Arrows of Fortune by Anthony Deane-Drummond

Author:Anthony Deane-Drummond
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473811942
Publisher: Leo Cooper

* 17 *

RHINE CROSSING

We none of us heard it at first. Someone had been knocking on the door and had ended up with an almighty bang. This took away our smiles and the singing like magic. Was this the Moffen? We all looked at each other in alarm. Moffen was the Dutch equivalent of our ‘Hun’. Who was it who was knocking so urgently?

My host spoke through the door to the person outside and, on identification, opened the door. It turned out that we had woken him up in his house about a hundred yards away. He was worried that the Germans billeted with him would also wake up. This brought our party to an abrupt stop. We all had to be up early in the morning.

By dawn we were all dressed and ready to start on the next lap. We thanked the Huisman family for their fantastic hospitality in a house within walking distance of large numbers of Moffen. Quite soon a Red Cross lorry, painted white with red crosses on the sides, drew up outside. It was powered by charcoal gas and already had six civilians seated in the back. They showed no surprise as we climbed in and lay on the floor under some sacks in case a German checkpoint should ask for passes.

We bumped and swayed through the streets of Arnhem and on down the main road to Ede. From my place on the floor I could see the second floors of houses as they sped by. This was soon replaced by the sky and trees overhanging the road. I began to feel an elation that I had not had for weeks. We were really on the move again but surely not yet out of the wood. I had a feeling of overwhelming gratitude for the good Dutch people who had sheltered us and were now getting us on our way. For their part they may have welcomed the opportunity to do something for their country, but I was especially grateful for all that they had done.

Through a crack in the side of the lorry I could see burnt-out German trucks which had been caught out by RAF Typhoons with their rockets. Every German in the area had one eye on the sky and the other on the road. Every military car or lorry had an air warning sentry sitting on the front mudguard looking backwards and upwards. Even then the RAF occasionally surprised German convoys on the road before the sentries could shout warnings. Awful bloody havoc and ruin would then result.

We were now moving along the road between Arnhem and Ede. The forest was nearly continuous on either side except for an occasional white-fronted house set back in the trees. The lorry suddenly stopped without warning and the passenger sitting next to the driver jumped out and beckoned us to follow. There was nobody in sight. We were quickly led down a narrow path leading into the forest, with the noise of the Red Cross lorry getting fainter as it drove on towards Ede.

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