WWII – Page 2 – The Chuck Yeager Foundation

World War II: Waiting Orders to Go Back on Combat

By Victoria Yeager / May 15, 2014

While waiting to get back on combat, after returning from being shot down, I was doing some maintenance and training the new guys. I was up in the air mock dogfighting with a couple of new guys when Base Ops called: Are your guns hot? Me: Yes. BO: Go out over the North Sea, there’s…

Tiede Refuses to I.D. me and Almost Gets US Both Court-martialed.

By Victoria Yeager / May 15, 2014

After returning to England from being shot down, working with the Maquis and French Underground, escaping over the Pyrenees full of snow, I was taken to a panel of three colonels whose job is to determine if I am who I say I am and not a spy. They brought a guy from my squadron…

March 1944 – Escaping the Germans – Pyrenees – Slow Going

By Victoria Yeager / April 19, 2014

Exhausted from climbing for 2 days and a night in three foot thick snow, close in trees, not much to eat, we fell asleep in a hut we came upon. It seemed like minutes later when we heard gunfire. The Germans had spotted the other guys socks he had hung out to dry. Shoot, then…

March 1944: Escaping the Germans over the Pyrenees

By Victoria Yeager / April 6, 2014

By the first light, we set out in the rain, deciding to at least start out together and see how it goes. By noon, two of us have made it to the timberline in gale winds. The others are not even in sight. The French have provided bread, cheese, and chocolate in our knapsacks. The…

March 26, 1944: Pyrenees Foothills: AVOID border Spanish-might sell us to Gestapo

By Victoria Yeager / April 2, 2014

The moment I hop in the back, the truck takes off. There are four or five other guys seated on the benches, and nobody says a word. mainly because they are too busy hanging on while the driver barrels down twisting backstreets, doing fifty or better. I hear the guy seated next to me mutter,…

March 25, 1944: Maquis Kick Me Out

By Victoria Yeager / April 1, 2014

The Maquis live off the villages, not off the woods. The villages are dangerous, crawling with Germans and Vichy police, but guys slip into town to buy food, cigarettes, and medicine, using phony ration stamps and money. I’m amazed that no one is ever caught, or if they are, maybe I’m not told about it.…

March 24, 1944, Maquis’ Moon-face

By Victoria Yeager / March 31, 2014

I’m the first American pilot they’ve encountered and they’re curious about what I think of the German air force. I tell them that the FockeWuld 190 is a damned good fighter, probably on a part iwth our own P-51 Mustang: but the Mustang using 108 gallon wing tanks, can escort bombers and dogfight deep into…

March 23, 1944: In the woods with Maquis

By Victoria Yeager / March 30, 2014

The Fiesler Storches (German spotter planes) haven’t found us….yet. We’re well-armed – British Sten guns, Spanish .38 Llama automatics – and I’d love to fire off a couple of bursts at one of those damned Storches, hit the radiator in its belly, and bring it down. But if the pilot radioed our location, we’d have…

March 22, 1944: Hiding from German Air Patrols

By Victoria Yeager / March 29, 2014

March 22, 1944. We are in the woods, eating. It’s early morning. We hear the German patrol airplane. Everyone stops still. We listen. It’s fairly close. We check our surroundings. We are under good cover but…recently a few of the guys had gone off and ambushed a German patrol. The Germans are very angry. No…

March 20-21, 1944: Evading Germans & Recon planes

By Victoria Yeager / March 21, 2014

Most of the time I have no idea where we are. We are constantly on the move, making camp twice a day to eat and sleep never staying anywhere more than a few hours at a time. The Germans are always hunting for us, their Fiesler Storches skinning in low over the forest while we…

March 18-19, 1944. WWII.In the Woods with the Maquis

By Victoria Yeager / March 20, 2014

March 18-19, 2014 We bike ride back to Nerac in record time and sack out in the shed at Gabriel’s. At night, Raoul leaves. Gabriel takes me out in the forest. Uh oh. We hike for hours. I’m on guard. Where is he taking me? Why? I try not to think about how freezing cold…

March 17-19, 1944: WWII. Blowing up Bridges.

By Victoria Yeager / March 18, 2014

March 17, ’44: Gabriel sends me with Raoul by bicycle up to Gabriel’s family home. I don’t know anything except I’m to go with Raoul. Hope I can trust him. We get to Gabriel’s parents’ house in about 3 hours. My legs are a bit stiff but I don’t have an alternative or a car.…