What a Korean War POW Told Debriefers

Only two of the 11 men aboard Wilson's B-29 bomber returned home after the war, and both died in the early 1990s.

Here is a portion of the declassified intelligence record of what one of them, George E. Millward, of Soda Springs, Idaho, told U.S. debriefers immediately after being released from North Korea.

-- He was blown out of the plane by an explosion after one of the engines was hit by 37mm weapons from MiG-15 fighters.

"They came out at 3 o'clock high, out of the sun, and they hit us before I could get a shot off ... I next found myself on the ground. At that time I thought I was the only survivor. I met the two other survivors in Antung (China) three days later." (What happened to the third man is unknown).

--He was beaten with clubs and rocks by North Korean security police about three hours after his capture. Dirt was thrown in the leg wound he suffered during the MiG attack. He was interrogated by Soviet military officers in North Korea, including a Soviet air force pilot. One North Korean interrogator told him he was a general and a brother of Kim Il Sung, the ruler of North Korea.

--Asked whether he had witnessed war crimes and atrocities while in captivity, he said yes, "at the Kangdong caves when I was interned there 6 May to 4 June '51." He provided no details.