The story of Jason’s life in the Stalag continued.
Two months passed, and it was now April 1944.
To this day, Jason never received a letter from Cindy even though he wrote her ten letters. Since he didn’t receive any letters from Cindy that made him even more depressed and made it even more challenging to maintain a positive outlook on life.
So he would spend his days moping around the Stalag and even quit jogging. Hans would try to cheer him up but couldn’t shake Jason out of his depression.
Then on one late April day, Hans entered Jason’s barracks with the mail.
Hans walked by Jason’s bunk and dropped off his letter. “I’ll come back later,” Hans said then walked away.
Jason looked hopeful but got disappointed when the only mail he got was another letter from his mom.
He opened up the envelope and removed the letter.
“Dear Son, I hope you’re well in that German prisoner of war camp. Peggy’s been home for months and finally got discharged from the Army. But I’m still saddened that you wanted to marry that English girl. Hopefully, since you’ve been away room her, you’ll come to your senses. I can imagine all she wants is a free ride to America. We’re just so lucky that Mister Moore didn’t fire your father from his job. We’ll talk more about getting back on track to marrying Peggy when you return home. Take care of yourself in that prison camp, Love Mom,” Wilma wrote in her letter.
Jason put the letter down and stared at the bottom bunk over him. His eyes welled up, as he missed Cindy terribly, and there was no way he would ever marry Peggy.
Ten more months passed, and it was now the end of February 1945, and Jason weighed one hundred and twenty pounds. He also started to look sicker, more depressed, and about to give up on life.
There were rumors, thanks to Hans, going around the POWs that they were going to move the Stalag and they were going to start their march in a few days.
It was a Tuesday, and the weather was clear blue skies and a little chilly.
The guards in the towers kept a vigil eye on the POWs while they moped around the Stalag. It was their morning exercise.
While Jason moped, he removed his photo of Cindy and him under the nose of the Sweet Bird and a tear dropped on the photo. He shoved the photo back in his shirt pocket.
He walked around for a little while longer and saw Hans. He stuck his hand in his pocket and walked toward Hans.
He walked by Hans and discreetly handed him his letter to Cindy without making eye contact.
Hans discreetly shoved the letter into his pants pocket and walked away.
Thirty minutes later, the sound of machinery was vaguely heard from the back end of the Stalag deep in the woods.
The sound of machinery from the back end of the Stalag got louder from the woods. It now caught the attention of the guards in the wood towers, as this wasn’t expected.
The POWs stopped walking around the Stalag and looked in the direction of the machinery sounds.
“Then one of the POWs eyes lit up. “That sounds like our tanks,” he told a few of the POWs standing near him.
It didn’t take long for that suspicion to spread to the other POWs walking around the Stalag.
The sound got louder, and it was apparent it was American tanks.
The guards in the wood towers started shooting their machine guns in the direction of the sound in the woods.
The sound got louder, and it was apparent tanks were approaching the Stalag.
The guards in the wood towers continued to fire their machine guns in the direction of the approaching tanks.
One of the wooden towers and a huge section of barbed wired fence exploded after being shelled at by a tank.
All the POWs stopped dead in their tracks, while a glimmer of hope shined in their eyes.
Then gunfire came out of the woods at the rear of the Stalag. Two guards tumbled out of their wooden towers, and they slammed into the dirt dead.
Four M4 Sherman tanks roared out of the woods toward the hole they made in the Stalag perimeter fence.
The POWs eyes lit up with joy at the sight of the tanks. The POWs all cheered and finally smiled and looked alive.
Bullets zinged around the Stalag grounds while the German soldiers and American Infantry soldiers all exchanged gunfire.
The POWs all dropped to the dirt for cover.
Colonel Bruker ran out of his building in a panic and ran toward the barracks.
Bullets continued to zing in the dirt while the German and American Infantry soldiers exchanged gunfire.
Colonel Bruker watched while some of his soldiers were shot dead.
Another wooden tower exploded when a bazooka took it out.
Colonel Bruker stood there fearless while he looked around his Stalag that was now being invaded. He was furious.
Jason scampered into the crawlspace of one of the barracks.
He looked around and saw Hans hiding in the crawlspace of another barracks.
They saw each other and gave little waves.
Then around one hundred American Army ground pounders walked out of the woods from behind the tanks, and cautiously entered the Stalag grounds while firing their rifles at the German soldiers.
Another wooden tower exploded from a bazooka.
Bullets continued to zing around the Stalag grounds, and more POWs scampered into the crawl spaces of the buildings.
German soldiers ran between the barracks, and some of them dropped to their knees and fired at the approaching American soldiers.
Hans watched from under his hiding place while some of his fellow soldiers were shot dead.
Colonel Bruker rushed between the two barracks and saw his dead soldiers on the ground. He fired his Luger at an American soldier and killed him.
While he looked around, he spotted Hans cowering under a barracks. He got furious and stormed over to the building.
“Get out you coward!” Colonel Bruker yelled at Hans.
Hans slowly crawled out from under the barracks, and during the process, Jason’s letter slid out of his pocket and landed in the dirt.
Colonel Bruker saw the letter and curiously picked it up out of the dirt. He looked at the letter and saw it was addressed to Cindy Grant in Chipley Springs, England. Colonel Bruker got furious when it dawned on him that Hans had been smuggling letters out of the Stalag. He reached down and grabbed Hans up by his hair.
From under this hiding place, Jason watched while Colonel Bruker pulled Hans up by his hair to his feet. He knew this wasn’t going to be pretty and wanted to save his friend. He saw a dead German soldier five feet from his hiding place. He realized it was Sergeant Dunstan, so he quickly crawled over and grabbed the dead sergeant’s rifle.
“Traitor!” Colonel Bruker yelled at Hans and whipped out his Luger. “And traitor’s should be shot!” he yelled while he aimed his Luger at Hans’ forehead.
Jason quickly fired a round from the German rifle.
Colonel Bruker dropped dead to the ground with a headshot.
Hans looked stunned, then relieved when he saw that Colonel Bruker was no longer a threat.
Three Sherman tanks crashed through the barbed wire fence with the trailing Army soldiers.
The POWs all stood up at the sight of the Army soldiers, and they all cheered.
Some POWs grabbed the rifles of the dead German soldiers.
The POWs aimed their rifles at the German soldiers who all immediately dropped their rifles and raised their arms in the air and surrendered.
Jason ran over to Hans who stood there in disbelief that the Stalag was captured. He got scared, and his eyes welled up. Jason placed his arm around Hans for comfort.
“It’s over. It’s finally over,” Jason said.
Hans smiled then looked down and saw Jason’s letter still in Bruker’s dead hand. He reached down, grabbed the letter, and handed it to Jason. “You can deliver this in person.”
Jason took the letter with a huge smile, and his mind filled with positive thoughts of being with Cindy once again.
An Army SSgt walked up to Jason and pointed his rifle at Hans.
Hans got scared and raised his arms in the air.
“Sarge, I’m Lieutenant Jenkins, take good care of this Private. He was friendly to us while in this Stalag,” Jason told the sergeant.
Four other POWs walked up to Jason. “He’s right Sarge, this German was friendly. Take good care of him,”
“We will,” the Staff Sergeant replied then grabbed Hans’ arm and escorted him away.
Hans looked back at Jason, and he seemed so scared while he was being escorted away to the other captured Germans.
“Don’t worry Hans, everything will be alright! I’ll find you in Kaiserslautern after the war!” Jason called out to comfort his friend.
Hans smiled at Jason while being escorted away.
Another Army Sgt walked over to Jason and the other POWs. “Is everybody okay?” the sergeant asked Jason and the other POWs.
“We’re fine,” Jason replied but kept an eye on Hans.
Two weeks later, Jason was in an Army hospital in England. He spent four weeks there getting medical exams and received a healthy diet and got some of his weight up.
During the days in the hospital, Jason would stroll around the hospital grounds for some exercise. Then he started to jog at a slow pace when he felt ready. He also wrote Cindy three letters and wondered why she hadn’t come to visit him.
Then the night before he was to be discharged from the hospital, Jason had another dream.
In his dream, Jason and Cindy were married and bought a farmhouse in Iowa. He lived in a white two-story house with a wrap-around porch. He had a red barn where he housed his bi-wing airplane for his crop duster business. He was married to Cindy, and they had a son, who was now four years old. In his dream, life was excellent, and he was so happy.
It was now the middle of April 1945, and Jason was discharged from the Army hospital. The Commander of the airbase also paid him a visit and pinned some new Captain bars on Jason’s uniform.
Jason returned back to the Chipley Springs airfield, where Colonel Franklin granted him two weeks leave.
So Jason got dressed in his Army Tunic uniform and rushed off to the English town of Chipley Springs.