227900 Vernon Lee McGuire My brother, Vernon Lee McGuire, was a POW in Stalag 3C for about nine months in 1945. He was a paratrooper and jumped behind enemy lines during the Normandy invasion. He and eight or nine other troopers were captured by a German motor patrol several days later. Sometime after that, they were loaded into a small rail boxcar with 30 or more other men, many of whom were wounded. They were on this train for 28 days before reaching a prison camp. One night during the train ride they were in the heart of Berlin as it was being bombed by the Americans. Luckily there were not hit. He may have been in more than one camp, but was in 3C shortly before they were freed by three Russian tanks. At that time they were being marched to another camp when the tanks came upon them. He told me that the tank commander of those three tanks was a buxom blonde Russian woman. After they were freed all of the POWs scattered and slowly worked their way back to the American lines.
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