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BRODY HAND (6 of 7) |
We were deployed in and around the buildings and in the hedgerows
around this small chateau which was just west of what we thought to
be the Douve River and just to the south of the causeway. Everybody
got in their place, where they were going to be.
Sure enough, it wasn't long until a tank came up the road with an
officer and his men. They opened up on us with the tank, scattering
everybody. All we had was light machine guns and rifles. We held on,
thinking that maybe we could make it until dark. If we could, we
could all make a break to the river and take a chance on swimming it
or try to get away the best we could.
It didn't last that long. We held out till all small arms ammunition
was spent and we were then completely at the mercy of the artillery
and machine gun fire of the Germans. The Lieutenant got one of the
Germans, who we had captured, to call out that we surrender. Nobody
knew what was going on really, because it was German talking to
German. By then everybody was pretty well out [of] shells although
some of them might have had some rounds left. The Germans finally
made up their minds. Our prisoners convinced them that we didn't
kill prisoners. The Germans had been told that not only were
American paratroopers ex-convicts, but that they never took
prisoners. They thought that paratroopers would kill their prisoners
because they didn't have any use for them, or have no way to get
them back to camp. So actually, the three prisoners that we had
taken earlier probably saved our lives, or at least some of us
anyway.
Lieutenant Lavender called us all in. We all stacked our rifles,
guns, everything we had, in a pile. We lined up in front of the
barn. We were marched down this road in a northerly direction to a
sharp bend, L shaped, where the artillery piece was stationed. Then
we turned due West, paralleling the Douve and marched, possibly 30
minutes or an hour, in a west direction till we came to the road
that crossed the causeway. There was a causeway and a village to our
right that we could see across the river, which at that time must
have been two or three hundred feet wide, flooded over the lowland,
marsh and surrounding area. We turned to the left, which was
opposite the causeway, away from it and proceeded down the road for
possibly thirty minutes to several small buildings. There were two
or three buildings on the west side of this road. One was the
officer and guard quarters, we could plainly see, and a shed and
possibly another shed. We were all herded into a solid rock shed,
probably 30 by 50 feet, with no windows. It had no doors, but the
one, and no way of escaping. That was the first night we had been
captured. We stayed there that night and the next day.
The next night they started marching us out. Of course we stayed on
the road then. We marched all night long and the biggest part of the
next day till we got to another farmhouse. It was a stone barn with
a hayloft. Normandy is covered with little cottages that have
concrete buildings, rock buildings, and stone all put together.
They're solid with no windows, no way of getting out of it. So
that's what they used to keep us in overnight to move us. The next
day we moved on down to the first camp, which was more or less a
gathering spot for prisoners at that time. We stayed there two or
three days.
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