Francis E. Sawyer
Baton Rouge Nat. Convention 1998
The living quarters
of Francis Saywer.'s camp
Last
Name: SAWYER
First
Name Middle Initial:
FRANCIS E
Nick
Name:
Street:
2730 BLUFFVIEW PL
City
& State: LA CROSSE, WI
E-Mail:
Zip:
54601
Phone:
(608) 788-4215
Spouse:
Mildred (deceased 4/97)
Conflict:
WW II
Service
Branch: 10 AAF 493 BS 7 BG
Unit:
7th Bomb Group 10th AF
Theater:
Pacific
Where
Captured: Maubin, Burma
Date
Captured: 10/14/43
Camps
Held In: Ragoon Central Jail
How
Long Interned: 563 days
Liberated
/ repatriated:liberated
Date
Liberated: 4/29/45
Age
at Capture: 23
Medals
Received: DFC, A.M.IOLC,Purple Heart, Good Conduct
Military
Job: Army Air Corp , waist gunner
Company:
Gateway Foods Inc.
Occupation
after War: Building Maint. and Van Driver
Bio:
Francis Sawyer was a B-24 waist gunner during the second world war. On
his 35th mission their target was the boat works in Rangoon, Burma.
They were flying at 28,000 feet when the Japanese zero’s jumped
them. The plane was on fire when he bailed out and watched it explode,
break in two and crash. He was picked up by the local residents and
turned over to the Burmese police and then to the Japanese army, who
imprisoned him.
They lost 5 men from their crew. They were Omar Austin, Robert Witte,
George Marshall, Frank Chiarello and Frank Peters. Their untimely
deaths were due to the inability to escape or fright. They who did
escape were very lucky and told themselves they were not going to bend
to the enemy. They never did. After spending two nights at Maubin and
getting more of what they received at Pantanau they started down the
river again to Rangoon. That afternoon they reached the city they had
just bombed a few days previously. They arrived in the city by boat
not by plane as in the past. The boat was tied to one of the docks
they used to bomb. They had made a mess of it. They were removed from
the boat and taken to a jail close to the docks. It was in this jail
they learned to lie. The five of them made up a story and they held to
it.
They knew they had to stick to these stories, as they would be
questioned separately. When each man would return after a questioning
period they would compare notes so that they would not make it hard
for anyone. It was hard to keep from being tripped up by the Japanese
interrogators. They were questioned all five of the days they were at
this jail. One day Francis was told to draw a map of their base. He
showed signs of hesitation and after being kicked a few times he
decided to comply. On the paper they had given me a sketch of the base
with everything in the wrong places such as the gasoline storage area
at the end of the runway, etc. Nothing was correct. When Francis
finished he gave the paper to the interrogator and crossed his
fingers. He looked at the map, turned and called to someone in the
next room. A man came into the room and the interrogator gave him the
drawing and told him to check it. He was an Indian who had turned
traitor and joined the Japanese.
After checking the drawing he gave it back and said it looked correct
to him although it had been some time since he had been on the base.
Francis was still safe. Their stories had worked thus far. They were a
bit on the hungry side when they left the jail. Everything was mixed
together like swill and was on the salty side. They hadn’t eaten
much in the past five days. After they had spent those five days in
that jail they were transferred to their “permanent home”. The
Rangoon Central Jail, the prison they had flown over on raids to
Rangoon. This prison had been a civilian prison until the English
abandoned it.
Francis had only 35 missions but he was satisfied. Thirty-five
missions do not look like many missions to some people, but his
missions were logged differently than in Europe. His missions were
from 5 to 14 hours in length. His were logged by the hours and not by
the number of missions as in the European Theater.
