GermanyinUSA GermanyinUSA is the home of the monthly newsletter “Germany for Americans”, produced by the German Embassy in Washington, DC. For the embassy’s official website, visit Germany.info October 11, 2019Uncategorized A remarkable story of German-American friendship recently took place in the small town of Gerolzhofen between Frankfurt and Nürnberg A former American pilot who was shot down over Germany and taken in war captivity is visiting the place where he almost lost his life for the first time in 76 years Roland Martin was a pilot of the “Iron Maiden” on October 14 1943 as part of America’s second major attack on a ball bearing factory in Schweinfurt As the youngest pilot of the US Air Force at that time his plane and those of other pilots were shot down shortly before his 20th birthday Six pilots had already left the plane with parachutes; the rest had to face an emergency landing this day went down in US history as the “Black Thursday” Although all 10 crew members survived the emergency landing Martin was picked up by German ground troops after two weeks on the run As a prisoner of war he remained in a prison camp at the Baltic Sea until the end of the war he came back to the scene of the events shows how much German-American relations have developed in times of peace This history of enmity between Germany and the USA has found a moving and happy end who committed themselves to a peaceful reconstruction of Germany after the war Roland was visibly touched by his visit to the launch site especially by the frankness of the Germans It shows that friendships can nevertheless emerge from death “Today we meet as friends” summarizes Gerolzhofen’s mayor Thorsten Wozniak When Roland received the honor to write down a few words in the Golden Book of the City of Gerolzhofen Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War just like the connection between Roland Martin and Germany that shows that over time enemies can become friends We look back on decades of support from America and are grateful that we live together in friendship and peace today Copyright © 2025 GermanyinUSA. Powered by City Hall This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.