Bob Jubb - Evading capture, part 5

Transcript

There used to be a 15-20 second lull in the artillery fire. I got up in a lull. I got up on the road and I opened up my jacket, and I put my hands up, and I belted along the road. I went for a couple hundred yards, and a voice behind me said "Halt". So I turned around and there's a little American GI with his carbine pointed at me.

I went up to him and I said, "I'm an Australian airman, take me to an officer". He said "Australian?" I said "Australian". He said "March". I marched, and he took me to a little old shed in an orchard, and there was a captain and a major there. The captain says "Whaddaya got here corporal?" He says "I don't know". He says "Some bloke who says he's Australian. I don't know what that is. Australian". I said "I'm Australian". The captain says "Oh, Australian, right". He says "You got any identification". I said "I got me dog tags". I produced me dog tags. He said "Well, I think you look alright to me. Leave him with me corporal, you can go".

The corporal went off, and the captain says "Could you use a drink?" I said "Yeah." By then I could use a drink. Anyway, he opened up this black trunk he had out, tin trunk, and got out, I'll never forget, a bottle of black and white whiskey. It had a little black dog and a white little scotch terrier dogs on it. He pours a shot into a pannikin, and he says "Get that into you". I never had whiskey before, so I choked it down, and I felt a bit better after that.

Anyway, he said "Now we're gonna send you off to the intelligence people. They'll interrogate you and find out all about you, and see what you can tell us and what's going on." I said "Who are you? What mob are you?" He said "We're General Simpson's Ninth army. We're waiting to be the first army across the Rhine."