"Walk to Freedom" Details U.S. Airman's Remarkable Story of Encampment as a German Prisoner of War

PHOENIX - April 13, 2016 - PRLog -- June 30, 1944, fifty members of the U.S. Army Air Corps.'s 460th Bomb Group embarked on an important mission to destroy German oil refineries in Silesia, Hungary, only to come under heavy attack. Above dense cloud cover, German twin-engine Me-410 fighters firing 20-millimeter canons blasted seven B-24s out of the sky. Seventeen U.S. airmen were killed, 24 captured, many badly burned, wounded, or beaten to death by Hungarian peasants after parachuting to the ground.

One such airman flying in the number two position, as a top turret gunner of his aircraft, was Tech Sgt. John L. Lenburg. His B-24, "Miss Fortune," was shot down on his thirty-sixth mission over enemy lines near Lake Balaton, Hungary. Forced to bail out, his plane went down in a ball of flames.  The event marked the beginning of a heart-wrenching 327 days of captivity as a German prisoner of war for Lenburg (or "Kriegsgefangenen #6410," the code name the Germans gave him) and his fellow crew.

Now, almost 72 years later, Lenburg's memories of those turbulent times, living in crowded, dingy barracks in a Nazi concentration camp undernourished with little food or water and surviving the inhumane treatment of the Nazis, are vividly described in his newly revised and expanded biography, Walk to Freedom: Kriegsgefangenen #6410 - Prisoner of War ($19.95, Moonwater Press).

The copiously illustrated 338-book tells the remarkable story of Lenburg's imprisonment to his long walk to freedom eleven months after his capture. He recalls the harrowing missions fighting in what historians have called "the bloodiest, costliest war in human history," horrific conditions of his incarceration, and haunting memories of him and his fellow crew during their captivity.

Before his death in November of 2000, Lenburg wrote the book, then titled Kriegsgefangenen #6410 - Prisoner of War, as a lasting tribute to his fellow comrades. The Indiana native appeared at local schools and civic organizations to speak about the great sacrifices made by his generation to preserve freedom.

"My dad published his book so future generations could benefit from his remarkable experiences," said son Jeff Lenburg, a prolific, bestselling author of 32 books who edited his dad's work for publication. "He was extremely proud to have served his country and wanted the whole world to know the sacrifices he and his fellow crew members made."

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Unlike the original edition, Jeff Lenburg says this latest enterprise is the most comprehensive of them all. "My dad's journey from enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps, as it was then called, to his training to fly B-24s, to his fighting in aerial combat missions through his capture are tellingly illustrated," he said. "I spent two years researching, crosschecking the facts, and locating additional imagery to make this a complete visual and verbal representation of his story. My brothers also found and scanned original photographic material from our dad's collection to include. The new book has more than 170 illustrations throughout."

Walk to Freedom: Kriegsgefangenen #6410 - Prisoner of War by John L. Lenburg is through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, online retailers and local bookstores. A free preview of the book is available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0990328740/ref=cm_sw_su_dp.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John L. Lenburg is the author of two books, including a multi-volume Lenburg ancestry based on more than a decade of genealogy research. Lenburg retired to northwest Indiana after working 30 years as a manager with Sears Roebuck & Co. and frequently lectured about his days as a prisoner of war until his death in 2000.

WALK TO FREEDOM: Kriegsgefangenen #6410 - Prisoner of War
By John L. Lenburg
A Moonwater Press Book
338 pages, 175 illustrations
ISBN: 978-0990328742