Barrels of German Whisky

Heroes Remember

Barrels of German Whisky

Transcript

I was close to one town, and I forgot the name already. It was pouring rain, cats and dogs. There was a little house and they were wanting to see who it was in that house and it was a German. He was a manager of the liquor store next town, the little town aways from there. So I asked if there's any liqour in here. "Nicht verstehen." Come on with me. And out behind the house there was, I gave him a rod, he started poking it, sound steel you know. Gave him a shovel, just take it off. Took dirt off, lift a piece of tin up, there's 40 gallons of whiskey in there. He was the manager of the liquor store in that town. German whiskey. So we all were already out with that pouring rain, had to put some rubber clothes on and we sat on that hole there, everybody got a gallon, having a drink, the war is over. They just phoned in, the war is over, you know. And we had one Frenchman from Medicine Hat, he went to town and got a horse, there was a horse in there. And he sat on that horse, took one gallon in this hand and one in this over the shoulder, drinking, running to town with that horse, hollering, the war is over. Have a drink, have a drink. Never seen that the likes of it and we celebrated, we drink everything and fall in that pit where the whiskey was. They got drunk and about two hours later everybody was up, nothing wrong. Nobody was sick or anything. It was such good stuff. Just to perk you up, the war was over. We still didn't believe it. That was the happiest day of my life, cause it was getting a little too much, couldn't take it no more.

Description

Mr. Zayachkowski describes breaking open a cache of German whisky to celebrate the end of the war.

Michael Zayachkowski

Michael Zayachkowski was born in St. Julien, Saskatchewan on September 10, 1923. He was one of ten children. As a youth growing up in the Depression, Mr. Zayachkowski attended school, worked on the farm and helped in the woods. He enlisted in late 1941, and after a stint as a physical training instructor at Shilo, was deployed overseas. During his years abroad, Mr. Zayachkowski served in North Africa, Italy and D-Day through to Holland as a front line medical technician. Following the war, and after farming for a while, he joined the RCMP, where he served twenty-five years.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:11
Person Interviewed:: Michael Zayachkowski
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Royal Canadian Artillery
Rank:: Sergeant-Major

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Barrels of German Whisky

Heroes Remember