Maurice J Herman
MilitaryShot down 22 June 1943 in B-17 42-5132 'Royal Flush. ' Survived.
It was navigator Maury Herman's 9th mission - his 7th aboard 'Royal Flush'- objective the synthetic rubber plant at Huls. Seven of the crew, including Maury, bailed out after the plane was badly damaged by fighters, and landed near Wesel. He managed to evade for the next ten hours, hiding in the woods as German soldiers hunted for survivors. After a few hours sleep he found a deserted farmhouse and helped himself to an old pair of overalls and a coat. He took to the road again, stole a bicycle and greeted the people working in the fields with his basic German, apparently raising no suspicions. At six in the evening he arrived at a bridge over the Maas and -seeing that the crossing was well-guarded, Holland 'just a 100 yards away '- bided his time. At dusk as he was preparing to swim across he was apprehended by a soldier he had failed to spot and was taken prisoner.
Aged just 21 at the time Maury was held at Stalag Luft 111 until 28th January 1945 - during which time he had made two unsuccessful attempts to escape -when the Germans evacuated the camp as Russian forces reached the Oder. He tried again at the next camp where he spent two more months until the Germans evacuated them again on 9th April 1945. Maury never gave up and had another go on the march out of Stalag Luft 111D, this time apparently successful.
He stayed on in the Air Force until 1960 and went on to work for Lockheed Aircraft.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Royal Flush!
- Unit: 91st Bomb Group 401st Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Prisoner of war camp
- Known as: Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
|||
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Germany | Stalag 3B Furstenberg Brandenburg, Prussia (Also KDOS [USA] #1-5; ARB BTNS 225-255) 52-14 |
Revisions
Added a POW event and a S/N from WW2 POW records at the National Archives (NARA).
Biography completed by historian Helen Millgate. Information sourced from newsletters of the 91st Bomb Group related to the service of Maurice Herman.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Roll of Honor