Nobody Wanted to Go On Patrol

Nobody wanted to go on patrol.You went on patrol at night. Let’s say, we were in Holland, in Nijmegen, and there was a strategic bridge that we were guarding. The regiment was on a front. The Germans were opposite. It was a large plain. The Germans were about two or three kilometres from their own lines and we were face to face with them. At night, we were able to go out, but only at night. During the daytime, we didn’t go out because one or the other of us would get killed. But to make sure who was going to break out first, we went on patrols at night. There were abandoned houses. Let’s say that between the two lines, there were sheds . . . it depended on the land . . . there were some barns. We went out with a patrol, eight men, with some distance between each of us, because we were going to a specific point with a kind of telephone. Once there, you had to stay there throughout the night. The Germans did the same thing. Sometimes, we saw them passing, it depended on the light from . . . the Germans passed by, but we were afraid of firing, because we did not want to reveal our positions. It was just to see if there was any strategic movements going on. They were doing the that in different places. But it wasn’t easy because I remember that, one evening, I was in a house and if we dared to go forward a bit, all the windows were broken because of bombing and it would make a cracking sound. Then we would hear buddies sometimes shouting out “No damn noise!” You know, nervousness . . . Then there was no talking . . . (laughter). Then we would see a group going by and we didn’t know if they were Germans. Sometimes, we could detect them, but they went on walking. We had patrols at different points because we were on a front, a regiment, 800 men. We were all across the front. It’s true that there were trenches there. In the rear, there were barns. We could go out at night in the dark. We would go there to eat oatmeal in the rear, hot oatmeal in the barn, and we would smoke a cigarette and go and get some rest. We patrolled at night because, at any time, if either one or the other opened fire, you would be finished. That’s why when they said “volunteers,” there were three out of eight; they would say, “You, you and you, go!” I was there only a couple of times, and thank God! (laughter) That takes nerves. There were those who were more frightened than others, but when you were anxious to return, then you damned well went back. You had to maintain some distance between each other on patrol, because the orders were that if the Germans caught you, there was a little telephone line that had been put up temporarily . . . because on the front, they liked to fire at it so that our side would open fire to protect us. But the patrol . . . the patrol was the patrol. I was lucky, but at times guys went on patrol when it was raining. That was worse because there was no visibility. There was nothing. When it rained, there was no chance of any moonlight. So you could then clear things out a bit. So when I was in the trenches, at times like that, when it was night and we got nervous, we would set off grenades from time to time. We would throw a grenade. That cleared the way up front in case . . . it calmed your nerves. These were also things that we learned from experience.