Saturday morning, 28th of July 1945 around 7:00 am, 0700 alpha, I arrived at the Engineering Corps. The mechanics were all gone, but the Master Sergeant was still there, currently putting a new battery into the Mercedes G4 from the Reichskanzlei.
"The truck driver told me you had gotten lost", he greeted me, glancing at me from under the hood.
"Well, not really. I had gotten held up by some stupid boys."
"Stupid boys or stupid, handsome young men?"
What was that supposed to mean? "Boys", I straightened things out.
Despite my efforts, it producted some question marks on the face of the Master Sergeant, but he was rather focused on finishing the repairs: "Ok, that car should be running, but I still have to replace the ignition lock with a simple ignition switch. You wanna help?"
"Yes, I love to help and I have the key with me", I responded with a grin.
Making big eyes, he instructed: "Good, then sit in and start it!"
The car did not start up immediately, but after some 20 seconds, the engine came to life. So, now I had two out of four limousines. When I got out, my gaze fell on the 320 limousine, which did have a damaged front.
Seeing me scrutinizing that limousine the Master Sergeant informed me: "My guys worked through the night to repair that one. They had soldiered the radiator, pulled the front out, hammered the hood into shape again and painted the scratched parts."
True, they had repaired that limousine. From an optical perspective, it was not perfect work, but I was rather happy, that I had 3 cars for the Generals now.
"I still need to extract another car and I need the tow-truck driver again, please."
"Well, he has left for his weekend already. So either you do it on Monday morning or you take the truck and drive it yourself."
I did not wanted to take chances and do it on Monday morning, so I had to do it myself now, even though I had no idea, how to operate that truck: "You need to show me, how this thing works, please."
He gave me instructions on how to operate the tow mechanism and it was not very difficult. When I sat in the drivers seat, he informed me: "200 bucks for the one with the flat tires, 500 bucks for the one with the damaged front, 50 each for new batteries, makes 800 bucks. The cars you will be bringing in go on top."
"Can I pay Monday morning?"
"Sure, I hold on to the vehicles until you pay."
Now I drove to the Reichskanzlei again to get the last G4 stretch convertible. There were more cars there. The Wehrmacht Mercedes 320 long limousine, two Wehrmacht BMW 303 limousines (same type as had gotten stolen from me), a Wehrmacht Horch 830 limousine, a civilian Mercedes SLK compressor roadster and a couple of motorcycles. It would have been a waste to leave them here, but I was too bloody tired, to continue seizing them. I had to get them on another day. So I delivered this G4 and the tow-truck to the Engineering Corps. The Master Sergeant was not there anymore, nobody besides the guards at the gate were present anymore, and I took the Jeep to go back to the women's quarters.
On that Saturday, I arrived in Gelfertstraße at about 9:30 am, 0930 alpha and I was done, exhausted and tired. I needed my bed and I needed sleep, desperately. Apparently, Amanda had heard me coming in and was right with me. She must have been antsy for the whole night: "Where have you been? We were supposed to go to the TGiF party. Did you forget?"
I made a dismissive gesture with my right hand and before I could say something she continued: "You met that British Colonel at the TGiF party and then spent the night with him! Just admit it!"
I countered: "Amanda, for the whole night, I have been driving around in a tow-truck with a driver from the Engineering Corps, collecting and seizing limousines for the allied generals coming on Monday. To make matters worse, I got captured by a bunch of stupid Hitler Youth boys and had to free myself from their clutches. I'm done, finished. I need to sleep."
It took her some 3 seconds to process what I had just said, then she raised her voice: "Can't you even think about a smart excuse? You honestly believe, I'm so stupid? You think, the Engineering Corps is driving around from Friday evening to Saturday morning collecting cars in Berlin. You think they have nothing better to do on a weekend? To make matters worse, there is no more Hitler and no more Hitler Youth. Never before have I heard a lamer excuse. You are really so full of it."
I had no power left to argue with her and I opened my room and collapsed on the bed. Amanda followed me inside and continued bickering, but I fell asleep quickly.
The July sun had made my room hot, which made me wake up late afternoon. In my room in front of the window stood that Hitler Youth boy I had shot. I was shocked. My heart fell right into my boots. He was bleeding from his chest and head and he asked me: "Wo ist meine Mami? Ich kann meine Mami nicht finden."
So he was looking for his mother and could not find her, but how in hell did he get into my room? He should be dead?
He levitated and came flying towards me, and my heart run up to 180. When he took my hand into his, I was hell scared. What would he do to me? Take revenge? Were was my pistol? It was there on the nightstand, right next to my bed and I wanted to grab it, but all of a sudden, my room was like 10 yards long and the nightstand with my pistol was too far away for me to reach. Again, the boy asked me: "Wo ist meine Mami? Ich kann sie nirgends finden."
The July sun had made my room hot, which made me wake up late afternoon. I opened my eyes and the boy was no longer there. In that moment, I realized, that I did have a nightmare.
Fully awake now, my body demanded attention. I was bloody hungry, because I had not eaten anything since yesterday noon. What should I do? The cafeterias of the allied forces would serve food in the evening again and restaurants were closed, because of lack of food and destruction. The only option I did have in reality, was to look for a family home, make the family lenient by means of my FN High-power and then eat all of their food. Quite a nasty idea and thus I dismissed it and decided to stay hungry until the evening. Should I go and have dinner with Amanda and put up with her jealous bickering? Or --- or should I drive to the Hermann Göring Kaserne and eat with Yuri? The second one, was very tempting but Amanda suddenly entered my room and thus this option was gone: "You owe me", she started! "Get dressed and let's go", she commanded!
Still not fully awake, I wanted to know, where she wanted to go and asked: "Ähm, and ---."
I did not get any further because she interrupted me: "And don't even try to worm yourself out of this!"
To avoid her wrath, I started to dress, but again she stopped me right in my tracks: "You need to put on your uniform." It was a bit weird, but I did as instructed, then followed her to the Jeep and she drove. After less than an hour, we came into Potsdam and there Amanda asked for the way to the castle Cecilienhof. Potsdam had not gotten destroyed, everything had survived including the castle. That city had not gotten bombed and it was so beautiful. From the outside, castle Cecilienhof kind a looked like a big medieval farm or the seat of a medieval count, not so much like a castle. Amanda parked the car and surprisingly, there were a great number of other cars and army vehicles from the allied forces in the parking lot. The US, the British and the Soviet flag lined up in front of the entrance and a few officers as well as civilians in suits were entering the building. A big round flower-bed right in front of the entrance, displayed the red Soviet star. Amanda followed the people, until we reached a dinning hall, which was already filled with high-ranking officers and more civilians in suits. Surprisingly, the French officer, which had hit on Amanda, when we ate in their cafeteria in Heiligensee a week ago was here, too and invited us to his table. Both started to chat and the French officer mentioned that he was just here as an observer. His English was not very good, but we could understand him. Apparently, he was quite upset, that the French had not gotten officially invited to the conference. It took me a while, but then I figured it out. This was the very Potsdam conference. It was happening here, right here in this castle, count's seat or whatever you wanna call it. A huge buffet had gotten setup along the wall of the dinning hall and Amanda interrupted the French officer, so that we could get food. I guess, she was starving, too. The problem was, there was too much to choose from. Rarely before had I seen such a huge and exuberant buffet. The world was a strange place. The inhabitants of neighboring Berlin were going hungry and here there was more than five times the food available, than all these people could eat. There was so much mouth-watering food, that it was difficult to make a choice. In order not to miss-out on anything, I just took little bits, but from many a plates and pots. After an hour of repeatedly coming back to the buffet, I was full to the extent that I had to stop lest I wanted to feel bad. My mouth wanted more, but my belly demanded to stop.
Amanda and the French officer were busy talking and I realized, they were also holding hands. The officer was in his mid-forties. Amanda seemed interested in him, but I was not. The two of them being busy with themselves, was good for me, because I needed to digest. I just wanted to relax my overfilled belly and digest. It reminded me of a python, which had swallowed too big a prey and needed to rest in order to process the food. When the dining hall started to get empty, Amanda demanded, that we'd go for a digestive walk. Well, it was not what I really wanted, but to avoid an argument, I followed. The French officer led us around the garden and soon the sun touched the horizon, while the moon was already visible in the sky. More than an hour later, we had just circled the castle once. That castle or count's seat, was large enough to host such a big event. When we passed by a couple of wooden benches, Amanda made the French officer sit down on one, taking him into a tight embrace. As I did not wanted to disturb the two lovebirds I picked a bench of my own in the vicinity. It did not take long and the two started to kiss intensely. What was really strange, was that Amanda was looking my way every so often. What was going on? What was she up to? As I was not in the moods of playing the spectator to the private performance of two lovers anymore, I went for a stroll again. In reality, I was ready for my bed, but unfortunately, my bed was far away, it was actually in Berlin. After some 10 minutes already I felt like I had to lay down, lay down right here. Still, I forced myself to go back the way I had come from, rather than laying down on the ground or worse completing the whole circle again. My hard wooden bench, which I had previously occupied, would have to suffice as a lounger until Amanda was ready to go home.
Apparently, my wooden bench was still empty, patiently awaiting me, but after spotting me, Amanda immediately told me: "Maria, Andree offered that we could sleep in his room. Means, we don't have to go back to Berlin and on top, we get nice breakfast in the morning."
Hmm, I was not really up to sleep in the same room with Amanda and that French officer. Somehow, it sounded fishy to me. He was about double my age and he and Amanda had entered a love relationship of sorts, so what was I doing in his room then? The option I had was to drive back by myself and come back tomorrow morning for breakfast, so to pick up Amanda. Going back at night, could easily turn into a 1,5h trip, that said, if everything went without accident or getting lost. Then I had to stand up latest at 8:00am again, to be here at around 9:00am for breakfast. Not a very exciting outlook and thus I had to make a decision for what I believed to be the lesser evil.
"Com'on", Amanda commanded, while I was still thinking about what to do.
A little later, we arrived in Andree's room and Amanda instructed: "You take the bed!"
Ok, the bed was preferable to the floor or the chair and I gladly accepted the offer. However, I did not feel quite comfortable and all I removed was my shoes and my jacket including the holster. Apart from not wanting to show too much of my body and thus bringing the French officer to false ideas I also had my period and was wearing grandma underwear + sanitary towel, which I did not wanted anyone to see. Unfortunately, tampons were not available in Germany at the time and the army completely neglected the needs of women in regards to their toiletry. The availability of sanitary items for women in Germany was very tight. The female population of Germany in general could not waste money on them and so they did not get produced. The little, which was available on the market, had gotten imported for a steep price. Almost every German woman used sanitary towels, which were not very different from baby diapers. They got washed and then reused. The women of the allied armed forces often enough had relatives ship tampons and sanitary napkins, but more often than not had to do as the German women did.
Picture of Mercedes G4:
"Mercedes Benz G4." by Alan Farrow is licensed under . To view a copy of this license, visit undefined?ref=openverse&atype=rich
Picture Cecilienhof:
"Schloss Cecilienhof, Potsdam." by ER's Eyes - Our planet is beautiful. is licensed under CC PDM 1.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/?ref=openverse&atype=rich