Chapter 23: Marching Through Germany
One time, when we were in Germany, we came into a small town. Those little towns were built on both sides of a main street with very few side streets, and they were narrow streets. We went in to clear this town and we got caught about half-way through, which would be a block or a block and a half or so into the town. I was leading a column of six tanks – I was driving the head tank – and there was a German Panzer coming toward us. I didn’t know what to do, and the German didn’t know what to do. So I turned to the left and went down a street because if he started firing, he’d shoot at me. I didn’t know what he would do if I shot at him. So I pulled out into a big field out in back of a house and turned around so I could get a sight on him. And he turned around down at his end, and was getting the hell out of town. We had pushed the tanks clear back to this town, and he evidently knew that we were blowing them all up. That’s the reason he evidently got out. He just didn’t want to be blown up.
. . .
For a few nights, we were lucky enough to be near either a barn or a house so that we could sleep where it was at least dry. One night I was in a house that had a nice little stove that did a good job of keeping us warm.
Another time we had just finished eating three ducks we had liberated and sat down to a game of poker. The first pot was being dealt – stud – when a couple of rounds came in. Shovels took the place of cards at once. And suddenly towns were smoking right in front of us.
We moved into a new position where we watched nine MEs [Messerschmitts] and eight P-47s [a USAAF fighter] tumble about in the air above us spitting death at one another amid the clatter of their guns. One P-47 showed an orange flash on its motor, rolled over and plummeted to earth to disappear in a huge red and black mushroom of smoke and flame. Then another P-47 started to tumble down and at the last moment the welcome sight of a chute appeared, while the plane landing nearby became another huge ball of fire. Then an ME started to smoke and, losing altitude rapidly, swerved low over the town to crash land. The other MEs disappeared, while the P-47s roared low over their fallen comrade’s funeral pyre as a last salute. One of the other MEs was downed but I didn’t see it. It all was over so fast!