FREEMAN, Elmer Clayton

Name: Elmer Clayton FREEMAN

Born 8 June 1922

Birthplace: Greensboro, North Carolina

Age at arrival in Buchenwald: 22

Died 2 August 2012 in Niceville, Florida, age 90

Service: USAAF

Service ID: O-805432

Service Rank: 2nd Lieutenant

Duties: Pilot

Air Group: 9th Air Force, 397th Bomb Group, 596th Squadron

Airbase: Rivenhall, Essex UK

Aircraft: B-26 42-96143

Date shot down: 8 May 1944

Fate of crew: 6 evaded, 3 captured quickly, one after more than a month (Freeman).

Evasion summary: Evaded for 10 weeks, involved with Picourt, whose resistance cell was penetrated by Desoubrie.

Date captured: late July 1944

Capture summary: Arrested in Paris outside the opera house after Desoubrie took him to Prevot house.

Boxcar Transport: 15-20 August 1944, in boxcar #3

Buchenwald ID: 78359

Notes on Buchenwald internment:

Transferred from Buchenwald to: Stalag Luft III, North Compound

Kriege ID: 8138

Notes on SLIII internment:

Subsequent transfer to: Stalag XIII-D, Nurnberg

Notes on internment: Marched to SVIIA 6-16 April 1945.

Liberation: 29 April 1945 by units of the 14th Armored Division from Patton’s Third Army.

Repatriation from ETO:

Discharged:

VA status:

Notes on Post-War period: Freeman earned a degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Florida and went on to be an engineer on the F-86D Sabre, the X-15 "space plane," and the Titan ICBM Program. After retiring from the US Air Force, he worked as an engineer and project manager on the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs for North American-Rockwell.