Shot Down

And

Kriegie Memories

by Ben Phelper

Introduction and a note to readers.     


'Shot Down' and 'Kriegie Memories' are two of several books that were written by Ben Phelper after his repatriation back to the U.S.A after WWII.  He had been a member of a B-17 air crew in the US Army Air Corps, was shot down and incarcerated in the POW camp Stalag XVII-B.  The booklet 'Shot Down' is Phelper's hand illustrated and lettered account of his last mission; 'Kriegie Memories' is his account of his stay in Stalag XVII-B. While there he managed somehow to take many photographs, most of which survived in good enough condition to be developed after the War.  Phelper hand- lettered text to accompany and explain the photos then privately published the two books. He contacted all the former Stalag XVII-B POW's (“Kriegies”) that he could find and Harley Tuck Sr is one of those who bought a copy of these two books.

Beginning in 1986 when I, Harley Tuck Jr, first began my project to transcribe my Dad's WWII material I inquired more or less actively for the copyright status of 'Kriegie Memories' but all the information I could find in 10 years indicated that it had lapsed many years before. In 1996 I set up a website of Harley Sr's WWII Diary and I included a few excerpts from 'Kriegie Memories' as a subset of web pages to illustrate what HT Sr had been through during his own time in Stalag XVIIb.  In the summer of 2002 I recieved one single email from somebody purporting to be Ben Phelper's widow.  The person wrote that the copyright on 'Kriegie Memories' was current; that 'she' held it and was trying to make money by selling the book to relatives.  'She' demanded I take the 'Kriegie Memories' excerpts off  my website and I did so. However, after that single contact I received no replies to my subsequent efforts to confirm the person's identity.

That website has been offline for many years, and in the meantime Harley Tuck Sr has died (29 Jun 2010, R.I.P.) After his memorial service I gained possession of his copy of 'Shot Down', which, interestingly, I had dim memories of having seen when I was a child. The content of that booklet is a treasure in its own right, showing the last day and final mission of a B-17 crew. It makes complete the unique account of the WWII combat experience starting with HT Sr's Diary, then being ' Shot Down' and finishing with 'Kriegie Memories'.

In light of the unconfirmed identity of the person claiming to hold the copyright to these books and of the considerable historical value of the information they contain, I have decided to return Harley Tuck Sr's copies of these two of Ben Phelper's books to the CD-ROM containing Harley's WWII materials.  I, myself, will distribute it only to relatives or others who in any case would have access to the family copy of the books; I am not responsible for what they do with their copies of the CD-ROM. Additionally, when this collection eventually returns to the WWW, if anybody provides documentation that they possess a valid copyright, I will certainly remove the Phelper material.


Regards, and enjoy,

- Harley Tuck Jr

Jul 2012

Begin reading: Shot Down 

Begin reading Kriegie Memories 

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