It was a beautiful
Saturday afternoon when I met with John Repp at the Canton Public Library. Neither of us were looking forward to
spending time indoors on such a gorgeous day, but the interview proved to by
well worthwhile. We were allowed to use a private study room in which we became
acquainted before beginning the actual interview. Mr. Repp was kind enough to
bring in journals of his accounts in WWII to share with me.
Q: Ok, let’s just start with your name.
John: John Repp.
Q: And you were in the Air Force, correct?
John: Air force, 15th Air Force. Based in Italy. 15th Air Force of the 464th bomb group
with the 777th squadron.
Q: Did you enlist or were you drafted?
John: No, I enlisted.
Q: Did you want to go? Why'd you decide to enlist?
John: Well, all my friends were going and I almost got drafted. I
enlisted, and I think a week after I enlisted, I got a notice to report to the
draft board, but I didn't have to go to that.
Q: Right... Do you remember when that was?
John: Yes... It was in December 1942. I was 18. That's when I enlisted
and I reported for active duty in February 1943.
Q: So what were your feelings about going... Excited? Nervous?
John: Well, I guess we were excited. We were young. All the young boys
were going. And it was a new experience.
Q: So what happened when you got over there?
John: Overseas? Well of course it took awhile before we got over there.
I didn't get overseas until October of 1944. In between was training. New
Jersey, that's were it started, then Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, oh, and
before that was Georgia, and then Alabama again. That was for bomber training.
Q: But you were a pilot, right?
John: Yes.
Q: What was that like?
John: Well, we reported to
Virginia. . . and then we got in a plane and flew - ferried the plane - across
the ocean to Italy.
Q: And that's were the base was?
John: Yes. That's were we ran our missions.
Q: What kind of plane did you fly?
John: B-24s - “the flying boxcar” they called it. (laughs)
Q: Why did they call it that?
John: Well, it looked like a boxcar. It was big. I have a picture I
drew of it here somewhere (going through journals)
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Q: I know you were a prisoner of war. I was wondering if you could tell
me a little about that.
John: Well, it was on our fifth mission. We had a bombing target, an
oil refinery, in Germany. And we got several bomb hits on the way and we had to
parachute out.
Q: Was that scary?
John: It was scary, but you learned quick. When we landed we were
captured and went back to an interrogation center. And then after a few more
trips we got to our destination, which was on the Baltic Sea. Stalag Luft I.
And we were there from early December until June. Almost six months. We were
liberated in 1945.
Q: What were your feelings on that? What was going through your head
when you were captured?
John: It’s kinda hard to recall. You didn't know what was going
to happen. I could see, as I parachuted out, I could see soldiers on the
ground. And after I hit the ground I gathered up my chute and I was gonna try
to make it to the woods. It was a big field though, and I heard them holler
‘Pistola’. And I kinda, didn't quite know what they were talking
about, but I raised my hand and they came over and took my weapon, I had a
weapon – a 45 automatic - and they took that. They wanted to know how to
operate it, so I showed them. And they just shot the ground. Then they took us into the village and
to the boxcars for the camp.
Q: How long was that trip?
John: Oh, probably 3 or 4 days. There were boxcars. They called them
‘40 and 8’ - Forty men or eight horses.
Q: So how many of you were in there? How many were captured?
John: Well, it was our crew - They didn't catch us all. There were six
of us. Two men had gone down with the plane, but they got out all right. And
two others, they got into what they call the partisans. Now one of them was
captured, but the other man, he got out through Russia. And he got home just a
few weeks before we did. He had a long trip back through Russia. It was a long
trip for him.
Q: And after being captured, and finally getting there, how were things
at the camp?
John: Well, there were 24 of us in a room. Kinda compact. Not much
bigger than this room. There were three tier bunks -- 18 on one side, 6 on the
other. And we had a stove and were able to cook, do some cooking. And we also
had an allotment of Red Cross parcels. Various things: cigarettes, chocolate,
cheese, few odds and ends ..... But it was a big camp, maybe 10,000.
They shot down a lot of boys.