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Clayton Nattier

WWII | 369th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force

The 306th Bomb Group flew in very tight formations. This greatly lessened the losses from German fighters, which faced withering fire from multiple aircraft if they got close enough to attack. B-17 pilot Clayton Nattier also had the luxury of his own fighter escorts, which were not available earlier in the war. (4:58)
It was his sixteenth mission and, once again, it was Merseburg, site of a synthetic fuel plant. Clayton Nattier's plane had a mechanical failure so a substitute B-17 was brought to the flight line. Everything was fine until, as the flight neared the target, an engine went out. This was only the beginning of a disaster. Part 1 of 3. (5:48)
Tail Gunner Richard Edwards was one of the first to bail out. When he landed, he was beaten by a German worker swinging a lunch pail. Pilot Clayton Nattier was trying to stabilize the plane while the flight engineer tried to put out the fire. Finally, they, too, plunged into the sky over Germany to face an uncertain fate. Part 2 of 3. (5:33)
It was a long descent for B-17 pilot Clayton Nattier, who was barely conscious in his parachute. He heard a German fighter circling above him as he landed near a Luftwaffe training school. After the students worked him over for souvenirs, he was taken to a jail cell where a medic from the school bandaged him up. Part 3 of 3. (5:41)
When he got to the interrogation center, he was placed in solitary confinement, interrupted only by repeated questioning. Downed B-17 pilot Clayton Nattier was determined not to reveal anything, not that he really knew much. After a week of this, he was taken to a train station where he was reunited with the surviving members of his crew. (6:07)
Clayton Nattier was headed for Stalag Luft I on Germany's Baltic coast. His first three weeks were spent in the camp hospital, where he was treated for burns received when his B-17 was brought down by flak. The original bandaging of his wounds, which was done by a German medic near the site of the crash, proved to be a first rate job. (5:23)
The room in the POW camp barracks was small but it housed eighteen men, including downed pilot Clayton Nattier. It had a tiny stove which was much improved with a little American farm boy ingenuity. (5:48)
There were radios in the camp, built with bartered parts that the guards traded for D-Bars and cigarettes from Red Cross parcels. Clayton Nattier didn't have a radio in his barracks, but he saw the typewritten rundowns of the latest news from the BBC. He well remembers when the Germans stopped distributing the Red Cross parcels. It was just after the best meal he'd had as a prisoner. (5:46)
Col Hubert A. Zemke was the senior Allied officer among the POW's at Stalag Luft I. When the Germans stopped delivering the Red Cross parcels that were keeping bellies full, he negotiated with the camp commandant until they were restored. Clayton Nattier remembers that, after three months with little food, he couldn't eat without getting sick. (6:24)
There was no friendly interaction with any of the German guards, recalls downed pilot Clayton Nattier. They were just plain mean. As the end of the war neared, Col Hubert A. Zemke again negotiated a deal with the commandant which guaranteed the safety of both prisoners and guards as the Germans withdrew. (6:48)