Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website

Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website



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207847

Lt. Ralph E. Hamilton Oak Leaf Clusters

Army Air Corp 78th Fighter Group, 83rd Fighter Squadron 8th Air Force

from:Long Beach, CA, USA

Lt.Ralph Hamilton was a P-51 pilot who was shot down on a mission to Nurnberg on February 22, 1945 while strafing a marshalling yard in Crailsheim, Germany. He bailed out and was captured trying to reach the Swiss border. He achieved limited popularity among other prisoners for being able to make a delicious white cream sauce out of minimal ingredients, turning rather bland rations into food that was almost edible.

In his notes he said he wrote the following poem under a dim night light, on toilet paper in the camp at Moosberg Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag VII-A. He said the bedbugs had chewed his wrists, neck, and ankles to a painful mass of itching misery and forced him from his bunk.

A Kriegies's Prayer: Oh, God, I ask of you in humble prayer, As I lie in torment far from home, Keep safe my loving family over there; Make lighter theirs—this burden Which they bear. I ask not why this plan for war was lain, Nor question your divine authority, But couldn't you have had the flak refrain That last time I went down to Strafe a train? Oh, God, just slightly overflow thy cup, And speed me from this vermin-prison’s bed. Please, God, release me from This land of Krupp Before these God-damned bedbugs eat me up!



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