From: Darrell Ramsell (daram@comcast.net)
Date: Tue Jan 24 2006 - 22:59:42 PST
Hi Gene
Very interesting story but I'm a little confused about the row boat part.
From your story it sounds like these guys rowed their boat from Indo-China
to North Africa. That sounds like a mighty long way to row a boat. Where
exactly did they steal their row boat from? Perhaps they rowed their boat to
a nearby location and hitched a ride the rest of the way?
Thanks
Darrell
----- Original Message -----
From: "SGM PANTANO" <TRUKS1@msn.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 8:13 PM
Subject: [MV] WW2 HISTORY
> Hit delete NOW if you are not interested.
> Karl.(who lives in Kalifornia is the subject)
> Karl was born in Indo China. He is German. When WW2 broke out - the
> Germans
> in Indo China were treated like the Japanese here in the US. All German
> Civilians were rounded up and stuck in a Camp. At the time, Rommel was
> raising cane in North Africa. Karl and his friends wanted out of this
> situation they were in...badly....SOOO badly, that one night 4 other
> teen-agers and himself escaped from the compound and headed to the docks..
> They had intended to steal a power boat and head for North Africa. When
> they arrived at the docks..there were so many guards that there was no
> chance at all to snatch a power boat.... The time was 1942 - Mid Summer...
> They settled for a lousy old row boat. Off they went - into the dark
> night...headed for the coast of Africa..... While at sea...with no water -
> no food...just "guts"..a wind came up...and made the going pretty
> tough..One
> of the kids got panicy and flipped out... His actions were threatening to
> capsize the small boat.. There was no choice... They had to subdue him
> with
> an oar..and rolled him over the side. I'm not sure how long they were at
> sea..but -- they made it to North Africa...!! They joined up with the
> Africa
> Korps...and personally met with Rommel !!
> They were issued uniforms and gear and went off to war against the
> British..
> After about a month -- Karl and his friend were in the desert
> somewhere..out
> of ammo..and it was cold ..and no water...no food.. They crested a large
> crater --rolled into it and planned to sleep the night away.. Two Brits
> rolled into the hole after a while... Karl lowered his "empty" MP40 on
> them
> and took them prisoner... Both Karl and his friend spoke very good
> English.
> After a conversation was struck up - Karl learned that the British
> position
> was very close..... He asked the Brit for water.. After a drink for him
> and
> his friend - Karl handed his MP40 to the Brit..and said he wanted the
> British to take him prisoner.!!! Which the British did... He and his
> friend
> were well treated...driven by lory to a camp somewhere..and turned over
> to
> a POW compound. Eventually - he wound up with Americans and volunteered to
> be an Interpreter to help out with all the prisoners. After the war, he
> went
> back to Indo China for a short time...then to the United States and became
> a
> Machinist - and to this day ----has NEVER set foot in Germany.! He lives
> in
> the Apple Valley area of Kalifornia...
> One of my stories.!
> Gene
>
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