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Model for the “Cooler King”
Image by gwilmore
I did not get this man’s name, but was told by others that "Hilts," the character played by Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape," was modeled after him. I took this picture, then listened to his story. Like many war stories, it was a nightmare.
He was a crewman on a B-17 in the Eighth Air Force, although I did not ask what his specific job was on the aircraft. In February, 1943, he participated in a combat mission over Vienna, after which his B-17 continued flying eastward toward the Russian lines. At an altitude of about 30,000 feet over Hungary, a few miles north of Lake Balaton, the plane exploded after being hit by flak.
He was blown away from the plane unconscious, and came to at about 5000 feet. In accordance with his training, he discarded his helmet and several other accessories, which continued following him downward, so that he could not open his parachute. He waited until the items dispersed, then opened the ‘chute with little time to spare.
Upon landing, he was captured by the SS, summarily shot, and left for dead. He was found shortly afterward, barely alive, by some nearby villagers, who literally dragged him across the ground into their village.
Still later, he was captured again, this time by regular Wehrmacht soldiers, whose colonel became caught up in a turf war with the SS, which by this time had become aware that their supposedly dead prisoner was still alive. Some SS men came to take him away, only to be repulsed by the colonel — and his men, who leveled their weapons at the SS! The latter, deciding not to pursue the matter further, went their way; and after some basic medical treatment, this man was sent away on a train to Stalag Luft III, scene of the real escape on which the movie was based. I believe it was located in Pomerania or East Prussia, but I am uncertain about that. The metal plate on the bill of his cap is his dogtag from the prison camp.
Knowing already what his answer would be, I asked if he had indeed spent much of the war in the "Cooler," bouncing a baseball off the wall and catching it in his glove. No, he replied — and he didn’t ride a motorcycle, either. (For those not familiar with the movie, the last dramatic scene in it features Steve McQueen trying unsuccessfully to escape across the Swiss border on a stolen German motorcycle. McQueen, who loved motorcycles, had insisted on having such a scene written into the script, as a condition for his participation in it. In the film, he is captured, of course — and immediately placed back in the Cooler. The final scene is of a pensive German guard listening to the sound of "Hilt’s" baseball bouncing off the wall.)
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