207847 Lt. Ralph E. Hamilton Oak Leaf ClustersArmy Air Corp 78th Fighter Group, 83rd Fighter Squadron 8th Air Force from:Long Beach, CA, USA Lt.Ralph Hamilton was a P-51 pilot who was shot down on a mission to Nurnberg on February 22, 1945 while strafing a marshalling yard in Crailsheim, Germany. He bailed out and was captured trying to reach the Swiss border. He achieved limited popularity among other prisoners for being able to make a delicious white cream sauce out of minimal ingredients, turning rather bland rations into food that was almost edible.
In his notes he said he wrote the following poem under a dim night light, on toilet paper in the camp at Moosberg Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag VII-A. He said the bedbugs had chewed his wrists, neck, and ankles to a painful mass of itching misery and forced him from his bunk.
A Kriegies's Prayer:
Oh, God, I ask of you in humble prayer,
As I lie in torment far from home,
Keep safe my loving family over there;
Make lighter theirs—this burden
Which they bear.
I ask not why this plan for war was lain,
Nor question your divine authority,
But couldn't you have had the flak refrain
That last time I went down to
Strafe a train?
Oh, God, just slightly overflow thy cup,
And speed me from this vermin-prison’s bed.
Please, God, release me from
This land of Krupp
Before these God-damned bedbugs eat me up!
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