Supreme Court Justice shares WWII POW story

  • Published
  • By 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs

Columbus Air Force Base hosts a Base Community Council luncheon Aug. 11 to release its Fiscal Year 2016 Economic Impact Report and to hear a presentation about local World War II prisoners of war by Chief Justice Sharon Lee of the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Her story begins in 1944 in the skies over Europe.

The following is the story of former Staff Sgt. Rufus Ward, Sr., the tail gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, “Smokey Stover Jr.,” written by his son Rufus Ward Jr., Golden Triangle resident and Treasurer for the BCC.

During World War II, my father, Rufus Ward Sr., was a B-17 tail gunner in the 337th Squadron of the 96th Bomb Group based at Snetterton Heath, England. His first combat mission was to Berlin. His last ended 72 years ago on May 12, 1944, when his plane, Smokey Stover Jr., was shot down over Frankfurt, Germany. He was captured and held as a German POW until he was liberated on April 26, 1945.   

Like so many other members of the "Greatest Generation," my parents reacted immediately when Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941. My father was living in Washington, D.C., where he was attending George Washington University and working as a clerk for the FBI. He immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps. My mother was attending Virginia State Teachers College, now Longwood University, and came back to Columbus to attend MSCW and work at the base hospital at Columbus Army Air Field.

My father would seldom talk about his war time experiences, and when I would ask him about them he always just said "there were so many stories of heroism that were unknown outside of the POW camps because those stories could not be passed along and were thus lost to time." It was not until after he died that I found out his story was one of them.

It was only about a month after he died that I started learning his story. A letter from a member of his crew appeared in the 96th Bomb Group Historical Association newsletter describing what he had done. Several years later I heard from Chief Justice Sharon Lee of the Tennessee Supreme Court, whose father, Charles Lee, was waist gunner on Smokey Stover Jr.

On May 12, 1944, tail gunner Staff Sergeant Rufus Ward, Sr. was on a mission to bomb oil refineries at Brux, and Zwickau, Czechoslovakia. The plane was assigned to fly in the "Tail End Charlie" slot of the bomber formation's "Purple Heart Corner." Near Frankfort, Germany, the squadron was attacked by about 50 German ME-109s, FW-190s and even some ME-210 jet fighters. Smokey Stover Jr. was heavily damaged -- its left wing was almost shot away and two engines were on fire. A lost aircraft report description stated, "left wing destroyed and went down out of control." Communications had been cut to the tail, and Ward did not hear the pilot's orders to bail out. He was still firing his 50-calilber guns at a German fighter when he suddenly saw his pilot and co-pilot parachute past his window. He went to his escape hatch to bail out but saw the waist gunner and the ball turret gunner lying wounded further inside the plane. He crawled into the waist of the burning, out of control plane and assisted each of them with their parachutes, helping them out of the aircraft before he bailed out.

Justice Lee related what her father had told her happened when Smokey Stover Jr. was shot down: "The pilot rang the bell and ordered everyone to bail out of the plane but he (Charles Lee) lay unconscious. The tail-gunner of the plane, Rufus Ward, would not leave him and worked with him as the plane was going down. He saved Charles' life by placing a parachute on him and getting him out the door." Twelve of the 26 aircraft from Snetterton on the May 12 mission were shot down. Ten aircraft had been lost on a bombing mission on May 8. In that five-day period the air base at Snetterton had lost half of its aircraft and crews. The survival expectancy of an air crewman at the base was six missions, and my father had been on his sixth mission. The month of May 1944 had seen the 96th Bomb Group suffer almost 125 percent casualties. Men and planes were being lost almost faster than replacements could be brought into action.

Ward was captured and sent to Stalag Luft IV, a German POW camp which was located in present-day Poland. The camp had opened in May of 1944 and was designed to hold up to 6,400 air corps POWs. However, more than 10,000 American, British and Canadian airmen were sent there. Conditions there were anything but good. Charles Lee, the Smoky Stover's waist gunner, told his daughter, " ... food was very limited. It was mostly a soupy mixture of rotten cabbage and bread made from saw dust...The barracks were made for 16 but usually contained 25 men." He also recalled horrible infestations of lice in the barracks. Red Cross documents confirm Lee's descriptions, even mentioning that the bread was made from rye and beets but contained about 30 percent sawdust and straw.

As the war neared its end and Russian troops were fast approaching from the east, the Germans decided to abandon Stalag Luft IV. On February 5, 1945, in the midst of one of the century's coldest winters, 10,000 POWs were marched out of the camp with limited supplies and little warm clothing. It was a 500-mile forced march, in often blizzard conditions, across Germany that became known as "The Black March."

On April 26, 1945, my father was liberated at Bitterfeld, Germany, by a unit from the U.S. 104th Timberwolf Division. Records show that when Ward was liberated he only weighed 91 pounds. He has been honored by Columbus Air Force Base naming a street after him in 2007. It is the only street on the base named after an enlisted member.

Lee has said she feels grateful for the courageous actions of Ward Sr.; if not for him she would not be speaking at the BCC Luncheon.

The BCC luncheon takes place at the Columbus Club and is open to BCC members and officer, enlisted and civilian Airmen of the 14th Flying Training Wing. The Italian Lunch Buffett is $14 and RSVPs are required for seating by Aug. 4 by calling 434-7068 or e-mailing 14ftw.pa@us.af.mil.