Translation SchrenkBild-e of newspaper artícle in German in BILD.

Mail from Les Schrenk on 27 OCT 2025:
My story in the German newspaper “The Bildt” 
- must be BILD https://www.bild.de                       Translated by ABS and KK.

Captions:
In 1944 his B-17 bomber was shot ablaze by a German fighter. The German pilot spared the crew and accompanied them to landfall where they could
bail out.
Lester Schrenk in front of a 250 Kilo bomb that he dropped from his B-17.

“I weighed 43 Kilo and every piece of bread was a pleasure.”
When the American soldier Lester Schrenk, now 101, was liberated on 2 May
1945 by British troops, he had survived a 1000 kilometres long death march. From the notorious Prisoner of War camp Stalag Luft IV in present Poland to Hamburg. The prisoners were on their way for 86 days. Those who were unable to keep up the pace were shot by the Germans.

“I joined the Air Force when I was 19,” he said. “It was against the will of my mother, but I had promised her to come back home. That kept me alive.”

 When his B-17 bomber was shot down over Denmark, Schrenk became a
prisoner of war. “With my German roots, I was able to help translating in the
camp, but I was also harassed as a traitor.
A brutal guard that we named “Ham Hands” because of his big hands beat me
time and again.”

After 15 months Schrenk only weighed 43 Kilos. He had to learn to eat again.
“But every bite of bread was a pleasure.”