The War in Europe Ends

The news from the German front in Stars & Stripes indicated that the end of the war was at hand. As luck would have it, the Cease Fire Agreement ending hostilities was signed at General Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims, France on May 7 -- the day before I was supposed to fly back to rejoin Battery B and the 14th Armored.

Fortunately, the flight on the 8th was canceled since everyone was celebrating and the pilots probably had too much to drink.

The next day, the plane was to depart at 1 p.m., which it did. The problem was that it did not get very far. After take-off, we noticed that the pilot was doing a lot of circling to the left, and finally we were skimming alongside the ominous hills at the airport and came in for a landing back where we had started. The co-pilot jumped out and removed an aileron chock that restrained the right aileron, or wing flap, from moving while the plane was parked on the ground. Someone had forgotten to pull it off before our take-off and without the flap the pilot was only able to fly in circles to the left.

The second time was a charm.

However, most of the plane was loaded with Army nurses and I guess the pilots wanted to impress them. Anyway, instead of flying at a more normal altitude, he flew low -- just a few hundred feet above the tree tops. This gives the impression of greater speed. It also scared the hell out of farmers and livestock on the French and German farms we flew over on the way back to Nuremberg.

All the passengers on board had their fingers crossed, thinking what a shame it would be if we had survived the war but were killed in a plane crash the day after the armistice. But we arrived safely.

I finally located Captain Kelly and the Battery B half-tracks near the airport at Landshut, Germany, where they were helping to process liberated American, English and French prisoners of war for flights back to their homelands.

Naturally, my buddies wanted to know what kind of close relationship I had with General Patton that enabled me to be vacationing on the Riviera when the war ended. I had no answer for that question.

But I did have some answers to other questions.

How long had we been on combat alert since landing in France? Answer: 281 days.

How many miles did we cover?
Answer: 3,350 miles-at least that was the mileage on the odometer of Captain Kelly’s jeep.