18 BBC Robert Barr Ardennes withdrawal

During the night the town had been bombed a little, strafed a little, and a siren had wakened us to give warning of paratroop activities. In the morning there was a rumour that German tanks were just over the hill.

Armed patrols went out on the roads. Trees were felled as roadblocks, and thunderbolts and lightnings came low over the town and began wheeling and searching in the woods just east of us. In the order that everyone hoped would never come came.

We had to move out quickly. Somehow the news spread around the little Belgian border town and the people came out to see the leaf-taking. Some of the troops had been there for three months. Many had made friends.

There was hand-shaking and many questions. How near were the Germans? Did we think they'd come to their town again? Was it true the German tanks were just over the hill? There were awkward silences. The GIs couldn't answer that question.

A truck driver tying that are pulling over his loaded truck swore quietly and said, I never thought this would happen to us.