Walk to Freedom

June 30, 1944, fifty members of the United States 460th Bomb Group embarked on an important mission to destroy German oil refineries in Silesia, Hungary, only to come under heavy attack. Above the cloud cover, German twin-engine Me-410 fighters firing 20-millimeter cannons blasted seven B-24s out of the sky. Seventeen U.S. airmen were killed, twenty-four were captured. Many were badly burned or wounded, others beaten to death by Hungarian peasants after parachuting to the ground. This single event marked the beginning of a heart-wrenching episode in the life of one airman: T/Sgt. John L. Lenburg. On his thirty-sixth mission, he was shot down along with the crew of their B-24, "Miss Fortune," over enemy lines near Lake Balaton, Hungary. Taken prisoner (or "Kriegsgefangenen #6410," the code name the Germans gave him), he never knew if he would see his homeland again. WALK TO FREEDOM: Kriegsgefangenen #6410 - Prisoner of War is Lenburg's powerful, compelling account of his 327 days of imprisonment and long walk to freedom eleven months after his capture. Recalling the inhumane treatment and horrific conditions of his encampment, the missions and memories, and the reunions of the few who survived fifty years later, this revised and expanded, illustrated memoir demonstrates why Lenburg and his crew were "the greatest generation" of their time.