The adventures of S

Before I talk about the joy we both felt at being together again, I will describe how S got to Kopenhagen.

He went to his commanding officer (by the way he was now Captain S.) and asked for leave to go to Sweden. "I agree with your request, but since we have not had this request before you will have to take it up the channels of command. He went all the steps up, finally got to SHEAF headquarters, General Eisenhower's site of ruling. And then he waited and waited.

When he finally asked his CO what had happened to his request, he was told that when a person doesn't know exactly what to do he files it in a slot in his desk. So go back exactly the way you went the last time and check on where it got caught. And when S finally got back to SHEAF Headquarters the big-shot there told him "Just yesterday we got news that our soldiers can have R&R time in Scandinavia. The next question S had was "how do I get there?" (Northern Europe was divided into three sections, the British, The Russian and the US. It would be difficult to maneuver around the Russian sector but he was advised to do that. And since the war was so recently finished there were no buses, no trains so his CO told him to take a jeep and two drivers. After checked into the embassy in Kopenhagen, he would have 30 days leave. They were not given any money and the Europeans did no accept the occupation Marks. So how would they buy petrol for the jeep, How would they pay for the rooms they would need? How would they pay for the ferries they were forced to take in Denmark? The CO said "take lots of cigarettes.

The Brits were very helpful and fed them occasionally and let them spend the night in their housing. But when it came to the two ferries they had to take, they approached the check-in spot for the ferry and showed a package of CAMELS and the gruff man at the ticket booth said with a Danish accent, Sieben, holding up seven fingers. Did this mean seven packages or seven cigarettes? S put seven cigarettes on the counter, and lo and behold, the gate rose letting the jeep and the three occupants on board. Grateful for small blessings, S put two cigarettes into the hand of the gruff gatekeeper.

After S made the call to my mothers house, he went out on the town and had the best dinner he had eaten since leaving home. Who knows what the two drivers did. They had to return to Nuremberg as soon as they had delivered S to the Embassy. They seemed just like boys from next door but when they returned to Germany both were in need of treatment for a sexually transmitted disease.