Stalag 17

:01:11

I don't know about you,

:01:13

but it makes me sore seeing those
war pictures about flying leathernecks,

:01:17

and submarine patrols, and frogmen,
and guerrillas in the Philippines.

:01:22

What gets me is that there
never was a movie about P.O.W. S...

:01:25

...about prisoners of war.

:01:28

My name is Clarence Harvey Cook -
they call me Cookie.

:01:32

I was shot down over Magdeburg,
Germany, back in '43.

:01:35

That's why I stammer sometimes,
especially when I get excited.

:01:39

I spent two and a half years in Stalag 17.

:01:43

"Stalag" is German for prison camp.

:01:45

Number 17
was somewhere on the Danube.

:01:48

There were about
40,000 P.O.W. S there -

:01:50

if you count the Russians,
the Poles and the Czechs.

:01:54

In our compound,
there were about 630 of us.

:01:57

All American airmen - radio operators,
gunners and engineers. All sergeants.

:02:03

Now, put 630 sergeants together and,
oh mother, you've got yourself a situation!

:02:09

There was more fireworks shooting
off around that joint...

:02:12

Take the story about the spy
we had in our barracks.

:02:16

It was about a week before
Christmas in '44.

:02:19

Two of our guys,
Manfredi and Jonson, to be exact,

:02:22

were just getting set
to blow the place.