Northcutt’s research on POW father ends in surprise discovery

Since Enoch Northcutt’s death in 2009, his son, John Northcutt, has continued his research into his father’s military service during World War II and his time as a German POW.

“In recognition of National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Sept. 17, I thought it appropriate to share a brief story,” he wrote to family and friends.

Lt. Enoch Lafayette Northcutt Jr. served with the 28th Infantry Division in Europe. He was captured by Germans on Nov. 7, 1944, at the Battle of the Hûrtgen Forest on the German border. After recovering from a shrapnel wound in a German hospital, he was transferred to a German POW camp, “ Oflag 64”,  for American infantry officers in Szubin, Poland.

On or about the Jan. 28, 1945, some 1,300 American prisoners were forced to march from the camp because of approaching Russian troops.

“On the first night of the march, my father along with three other American officers, escaped from the column,” Northcutt wrote. “With the aid of friendly Polish farmers, they eventually made their way through Poland and Russia to the Black Sea port of Odessa.”

His father and the other former prisoners were taken by ship to Port Said, Egypt, and then to Naples, Italy.

“In April 1945 my father was able to fly to London, England, to be reunited with my Welsh mother, Mary Lloyd Northcutt, whom he had married in May 1944. They celebrated the end of the War in Europe in Aberystwyth, Wales.”

But John Northcutt’s continuing research uncovered another gem of information. Using the treasure trove of information found on the Internet, he “googled” the name Odessa hoping to find out the British troop ship that carried his father and others from Russia.

“An article popped up on my computer along with a photograph that changed my life forever,” he said. The caption on the photo taken in early March 1945 reads: “Repatriation of Allied War Prisoners. Allied War Prisoners freed by the Soviet troops, Head for the Port of Odessa where a ship is ready to take them to their home countries. Photo by M. Ozersky, No. 24980, SIB Photoservice “.

“On closer inspection of the photo, I was startled beyond belief to identify my father and one of his fellow POW escapees, Lt Carey DeMott, from Bessemer, Ala., among all the POWs.”

The two men are in the fourth row on the right. His father, who was then 24 years old, is wearing a trapper winter hat, and DeMott has on an American infantry officer cap.

Northcutt has only one regret about finding the photo.

“How I wish I could have shared this photograph with my father during his lifetime.”