大象传媒

The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Harold F Plank and James D Plank.

During this time, we had moved into the Bavarian Alps. One day I was driving a Jeep with an officer, followed by a couple of armored vehicles. We went into the mountains and up a dirt road that reminded me of a place back home in Pennsylvania, going from Log Cabin Inn up to Colton Point, only it was heavily wooded with more pines and hemlocks. There we eventually came into a courtyard of a castle. It was just like a storybook castle. We parked in the courtyard, and the officers went inside to talk with the people. The courtyard soon filled with pages in tight black britches and white socks. The britches came to just below their knees and the socks went above, and they were wearing bright red coats with red tails. They just stood around and didn鈥檛 cause any trouble whatsoever. Also there were maids who wore starchy aprons and skirts and bonnets. It was just like something you鈥檇 read about in a storybook. That was a nice experience.

It wasn鈥檛 long until we were in Heroldsbach, about 15 miles north of Nuremberg, and the war had ended in Europe. Occasionally we were still picking up some bypassed bands of Germans and freeing foreign prisoners who had been jailed by the Germans. On May 13th, we started back from Nuremberg to Le Havre, France. We went through many places that had big names during WW I, such as Verdun. We were in a camp near Le Havre for several days until ships came into the harbor to take us to Norway.

On May 29th I boarded an LST. It was loaded mostly with motorized vehicles, armored vehicles, tanks, and military equipment. We set sail for Norway. When we started up the fjord toward Oslo, our LST stopped at Drammen, some distance from Oslo. We unloaded the ships and I got to drive an armored vehicle from there to Oslo. It was six-wheeled and had either a 50 caliber machine gun or a 20 mm anti-tank or anti-aircraft gun in the turret behind me. We didn鈥檛 have any problems in the convoy into Oslo. There our vehicles were turned into a motor pool, and I was taken to a camp in Smestad, Norway where I would stay.

It was at this camp that I got a 鈥淒ear John鈥� letter from my girlfriend in the US, and she said that our engagement was off. It had been off for some time, but she didn鈥檛 want to notify me for fear that I would be in a war zone at the time of receiving it and I would not react to it properly. I recovered quickly and got acquainted with a Norwegian girl who lived right near the camp we were staying at Smestad. She was a cousin to one of the fellows in the outfit. From where we were camped, it wasn鈥檛 far by electric train into downtown Oslo and we were able to go there quite often. The Red Cross had set up canteens and places to stay. This young lady from Smestad was a good guide to show me the sights around Oslo.

Most of our time in Oslo was spent guarding warehouses that the Germans had used for storage, guarding some war criminals who had been captured, getting in touch with the German army camps, and preparing those troops to be transferred to Germany by ships. We had a few big parades in Oslo. When King Haakon VII returned from exile in England, we had a parade for him and formed up in the castle grounds. He inspected us, and so I got to see a king.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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