He was checked out as a First Pilot, but while waiting for his replacement crew to arrive to England he was assigned as Copilot on Lt. Clarence Fischer's crew. Shot down 5 April 1943 in B-17 #42-5431 "Lil Abner". Crew bailed out and saw their plane explode. Landing in the Antwerp area, in and around a factory, most of them were quickly gathered by the Germans. Jim Crouch evaded capture for about one day before being pointed out by a Belgian collaborator to a German sentry guard guarding a bridge. He was then taken to interrogation before going to a hospital to have surgery done on his leg to remove some shrapnel. The hospital is the same one where the Germans confined the prisoners from Fort Breendonk Concentration Camp near Antwerp, Belgium. Prisoner of War (POW) at Stalag Luft III Sagan/Zagan, Poland and then Stalag 7A Moosburg, Germany and 3 work camps.