John Heeg, Sr War stories, cont'd.

So we left John Heeg, Sr. at an airbase in eastern England.  Given that all the British men were off fighting the Germans, when the GIs went to town, there were quite a number of British women waiting for them.  Consequently when my father and his friends found a bunch of women looking for more than ale, they went back to one of the women's houses.  Their staff sergeant came with them, but he was a bit older and was trying to hit on one of the women's mothers.  Well they get to the house and everyone is pairing up, and Sarge and Mom get into some kind of disagreement which escalates.  That pretty much ended anyone's chances of getting any that night and they all got the boot from Mom.  But I'm sure there were plenty of other nights when things went better.

Sometimes the mechanics had to fly across the channel to disassemble crashed bombers to retrieve any sensitive parts or get the downed plane in operational order so it could be flown out.  So the Army would secure the area and the engineers would plow a makeshift dirt runway and the mechanics would be flown in.  So one night, my father said they were flown to Cassel in North Eastern France near the Belgian border.  They get the bombsights off and any else sensitive and salvageable.  It gets near nightfall and they hear about one of the Lebensborn enclaves nearby.  This was one of Hitler's breeding camps where he brought in blond haired, blue eyed beauties from the conquered territories to breed with the similar members of the SS.  The closest one I could find is Lamorlaye, southeast of Cassel, although at 142 miles away, seems unlikely and perhaps they were closer to Lamorlaye, and just crossed the channel at Cassel. 

So they pile into a deuce and a half and head on over to the nearest Lebensborn whereever it was.  They get there and since the Germans had been long gone, it seemed the residents were too happy to see some GIs show up.  My father said there were loads of little kids progressing in height from little ones to probably about 5 years old.  So they party with the women and my father heads off for a romp with one of them, and thoroughly enjoys himself a bit too long.  When he finally decides it is time to go, he realizes that the truck has already left.  So with nothing but a sidearm (1911 Colt, semiauto .45) he starts off on foot to head back to the plane. 

Traveling in the direction he can best determine, he travels through woods and can hear the refugees doing the same and them shooting at any other suspicious noises.  He finally comes to a road and waits for someone to come along.  Soon enough two jeeps come down the road and he flags them down.  In the first is a Major and his girlfriend and in the second his escort.  The major tells my father to get into the second jeep.  They drive along for some time and suddenly my father recognizes something and tells the escort to stop and let him out.  He goes through some woods and there is his plane.