Ol'Harry

POW WIFE KEPT PACKAGES IN THE MAIL

Virginia Causey was a senior at Greensboro High School in 1940 when her mother died.  Her father moved to Raleigh, but she lived with an aunt and uncle until she graduated.  She worked with Blue Bell/Globe Manufacturing Company, and later transferred with the company to New York City.

Then came December 7, 1941. 

Virginia Causey’s brother would eventually join the Navy.  Her sister, Mary, would marry a soldier.  Virginia Cudworth was already in love with a Greensboro City employee, Jim Cudworth.

 

“Marriage came up early in our three-year courtship.  We knew we were meant for each other, but also knew he would be leaving for the service.  Both his brothers joined the Marine Corps.  Jim and I thought we should wait until after the war to marry,” she recalls.

Jim Cudworth enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an Aviation Cadet in 1942 and was commissioned as a B-17 bombardier in January, 1943.  On March 9, 1943 the waiting to marry ended.  Virginia Causey left Greensboro for Ephrata, Washington – it was her first train ride.  Six days later, she became Mrs. Jim Cudworth.

1943 NEWLY-WEDS VIRGINIA & LT JIM CUDWORTH

A honeymoon furlough was scheduled for June, 1943.  On May 20, the new couple received a wire – all furloughs were canceled.

Jim Cudworth and his B-17 crew were off to England for duty with the 8^th Air Force.  He promised his new bride he would be home for Christmas.  Virginia Cudworth added, “I should have asked him WHICH Christmas he was talking about!”

BOMBARDIER JIM CUDWORTH UPPER LEFT 

Cudworth’s B-17 was one of 30 U.S. aircraft shot down over Bremen, Germany on October 8, 1943.  He was on his 10^th mission.  Wounded in the eye by enemy anti-aircraft fire and captured, Cudworth spent the rest of the war as a POW.  After the war, he elected not to have the flak removed for fear his vision would be lost.

CUDWORTH CREW SHORT SNORTER SIGNED BY CREW MEMBERS

After a week in a German interrogation center, Cudworth was imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, made infamous by the Great Escape.  He wrote his wife, “I am allowed a ten pound package and $50 in cash each 60 days – please send dried fruit and oatmeal.  Give the $50 to the Red Cross, they are doing a great job for us.”

POW CUDWORTH WROTE WIFE TO SUPPORT THE RED CROSS

Virginia Cudworth recalls, “I sent him packages every two months, although I knew he wasn’t getting all of them.”  She kept a record of each package.  One list reads: “Shorts, socks, tooth powder and paste, candies, playing cards, Gillette blades, saccharin, gums, coffee and soap.”

“It didn’t bother me that he wasn’t receiving all of them.  I just hoped and prayed that some of them would reach him, especially the package he requested with dried dates, peaches, apples, books, and Lucky Strikes.  I caught streetcars, but nearly walked my legs off, finding everything he needed – there were no stores that carried everything like we have now.”

Notwithstanding that Cudworth was a prisoner of war, the Army Air Forces saw to it that he was awarded his first Air Medal.  Accepting the award at Basic Training Command #10 in Greensboro, NC was Mrs. Virginia Cudworth.

MRS. JIM CUDWORTH RECEIVING POW HUSBAND'S AIR MEDAL AWARD

At a later date, she was picked up at her home by Army personnel and taken to Drill Field #5, BTC #10, where she reviewed the troops and accepted her husband’s cluster device, representing a subsequent Air Medal.

Cudworth was eventually moved by railcar and force-marches – under frigid and inhumane conditions -- to severely overcrowded Stalag VII-A, near Moosburg.  “When liberated by General George S. Patton, our troops brought in the largest American flag I had ever seen.  I stood so close to Patton that our arms brushed each other,” Cudworth told his wife.

Post-war, the Cudworth family resumed a more normal life.  He returned to his job with the City of Greensboro.  She worked with A. M. Pullen & Co.  They were members of Muir’s Chapel Methodist Church and among the early volunteers to serve at Potter’s House.  They raised two sons, James Richard “Dick” Cudworth and Garry Wayne Cudworth.

The Cudworths’ interest in assisting other former prisoners of war led them to form the Greensboro Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War Association (AXPOW).  Jim served several terms as Greensboro Commander, and three years as State Commander.

Jim Cudworth retired from the City of Greensboro after 35 years of service.  He died September 16, 2008 at 87 – he and Virginia, now 94, were married 65 years. 

Virginia Cudworth remains active in the Greensboro Chapter, American Ex-Prisoner of War Association.  She deflects all credit for supporting her POW husband, “My mother-in-law did more, she wrote each of her three sons a letter every Thursday they were away in the war.”