Submitted by Gina Sherrard ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ This was written by Peggy Rockett and appeared in the Bernice Banner News November 10, 2000. Profile of Purvis and Myrtis Christian Purvis was born December 20, 1920, to parents DeWitt and Mary Boatright Christian in Union Parish, Louisiana in the Mt. Union Community at the old Boatright homestead. His father worked in the timber and sawmill business. His mother died when he was nine, leaving his four year-old brother, Ralph, also. Later his father married Maudie Bell Woodward of Arcadia, La., and they had six children (who will be listed at the end). Purvis attended Spearsville High, but did not graduate. He did various jobs, one being working on the railroad in Colorado. By the time he was twenty-two, job, were scarce and he joined the C.C.C. Camp. He was also dating Myrtis Beaird also of Mt. Union. Myrtis was born July 20, 1923 to parents Richard Floyd and Loni Holley Beaird. (Her siblings will be listed at the end.) By this time WWII had started and Purvis was drafted into the service, like all able bodied men of the required age. He was drafted in August of 1942 and did basic training at Keesler Field in Mississippi. He was in the Army Air Corp. (as it was know then) Then on to Sheppard Field, Texas for more training in airplane mechanics and several more places for training as an airplane gunner. When he was sent to Avon Park, Florida, he called Myrtis to come and marry him, so she quit her job as an office worker in Monroe and went to him. They were married December 7, 1943, in a double ceremony with one of his Air Force buddies, Melvin Poling, and his bride June Jackson, both of Columbus, Ohio. Purvis stayed in twenty years and Melvin stayed the required two, so they eventually lost track of each other. Myrtis came home when he was sent to a New York base, January 3, 1944 to board a ship to Glasgow, Scotland. From there he caught a train to near London, England for gunnery and flight crew training, and was eventually assigned to the 309th Bomb Group. The main targets for the U.S. bombers were to hit railroad yards, bridges, ammunition dumps and factories in Germany. Another main objective for the flight crew was to say alive, knowing they could go home after 25 missions or two years. The very first bombing raid he went on to Hanover, Germany, his feet froze due to malfunctioning wires to his special boots to keep his feet warm. He stayed in the hospital 15 days and was soon back on flight, but he always checked out his gear from then on. They also had oxygen bottles, warm face masks and gloves. Purvis thought he was nearly home free, but on his 18th mission, his plane was shot down over Breda, Holland a country already occupied by Germany. His commanding officer had called their mission a "milk run" meaning it was easy. The crew surprisingly got a direct hit from two of the three antiaircraft guns on a smaller air base. The pilot and copilot were killed instantly out of a crew of ten. A box of flares in the cockpit also exploded and fire began to race through the plane. As Purvis was a side gunner he was the first to bail out, watching and counting all eight parachutes, hoping the tail gunner would have time to bail out. As they all landed, the enemy was there to greet them. None could speak English and none of them could speak German. Part of the crew required medical attention with broken bones, etc. so they were carried to the guardhouse (through hand signals) they were interrogated. Of course, all a soldier is allowed to state is his name, rank and serial number. By that time Purvis was a staff sergeant. He was shot down May 11, 1944. After an overnight stay, they were put on a train to a Amsterdam and stayed five days, given only two slices brown bread and jam per day to eat. Then they were put on a train to Frankfurt, Germany for more interrogation and solitary confinement. Eventually they were sent to a prison compound where barrack where long, no water, and a crude outdoor toilet and the end of each barrack. They were allowed to have a pitcher of water from the guards. He said he was a prisoner for eleven months and seventeen days and he had one bath - but they were allowed to shave. Their wooden bunk beds had a mattress made of something similar to cotton sack ticking filled with wood shavings. The Red Cross was allowed in and gave them two blankets and extra rations which contained a can of corned beef, coffee, and one-half pack of cigarettes. Now let me stop here and explain just a little about the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. The Red Cross is an international organization for the protection and care of the sick and wounded in War and for the care of sufferers from other large calamities. The organization is the result of an international treaty entered into by most of the leading nations at a convention held at Geneva, Switzerland (which is a neutral country). The treaty was signed back in the late 1800's and the Red Cross agrees not to help either side in war and both sides of the war agrees to protect them from harm and they can come and go without hindrance. (This was taken from the encyclopedia) Apparently from what I've read and heard Japan did not sign the treaty! After they stayed in Germany, they were put on a train to be transported to a prison in North Poland near the Baltic Sea, but the Red Cross was unaware that the prison had opened until 28 days later. During that time they were served one meal per day about midday - a bowl of dehydrated cabbage soup. One hundred sixty prisoners were too weak to stand outside for roll call and upon the advice of a doctor, they were given three boiled potatoes twice a day. After the Red Cross discovered them, they were sent a "care package" consisting of one quarter-pound of sugar, 1 pound powdered milk, 1 small can of instant coffee, 1 box of raisins or prunes, a can of Spam or corned beef, 3 bars of soap and three to five packs of cigarettes. These barracks had 24 to the room with 4 decker beds (with 6 slats in them) The Red Cross was able to give them some clothing. Soap was no use to them - they saved it to swap later to the countrymen. Cigarettes were precious as they were used for money (maybe something from another care package of food from others) The Germans gave them one cigarette per day. Myrtis, who was notified of his downed plane by the Red Cross, was eventually able to send him cigarettes but no food or clothing. The tobacco companies sent them to the ones who applied. They were not able to receive letters from each other, mostly due to no way to transport them, because of bombed roads or railroads. They did have a coal burner stove and could heat some of their food - but Purvis - being a mechanic had already made himself a little stove from some of the ration cans that the powdered milk came in, and he said that everytime they were allowed outside he picked up wood chips to put in his pocket to burn, using his cigarette lighter. They were allowed to mingle and have cards to play with, but cigarettes were too valuable to bet with so they bought food. The YMCA collected books for the Red Cross to give them. In January of 1945, the Russian (who were U.S. and England's ally at the time) were about to overrun the camp, so they were lined up to march six hundred miles back to Germany by foot. They were given one Red Cross package (to last 15 days)- usually half of what they got. That is when they traded the bars of soap to the country people for potatoes. His only bath came during this march. He ran upon a camp of Hindu prisoners and swapped his cigarettes for a bucket and took a bath and boiled his clothes and killed the lice all over his body. The march lasted from January to April 26th. As the Russians were closing in from Poland, the U.S. had stopped to wait for them, so they could divide up German, they prisoners were allowed to talk across a "make shift bridge" to the U.S. side where they were put in a college dormitory and issued K-rations from a truck that consisted of powdered eggs, hard biscuits and the can of Spam. They were then sent to Reims, France where they were run through a "strip-down tent"- sprayed with DDT, given a hot shower and some new clothes. Then on to Camp Lucky Strike tent city in LeHavre, France where they began to fatten them up. He weighed around one hundred pounds. The meals were good and they had a big tent with big containers of egg nog in one, chocolate milk in another and orange juice in the last one, But he said he "laid with the egg nog!" I need to digress and tell of a happening when he was shot down and sent to Germany. They learned that eighteen U.S. soldiers were grabbed ads they bailed out of their planes by the townspeople of Frankfurt before the guards got there and strung up by their parachute cords on lamp post in the city and hanged. In retaliation the U.S. bombed the city for eighteen straight hours, leaving nothing standing except one church. Purvis was sent home June 19, 1945, to Camp Shelby, Miss, but got ninety days temporary duty at home with his wife, then on to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La. where he was discharged in September of 1945. Home at last - he borrowed a mule from his dad to farm a crop of sweet potatoes, but the mule ran away trying to get back home and by the time Purvis found him - someone else had claimed him. So he gave up and decided that farming wasn't for him, so he re-enlisted in the service, in June 1946 where he has been stationed all over - one tour in Iceland and stayed a long time in California, where he retired after twenty years. Upon his return to the states, he was given a dollar a day for inhuman treatment in prison. Reflecting back, he said probably the worse treatment was psychological because they were being transported by train - the U.S., not knowing they were locked up in the boxcars, would make bombing raids. The guards would jump off a hide in underground bunkers, while the prisoners waited to be blown to kingdom come! After his retirement, he stayed in California and worked for the Civil Service for six and one-half years (as an airplane mechanic). Then he had to retire on disability. In 1971 he and Myrtis and children returned to Spearsville, building a new house near their old homesteads and did electrical work, wiring homes and chicken houses. Myrtis was a homemaker and mother to their six children - who are listed below. 1. Judy C. Thompson (Mrs. John) - Spearsville, La. 2. Elaine C. Loard (Mrs. Wayne) - Ceres, California 3. George Lee Christian - (infant lived three hours) Mt. Union Cem. 4. Paul Christian (wife Linda Farris) - Almosa, California 5. Susan C. Farque (Mrs. Harlan) - Alexandria, La. 6. David Christian (wife Claudette) - Ruston, La. 7. James Christian (wife Debbie) - Bernice, La. They have 12 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Siblings of Purvis 1. Ralph Christian - only whole brother Half- siblings 1. Herbert Christian 2. Woodard Christian 3. Kenneth Christian 4. Estelle Christian (never married) 5. Barbara C. Ellis 6. Louis Christian Siblings of Myrtis Beaird Christian 1. Olive B. Nale 2. Idell B. Harris 3. Elma B. Alford 4. Corbett Beaird 5. Clara B. Nale 6. Evie B. Phillips 7. Beadie B. Gulley 8. Ethel B. Stone 9. Byrtis B. Knowles (a twin to Myrtis) ------------------------------------------- You may contact Purvis & Myrtis Christian at: 506 Goose Elkins Rd. Spearsville, La. 71277 # # #