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he drop was at Driel,
Holland, D-plus-4. Lt. Dawkins ship was hit just before reaching the
DZ, and in the initial AA burst Lt. Dawkins was wounded in the head and
face. After being hit, Lt. Dawkins recalled, it seemed only seconds
before the No. 1 engine quit and there was the drop zone. During the
drop we continued to be hit by heavy stuff, and the light stuff was like
flying through a rain storm. Lt. Dawkins and crew lost aileron and
elevator control in the onslaught, and by then the left wing and engine
were both on fire
Now at 300 feet and descending, Lt. Dawkins sent his crew to the rear
to bail out. Lt. Worley had been wounded and was helped out of the
cockpit by T/Sgt. Witte. As the crew made their way to the back, their
weight brought the nose of the plane up and the ship climbed back to 300
feet. All got out except Dawkins, who stayed at the controls until his
crew jumped. After the men bailed out, the nose of the C-47 went down
once more, and German anti-aircraft positions continued to pour on heavy
fire. The doomed ship was rocked again by heavy shelling and Lt. Dawkins
parachute pack was ripped open. A heavy shell hit just under the cockpit
and blew the aircraft apart. Lt. Dawkins was blown out and clear of the
aircraft, but now not far above the ground. He landed, improbably, in
the river with no parachute. A German tank crew fished him out and he
came to on the back of a Kraut tank roaring down a blacktop road. I was
confused! Stiff as a board, bleeding and just able to recognize a P-47
making a strafing run from the rear. I rolled off into a ditch, but
couldnt move.
Several Dutch civilians quickly came to his aid, tended his wounds,
and tried unsuccessfully to convince the Germans that Lt. Dawkins condition was such that he could not be moved. Later, Dawkins
was given some warm clothing by a captured Polish trooper. He was kept
in a German firstaid tent that night and the next day (Friday,
D-plus-5). The tent was open and Lt. Dawkins said he was amazed at the number of troops and tanks in the area, as we
had been briefed that there wasnt anything much [there]. It seemed a full-scale war was going
on. Friday night, 23 September, Lt. Dawkins managed to get away
from the tent and crept away, hoping to find some civilians. I dont know how far I got, but near the river I fell into a hole
with two Kraut soldiers. They started jabbering at me and finally
realized I was the enemy. They took me to an officer . . . .
Later Lt. Dawkins was transported to Stalag Luft I at Barth. As the
months went by, prisoners were discouraged by deteriorating conditions
at the camp and then worsening news on the war as the Battle of the
Bulge began. They listed to updates from the BBC on a hidden radio set.
On 2 January, 1945 Let. Dawkins and two other prisoners went over the fence. One was shot and killed, the dogs caught one,
but I managed to get away. After two weeks of walking in the snow, I
made contact with a Russian recon armored group. As they had just been
re-equipped with U.S. equipment . . . nothing was too good [for me]. The
CO was a peg-legged former pilot who had earlier flown P-39s from Offut
Air Force Base, Nebraska through Alaska to Vladivostok, and had later
been shot down and lost a leg. Lt. Dawkins stayed with this outfit until late May 1945 when
they met up with a British unit. Soon he was transported to Camp Lucky
Strike and within a month was back in the States.
Lt. Cecil Dawkins received the DSC from the USAAF, and was later
presented with the Dutch Order of the Bronze Lion by the Queen of the
Netherlands. |
