Sgt. Russell Boyko thought the smoke over Berlin was fromanti-aircraft shells at first. It was his 17th mission and would havebeen his seventh over the burning Nazi capital. At 30,000 feet thesmoke was near the ceiling of his B-17.

Boyko, who now lives in Upper Darby and attends SaintsPeter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Clifton Heights, was awaist gunner manning a 50-caliber machine gun. His plane was at thefront of the formation. As they neared the city, the aircraft began toshake. Water had mixed with the anti-freeze causing an engine to lockup. With just three engines left his pilot chose to forgo the bombingrun, break formation and return to Great Ashfield, England, the ETObase of the 548th Squadron of the 385th Bomber Group.

"Not very safe," said Boyko.

A lone B-17 was extremely vulnerable to enemy fighters.Bomber formations were organized in a way to allow guns from manyplanes to be concentrated on an attacker. American fighter escorts, ofcourse, would stick with the formation for as long as the gas in theirtanks allowed. 

"We came close to Bremen. I remember seeing a body of water. I don't know if it was the North Sea or the Channel.  I remember starting to have hope."

He then saw a German plane with two engines in thedistance. It would not have been a front-line fighter and did notattack. It did apparently report the bomber's position. Nazi fighterssoon  arrived. 

"I don't know if they were Fock-Wolfes or Messerschmitts," Boyko said. "They attacked our plane. Our plane went down in a dive."

The pilot -  hadgiven a pre-flight order to bail if such an event should happen, whichthe crew did. The other waist-gunner, Carter, was hesitating at theescape hatch. Boyko gave him a nudge and then followed him out at about20,000 feet. 

Boyko said the directions they were given for a bailoutwere that a count of three before pulling the ripcord would allow themto clear the plane while a count of 10 would make it harder for theenemy to follow his path to the ground to capture him.

He said both he and the other gunner counted to 10 albeitit made little difference. About a half-dozen German militia andcivilians managed to get a bearing on them. Boyko said his chute wasblossomed on the ground and he had trouble unstrapping it. He heard agunshot and heard a bullet whistle past his ear. There was a bit ofwoods a few yards away and he ran into it.

"The Germans kept the woods nice and clean," he said.

He said a small girl saw him and started screaming. Hefound himself surrounded and surrendered. He didn't have a gun and hadno intention of resisting.

It was May 8, 1944.

The Germans fed them after surrendering.

"They gave us pea soup," he said. "It was delicious. Thelady was polite. I guess she worked for the Luftwaffe. I looked in hereyes. They were green like pea soup."

Boyko's next stop was a prison camp.

He said the camp had four "lagers", or sections, with 10 barracks to a lager and 300 men to a barracks.

He isn't sure where the camp was although it was near the North Sea. 

"I remember the North Sea during a thunder storm. The lighting would come straight down. It wouldn't fork like we are used to".

Camp life was not like Hogan's Heroes. Each barracks hadonly two doors at the front and the back. To get to roll call, menwould try to beat the crowd by climbing out the large windows. TheNazis gave an order forbidding this. "One or two" who ignored it wereshot, he said.

After six months, they heard Russian artillery. TheGermans piled the prisoners into boxcars and sent them west. After afew weeks they heard the artillery again. This time the Germans didn'tuse boxcars but had them walk.

During one meal break he saw a familiar face. It wasAlbert Goodman with whom he attended Benjamin Franklin High School inPhiladelphia.

"He was in the chow line  aheadof me," Boyko said. The meal was chicken. "He came back in the line. Isaid 'Albert you are looking good' and he was. He was in the groundforces not the air forces."

Goodman was Jewish. Boyko asked if he said any prayerslike the Our Father. Boyko said Goodman told him he said something likeit. 

Boyko said that during the walk he saw a large group ofyoung girls in Ukrainian costumes but didn't get a chance to talk tothem. He said a few prisoners stole chickens for food. He said in April1945 they were told President Franklin Roosevelt had died. Theprisoners went to attention out of respect. 

Boyko was freed on May 8. He was promoted to staffsergeant during his time in the camp. He lived in SouthwestPhiladelphia for 50 years attending Protector BVM, a church his motherwas instrumental in starting, before it was combined with Saints Peterand Paul.

He would eventually work at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from which he would retire.