Loading...
Interviewee
Linc, Frank
Document Type
Oral History
Date of Interview
3-11-2005
Abstract
Frank Linc was born 20 January 1919 in North Saint Paul, Minnesota, one of three boys. He grew up there and graduated from North Saint Paul High School in 1937. Frank enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in December 1942, and completed training as a pilot on four-engine heavy bomber aircraft. By 1944, Frank was co-pilot on B-17 Flying Fortress, flying with the 8th Air Force, 401st Bomb Group, from a location in England. On 29 April 1944, while returning from a bombing mission to Berlin, his plane was shot down over Germany. He bailed out of the crippled aircraft, and was taken prisoner after parachuting to the ground. As a POW, Frank spent a short period at the Dulag Luft interrogation facility, then from May 1944 - January 1945 at Stalag Luft III at Sagan. In January 1945, with advancing Soviet forces nearby, the Germans evacuated this camp (some 11,000 men) and marched the prisoners towards central Germany. Frank was in a group that ended up at XIII-D Nuremberg, where he stayed until early April. Now, with American troops closing in, this camp was evacuated and the men marched south towards Munich, to VII-A Moosburg. This overcrowded camp, housing nearly eighty thousand men by April 1945, was liberated by US forces on 29 April 1945. Frank was among those US POWs evacuated to France, then back to the United States. Following some time recuperating, Frank was discharged in late 1945. Again a civilian, he used GI Bill benefits to attend the University of Cincinnati, where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Frank spent his career in the field, working for General Mills, Honeywell, and other firms.
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced without the written permission of Concordia University Library or Thomas Saylor, Department of History, Concordia University, St. Paul.
Recommended Citation
Saylor, Thomas, "Oral History Project World War II Years, 1941-1946 - Frank Linc" (2005). Oral History Project: World War II Years, 1941-1946. 42.
https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/oral-history_ww2/42
PDF Transcript of Interview with Frank Linc