OPERATION MARKET GARDEN (PART 1)
I parachuted at night into Luxemburg. We had been sent . . .
it was at the time General Montgomery had begun
his operation Market Garden. He thought he could enter
Germany through northern Holland somewhere. He got a
bad surprise . . . There were two armoured German divisions . .
two armoured German divisions were waiting for him on the
other side of Arnhem, if my memory is correct. They were afraid
the Germans would blow up the bridge. They sent us in as night
fighters. We had no special equipment to be a night fighter . .
We were separated and, coming back, it was a complete
black-out. There was no light anywhere because we were afraid of
enemy shelling. So to find the airport, we asked for a course to
follow to get to the airport, on the radio. And they always
fixed our position with devices that took cross-bearings . . .
They knew where we were. So they told us, "Fly at two hundred
and fifty degrees," or... Then my radio wasn't working any more.
I don't know if I had been hit by the DCA, the radio.
In any case, I decided I was flying south, hoping to
get to France, which had mostly been liberated at that time.
When the red light came on that meant "Five minutes of fuel."
I didn't wait five minutes . . . I jumped with my parachute
and landed in Luxemburg, near the Belgian border. I had a few
worries because, when I was going down by parachute, I saw
artillery to the left of me and to the right of me. I said,
"Which is the right side?" In any case, I landed and picked up a
newspaper on the side of the little road where I was and it was
in German. I said, "Damn, I think I'm in hot water now."
I went to a little village called Oberwampach.