The memoirs of Sqn Ldr Rupert Parkhouse, recorded in 1995 – Part 14. The first post in this series is #9775 on page 489 of this thread.
WE APPROACHED the outskirts of Sezanne and there was an odd silence about the place which I found very disconcerting. We turned into the main street and to our horror there was a line of German tanks. The crews had jumped down and were rifling the shops on both sides but they swiftly grasped their weapons and laughingly took us prisoner.
A medical man put a dressing on Sgt Morris's chest, which had been hit by pieces of cannon shell. They took his revolver and gave us a quick search but they didn't find the compass which my father had given me. They then took us to a large four-storey house which was full of French prisoners, with a guard on the front. Upstairs we found a crowd of French poilus who were cooking meat and drinking wine, they were very happy. I can't remember if they gave us anything to eat or not.
As darkness fell we went to the top floor and saw no guard at the back, so we slid down a drainpipe, walked out the back garden, and gingerly went to the main street which was once again deserted.
We found a tin of rusks and a tin of peas in a grocer's shop and set off cross-country in SW direction on my little compass, although we had no maps. We walked all that night until 5am with a rest among a field of corn stooks, but as we crossed a road mid-morning we hid when we saw a German infantry column of bronzed warriors singing a magnificent marching song and led by an officer on a horse and followed by a line of horse transport, it was a very impressive sight which took half an hour to pass.
We then continued but after crossing another road we saw a German recce vehicle about 75 yards away and its crew shouted at us but didn't point their guns. We agreed to run at 45-degree angles and meet up in the woods ahead and on the word 'GO' we ran like rabbits and evaded the Germans. We walked all that night but my crew were having difficulty because their feet were very swollen in their fleece lined flying boots, while I had my officer issue boots for the first time.
Along a railway line we came across a French battery which had obviously been bombed, the horses were lying all over the place and the guns were mangled. I suppose it was the first time we had seen dead men so we did not rifle their pockets for maps and chocolate, somehow it seemed wrong.
NEXT POST: Rupert reproaches himself for his crew's predicament: “Since I had landed them in this mess through my instrument flying error I felt very guilty about the whole thing.”