Back From the Dead

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

Westfield native Larry Cloud, who pops up in this column occasionally, recently sent me copies of a number of documents related to the service of his uncle, William Stanton Cloud, during World War II.

In many ways, the experiences of Larry’s “Uncle Bill” were like those of any other young man who fought in that war. Most of them, however, probably couldn’t claim to have “come back from the dead.”

Cloud enlisted in the army in June of 1942. After spending some time in the States being trained as a radio operator and a gunner, he was sent overseas to England.

At some point he was assigned to the 379th Bomb Group, 524th Squadron, of the 8th Air Force. (I’m not that familiar with military terminology, hierarchy or procedures, so if I have any of that wrong, please let me know.)

On the morning of July 30, 1943, the now Technical Sgt. Cloud was a member of a ten-man B-17 crew that flew out of Kimbolton, England, as part of a mission to attack the Fieseler aircraft factory in Kassel, Germany.

Due to fog or cloud cover and their position at the rear of the formation, no one in the other planes really saw what happened to them.

According to the War Department’s official report, their aircraft exploded due to an “unknown” cause, but all crew members left the plane. (It’s not clear how that was known since only one parachute was observed to have opened.)

Four of the crew survived. The others were either killed by the explosion or what happened afterward. No details of their fates were included in the report.

About two weeks after Sgt. Cloud’s aircraft went down, the War Department notified his parents, Homer and May, that their son was missing in action. A little over a month later, they were informed of his death.

As far as everyone knew, that was the truth.

Sgt. Cloud’s heartbroken parents collected on a personal insurance policy he carried and a memorial service was held for him and another Westfield soldier during the dedication of a plaque inscribed with the names of 152 Washington Township servicemen.

In reality, Sgt. Cloud had been captured by the Germans. He was now a prisoner of war and had been sent to the infamous Stalag 17B POW camp in Austria.

(If the name of that camp sounds familiar, it’s probably because “Stalag 17” was a Broadway play and a motion picture that netted William Holden an Oscar.)

At the end of October, Sgt. Cloud’s parents learned he was still alive from an Ohio woman who’d caught a shortwave radio broadcast from Germany. The broadcast reported that the sergeant had asked that word be sent to his family that he was a prisoner.

Oddly enough, that same day the Clouds also received an official notice of his status from the War Department.

The overjoyed parents happily gave back all the money they’d received from the insurance company as they awaited the sergeant’s return.

While at the prison camp, Sgt. Cloud managed to get at least one censored letter out to his parents. In it, he mentioned that his left eye had been injured, but that he was being treated by specialists and the eye was improving.

In September, 1944, the Clouds received word that their son would be among a group of exchanged prisoners being transported back to the States on the Gripsholm, a Swedish cruise ship chartered by the U. S. government for that purpose.

Once back in the United States, Sgt. Cloud spent a few days in the hospital at Camp Atterbury, then he was finally reunited with his family in Westfield.

Although basically healthy, he lost his injured eye. That disability meant the war was over for him.

Larry still has his uncle’s Purple Heart.

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at [email protected]