A soldier's story

Local veteran, wife recall hardships of WWII

Keith Gedamke / The Item Sam LeNoir looks for photographs of his family members at Sumter High School on Monday. The school's hands on history program collected the photographs of Sumter's veterans and has more than 800 on display in the school's foyer.

By HARRY BURCHSTEAD
Special to The Item

In early September this year, one of my neighbors suggested that I interview another member of the neighborhood, Jimmy Harrelson, and write an account of his service during World War II. My wife and I have been living in this neighborhood for over 30 years and we've known Jimmy and his wife, Alice, much longer than that. I knew absolutely nothing of his wartime service.

Until this year, it was something that Jimmy didn't want to discuss. Like many members of his generation, Jimmy was ready to put the war behind him when he came home in 1945 and start building the life he and Alice had dreamed of. At the urging of Alice and their children, Jimmy agreed to talk to me about the war. On Columbus Day 2008, Jimmy recounted his wartime service to me. That day sticks out because it is one of those federal holidays that nobody in the South notices until they go to the post office or the bank. We both commented on it.

So, on Columbus Day 2008 I became obsessed with Jimmy's story. It's also Alice's story. From her perspective you begin to see what life was like in a small South Carolina city during the last conflict that consumed every part of everyday life. Ever since then, I have been writing, researching, writing and researching. I don't know now what the end product will be — maybe a book? Maybe something small enough to be published in a newspaper or magazine? Or just maybe an unpublished paper?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Harry Burchstead of Sumter is a combat veteran of Vietnam and a retired major general with more than 39 years' military service in the U.S. Army and the S.C. Army National Guard. From 1996 to 2007, he served as the South Carolina deputy adjutant general. From October 2003 through September 2007, he also commanded the 263d Army Air and Missile Defense Command, the ground-based air defense command supporting U.S. Northern Command. In 2005, he commanded Joint Task Force Cobra during the Juniper-Cobra missile defense exercise in Israel. He and his wife, Barbara, have three grown children. He is a member of the Church of the Holy Comforter, the Kiwanis Club of Sumter and American Legion Post 15.

In 1943, Jimmy was a Spitfire pilot in the Army Air Forces' 309th Fighter Squadron, one of the few American squadrons equipped with the British airplane at that stage of the war. Jimmy had married Alice in May 1943, just weeks before he shipped out to fight in the Mediterranean theater of operations. On Dec. 2, 1943, Jimmy failed to return to base in southern Italy after a combat mission. Missing Air Crew Report 1417 dated 4 Dec., '43, now declassified and available from the National Archives, provides such information as the 309th Fighter Squadron knew at the time — and it wasn't much.

Today, the U.S. military provides the next-of-kin casualty notification in person and within a day or two of the event. Not so during World War II. On Dec. 29, the War Department notified Alice by telegram that her husband had been reported missing in action. Some 27 days had passed, and it would be weeks before Alice knew that Jimmy was alive and a prisoner of war.

Photo provided This is the actual telegram received by Alice Harrelson notifying her that her husband, 1st Lt. Jimmy Harrelson, was missing in action.

As was quite often the case, the first notification of POW status came from amateur radio operators in the U.S. who monitored German shortwave propaganda broadcasts. Mildred Gillars, nicknamed Axis Sally, was the most famous or infamous of these German Radio personalities. With her sultry voice, selection of popular American music and POW information, she had a big listening audience. On the night of Jan. 26, 1944, she identified 1st Lt. James Dow Harrelson with his serial number as a POW. Alice was with a friend in Alabama. An amateur radio operator down the street came to tell her the good news.

It wouldn't be until after the war that the Army Air Forces would know the full story of what happened to Jimmy. On Dec. 2, 1943, a wounded 1st Lt. Harrelson parachuted from his burning Spitfire and was almost immediately taken prisoner. After some first-rate medical attention, he was sent to Germany. The first stop was an interrogation center where he spent 12 days in solitary confinement, interrupted only by interrogation sessions that came at four-day intervals. From there, Harrelson and other POWs were taken to Stalag Luft 1, the principal prisoner of war camp for downed airmen. Nearly 17 months to the day after he was shot down, Jimmy was liberated. On the night of April 30, 1945, the German guards made their escape. Advance elements of the Soviet Red Army arrived the next day.

Photo provided Jimmy Harrelson of Sumter climbs into his airplane during aviation flight school shortly before World War II. He was shot down over Germany and was a prisoner of war for ?? months. Harrelson will be honored today for his service in World War II along with fellow veterans Jerry Dix and Phil Ballinger during the Sumter Veteran's Association observance at the courthouse.

Life for the POWs was hard. They called themselves "Kriegies" from the German word for war prisoner — Kriegesgefangener. They had inadequate clothing and quarters for the harsh German winters near the Baltic coast. Thanks to the flow of American Red Cross food parcels through Switzerland, they received adequate rations until Allied bombing late in the war caused the German rail system to collapse. When the Russians arrived the conditions in the camp were grave. Jimmy lost 37 pounds in the last few months of captivity.

The Red Cross parcels also included cigarettes that were worth several times their weight in gold to the German guards. Secret committees traded cigarettes to low ranking German guards for radio parts and other contraband. Kriegies secretly monitored the BBC and published an underground newspaper, the POW WOW, with war news. Hopes soared on June 6, 1944, for an early end to the war. POW WOW's headline read "INVASION."

On the homefront from July 1943 to May 1945, Alice coped by staying busy. She was a civilian employee of the government at Shaw Field and active like so many other women in volunteer organizations, including the Junior Red Cross. And there was constant heartache for her husband and for "the boys she grew up with." Some of them made the ultimate sacrifice. Alice vividly remembers the news of their combat deaths.

Jimmy and Alice have preserved most of their wartime letters. They are a treasure trove. Mail to and from Stalag Luft 1 was routed through Switzerland, the nation serving as the protecting power under the Geneva Convention for Allied prisoners in German hands. Even with a 6-cent airmail stamp from Sumter, it would take months for the letter to be delivered to Jimmy. In his first letter from Stalag Luft 1, Jimmy apologized to Alice for not writing her in some time, but assured her that he had a good excuse.