This book is a faithful copy of the journal kept by 27 year old Lt. John G. Schweigart of the United States Army Air Forces. On July 27, 1944 he was co-piloting a B-24 Liberator, heavy bomber on a mission over Budapest, Hungary to bomb the Manfried Weiss Armament Works . The formation of forty bombers was attacked by more than fifty enemy fighters. Six of the US bombers were lost with thirty-six airmen killed or missing and twenty-four captured by the Germans.



John Schweigart’s bomber was one of the planes shot down that day. Five of the ten crew members were killed. John was captured and sent to the German prisoner of war camp for pilots, Stalag ~ Luft III, near Sagan, Germany. This journal is a painstaking and fascinating account of his experience as a prisoner of war.