Major, U.S. Air Force
Alfred M.L. Sanders, a native of Kentwood, Louisiana, earned his bachelor’s degree in education from LSU in 1941. While at the university, he was a member of the track team and served two years in ROTC.
A combat pilot in World War II, Sanders flew four missions over Germany, France and Belgium and piloted the “Mike-the Spirit of LSU” B-24 Liberator Bomber, 8th Air Force, 832nd Squadron, 486 Bombardment Group. Later, he was a B-32 bomber instructor and a squadron commander (Aircraft Electronic Maintenance) with War Reserves Supplies in Turkey. During his last three years of service, he flew single-engine jet fighter bombers out of Moody Field, Valdosta, Georgia.
His military experiences are the subject of a movie, “Nazi Train,” and a book, “Le Courage Et-Lies Pour Le Liberator of Ronquières 1944-1945,” by Wylie Felix.
His military honors include two Army Commendation Medals, a Purple Heart, a POW War Medal, and a Special Air Medal.
After returning from the war, Sanders worked in construction of oil pipelines and at Harding Field, now known as Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. He was on the faculty at Brevard Community College in Florida for 17 years, retiring as professor emeritus in 1980.
In 2009, Major Sanders was honored by induction into the Hall of Honor for Distinguished LSU Military Alumni. Major Al Sanders died in 2017.
Major Sanders recalls that day, May 28, 1944, over Lutzendorf:
“As the B-24 formation approached the target on the bomb run, the explosions of FLAK from the anti-aircraft guns was so thick that it formed a solid gray cloud so dense you felt that you could walk on it. The lead plane in the bombing formation was named ‘Robin the Cradle,’ piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Eugene Hicks. His plane had the bombsight, and it was his plane that determined when our formation was over the target. Everyone in the formation was watching Hick's plane; when he dropped his bombs, all planes would then release their bombs. As we approached a column of smoke, caused by an earlier bomb run, rising to our altitude of thirty-thousand feet, our planes began taking hits from the metal shrapnel of the flak explosions."
Their B-24 was badly hit and the engines began to fail one after another as they approached the target. Sanders had the bombs dropped into the smoke of the refinery and turned to try and make it back to England. When it became obvious the plane was not going to make it, Sanders gave the order for the crew to bail out over Belgium. Sanders was the last to jump. Parachuting down, he broke his ankle when he landed. A member of the French Resistance saw him and helped him escape the German soldiers already searching the countryside for the crew.
Sanders and some other escaping troops were taken to a farm in Wisbecq. The Germans surrounded the farm, but he and the others hid under the floorboards and escaped detection. They kept moving but were eventually captured by the Germans and interrogated. Loaded on a train, they were headed to a prison camp, but the train was derailed in the dark of night and Sanders escaped. He came to a canal and hid in the barge of Mr. and Mrs. Wijs. He hid until some Canadians came to join him, but not wanting to be captured again, he started out for France alone. Finally, with the help of the local French Underground, he was taken to an airfield where an Allied cargo plane waited to take him back to England.
Three months later, his wife, Millie, received a Western Union Telegram informing her that her husband would soon be safely home. Until that moment, she only knew that the plane was lost and the crew was missing. Millie had delivered their first daughter earlier that year. The rest of the crew survived their capture and were reunited after the war. Al and his family returned to Germany in 1955 and were able to reunite with most of the people who helped him escape. They formed lifelong friendships and exchanged Christmas cards for many years.
The History Channel produced an episode, titled “The Nazi Ghost Train,” recounting Al Sander’s story of escape.