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days_unfoldingI asked my dad how his family went all the way from Lithuania to Bavaria in Germany during World War II. He's telling me the story in installments. I thought that some of you might find this story interesting. Here's part 4.
If I sound vague about timing and dates I have to remind you that at the time I was three years old. Sometime during the winter we moved from the farmer to refugee housing. This wasn't any kind of camp, it was just an apartment type of building outside the city. In April, 1945 my mom and I were outside preparing a garden so we could plant some vegetables.
Now a brief digression to what the war situation was like. The allies ruled the air. American fighters and bombers ranged at will over Bavaria shooting up everything in sight. The American fighters were P-51 Mustangs, a new very fast fighter armed with six .50 caliber machine guns, three on each wing. They employed a new tactic to prevent detection so that the enemy couldn't seek shelter once air raid sirens went off. The tactic was called hedge hopping where they would fly very close to the ground so they wouldn't be seen or heard except when they were already over the observer. By the time the observer reacted and set off the air raid siren the fighter was long gone.
While my mom and I were in the garden a P-51 spotted us and came in firing. The only reason we weren't turned into hamburger was that he was so low. The machine guns on the plane are angled toward the center so they all send rounds into a focal point in front of the plane. This is for air-to-air combat so all six guns would strike a target simultaneously far enough ahead of the plane so the pilot could maneuver his plane so it wouldn't hit any debris from the target. Because he was so low we were closer than the focal point of his guns, and the guns just added minerals to the soil on either side of us. The pilot realized his error and made a climbing turn to make another pass. So we did the only thing we could do, we disappeared. At least that's what it must have seemed like to the pilot. The actual situation was there was a shelter in the garden just large enough for one adult and luckily, one small child. The shelter was constructed of the same dirt as the garden and it was roofed over with the same dirt so it was invisible from the air.
It was clear to the pilot that we were a woman and small child yet he attacked us and was prepared to make another attempt when he missed. Later in the month on a nice day my mom and I climbed to the top of a hill in the vicinity to enjoy the sunshine. A Soviet fighter flew over. We know he spotted us because he wig-wagged his wings to say hi! Quite a contrast to the American.
The next installment will take us to the end of the war in Europe in the next month, May, 1945.
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Date: 2022-03-11 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 10:12 am (UTC)It is good you’re capturing these memories. That’s quite the experience, especially when he was so young!
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Date: 2022-03-12 05:08 am (UTC)