World War II from a Waist Gunner's View of Stalag 17

About the Book

War, guns, bombs and waist gunners—far removed from the small town of Fowler, Colorado, population about 1200, twenty-eight miles east of Pueblo, Colorado on Highway 50. I lived there with my Dad, Ray, who was Pastor of the Second Baptist church, my Mom, Florence, grandmother, Dora Kelley; older brother Fred, who went into the Army a year before I did, and my sister Lorene. Germany, with the leadership of Hitler had overrun several small countries—the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Austria; as well as the war with Russia and England, incarcerating all the Jews as he went along. The United States was furnishing England with food and all types of war supplies. Then a state of shock fell upon our country and our small town of Fowler when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. On December 8, 1941, our government declared war on Japan. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and we in turn declared war on Germany the same day.

About the Author

Luther Irwin Kelley, born 1924, in Lexington, Oklahoma, son of Ray and Florence Kelley. They moved to Colorado in 1933. Irwin completed high school in Fowler, Colorado in 1943, going into the military service before his graduation ceremony. He was fortunate enough to be assigned to the Army Air Corp. His love of flying started when he took his first plane ride at age eleven. He didn’t get to do much flying because on his first mission they were shot down and crash-landed in a German Infantry field. They immediately became prisoners of war.