Ex-POW's memories outlive comrades
COSHOCTON - Shot down in World War II and held prisoner by the Germans, Robert William "Bill" Hagans of Coshocton has outlived his fellow ex-POWs, but his memories of that time remain.
During the war, Hagans served as a gunner in the 4000th U.S. Army Air Force Base Unit when his B-17 was shot down on its eighth mission over western Germany on Sept. 8, 1944. Hagans, then a buck sergeant, was captured with four officers after parachuting from the plane.
"Of course, they separated me from the officers," he said. "I wound up with the enlisted men."
Hagans was held prisoner for 8 months, and these days he mostly remembers being led on forced marches, sleeping outdoors and foraging for food. Forty-nine men in that camp dwindled down to 22 during his imprisonment. If a soldier fell during the march, "they never got up," Hagans recalled.
"There's none of them alive now but me," he said.
During his months as a prisoner of war, Hagans said there were times he wasn't sure he'd make it home alive.
"A few times," he said, "especially if you see one (go) down, a guy you have been walking with for five or 10 days. You tried your best to stay up."
Hagans lost 56 pounds during his ordeal.
"I weighed 156 flying, and when I got back, I only weighed 100 pounds," he said.
Freed on May 8, 1945, Hagans remembers a commanding officer promising the newly released prisoners a steak dinner.
"We couldn't have eaten a sandwich if we had to eat it all," he said.
He was discharged from the service on Nov. 9, 1945, in Dayton.
After returning to Coshocton County, Hagans worked in gas and oil drilling before retiring. Born in Tiverton Center, but raised in Newcastle, Hagans, now 93, lives in Coshocton with his wife Rose. They've been married for 71 years.
"I lucked out," he said. "I got a beautiful, lovely woman who put up with a lot and still does."
The Haganses have a daughter, Joyce Mullett, who also lives in Coshocton.
Hagans returned to the crash site in May 2006 with his daughter and grandson Jeff. That trip included a visit to Luxembourg Cemetery, which contains the graves of U.S. soldiers who never returned home.
Today's military personnel have no idea what to expect before they are sent to serve overseas, Hagans said.
"I know those boys who are getting shipped over there don't know what they are getting into," he said. "I'm just thankful I got out the way I did."
Hagans is Coshocton County's only remaining POW from World War II, according to Jim Barstow, Coshocton Veterans Service officer.
"We're losing World War II veterans at an alarming pace," Barstow said. "These guys are really heroes. They deserve the recognition, even if they don't seek it out themselves."
Walter Endlich, 99, of Newcomerstown, died May 19 and was buried Wednesday in Bakersville Cemetery. Endlich was held prisoner in Morocco after serving in the European Theater as a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 509th Paratroop Battalion, according to his obituary in last week's Tribune.
Lewis Edwin Baker, of Coshocton, died Sept. 8, 2015, at the age of 95, the Tribune reported last year. While a member of the 8th Air Force, 388th Bomb Group, he was taken prisoner in France in September 1943 and was held for 20 months in a prison camp in Krems, Austria.
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