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by Jim Gamble (Author)
Innocents Abroad is a memoir, although the original purpose was to preserve for my children and grandchildren two Logs which described forced marches across Poland and Germany while I was a Prisoner of War during WW II. I obtained two War Time Logs and filled them with day-to-day accounts of our forced march out of Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany (now Poland) in January 1945 and later our march from Nurnberg to Moosberg, Germany. I discovered these logs in 2004 in my bookcase, 60 years later. They were written in pencil, barely legible, sometimes under dreadful weather conditions. I decided to copy them before they became completely unreadable. I have read many accounts of the forced walks prisoners made during the winter of 1945. I found them fascinating, but most of them were written many years after the event. As I read my logs, I realized it is the only day-by-day account of the hardships encountered by the 12,000 prisoners. Later when we walked out the Nurnberg the numbers swelled to over 100,000. I received considerable encouragement from the Secretary of the 467th Bomb Group Organization to enlarge the scope of the account to include a biographical account of my life leading up to my experiences as a POW and of my life following WW II. I didn't become a member of the 467th Bomb Group Organization until they held a reunion in San Antonio, Texas. Since that time I have not missed any of the reunions. At these events, I have met many children who had a parent who served in the 467th Bomb Group. They have expressed keen interest in reading this account since it may also parallel the experiences of one of their parents.
