‘Trials by Fire’: How WWII Hero Bomber Survived Hundreds of Hours Behind Enemy Lines and POW Camp

After being held captive for nearly two years in a prisoner of war camp after “firing trials on a scale unprecedented in aerial warfare,” World War II bomber Frank Murphy couldn’t believe he lived to tell the tale.

As a navigator in the US Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, the then-22-year-old was shot down while flying over Nazi Germany, where he was sent to the infamous Stalag Luft III, a prisoner of war camp pictured in the 1963 hit The Great Escape.

For 22 months, Murphy battled freezing conditions, near starvation, and ordeals, before his eventual release on April 29, 1945.

After returning home, he recalled his time behind enemy lines in a harrowing memoir, ‘Luck of the Draw’.

Now, more than 77 years later, his granddaughter, CNN entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas, retells the story, both as a tribute to her heroic grandfather and a reminder of the terrible events that so many suffered.

“It took him ten years to write this book,” he told DailyMail.com. And I know a good story when I see one.

“My grandfather told me once that he spent the rest of his life walking with ghosts but looking back with pride,” she said, in the foreword co-written with her mother, Elizabeth Murphy, and with the encouragement of her grandmother, Ann Murphy.

Chloe added that she felt a duty to her grandfather to republish the memoir, which was only written as a record for family and friends before she realized it was “a story worth telling.”

“Our family’s goal is to keep the memory of Frank and his peers alive and pass on greatness to the next generation.”

Murphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, one of five B-17 bomb groups sent to England in the spring of 1943 to form the new 4th Bomber Wing.

Originally from Atlanta, he landed in England in June, determined to prevent the advance of the Nazi invasion that had already reached most of Europe and North Africa.

When Murphy and the nine others crammed inside the tin bomber next to him were shot down in October, he had witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting in military history.

“It lasted only four months — four months, however, that compressed many of the most exciting and all the most terrifying and life-threatening experiences I’ve ever known in my entire life,” Murphy recalled.

His story will come to life in the upcoming series ‘Masters of the Air’, where he will be the basis for a character played by Jonas Moore.

Tom Hanks, who stars in the show, said, “In the search for authenticity, accurate history and undeniable courage, no word matters more than ‘I was there.'”

The 100th Bomb Group earned the title of ‘The Bloody Hundredth’ after losing 45 aircraft in a matter of months, culminating in the downing of Murphy’s own plane during what became known as ‘black week’.

The infamous episode, which lasted from October 8 to 14, saw 12 of the 13 aircraft within the battalion shot out of the skies, in what Murphy describes as “a choppy succession of fire tests on a scale unprecedented in warfare.” aerial”.

His motley crew of fellow travelers flew their rickety plane, The Bast**** Bungalow, for over 125 hours before they were gunned down.

“There was not a single reason why the men who stared death in the face in Europe in 1943 would return to battle day after day,” Murphy said of his comrades.

The Eighth’s airmen were amateurs, not professional soldiers. We had no idea if we were good soldiers or not, but we had not collapsed in the face of a difficult enemy.

‘Duty, honor, the country played their role, certainly, but not because these precepts were instilled in us by the Army. That was how we were.

“From my point of view, however, the only driving force that kept us going was the bond one felt with the men who stood by them when their lives were on the line.”

“No combatant in the military anywhere, at any time, would be more worthy of respect.”

Compared to today’s high-tech military equipment, the B-17 bomber they flew was a death trap.

Murphy was a navigator, positioned at the front of the plane alongside the pilot, co-pilot, and bombardier. The six rear sergeants consisted of air gunners and a radio technician.

“The risks they took were out of proportion to their military qualifications or their salary,” he said. ‘His work was mentally and physically difficult, and he was fraught with danger of injury or death, almost always deep in enemy territory.

“No combatant in the military anywhere, at any time, would be more worthy of respect.”

Describing his own role, he wrote that he habitually “came on board dragging a briefcase stuffed with maps, Mercator charts, books, paper, pencils, drawing instruments, a handheld calculator, and odd-looking optical instruments.”

The navigator, in his words, ‘constantly looked at his watch, drew lines and scribbled notes to himself on the papers, maps and charts before him, much like Scrooge’s wretched slave Bob Cratchit in Dickens’s classic tale, A Christmas Carol.’

As his granddaughter Chloe points out, his “self-deprecating style” led him to forget to mention that he was the reason the crew found their target and made it home safely twenty times before they were finally shot down.

After his plane flew out of the sky in October 1943, Murphy and his surviving crew members were quickly arrested by German police.

The torturous prison camp he was sent to, Stalag Luft III, was later made famous by the 1963 blockbuster The Great Escape. Melas said his ‘cat with nine lives’ grandfather even tried to tunnel out of the camp, just like they do in the movie.

After living in hell under the shadow of the Nazi regime for nearly two years, Murphy confided in his granddaughter that he had a unique way out to help him survive.

“He said that music saved his life,” he revealed.

“He played in the POW prison band, which is amazing, they were allowed to do that. He played the saxophone and clarinet.

Estimates put the number of American soldiers who participated in World War II at more than 16 million, with only 180,000 still alive today, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

And it’s numbers like these that motivated Chloe to tell her grandfather’s story.

“It’s important that people know,” he said. ‘He deserves the posthumous accolade, I’ve always been proud of him, but especially now.

Many of us know someone who was in World War II. But we are losing veterans every day, and we need these stories. We need the past to see the future.

‘The best thing is that there is now a whole generation of people to learn about this. WWII related people can relate and might ignite some patriotism in others.

Murphy’s bravery during the war earned him the Purple Heart, the Air Medal and the POW Medal, before he died in 2007 at age 85.

All proceeds from ‘The Luck of the Draw’ will go to veterans’ charities.