sidevalve (#11048),
What a gripping and fantastic adventure - and all so well written in a calm, matter-of-fact way! Reading George's Chapter 4, a line took my eye:
... So I was moved to a monastery two miles into the country and about three miles from the German frontier...
There is a bit of history to this: it seems that in the 19th century the religious orders in what was then Prussia had got up Bismarck's nose for some reason. He expelled them all; they moved over to the Netherlands, but kept close to the border with the intention of moving back when times were better.
What with one thing and another they were still there in George's time (1943) and in mine (1960). At RAF Geilenkirchen we had no RC padre, the gap was ably filled by Pater Gregor, a Bavarian Franciscan with perfect English. The RAF sent a car for him to his monastery at Watersleyde (a few miles over the border) every Sunday morning, we often had him to lunch before the car took him back.
I used to go over to Watersleyde one evening a week to improve my woeful spoken German.(Full story this Thread Page 246, #4912).
Cheers, Danny.