Chapter 26
Flight to Freedom
Wednesday morning, April 25, the lights went on and the Postens came in. "Arbeiten today," they said. Everything seemed normal. We dressed. A POW who knew, or acted as ifhe did, said, "You hear the P-38s during the night?"
"Yeah." "When did the artillery stop?" "About dawn." "What a moonlight?" said one POW. I went to my Bauers, worked, had breakfast and Brotzeit. The morning passed without incident save for news circulating surreptitiously among POWs that the Americans were getting closer and closer. At one o'clock we were bowled over when our Postens told us that we could wander about Hurlach or, if detailed to work, do so at the farmhouse, not in the fields. Americans were eighteen kilometers (10.8 miles) from Augsburg, or thirty miles from us. It was this that set off the following events.
We and the Germans knew that if the Americans were that close, then tanks, ranging far out, could at any moment be in Hurlach. In the woods to the south of town Bauers (soldiers) and Volkstroms (home guard) intensified the digging of gun emplacements.
The POWs, this time, were not invited. We had to decide to either make a break for it before returning to the barracks or take a chance on one more day. We were afraid that once locked up we'd never get out.
During the afternoon I watched the villagers. I watched the skies. I tried to get news from Bauers who were now openly listening to Allied broadcasts, and I listened for artillery. I heard music. I traced it to the castle manor, where I discovered one of our POWs and a young Posten playing a double-piano version of
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