Liberation and Tears

Interviewer: What was your reaction when you were finally liberated? Tears. The American, this jeep overrun us, the Americans overrun us, we were still on the march. And in this little town of Getford at six o’clock in the morning, this jeep scout ahead of their armor, of the 9th US Army, pulled into the town and there was three soldiers, I called them the three angels. And we ran out, I pulled my boots on, we were laying in the barn yard. And there are a lot of sick men there and it was one of my South African friends that spotted the jeep first and I heard him yell, “There’s a jeep out there.” And there was two doors that were ajar with a German guard on each side because over there they had everything walled in. The buildings were all built in a square or a circle. And so I ran out and here’s the jeep with these three American troops; driver, radio operator and I spoke to the officer, I saluted, and the radio operator was radioing back, “Do not fire on this town, I repeat, do not fire on this town, there are Yanks and Tommies here.” And so I spoke to the officer and talked a little bit. The other men were coming out and the hood... men’s tears were leaving little trails on the hood of the jeep.