The Pyrenees—Le Chemin de la Liberté—the road to liberty for some three to five thousand Allied airmen. Many others died or were captured in the attempt (figures vary).
National Archives, U.S., World War II Escape and Evasion File
The towering Pyrenees. The dangerous passes took four days for Arthur and his companions to cross from France into Spain.
National Archives, U.S., World War II Escape and Evasion File
Arthur Meyerowitz shortly after the war.
Courtesy of Meyerowitz Family
Gisèle Chauvin survived torture by the Gestapo and Nazi concentration camps to return to her family in Lesparre, France.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Chauvin
Pierre Delude, Resistance fighter and friend of Arthur Meyerowitz, with Mark Meyerowitz, Arthur’s son.
Photo by Seth Meyerowitz
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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I would like to dedicate this book, first and foremost, to the people of France who saved Arthur’s life in 1944. Arthur may never have made it home without them and for that my whole family (and countless others) owes a huge debt of gratitude to you.
To the Chauvin family who, both in 1944 and over the past few years, have taken the Meyerowitzes in and shown us unparalleled hospitality, love, and respect, we thank you sincerely for all that you have done. Additionally to the memory of Marcel Taillandier and the Morhange/Brutus men and women who risked their lives protecting Arthur—you brought Arthur home and we thank you.
To the countless individuals in France who have helped with research, and hosted me and my family over the past couple years; Guillaume Agullo of the Musée Départemental de la Résistance (Toulouse), Bernard Boyer, the Hautefeuilles, and more, we thank you for your contribution to our project.
To my Spanish family and my chachis, without you this entire quest would never have begun. Thank you for hosting me time after time and always making me feel like part of the family.
To my agents, Daniel Bodansky and Anthony Mattero, my writer Peter Stevens, editors Charlie Conrad and Brent Howard, and all the support staff at Dixon Talent, Foundry Literary & Media, Gotham, Penguin, and Berkley who worked their butts off to bring this project to fruition, thank you for your efforts.
To my parents, Mark and Karen, whose support over the years has allowed me to follow my heart wherever it wanted me to go, thank you. Now you have something easy to explain to your friends when they ask, “What does Seth do, exactly?”
Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my uncle Seymour. Your amazing ability to recall stories of Arthur and therefore keep his story alive all these years is what prompted me to begin my search. I hope this is a fitting tribute to the man you loved so deeply and I am so pleased that I can present this to you in his honor and in his memory.
SOURCES
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ARCHIVAL
U.S. National Archives
Records of the Army Air Forces (AAF), Record Group 18, 1903–64 (with the bulk of the material from 1917–47).
Record Group (RG) 18.7: Records of Headquarters U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES (AAF) 1917–49.
1940 U.S. Census: Meyerowitz Family.
Service File 32000985, 1941–45, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz, 137 pages.
Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz, Debrief and Escape and Evasion Report, No. 758, June 17, 1944, marked “Secret,” 18 pages.
Letter from Captain Dorothy Smith to Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz, March 13, 1945.
Letter from Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz to Captain Dorothy Smith, January 9, 1945.
Letter from Captain Dorothy Smith to Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz, December 14, 1944.
Special Order 31: Arrival of Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz at Gibraltar. Received by Military Liaison Office, American Consulate, Colonel Horace W. Forster, June 16, 1944.
Appendix (B) to Escape and Evasion Report No. 758, Sergeant Arthur Meyerowitz, January 18, 1944, 3 pages.
Secret American Questionnaire for Service Personnel Evading from Enemy Occupied Countries. Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz, June 18, 1944, 2 pages.
Sergeant Joseph DeFranze, Escape and Evasion Report No. 581, 22 pages.
Second Lieutenant Harold O. Freeman, Escape and Evasion Report No. 553, 32 pages.
Second Lieutenant Hugh C. Shields, Escape and Evasion Report No. 554, April 12, 1944, 47 pages.
Meyerowitz Family Correspondence, 1941–47
Letter from Arthur Meyerowitz to David and Rose Meyerowitz, October 31, 1943.
Western Union Telegram, War Department to David and Rose Meyerowitz, “Missing in Action,” January 14, 1944.
War Department Notice, “Still Missing in Action,” to David and Rose Meyerowitz, April 21, 1944.
Western Union Cablegram from Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz to David and Rose Meyerowitz, June 17, 1944.
Letter from Mademoiselle Thoulouse (in Toulouse, France) to Rose Meyerowitz, March 28, 1944.
Letter from Madame Rigal (Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, December 14, 1945.
Letter from Rigal Family (Beaumont-de-Lomagne) to Rose Meyerowitz, January 21, 1945.
Letter from Robert A. Ardichen (Bordeaux, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, April 18, 1945.
Letter from Charlotte Michel (Lesparre, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, May 5, 1945.
Letter from Charlotte Michel (Lesparre) to Arthur Meyerowitz, June 3, 1945.
Four postcards from Christiane Michel (Bayonne, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, July 17, 1945.
Letter from Christiane Michel (Lesparre, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, August 27, 1945.
Letters from Arthur Meyerowitz to Michel Family (Lesparre, France), July 19 and August 8, 1945.
Letter from Charlotte Michel (Bordeaux, France) to Arthur Meyerowitz, May 8, 1947.
Military Records Center: National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records, St. Louis, MO 63132
United States Air Force Military Heritage Database, 8th Air Force in WW II: Names, Missions, Crew, Targets, Aircraft, Biographies, and Photos.
UK National Archives and Royal Air Force Service Records, RAF DPA SAR Sections
Officers of the RAF, RFC, RNAS, Second World War (1939–45).
Rolls of Honour.
Entries in the Air Force List for Officers.
Citations for Gallantry Awards.
Operational Record Books (ORBs).
Squadron Combat Reports Aircrews’ Flying Log Books.
Details of Those Who Crashed Overseas: RAF Squadron Combat Reports, No. 644 Squadron, LL228 “A” for Able Piloted by Flight Lieutenant Frank Cleaver DSO.
Military Record of Lieutenant R.F.W. Cleaver, Service Number 1457098/124411, Royal Air Force (RAF).
Flight Lieutenant R.F.W. Cleaver, “(Secret) Evaded Capture in France,” WO/208/3320, including Gibraltar Debrief, June 17, 1944, and Appendices B, C, D, and E (a long-classified and revised entry).
Seething Airfield (UK) Museum and Collection
448th Bomb Group Collection.
Lieutenant William H. Thomas, Debrief and Casualty Report, File No. 3093, Account of Loss of B-24 Harmful Lil Armful, 715th Squadron.
Statement (Confidential) of Lieutenant A. L. Northrup Jr., Headquarters 44th Bombardment Group, Testimony of Loss of Harmful Lil Armful.
Report of Operations Officer, 448th Bombardment Group, Mission of 24 December 1943, Labroye, France.
Report of Operations Officer, 448th Bombardment Group, Mission of 31 December 1943, Cognac-Chateaubernard and Landes de Bussac, France.
Archives Nationales de France, Paris
Archives of Algiers (File No. 3265-37) list are (AASSDN), “Information Services 1871–1944.”
Musée Departemental de la Résistance et de la Deportation, Toulouse, Fr
ance.
Musée de l’Ordre de la Libération, Paris.
INTERVIEWS
Seymour Meyerowitz, brother of Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz.
Lou McNamara, brother of Harmful Lil Armful crewman Sergeant Thomas McNamara.
Patrick Chauvin, Son of Gisèle and Dr. Pierre Chauvin.
Pierre Delude, Resistance fighter and friend of Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz.
Guillaume Agullo, director of the Musée Departemental de la Résistance et de la Deportation, Toulouse, France.
Patricia Everson, Historian of the 448th Bomb Group, Seething, England.
PUBLICATIONS
Ambrose, Stephen E. The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany, 1944–45. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Anson, Robert Sam. McGovern. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972.
Aubrac, Raymond, and Lucie Aubrac. The French Resistance: 1940–1944. Paris: Hazan Editeur, 1997.
Astor, Gerald. The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It. New York: Dell, 1998.
Baynes, Richard C. Replacement Crew. Irvine, CA: R. C. Baynes, 1993.
Binot, Jean-Marc, and Bernard Boyer. Nom de code, BRUTUS: histoire d’un réseau de la France libre. Paris: Fayard, 2007.
Birdsell, Steve. The B-24 Liberator. New York: Arco Publishing, 1970.
———Log of the Liberators. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.
Blue, Allan G. The Fortunes of War. California: Aero Publishers, Inc., 1967.
———. The B-24 Liberator. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976.
———. Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Crowood Aviation Series, 1998.
———. Fields of Little America. Cambridge, UK: PSI, 1977.
Bowman, Martin W. The B-24 Liberator 1939–1945. New York: Rand McNally, 1980.
———. The Bedford Triangle. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1996, PSI, 1988.
Brett, Jeffrey E. The 448th Bomb Group (H): Liberators over Germany in World War II. Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military History Book, 2002.
Campbell, John M., and Donna Campbell. Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1993.
Carigan, William, Ad Lib: Flying the B-24 Liberator in WWII. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1988.
Childers, Thomas. Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.
Clark, Forrest S. Innocence and Death in Enemy Skies: A True Story of WWII Adventure and Romance. Jawbone Publishing Corp., 2004.
Cobb, Matthew. The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis. UK: Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Copp, DeWitt S. Forged in Fire: Strategy and Decisions in the Airway over Europe, 1940–1945. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 2, Europe: Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949.
———. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 3, Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
———. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 6, Men and Planes, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955.
Currier, Donald R. 50 Mission Crush. Shippensburg, PA: Burd Street Press, 1992.
Davis, Larry. B-24 Liberator in Action. Carrollton, TX: Signal Publications, 1987.
Dorr, Robert F. B-24 Liberator Units of the 8th Air Force. Oxford, UK: Osprey, 2001.
Eisner, Peter. The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II. New York: Harper Perennial Reprint, 2005.
Fittko, Lisa. Through the Pyrenees (Jewish Lives Series). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000.
Francis, Devon. Flak Bait. Washington, D.C.: Zenger Publishing, 1948.
Freeman, Roger. B-24 Liberator at War. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks, 1983.
———. The B-24 Liberator. Leatherhead, UK: Profile Publications, 1965.
Goodall, Scott. The Freedom Trail: Following One of the Hardest Wartime Escape Routes across the Central Pyrenees into Northern Spain. UK: Inchmere Design, 2005.
Goubet, Michel, and Paul Debauges. L’Histoire de le résistance en Haute Garonne. Milan: Éditions Milan, 1986.
Hastings, Max. Bomber Command: The Myths and Realities of the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939–45. New York: Dial Press, 1979.
“History of 501 Squadron: War Record of GW Shire’s Own Flight Lieutenant: R.F.W. Cleaver.” Western Daily Press, Bristol, UK, May 6, 1947, p. 3.
Hughes, Walter F. A Bomber Pilot in WWI: From Farm Boy to Pilot, 35 Missions in the B-24. Freemont, CA: privately printed, 1994.
Jablonski, Edward. Airwar. New York: Doubleday, 1971.
La Prison Saint-Michel. Musée Departemental de la Résistance et de la Deportation. Toulouse, France, 2012.
Mahoney, James J., and Brian H. Mahoney. Reluctant Witness: Memoirs from the Last Year of the European Air War 1944–1945. Trafford, 2001.
McDowell, Ernest R. Consolidated B-24D-M Liberator. New York: Arco Publishing, 1969.
McGovern, George. Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern. New York: Random House, 1977.
Merritt, J. I. Goodbye, Liberty Belle: A Son’s Search for His Father’s War. Dayton, OH: Wright State University Press, 1993.
Miller, Donald L. Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Moyes, Phillip J. R. Consolidated B-24 Liberator Early Models. Oxford, UK: Visual Art Press, 1979.
Ottis, Sherri Greene. Silent Heroes: Downed Airmen and the French Underground. University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
Paillole, Colonel Paul. Services spéciaux (1935–1945). Paris: R. Laffont, 1975.
Picardo, Eddie. Tales of a Tail Gunner. Seattle: Hara Publishing, 1997.
Rémy, Colonel (pseudonym of Gilbert Renault-Roulier). Morhange: les chasseurs de traîtres. Paris: Éditions Flammarion, 1975.
Rowe, John C. A Replacement Crew in the ETO (European Theatre of Operations), World War II, 448th Bomb Group, 20th Combat Wing, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force. Self-published, 1999.
Saint-Laurens, Pierre. Conte de faits, X15, Réseau Morhange. Toulouse: Éditions Signes du Monde, 1995.
Schoenbrun, David. Soldiers of the Night. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1980.
Smith, Ed. Ball Turret Gunner, B-24 Liberator in Action. Carrollton, TX: Self-published, 1987.
Stourton, Edward. Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees. UK: Doubleday, 2013.
Stout, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Jay A. Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe: The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 2010.
———. Unsung Eagles: True Stories of America’s Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishing, 2013.
Ten Haken, Mel. Bail-Out! POW, 1944–1945. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1990.
Tracas, Famine, Patroille. Musée Departemental de la Résistance et de la Deportation. Toulouse, France, 2012.
Ulanoff, Stanley M., ed. Bombs Away! New York: Doubleday, 1971.
Vinen, Richard. The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
Watry, Charles A. Washout! The American Cadet Story. Carlsbad, CA: California Arco Press, 1983.
Whitehouse, Arch. The Years of the Warbirds. New York: Doubleday, 1960.
Westheimer, David. Rider on the Wind. UK: Sphere, 1979; New York: Walker, 1984.
Wolf, Leon. Low Level Mission. New York: Berkley Publishing Corp., 1957.
Yedlin, Benedict. “In My Sperry Ball I Sit.” Briefing Journal of the International B-24 Liberator, Spring 1999.
NOTES
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PROLOGUE
The chief source for the prologue is the author’s and writer’s interviews with Seymour Meyerowitz.
CHAPTER 1
The chief sources for Chapter 1: U.S. National Archives, Service File No. 32000985, 1941–1945, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz; Sergeant Joseph Defranze, Escape and Evasion Report No. 581; Seething Collections: Lieutenant William H. Thomas: Debrief and Casualty Report, File No. 3093; Account of Loss of B-24 Harmful Lil Armful, 715th Squadron. Statement (Confidential) of Lieutenant A. L. Northrup Jr., Headquarters 44th Bombardment Group. Testimony of Loss of Harmful Lil Armful. Report of Operations Officer, 448th Bombardment Group: Mission of 31 December 1943. Cognac-Chateaubernard and Landes de Bussac, France.
1. The quotations from here to here are drawn from the U.S. National Archives, Service File No. 32000985, 1941–1945, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz; Seething Airfield (UK) Museum, 448th Bomb Group Collection; interviews of Seymour Meyerowitz.
2. U.S. National Archives, Service File No. 32000985, 1941–1945, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz; interview with Seymour Meyerowitz.
3. Interview with Seymour Meyerowitz.
4. U.S. National Archives, Service File No. 32000985, 1941–1945, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz.
5. Ibid.
6. Seymour Meyerowitz, as told to him by Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz.
7. Ibid.
8. U.S. National Archives, Service File No. 32000985, 1941–1945, Sergeant Arthur S. Meyerowitz.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Letter from Arthur Meyerowitz to David and Rose Meyerowitz, October 31, 1943.
12. Seething Airfield (UK) Museum, 448th Bomb Group Collection.
13. “Lieutenant William Blum’s Story,” Seething Airfield (UK) Museum, 448th Bomb Group Collection.
The Lost Airman Page 27