RETREAT

By Dale Rowe

Janette and Pieddre were listening to the news when suddenly a voice interrupted

it and said, “Men of France, the Nazis have attacked us.  Those under 30 years join arms

and fight; other civilians to the coast.  Janette and Pieddre lived in Straissburg, not far

from the German border.  Pieddre was too old to fight.  While Janette was cooking dinner,

Pieddre was finding means of transportation to the coast.  He found that a bus was leaving

in three days, but that would be too late.  The Nazis would be there by then.  They quickly

ate dinner, loaded their food and clothing into a cart and started off.

After they had gone about six miles, they heard the roar of planes overhead.  There

were six German” stukes” dimming down on them and the other refugees.  Sirens were

screaming and bombs were whistling.  After the raid was over, they marched on.  At dusk

they came to a farmhouse and they asked for room to sleep. They were refused.  After the

eighth house, they got room in a woodshed.  They ate a supper of bread; then they lay

down the blankets which were ripped to shreds by bullets and went to sleep.  Next

morning they had a meager breakfast of bread and potatoes and then moved on.  After many

narrow escapes from the Nazis, they reached a town near Paris which was being valiantly defended by the French.  Pieddre joined in with a French machine gun, but a grenade blew

his head open.  Janette hid him in the ruins of a house.  Then the Nazis moved in.  She buried

Pieddre’s body.  Then later the Nazis found her body in a river with a knife in her heart.

She loved Pieddre.