Robert Henry Doolan

Last updated

Robert Henry Doolan (March 21, 1917 - October 5, 2022) was an airman living in Cincinnati, Ohio. During World War II, he was a navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress before being captured by the Germans. [1]

Contents

Early life

Doolan was born and raised in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1935. [2]

World War II

Doolan enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1941, but washed out of pilot school and was instated at graduation as a second lieutenant navigator. [2] Doolan was a member of the 326th Bomb Squadron, 92nd Bomb Group (H), in the 8th Air Force, achieving the rank of First Lieutenant at the end of his tour of duty. [3] He took part in 12 combat missions from January to August 1943 when he was shot down on his 13th mission. [4]

Captivity

After the failure of the 13th mission Doolan and another airman co/pilot Donald Elbert Weir spent 21 days attempting to escape back to England, with aid from the Dutch resistance before being captured and taken to a prison camp. Doolan recalled "The next day we were going to go into Belgium, and we got word that our pilot made it to France and was captured in or near Paris, the two gunners had made it into Belgium and were captured also. So there was a good chance our next safe house is compromised. And it was, Doolan and Weir were knocked unconscious one by one by the Gestapo as they entered the safe house door. A German Luftwaffe officer days later prevented them from being shot as spys, as they were in civilian clothes when captured after weeks on the run. He entered the holding cell in the finest uniform they had ever seen and ordered the Gestapo to hand them over to him for transport to a POW camp. There was honor between "Flyers". Bob did research and contacted the family of one of the German fighter pilots (he didn't survive the war) who escorted the B17 to its belly landing in a Dutch field". [5]

He spent two years in the Stalag Luft III prison camp which was made famous by the 1963 film The Great Escape. Doolan was evacuated from the camp with other POW's in January 1945 by the Germans to avoid the Soviet Red Army where they were marched and moved by train cars to a new camp at Moosburg, Germany. [4] The Moosburg prison camp was liberated by General George Patton and Doolan returned to the United States in 1945.

After the war

After Doolan returned from the war, he married Dolores Doolan and completed a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati. [2] He worked as a tour guide and founded a Boy Scouts troop, leading it for 30 years.

He died on October 5, 2022. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Great Escape</i> (film) 1963 American war film

The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic war suspense adventure film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton and Angus Lennie. It was filmed in Panavision, and its musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

The Commando Order was issued by the OKW, the high command of the German armed forces, on 18 October 1942. This order stated that all Allied commandos captured in Europe and Africa should be summarily executed without trial, even if in proper uniforms or if they attempted to surrender. Any commando or small group of commandos or a similar unit, agents, and saboteurs not in proper uniforms who fell into the hands of the German forces by some means other than direct combat, were to be handed over immediately to the Sicherheitsdienst for immediate execution.

Roy Allen (1918–1991) was an American, born in the north Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney. He was a bomber pilot during World War II shot down over France and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag Luft III</span> World War II Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp

Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The March (1945)</span> Death march during the final months of the Second World War in Europe

"The March" refers to a series of forced marches during the final stages of the Second World War in Europe. From a total of 257,000 western Allied prisoners of war held in German military prison camps, over 80,000 POWs were forced to march westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme winter conditions, over about four months between January and April 1945. This series of events has been called various names: "The Great March West", "The Long March", "The Long Walk", "The Long Trek", "The Black March", "The Bread March", and "Death March Across Germany", but most survivors just called it "The March".

Alvin Ward Vogtle was an American lawyer, business executive and World War II fighter pilot born in Birmingham, Alabama. He was nicknamed "Sammy from Alabamy" in reference to his home state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oflag VI-B</span> World War II German prisoner-of-war camp

Oflag VI-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizerlager), 1 km (0.6 mi) southwest of the village of Dössel in Germany. It held French, British, Polish and other Allied officers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalag VII-A</span>

Stalag VII-A was the largest prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany during World War II, located just north of the town of Moosburg in southern Bavaria. The camp covered an area of 35 hectares. It served also as a transit camp through which prisoners, including officers, were processed on their way to other camps. At some time during the war, prisoners from every nation fighting against Germany passed through it. At the time of its liberation on 29 April 1945, there were 76,248 prisoners in the main camp and 40,000 or more in Arbeitskommando working in factories, repairing railroads or on farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Jefferson</span> United States Army officer (1921–2022)

Alexander Jefferson was an American Air Force officer, famous as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the 332nd Fighter Group. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Soviet troops.

Air Commodore Edward Barnes Sismore DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC, AE was a British air navigator and fighter pilot during the Second World War, and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years. Sismore served as the thirteenth Commandant Royal Observer Corps between 1971 and 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Lamason</span> World War II pilot from New Zealand, Buchenwald concentration camp survivor (1918–2012)

Phillip John Lamason, was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, in August 1944. Raised in Napier, he joined the RNZAF in September 1940, and by April 1942 was a pilot officer serving with the Royal Air Force in Europe. On 8 June 1944, Lamason was in command of a Lancaster heavy bomber that was shot down during a raid on railway marshalling yards near Paris. Bailing out, he was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks. While attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line, Lamason was betrayed by a double agent within the Resistance and seized by the Gestapo.

Between 20 August and 19 October 1944, 168 Allied airmen were held prisoner at Buchenwald concentration camp. Colloquially, they described themselves as the KLB Club. Of them, 166 airmen survived Buchenwald, while two died of sickness at the camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfie Fripp</span> British Royal Air Force leader

Alfred George Fripp, known as "Alfie" or "Bill", was a British Royal Air Force squadron leader who was a flight sergeant during the Second World War. He was shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1939 and held in twelve different prisoner of war camps, including Stalag Luft III, later the site of the "Great Escape". As the last of the "39ers", he was the oldest surviving and longest serving British POW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Griffin (aviator)</span> Participant in the Doolittle Raid

Thomas Carson Griffin was a United States Army Air Forces navigator who served during World War II. He was one of the eighty Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan in April 1942. After the Doolittle Raid, he was relocated to North Africa and was shot down during an air raid in 1943, spending time in a prisoner-of-war camp until he was rescued in early 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Walenn</span> Royal Air Force officer

Gilbert William Walenn, known as Tim Walenn, was a British bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.

Members of the United States armed forces were held as prisoners of war (POWs) in significant numbers during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973. Unlike U.S. service members captured in World War II and the Korean War, who were mostly enlisted troops, the overwhelming majority of Vietnam-era POWs were officers, most of them Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps airmen; a relatively small number of Army enlisted personnel were also captured, as well as one enlisted Navy seaman, Petty Officer Doug Hegdahl, who fell overboard from a naval vessel. Most U.S. prisoners were captured and held in North Vietnam by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN); a much smaller number were captured in the south and held by the Việt Cộng (VC). A handful of U.S. civilians were also held captive during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George J. Iles</span> United States military officer and fighter pilot (1918–2004)

George Jewell Iles was a U.S. Army Air Force officer, former World War II Prisoner of War in Nazi Germany, and combat fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the all-African American Tuskegee Airmen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter L. McCreary</span> U.S. Army Air Forces officer

Walter Lee McCreary was an U.S. Army Air Forces/U.S. Air Force officer, former prisoner of war (POW), and one of the original combat fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group's 100th Fighter Squadron, best known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was one of the first hundred African American fighter pilots in history, as well as one of 1,007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.

References

  1. Heyne, Mark. "Local Veteran & Former POW Robert Doolan Turns 100 This Month And Shares His WWII Stories" . Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  2. 1 2 3 "WWII POW turns 100 years old, recalls return home". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  3. Henry, Doolan, Robert (2007). "Robert Henry Doolan Collection". memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 contributor, Kevin Eigelbach | WCPO (2016-12-07). "World War II veterans still telling their stories 75 years after attack on Pearl Harbor". WCPO. Retrieved 2018-09-25.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. WKRC, Adam Clements. "Local WWII veteran celebrates a century". WKRC. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  6. "Robert H. Doolan". The Cincinnati Enquirer (obituary). October 6, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2023.