Note: My father wrote a memoir about his tour of duty in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was on leave in Nice, France, when Germany announced its surrender.
The War Ends in Europe
By Richard S. Funk
The news from the German front in Stars & Stripes indicated that the end of the war was at hand. As luck would have it, the Cease Fire Agreement ending hostilities was signed at General Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims, France, on May 7 — the day before I was supposed to fly back to rejoin Battery B and the 14th Armored.
Fortunately, the flight on the 8th was canceled since everyone was celebrating and the pilots probably had too much to drink.
The next day, the plane was to depart at 1 p.m., which it did. The problem was that it did not get very far. After take-off, we noticed that the pilot was doing a lot of circling to the left, and finally, we were skimming alongside the ominous hills at the airport and came in for a landing back where we had started. The co-pilot jumped out and removed an aileron chock that restrained the right wing flap from moving. Someone had forgotten to pull it off before our take-off, and without the flap, the pilot was only able to fly in circles to the left.
The second time was a charm.
However, most of the plane was loaded with Army nurses, and I guess the pilots wanted to impress them. Anyway, instead of flying at a more normal altitude, he flew low — just a few hundred feet above the treetops. This gives the impression of greater speed. It also scared the hell out of farmers and livestock on the French and German farms we flew over on the way back to Nuremberg.
All the passengers on board had their fingers crossed, thinking what a shame it would be if we had survived the war but were killed in a plane crash the day after the armistice. But we arrived safely.
I finally located Captain Kelly and the Battery B half-tracks near the airport at Landshut, Germany, where they were helping to process liberated American, English, and French prisoners of war for flights back to their homelands.
Naturally, my buddies wanted to know what kind of close relationship I had with General Patton that enabled me to be vacationing on the Riviera when the war ended. I had no answer to that question.
But I did have some answers to other questions.
How long had we been on combat alert since landing in France? Answer: 281 days.
How many miles did we cover?
Answer: 3,350 miles-at least that was the mileage on the odometer of Captain Kelly’s jeep.
Comrades in arms, getting ready for war. .This is what my father wrote for a caption, “Communications Section — 398th AAA AW Bn (SP): Bottom Row, L to R: Todesco, Euart, Funk, Tighe; Top Row, L to R: Gaudette, Ross, beck, Fingerhut.”