by fellow Chattanoogan Chuck Comer.
Mr. Ledford got Mr. Comer and Mr. Rowe together for lunch at Zarzour's earlier this week.
Mr. Ledford says:
Ray and my father, Arthur S. Ledford, were POWs in Stalag Luft VII-A in Moosburg, Germany when it was liberated on April 29, 1945 by the U.S.
14th Armored Division. They previously were in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, which is now in Poland. With the Russian Army only 16 miles away, they were marched in January, 1945 to Moosburg. Temperatures were below freezing and there was six inches of snow on the ground.
Stalag Luft VII-A was built to accommodate 14,000 prisoners, but by the war's end over 100,000 POWs were there. Mr. Comer's outfit was preparing to invade Moosburg when they discovered the POW camp. Chuck actually shot the lock off of the gate to the camp and the first POW he saw was Ray! They had gone to Normal Park Elementary School together. In addition, Ray graduated from City High in 1941 and Chuck graduated from City High in 1942.
Ray was a co-pilot of a B-17 and was shot down on his 16th mission. My father was a pilot of a B-24 and was shot down on his 8th mission.
Upon returning to Chattanooga, Ray worked for Chattem, Chuck worked for American National Bank as a trust officer, and my father, who passed away in 1998, became a general contractor.
For additional information, please view Ray's 26-minute interview on YouTube entitled, Windy Lou's Last Mission. Also, there is an excellent book entitled, Kriegie, by Kenneth W. Simmons that was published in 1960. Like my father and Mr. Rowe, Mr. Simmons was in the 8th Air Force and was in both of the POW camps mentioned above.
Participants in the luncheon Monday, in addition to Chuck, Ray, and I, were my daughters Rebecca L. Bishop and Meredith L. Boyd, my brother-in-law and sister Bob and Marsha Rann, my nephew Chris Hendrix, Chuck's wife Beth, and Ray's wife Jessie. Bob Rann is also a veteran having served with the Army in Vietnam.