Her husband was a German Captain.

Heroes Remember

Her husband was a German Captain.

Transcript

There was one place just before the war ended, we were out here in this here field and there was this farm house, oh, I don't know how far, maybe, maybe two blocks away. So it was this one morning we said "Well, we can go over, we'll just go over and see what's going on there." So the three three of us got our rifles and walked over, knocked at the door and this woman came, she was an older woman. Oh, as soon as she saw us, she started to cry. So we tried, we tried to calm her down so, her man came, an older fella, he came and we tried to talk to them, so some of us got our cigarettes out, we offered him a cigarette and as soon as we did that, asked us in. So we tried our damnest to talk to them but it was kind of hard. But then, all of a sudden this here girl came down, down the stair, well she'd be 35 or 40 maybe, she could speak English and her husband was a German captain. We didn't think too much of being in there so anyway, they did give us a drink but, and so we'd been there half hour maybe, but there was still guys on the gun on our guns so we went back to the guns. And in the morning, who came walking across the, across the fields? The husband and wife and they were carrying a little box, and we, we didn't know what to think but anyway, we got up to them and they brought us some sandwiches. But we were a little bit, we didn't know what to do, whether to eat. So then the old lady took, took the top off the box and she grabbed a sandwich and started to eat, so everybody else did. And then I think it was afternoon or the next day, we got ordered to move, so we were moving on.

Description

Mr. McDougall describes meeting a German family and the fleeting friendship that developed.

Donald J. MacDougall

Mr. MacDougall was born near Harriston, Ontario, in 1923. He was eager to join the Armed Forces, but was turned down three times because of his age. Mr. MacDougall returned home to work in a dairy but was finally accepted into the army in 1941. Once overseas in England, he was trained as an anti-aircraft gunner. He landed in France one week after D-Day and attained the rank of Sergeant while on the battlefield. Mr. Macdougall served in several battles across Northern Europe. He was married in England, and returned home to Harriston after the war ended.

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