Leaving the Hospital on a Pass and Dating

I was in Paris when Armistice was decided, on a leave, first leave I had in a couple of years and I had to come back, I didn't really know about it until almost Brussels, and then came into, so I mean, Bruges had just gone wild, so we walked from the station back to the hotel, not that mattered, we could walk any place, and then the next morning at the hospital, we said, "Well, anybody that can walk can have a pass," any of the boys. Well I remember this poor fella, he had the worse athlete feet that I had ever seen in my life, and that poor guy, and he came up and wanted a pass, and I said, "No, I can't give you a pass, really," and he came up again and I thought, "Why not, you've been through hell, if you can get out, go, here's your pass, go." And we had just gave them the free, town, and we just sent the ambulances around, the crews around, and they all got drunk of course, and hauled them all in and brought them back and put them to bed, they mighten be in the right ward or anything, but we got them sorted out. But they deserved it, they deserved to celebrate. And so we all survived all right.

But in there, when we first went up there, that was when the big push came back in ‘44, just before Christmas in ‘44.

Interviewer: The Ardennes movement?

Yeah, and then we were there for the Leopold Canal and the Scheldt and all that racket you see, that was all in our area. Weren't allowed to go out on a date, you know, you had to go to the matron and say, "Well I have a date tonight." No place to go, but anyway. "Well, now has your escort got a, carry a pistol? " "Yes." "Have you got a jeep? " "Yes". "A driver? " "Yeah." So I mean, what was the point, you couldn't go any place anyway, there was no place to go, I mean we were surrounded.