Lee Varner
 T/Sgt. Lee A. Varner was shot down and captured on his 4th mission, 11 April 1944, with the 452nd Bomb Group. Lee had returned to combat after being rotated home from the 301st Bomb Group after flying 52 missions. Lee is second from the right with his arms up and hands behind his head. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
LEE A. VARNER, (Army serial number 19070692) Staff Sergeant, Air Corps, United States Army. For participating in five (5) sorties against the enemy. He has participated in twenty five (25) sorties against the enemy. Residence at enlistment: Chinook, Montana. GO #33, XII Air Force, 20 February 1943.
 The 452nd Bomb Group aircraft that Lee was the engineer and top turrent gunner on. A flak burst knocked out one engine. As he was ducking into into the cockpit to assist the pilots feathering the props, another flak burst damaged the turrent and wounded Lee. His wounds resulted in the loss of sight in one eye.
Memories
My father, Lee A Varner, originally deployed with the 301st Bomb Group and was assigned to the 419th Squadron. Dad told us he was the Tail Gunner on the "Avenger", Col Walker the Group CO's Plane. Dad flew 52 missions with the 301st. Apparently he went out as a replacement for a sick crewmember twice as a ball turret gunner, which he did not like that much. In any case, he and others rotated back to the states after 50 missions, 52 for Dad. Somewhere along the line, Dad was promoted to Tech. Sgt. and he became an engineer. He was assigned to a training squadron under Col Quick, the XO from the 301st. After a period of time, most of the engineers that had come back to the states with dad were killed in training accidents. When they were down to 3, Dad and two others, he volunteered to go back overseas. His rational was if he was going to be killed, he would just as soon have the Germans do it. He was assigned to the 452 bomb group where he was shot down on his 4th mission of the second tour on 11 April 1944. He was taken prisoner by the Germans. I have a picture taken by a Danish Border Guard that was mailed to my Grandmother in Aug of 44. She received the picture prior to getting official notification of Dad's POW status.
My wife and I visited Vienna in 1982. On the way we stopped in Krems and went up to Gnixendorf, the site of Stalag XVII-B, where dad was held as a POW. The camp is long gone because the Austrians burned all the wood to heat their homes. Where the POW barracks were, are all wheat fields now. The German quarters had stone foundations that were too hard to dig up so the Austrians have let the woods grow up there. There are still some graves in the camp Cemetery. Very close to the camp is a really old huge barn dating from the 12th or 1400s. We met an Austrian farmer at the barn that was a child during the war. He told us about the woods and showed us the stone foundations. Dad remembered going past the barn on his way to the train station to go to Vienna to have his eye seen by a doctor. While in the train station, it was bombed by the US, perhaps one of the 301st BG missions. Because of the raid, he was taken back to Stalag XVII without seeing the doctor.
He really did not talk much about his service until he became active in the ex-POW organization. There were small stories, like time in North Africa when they about shot themselves down while bombing a German Ammo Ship. The thing blew up, sending exploding stuff up into the formation of bombers at 25,000 ft.
He said that when he was with the 301st, they didn't worry much about flak, as they normally flew and bombed above the flak. He also stated that the original 301st guys were trained well enough and good enough gunners to keep the fighters off pretty well. He did not like the ME 110's, as they would stand out of gun range and lob rockets into the formations. Dad apparently had 5 confirmed and 1 probable German fighter shot down
He rarely talked about the POW camp other than to say, the Germans would hold back the Red Cross Parcels. They did get some once in a while. Christmas Dinner 1944 was a cat that they caught and stewed. He did not like that much. Dad was the oldest guy in his barracks, so they called him Pop Varner. Born in 1914 he would have been 30 in 1944. Because of his advanced age, he was given the task of cutting up the bread making sure everyone got an equal amount. If anyone ever complained about how the bread was cut, Dad would afford the complainer the chance to cut up the next bread ration. He told us that no one ever took him up on the offer. Dad also told stories of playing chess with the Camp Commander on occasion when something was up, thus occupying the Commander.
Provide by Daniel Varner, son.
S/Sgt. Lee A Varner was assigned to the 301st BG 419th Squadron.
4/6/1943 Lee was listed on a roster of personnel assigned to the 301st Bombardment Group on this date, 6 April 1943, when they were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation (PUC). 2/20/1943 Awarded for 25 missions DFC 5/24/1943 AM/OLC 4/6/1943 Lee was listed on a roster of personnel assigned to the 301st Bombardment Group on this date, 6 April 1943, when they were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation (PUC). PUC
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