There is a strange web about this world that sometimes makes it seem like a much smaller place than it is. Two weeks ago I wrote about my father’s experiences during World War II when he was shot down over Germany and became a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft IV. The story touched the tip of several connections. I had mentioned how as my father was marched through the ice and snow of German blizzards in the winter of 1945, shelter at night was a rare commodity.

Several years ago, I met Mercer Nickles while speaking in Aberdeen. I did not know him, but he came up to me and asked if I was named after my father and had he been a POW in Germany. When I said yes, he replied that he had been in Stalag Luft IV with my father. He recalled how on one freezing night he had shared a little shelter on the side of a barn with my father.

I have a little booklet made out of cigarette package papers held together with a piece of wire. It was what my father had to write on in the POW camp. In it are several pages of names and addresses of other POWs in the camp. Included in the list of names was; “Mercer C Nickles Jr Aberdeen Miss.”

I came across an even more surprising connection. Charles Lee, who was waist gunner on Smoky Stover Jr. with my father, also wound up in Stalag Luft IV after their plane was shot down. There too was Dr. J.E. Boggess who had been captured in North Africa. He had been captured after he refused to abandon wounded American soldiers when Rommel’s Afrika Corps broke through American lines and over ran a U.S. field hospital. Dr. Boggess was sent to Stalag Luft IV where he was one of only five doctors to care for the 10,000 POWs, almost a third of whom had combat-related wounds or injuries. In a twist of fate, when the Afrika Corps was later defeated and surrendered, thousands of its soldiers were sent to the POW camp at Aliceville, Alabama.

At the beginning of the Black March of Stalag Luft IV POWs across Germany, my father and Nickels were separated from Lee and Boggess. Those POWs too sick or too injured to walk long distances were placed on a train in cattle cars. Dr. Boggess went with them to care for them.

Leaving the camp in cattle cars could not have been worse. Charles Lee described them to his daughter Sharon Lee. As bad as camp life was to Charles Lee the worst of all was the evacuation of sick, wounded and injured by rail to Stalag Luft I in early 1945. They were crowded 60 to each small cattle car without heat or coats or food, except for watery cabbage soup. There was no room to sit and all of the POWs had to sleep standing up. Many suffered from dysentery but there were no bathroom facilities in the cars in which the POWs ended up spending more than eight days.

Dr. Boggess was one of the officers put in charge of tending to 1,500 sick and injured POWs loaded onto the unheated cattle cars. His selfless service in aiding and assisting those weakened men in inhumane conditions was appreciated both by the soldiers and the senior American officer at Stalag Luft I. That officer, Col. Zemke, sent Dr. Boggess a letter of commendation for his saving so many lives through his efforts.

The most memorable compliment, though, came from airman Royce McMinn, a POW who was from Ackerman and had been on that train. Shortly after the war. McMinn learned his sister in Crawford knew a Boggess in Macon and told her the story of what Lt. Julian Boggess from Macon had done. He gave Boggess all the credit for getting the men through. He told how Boggess, at the risk of his own life, argued with the Germans for better treatment for the POWs.

McMinn said, “he and all the other men on that journey would never forget the courageous ‘Doc’ who fought so hard for humane and decent treatment for the men in his care…A man like that…he should be a general.” After his liberation in May of 1945, Dr. Boggess ended the war with the rank of Captain at Walter Reed Hospital. He then moved to Columbus where he had a lengthy medical practice.

History weaves an interesting web. One of Dr. Boggess’ sons Joe also became a doctor and a close friend.

I met Charles Lee when he visited my father. His daughter, Sharon, became Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Mercer Nickles showed up at a talk I gave in Aberdeen, asking about my father…

These four men, who were very real heroes with ties of years ago, left a grand legacy of courage and perseverance for their children. They truly were members of the “Greatest Generation.”

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

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