Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
8:00 | Part 3 of 4: POW Harold Powers was relieved to be moved from outside work details to a coal mining detail. In the mine it was much warmer. Cigarettes were currency. If he had enough, he could have "bought his way out."
Keywords : Harold Powers Prisoner Sudatenland Czechoslovakia Coal Mine cigarette Prague Camp Lucky Strike
In 1942, Army draftee Harold Powers volunteered for the paratroopers because he thought the training at Ft. Benning would keep him close to home in South Georgia and the war would be over before he was deployed. That plan did not work.
Paratrooper Harold Powers was not worried as he jumped in the wee hours on D-Day. After all, his unit was in reserve and designated to protect a General. But as he descended through the tracers all around him, he did not know he was far off course.
Part 1 of 4: Not long after he landed, paratrooper Harold Powers knew he was lost and off target. He located another American and they moved toward their objective. They avoided the enemy for a while, but his new comrade was soon dead and he was captured.
Part 2 of 4: Newly captured POW Harold Powers noticed that his German captors were both confused and unconcerned about the D-Day invasion happening around them.
Part 4 of 4: After liberation, newly freed POW Harold Powers went into a Czech town to find food. There, an entire regiment of Germans marched up and surrendered to a friend of his. They would not surrender to Czechs and were waiting for an American.
