Greening next was assigned to the North African theater. His luck ran out in July 1943 when Axis gunners shot his plane down over Italy's erupting Mt. Vesuvius. After capture and then escaping during an Allied-bombing raid, Greening evaded recapture for more than six months in northern Italy. German soldiers who had been tipped off about Greening's hideaway in a high mountain cave eventually seized him and two companions.
In a German stalag, Greening was one of the ranking Allied camp commanders. He continued to make an amazing pictorial record of the war--of his own experiences and those of dozens of other prisoners who related their accounts to him. Near the war's end, the Allied prisoners seized control of the camp before the Russian army overran it. Greening's invaluable watercolors, sketches, diary, and other items, a good portion of which had been hidden from the Germans, were safely brought out.
In recent years, Greening's niece and widow compiled his memoirs. His sensitive observations on the cruelty and injustices of war are moving and deep-felt. His innate courage and resourcefulness were admirable, as were his astute assessment of the evils of fascism and the measures necessary to prevent threats to world peace.
More than one Doolittle veteran has said, "Ross Greening was the best one of us!"
