Richard J. Frievalt Story, As Told To Mike Quick Richard Jule Frievalt was born March 26, 1924 in Winchester, Vilas County, Wisconsin.
Joined the U.S. Army Air Corp. in December 1942. Shipped overseas to England November 10, 1943 assigned to 8th Air Force, 92nd Bomb Group, 326th Bomb Squadron at Puddingstone Field, England day after Thanksgiving 1943. Flew my first mission on December 27th 1943 and we bombed Ludwig shaven, Germany. Really lucky, one hole in the right wing from enemy flak over the target. Flew my second mission to Bordeaux, France on December 31,1943. Supposed to be a milk run but we lost an engine half way to the target and drew fighters like honey draws flies. We finally crash landed in France and it was by far the worst New Years Eve I ever had. As a crew (ten men) we split up to try to get out of the Country. The recommended route was through the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain. Laid in the woods until dark the first night and I got started after dark, I found my first Engineer and tail gunner were hiding right close to were I was. We stuck together that night but we come up on a large town, so we split up to be less conspicuous. I ran into my tail gunner again on the third day. That's the day we got picked up by the French Underground. They stashed us in a farmhouse, with an older couple that treated us very well. It took them about a week to check us out. Then they took us to another house were we found our Ball Turret Gunner and our left waste gunner it was like a reunion. Now they take us to a meeting in a castle. There were ten of us all together, around a table drinking wine. It was decided that night, when Radio Station BBC in London said "TEN MEN DRANK WINE" that would be the signal that there would be an arms drop the next night. Now we went to what they called the Marquis where there were 30 or 40 Frenchmen, they were brave men but what impressed me the most was the strict decipline.Getting in an argument could get your head shaved. We now spent our time listening to BBC for our message and it did come and since I was the Radio Operator on our crew, I was to go along to flash the signal for the drop. The last minute they decided the language barrier was too great a risk. They left without me and ran into a German barricade, the leader walked all the way back to the Marquis with more than 20 pieces of grenade in him. We found this out because they put him in a hospital in Angolemme right under the Germans noses. They lost two men in the skirmish and their vehicle, which were the only wheels they had. One thing happened to me there before we got the message on BBC. I made Corporal in the French underground. After the ceremony I was picked up and thrown out of a second story window, down below was a group with a blanket and they snapped it just as I hit it and whenI looked down, I was higher than the window I came out of. After the fouled up arms deal we were on the run constantly. They finally dropped us three Americans off with another group. These guys were more fun but also more careless. We'd go to town carrying machine guns, drink in the taverns and never pay for a thing. The French never considered themselves as being occupied by the Germans. We were soon in trouble again and back on the run.