Gift of a German Dagger

It was early in the morning, we were to attack Groningen; I was in a company called D Company and I was with 16 Platoon, I was a platoon commander with 16 Platoon. We had no sooner crossed the bridge; Holland is a place of bridges over the canals and cowering in the doorway at one of the homes I saw this young chap and I said, “Vasten de soldaten!” “Where are the soldiers? ” and he said, “Komen!” A little kid eight or nine and I went into the alcove with him, he took me up the back stairs of the home and pushed through a trap door and there we were on the roof of the house and we were sniped upon by some snipers in a church steeple close by. We hid behind this big chimney and he indicated, or showed me that there was a park and pointed out where the enemy were in the park. So I went down, went back and joined my platoon, sent out a patrol. We took twenty prisoners. I went down the lines disarming the prisoners and one prisoner, an officer, had a beautiful German dagger. I took it off that man and went over to the boy and I said, “Son, this is yours!”