Byron Logie:  "As we approached the west coast of Denmark there was a high bank of clouds running north to south.  We had climbed to 23,000 feet trying to go over them, but as we approached we could see they were at least 3000 feet above us. We were then told to spread out and take up a heading of 90 degrees and hold that while flying through the clouds.  When we came out on the other side we were scattered all over the sky.  The German fighters were waiting for us and started to attack us before we could get back in formation.  They were yellow nosed ME-109 fighters that were from Goerings crack fighter group, protecting the German sub pens.  Two fighters attacked my plane head on and shot out both inboard engines and also most of our electrical system. The explosion was so loud I had ringing in my left ear for three days. My navigator [Jacobson] had been hit by a piece of shrapnel that had nicked the artery in his neck.  The blood flew everywhere and I knew he had to get to a doctor fast or he would die.  I told my bombardier [Kita] to jump with him and try to get to a doctor.  I found out later that we were still over Germany.  German solders picked them up as soon as they hit the ground. A doctor saw him within fifteen minutes, which saved his life.  After they jumped I told my flight engineer [Scott] to try to get to the tail of the plane to check on the men there, as we had no voice communication.  He only got as far as the door, but two bombs that had not jettisoned had blocked it.

After being attacked and losing two engines my first thought was to try to make it to Sweden.  It was a neutral country and we would not be prisoners of war.  I was losing some altitude, but knew, as I got lower, I could stop losing altitude and make it on two engines.  About that time a third German fighter attacked and shot out a third engine. I could also see a part of the rudder had been hit, but I still had control of the plane.  Now I was losing altitude at from 3000-4000 feet per minute.  My co-pilot turned on the jump alarm. I was hoping that it was sounding in the back of the plane.  I ordered everyone to jump as fast as they could.  I had no way of knowing what was happening in the back of the plane.  I was hoping that they had jumped.  I stayed with the plane as long as I could, giving them as much time as possible.  When I got down to 2000 feet I knew I had to jump then or die in the plane.  I got out of my seat and ran to the bomb bay and jumped.  As soon as I cleared the plane I pulled the ripcord and the chute opened.  What a beautiful sight.  I was down to around 700 feet above the ground when my chute opened. I watched my plane make a wide circle and hit the ground and explode. The plane had crashed in a small Danish village.  I found out later that no one was hurt and that it had set fire to only one small shed that burned.

I landed going backward in a fairly high wind.  I stopped the chute from dragging me and took it off.  I buried my chute in a plowed field were I had landed.  I looked around and saw that I had landed near a farmyard. I ran as fast as I could toward the barn.  There was a stack of hay piled against the barn, so I crawled into it. I got about four feet into the stack and pushed hay back where I had crawled in.  After a short time I heard the bombs explode that were in the plane.  A while later I could hear people coming toward the barn.  When they got near the barn I could tell that there were two or three German soldiers and the Danish farmer.  They came out to where I was hiding and stood about four or five feet from me.  I could tell someone was sticking a pitchfork into the haystack, but he never got near me.  I was afraid the farmer might turn me in.  He was taking a very big, big chance hiding me.  If they caught him the Germans would probably kill him and his family.  He did not give me away although he was standing only a few feet from me and knew where I was.

I stayed in the haystack until about midnight.  After I crawled out I went inside the barn and stood at the door so I could see the house. I could see three people standing around talking. Two of the men soon left. In about a half an hour I saw the farmer walking toward the barn.  I then stood in the doorway so he could see me.  He motioned me to follow him to the house.  When we got inside he called his daughter who was about 15 years old.  He said something to her and she would relay the information to me in broken English.  She asked me if I was hungry.  I told her I was and they fixed me some sandwiches and milk.  After I ate she asked me different questions that she would relay to the others.  At first she was very shy about her English, but as we talked she got much better.  She told me her dad had contacted someone that would come and pick me up.  At one thirty a young man came in.  He told me that a pickup truck would come by in thirty minutes and we would jump on it and hide in the box.  Then he would drive us to a place were I would be safe.  I thanked the farmer and his wife for hiding me and for the food. I also thanked the girl and told her that her English was very good.  She just smiled and thanked me.

[Four years ago I got a package from the girl that I had talked to in her father’s home.  She had dug up my parachute and they had used it to make several things.  She cut out a piece about three feet square and sent it to me.  It is one of my most prized possessions as it had saved my life.  Also the boy that had helped my co-pilot [Reed] and radio operator [Murphy] escape came to see me four years ago.  Him and his wife stayed with us five days. The local TV station came out and took some pictures. They had visited the rest of my crew that was alive and the widows of my crew that were dead. He is a Danish farmer and the girl I talked to is his sister-in-law.  I am now the last member of my crew still alive. Ejvind Friis Jensen, the boy who helped Reed and Murphy are good friends of ours.  We send letters and email to each other all the time.]

After we jumped in the pickup truck we drove for twenty minutes, and stopped at a house in a small village. We went to the house and were met at the door by a man in his forties.  He greeted me with perfect English and he told me he was a doctor who had studied medicine in California.  I stayed at his place for eight days.  He said it was too dangerous to travel as the Germans were looking for us. They were stopping and searching every vehicle.  Later that week he told me they were going to try to move me.  They wanted to get me to Copenhagen. In the afternoon an ambulance stopped and the driver came in with an ambulance uniform for me.   After I got it on he told me that I would be his helper.  If the Germans stopped us I was not to speak.  If they talked to me he would tell them I was a mute.   About dark we got into the ambulance and started out.  Everything went well for the first hour then we were stopped at a German roadblock. I was scared as hell and I was hoping it didn't show.  The driver showed the guard some papers as they talked in German.  In less then ten minutes they waved us through.  We were stopped once more and it was about the same. I tell you, I was very nervous and I was shaking inside.  We got to a good size city and went to a residential area and stopped at a nice house.  We went in and a couple that had one child greeted us.  I was told that he was on the police force and his twin brother was also.  They were both over six feet and looked every bit the part.  I stayed with them two days and then I was back in the ambulance with the same driver.

 He told me that this time we were going to try to make it to Copenhagen.  He said the Germans had evidently given up looking for us on the road.  We had better luck this time, as we were not stopped.  When we got to Copenhagen we stopped at a four-story apartment building.  We walked up to the fourth floor (no elevator) and knocked on the door.  A young man came to the door and let us in.   There were three men that were all college students.  They talked for ten minutes or so and the ambulance driver left.  All three of them could speak English so it was pretty good.  They told me they would be in school during the week and that I had to be very quiet as on the other three floors lived families of German soldiers.  They told me that we would go out to eat and that I had to learn to keep my fork in my left hand or the Germans as well as the Danes would know I was an American. At every meal they would coach me on how the Europeans ate. To this day I still hold my fork in my left hand a lot of the time.  On the fourth day we all went to the train station that had a nice cafe.  They all ordered and they ordered a meal for me.  We had just about finished when German soldiers came in and blocked all the doors and started to check ID's as people left. The men told me to finish eating, and if the Germans were still there, to go to a restroom. They said I should stay there as long as I could and then check to see if the Germans had left. They [the Danes] left and I watched them getting their ID's checked.  They all passed through without a problem.  I sat at the table for about fifteen minutes more and then went to the rest room. There were three rest rooms so I would spend some time in each.  I stayed about fifteen minutes in each, but it seemed like an hour.  I did this three times and each time the Germans were still there.  The fourth time they were gone so I waited a few minutes and walked out of the station.  As I walked I wondered what I was going to do to contact someone.  You may have noticed that I have called no one by name. The reason they would not tell me their names was if I got caught I would not be able to tell the Germans who was helping me. After leaving the train station I had walked three or four blocks when a cab pulled up and one of the men told me to get in.  I tell you, I couldn't have been happier to see someone in my life. I knew this had been a very close call and someone could have spotted me and turned me in.  He told me he was taking me to another place that would be safer.

We drove for about thirty minutes and came to a large house that had a six foot steel gate and a fence around the yard the same [height].  The cab driver got out and talked to someone on the intercom.  He got back in the cab and the gate opened and we drove in.  When we got out of the cab an elderly women greeted us and invited us in.  When we got inside several young couples greeted me.  I was taken upstairs to a bedroom where they gave me a change of clothing.  I took a bath, dressed and came downstairs.  Most of the young couples could speak English and started asking me questions.  The elderly lady asked me if I smoked. I told her I did and she gave me a metal box of Lucky Strikes. I had seen them before the war. Everyone had drinks and they gave me one.  After awhile they started playing music on a Jukebox.  Couples started to dance and soon a young lady asked me if I could dance and I told her yes.  After I danced with her, every lady there asked me to dance.  I had a very good time dancing and having a few drinks. About 2:00 a.m. everyone started to leave.  They all said goodbye and told me they were glad to have met me.  They also wished me luck getting to Sweden. I went to bed and didn't get up until 9:30 the next day.  When I got up no one was there except a servant and a cook.  She cooked me breakfast of pancakes, ham, eggs, toast and coffee. That was the best meal I had had since I was shot down.  About noon the lady of the house returned and she had a lunch prepared.  She told me her nephew, who was 16, would be over and we could play pool or cards. She also had a couple of English novels she gave me to read.  The nephew and I would play pool or cards every day.  We started taking walks to his home that was seven blocks away.  There was a German radar site about half way to his house.  There were always two or three German guards walking around the site.  They would eyeball us as we walked on the other side of the street, but they never stopped us.   Now I wonder what I would have done if they had stopped us. I would have probably become a prisoner of war.  Now I feel it was a foolish thing to do.

 On the sixth day the lady of the house told me they were moving me closer to the docks. She called a cab and had the cab driver put her bike on a rack of the cab.  We drove to downtown Copenhagen, which was about five miles, and stopped in front of a very nice apartment building.  The cab driver took the woman’s bike off of the cab and she parked it inside when the doorman let us in.  She told me she was going to ride her bike back home.  I couldn't believe it since she looked in her mid-sixties or older.  We took an elevator to the second floor and went into a beautiful apartment.  I was introduced to a lady who I found out was named Andersen.  I was told she was a movie star and an opera singer.   The elderly women left in about an hour.  Her husband came home and I met him.  I was told he was a writer of novels and plays. They were well known in Denmark and parts of Europe.  I stayed with them only two days when they said that the Danish Resistance would be trying to get me to Sweden.

The next day I was taken by cab to a large warehouse type building near the waterfront.  We went into the building and there I met several couples and children who lived there and in other parts of town.  Two of the couples I had met at the large house with the steel gate were there.  I was moved every day to a new location, but always ended up at the warehouse during the day.  They showed me a lot of guns, some of them German 9 millimeter pistols that the German officers wore. I did not ask them how they got them. We mostly played cards and they gave me some coins so I could play poker with them.  When it was my turn to deal I said, “We will play five card stud.”  They told me they had never heard of the game.  Anyway I taught them how to play five and seven card stud.  I also helped make some pipe and gasoline bombs. While I was in Denmark the Danish Queen had a baby girl [Cecilia Bernadotte, born in Stockholm on April 9, 1944].  The Germans would not let them shoot the cannons to announce the arrival of the Royal birth so the Danes set off eighteen pipe bombs near the palace. They said they had thrown several gasoline bombs at a grenade factory and burned it to the ground. They also fastened a steel wire loop to both ends of a strong stick.  They said they could slip the wire loop over a persons head twist the stick and kill the person without a sound.  That kind of put chills down my back.  From that I figured out how they got the German guns so I didn't have to ask.  One day they asked me if I would like to go for a cab ride.  I said sure and we drove to uptown Copenhagen.  As we passed a large brick building they told me that it was the German Gestapo Headquarters.  The cab stopped about three blocks past the building. They said, “Watch out the back window of the cab.”  About ten minutes later there was a very loud blast that shook the cab.  All I could see was smoke and fire and the whole front of the building was gone.  People were running everywhere. The cab pulled out and we were gone.  I was told that many Germans had been killed in the blast.  The Germans arrested everyone that was near the blast.  They said many Danes would be shot and some would be put in jail.   I wondered if this was the thing to do, as the Germans would retaliate by killing a lot of innocent Danes.

The third day I was there an older man came to the apartment at ten in the morning.  He told me I would be going to Sweden the next day.   He said I should not eat or drink anything after ten that night because we would not be able to go to the bathroom for about seven hours.   He said that the people I was living with would take me to the warehouse at 2:00 in the morning. The next morning we walked to a warehouse that was on the water.  As we got near the warehouse we had to wait for the signal to come in.  As we were entering I could see a couple of German guards walking in front of the warehouses.  We entered as the guards were walking away from us.   When inside, I saw sixteen or seventeen men, women and children.  There was also a mother with a six-month-old baby.  They were Jewish refugees who were also trying to escape the Germans.  We were told we would be going to Sweden on a barge carrying empty beer cases.  The barge was about thirty feet long with an open hull where the beer cases were stacked.  Along the side of the beer cases and the side of the barge there was a four-foot space. To get the women or children on the barge, they would leave one at a time.  A man would pick up two or three cases of empty beer bottles and walk to the barge, shielding the woman or child from the guard. When they got to the barge the woman or child would crawl into the space around the beer cases. Then the man would return to the warehouse to get another person.  They did this until all the women and young children were on the barge.  The older boys and men would pick up a couple of beer cases and go to the barge and crawl into the hiding space.  I was one of the last to get on the barge.   One of the Jewish boys who was about twelve and I picked up a couple of cases and walked to the barge.  We put down the beer cases and crawled into our space. When the last person got in the hiding space they piled beer cases in the space where we had entered.  It was still night and where we sat it was pitch black dark. We sat at the dock for another hour. The crew kept piling beer cases on the barge.  The beer cases were piled about six feet above the deck. After an hour or so they started the engine.  They backed up and then we felt the barge start forward and we were on our way.

The boat that took Byron Logie to Sweden

Courtesy: Finn Buch

We were only gone a few minutes when we heard a loud knock on the deck. That was the signal that a German patrol boat was signaling them to stop. Before we left we were told that we had to be absolutely quiet. If the German guards didn't make them turn off the barge engine it wasn't as important that we be quiet.  If they made them turn off the engines then there had to be no noise at all.  When they did that the Germans would listen for any noise that might reveal a hiding space.   If a baby or a young child began to cry or make any noise the [parents] were told that they had to press a pillow over the child’s face.  If needed they had to hold it there until the child passed out.  While we sat there I could feel the boy beside me was shaking with fear.  I put my arm around him and held him close.  That seemed to calm him down some.  I also whispered to him that we would be okay, that every thing would be all right, I didn't know if he understood English, but I was hoping.   As I sat there it dawned on me, “Here I am in the hull of this barge with sixteen or seventeen Jewish refugees.  What in the hell am I doing here?  What would happen if the Germans discovered us?”  I could just imagine what the Germans would do; they would probably kill everyone and ask questions later.  I did have my dog tags, but I was quite sure they would not ask to see them. After about fifteen minutes we could hear the German soldiers leave the barge. The crew put the engines in gear and we were on our way to Sweden.  I know everyone was praying that we wouldn't be stopped again.  We had been gone about two hours when we heard them knock again. For some reason it seemed to me everyone including the young children were very quiet. It seemed to me everyone knew we were very close to freedom.  Even the young man beside me didn't seem to shake as much. I don't remember shaking myself, but I am sure I did.  We could hear German soldiers come aboard and we could hear them talking to the crew. We could tell the German soldiers were checking their passes and the cargo. This time they stayed a lot longer. I could feel the tension build the longer they stayed.  After what seemed an hour we heard the Germans leave. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then we were on our way again and happy the Germans had let us go.  I am sure everyone hoped that we would not be stopped again.  The old barge engine churned away for what seemed like hours.   Then, all of a sudden, we could hear the crew moving the beer cases.  We saw the light of day and they told us to come out on deck.  We were in Swedish waters and we had escaped the Germans. Every one was smiling and hugging each other.  What a wonderful feeling that was.  I am sure no one could imagine how I felt or how the others felt.   As I sat on the deck, all of a sudden tears came to my eyes and I started to cry. I got up and walked behind some beer cases and sat down.  I had been under so much tension for so long it just had to come out.  After I stopped crying I felt much better and I guess it was what I needed to do.  I learned that the young boy that sat beside me had been going to school.  One evening as he came close to his home he saw Germans soldiers taking his mother and father away.  It was no wonder he had been so afraid. I have often wondered if he ever saw his mother and father again. He did not speak English, but as we departed I shook his hand and we gave each other a hug.  He smiled and said something.  I am sure he was thanking me for helping him through this ordeal.

 Well, we were in Malmo, Sweden in Swedish custody. After they finger printed me and asked a few questions they let me go. After they found out I was an American airman they shook my hand and said they were glad I got away.  A short time later I was headed for Stockholm with one of the barge crew. About three days after I got to Stockholm, my radio operator [Murphy] and co-pilot [Reed] arrived.  I was sure glad to see them. I had not seen or heard about any of my crew since we were shot down.  I had no idea what was happening to any of them.  I found out that the four men in the back of the plane had all died when the plane crashed.  No one knew if they were dead or alive before the crash.  At the American Air Attaché Office they told me that Jacobson, my navigator, and Kita, my bombardier were captured soon after they hit the ground.  They didn't know if Jacobson had died when I told them about his neck wound.  They also didn't know anything about my flight engineer Scott.  They said he might still be trying to escape.  Later I found out he was a prisoner of war.

We stayed in Stockholm for two or three weeks.  The Air Attaché Office gave us our pay and also gave us money to buy civilian clothes.  One thing they told us that I would never forget; they said if we saw a drunken person on the street, you could take a hundred to one odds that it was an American. That says something about our drinking laws.  Most countries in Europe have no age limit for drinking.  We were put up in the Continental Hotel in Stockholm.  We each had a nice room and bath.  We were on the third floor and could look down on one of the main streets. 

We ate in the hotel dining room most of the time.  All the restaurants had very good food and I am sure I gained ten pounds or more. They told us not to leave any papers or other things that might be used by the Germans.  They said that the hotel workers that were loyal to the Germans would pass anything on that might be used against us. We went to movies even though they were all in Swedish. We bought watches and other things that we could not get in England.  At night there were a couple of dance places we could pay per dance.  I met a couple of Swedish girls that could speak good English.  That sure helped pass the time. Stockholm is a beautiful city and I would often walk for a mile or so just to see the sights. Every weekend you could see trains loaded with Swedish women going up to the ski resorts.  They allowed the war prisoners to get out of the prison camps and go to the ski resorts.

After three weeks they told us that we would be flying back to England by way of Scotland.  About eight that night we got on a small bus that would take us to the airport.  Well, I guess the driver was taking a short cut.  He drove under a low underpass and wedged the top of the bus in the underpass.  In about an hour a staff car picked us up and returned us to the hotel.  We stayed another couple of days and then made another try.  This time we made it and landed in Scotland about 1:30 in the morning.  They put us up in a Scottish army barracks that was about the filthiest place I had ever been in.  I am sure the sheets and bedding had not been changed for months. Thank God they flew us to England the next day.

As soon as I got back to England I called my folks in Hampden, North Dakota.  My mother answered the phone and was surprised to hear from me, but they already knew that I had escaped to Sweden.  My uncle Carl had read a newspaper article in a Los Angeles paper that said two of my crew and I had escaped to Sweden.  They were very happy and I said I would be home in a week or so.  Well, you guessed it; the Army had other plans for me.  I was first flown to London for physicals and debriefings.   Then I went back to my home base at Norwich, England.

 I was glad to see some of my old friends that were in the original squadron. There were 180 combat crewmembers in the original squadron. We were all told we had to fly twenty combat missions before we would be returned to the States.  When I returned to my squadron there was only 33 combat crewmembers of the original squadron. I don't know how many crews had completed twenty combat missions. All the rest of the crews had been shot down or were killed in crashes when returning from raids.   One of the crews completed his twenty missions just after I got back.  In his crew only six were members of the original crew.  Of the other two crews, one had three missions to fly the other had two. In those two crews I didn't find out how many were in the original squadron.   I left before either of the other two crews finished their twenty missions. I do very much hope they made it.  This doesn't mean that the 147 seven crewmembers were all dead.  It could be that many of the crewmembers were prisoners of war and others could still be hiding in the country were they were shot down. Some were killed on a bombing mission and came back in the plane.  They had to be replaced by the replacement crews. You can see your odds of completing just twenty missions at that time were really high.  Just before the invasion of Europe, the number of missions had been raised to thirty.  By the time we invaded Europe we had air superiority so that helped a lot.  When I got back they had set up meetings with combat crews at several of the air bases.  I was supposed to talk to the aircrews about how to hide from the Germans, how to contact the underground and also answer as many questions as I could.  I don't think I was much help as the help had come to me.  I didn't have to do any of the things they wanted me to talk about.

They finally flew me back to the States about the middle of June.  We landed at Washington, D.C. and I was very happy to be back in the good old U.S. of A. After more debriefings and physicals I was sent home on a thirty-day leave.  It was great to be back in North Dakota and to visit with my folks and friends.   When my leave was over they sent me to a convalescent hospital at Denver, Colorado.  I stayed there for two months.  It was nice as they had a couple of fishponds on the grounds with trout. I fished about every day after seeing the shrink for an hour.  I guess I said the right thing on my first meeting, when I told him I was having dreams of blood splattering on the navigation dome and of fighters attacking my plane.  I don't think he helped much, but after a couple of years the dreams gradually stopped.  When I left the hospital they returned me to full flight status and I was back flying again which was great.

I can't end this without saying something about my crew.  The B24 that I flew had a nose turret with two fifty-caliber machine guns. It had a top turret, a tail turret and a belly turret with the same guns.  It also had two flexible waist guns that could shoot out the sides of the plane. 

I was assigned my crew in Boise, Idaho about the last part of summer in 1943.  Every member of my crew was single.  I think I had the only crew in our group where everyone was single.  I can't say enough about how good my crew was.  I had the best radio operator in the group.  He could get me a message or a weather report in a few minutes.  My engineer was also very good as well as the rest of my crew.  We were always in the top ten in practice bombing.  In gunnery we were the top crew most of the time.  My squadron commander [Major Donald C. Jamison] once asked me if I would trade crews with him and I told him no way. If he wanted to he could have taken my crew without asking.  Not a single member ever got into trouble where I had to bail him out of jail and that was more than most pilots could say.  So you can see why I was very proud of them.

                                                               Mission list compiled from 458th BG records

 Photo: Jean Morris

Photo: Alan Sheren

Photo: Finn Buch

The following photgraphs were very generously supplied by Bent Esbensen of Denmark.  His father, Svend Henry Esbensen, was part of the CBU (fire brigade) who cleared the Venslev area where Logie's B-24 crashed.  These photos were taken by him at that time.  After his service in the CBU, Svend Esbensen joined the Danish Resistance in mid-1944 and served until the end of the war.

CBU Naestved Rescue Team ("White Team")

Svend Henry Esbensen is 2nd man in the right wing

CBU Team members at the B-24 crash site. 

It is not known if the damage to the building in the background was a result of the crash.

Another apparently damaged building.

One of the 500lb bombs from Logie's Liberator

Parts of an engine and a propeller hub amonsgt additional wreckage

Members of the CBU "White Team" at the funeral ceremony for members of Logie's crew

Remains of Sgt John H. Schramm are buried at Venslev cemetery (later moved to Svino Cemetery).

Members of the Danish Resistance.  Svend Esbensen is wearing the white coat in center.