A tale of two diaries

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Joanna M. Kresge
  • 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  The Eighth Air Force Museum has received two donations of World War II Prisoner of War journals this past month.

The first journal was donated by Joy Bolesta, wife of the late Stanley Bolesta who documented his time in a German POW camp known as Stalag Luft 1, months after his B-26 went down over France in November 1943. Bolesta who was liberated in 1945 retired from Barksdale in 1964 with the rank of Major.

His wife explains she felt the donation was what was best for the journal.

"I didn't want it sitting in a box on a shelf," said Mrs. Bolesta.

Upon reading an article about the first journal donation, Claude McCrocklin, an Army Air Corps bombardier, decided to donate his own Prisoner of War journal to the museum as well, so his story could live on.

"There were all kinds of POWs, there were the kind that sat around mulled their fate, some sat around and dribbled - I was not that way, I wanted to document everything for the future," said Mr. McCrocklin. "History should preserve and know where these POW camps were and what it looked like."

Mr. McCrocklin's journal included numerous hand-drawn full-color depictions of his experiences during his time as a detainee as well as many photographs of the camp where he was held.

"These photos were made during my time as a POW with a secret German camera," he said. "See we bribed the guards - we'd get cigarettes and stuff to trade for things we wanted. Not all German Soldiers were Nazis and they didn't like the Nazis either, so every once in a while we'd find one that was sympathetic with us. We told him we wanted a camera. He said he'd 'see what he could do' but it would cost us a carton of cigarettes.

"We got the camera and we gave it to a photographer in the unit who knew what he was doing and he photographed the camp for us," he continued.

Possibly the greatest significance of the two books is that their authors were both captives at the same POW camp at the same time.

"If I knew what company he was part of and what barracks he was in, I probably knew him," said Mr. McCrocklin. "He was caught in April 1943 and I was caught in 1944 - everything was so close together in the compounds, you pretty much knew everybody in it but just not by name cause they might be dead tomorrow."

Now that both journals are forever housed at the museum they are together in the same place for the second time in their existence.

"I had been there for several months and they came through with the international Red Cross and the YMCA who would inspect the camps several times a year according to the Geneva Convention," said Mr. McCrocklin. "This YMCA guy brought a book in for each barrack - he didn't have enough for the 9,000 people there so he gave one to each barrack, which had 200 men. I happened to be the lucky one, he said 'Does anyone want the book.' No one wanted it, so he handed it to me and said 'you take it'. That fellow in the Warrior, Bolesta, he got his book the same day that I got mine."

Like the journal of Mr. Bolesta, Mr. McCrocklin's journal will be preserved for generations to come.

"Like all fragile pieces of history, the goal is to make it accessible while still preserving it," said Maj. Harry Dyson, 2d Bomb Wing director of staff. "We are going to transcribe and copy the pages of the journal and have them on display, while the actual journal will be preserved under glass so that people visiting the museum can read the pages and then see the journal itself."

As Mr. McCroklin recounts his war stories and shares his journal, he says he doesn't need the journal to remember what happened during his time as a POW.

"This old man kept a lot of notes and had a good memory and it's as fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday - you never forget it," he said.