P3 An American plane

Narrator: Janina Siergiejczyk Reporter: Marta Siergiejczyk

It all happened in 1944. The Americans flew and bombed all German houses and buildings. Two weeks earlier they had bombed Magdeburg. In the midday it was as dark as in the night. The plane flew towards us so the Germans shot at it. The plane was falling down and we were afraid that it would fall on us. We left our barracks and we were escaping to the fields. The plane crashed, but the pilot survived - he was lucky and had parachuted before the crash. He fell on the ground. When we came to him, the plane was in fire. We all were standing and looking at him: The Italians, the French and the Germans, too.

One of the Germans, the gardener had a knife - the knife to mowing spears. He came to the American and said, „What for, you... came on our land?" and he hit him with that knife. The American hunched his back and looked at us. He was looking at the great "P" which was painted on our chests. He probably couldn't understand why we were standing and didn't help him.

At that time the German army arrived. They covered the pilot with a blanket and took him away. They ordered us to disperse and we went to our barracks. It was about three in the morning and the Germans woke us up at six, so we had to go to sleep because it was very hard work in the fields.