The second day I was on a blacktop road and just coming out of a
wooded stretch where I could see the line up the straight open road
ahead. Some P-51s came over and started shooting at the line of men
about a quarter mile ahead of me. The men dove to the side of the
road and spread out a POW sign we had made from strips of white cloth
to be used on just such an occasion. The planes stopped shooting, but
not before two were killed and several wounded. I was lucky to have
been still in the woods where we could dive for cover in the trees.
After that we marched at night when we could but that too presented
problems. It was so dark at night that we suffered from vertigo and
had trouble walking. We finally pinned small pieces of white cloth on
the back of the one in front of us in order to have something to
follow. Sometimes we walked with a hand on the shoulder of the one in
front too for orientation.
When we came to the village of Neumarket, the first thing we saw was
a long section of railroad track balanced on the roof peak of a two
story house as the result of a bombing. The next two days of rainy
weather left everything in mud and we were miserable. We were caught
along the open road with no buildings so we spent the night in the
open in the cold rain. 1 just stepped off the road and lay down under
a pine tree, covered up with my overcoat and tried to sleep. In the
morning my overcoat and blankets were soaked and weighed a ton, but I
had to wear them because I would need them again.
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