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Posted by copey on Saturday, June 06, 2009 at 09:40:04 :
When I was apprenticing I was fortunate enough to get find a job with a company that had just purchased a fleet of new cummins diesels . This was a big step in the way trucking was to be. From that point on it spelled the end of the gas truck in the long haul industry. The job was the midnight shift, which was great for me as I could attend the schooling that the Cummins engine company was running ,not far from work. For the most part the work was challenging, heavy and dirty , at the end of the shift the crew would start to clean up and there would be small talk around the wash basin. Every one would strip down to the pants and start the task of washing oneself up ,or least enough to get home ,clean enough to grab a shower and finish cleaning up .One man there Joe , made me curious he had a tattoo on his left forearm , on the inside of his fore arm were, nine numbers in a row , it made no sense to me to wear such a tattoo . Since I was between hay and grass , just a kid, I was afraid to ask this giant of a man what was the tattoo for ,he was six foot four inches and weighed close to two hundred seventy pounds .After a few months we became good friends at work, sharing stories, lunch, coffee and a few smokes. He was quite a gentle guy despite his shear size ! I finally got up a enough nerve , don’t forget I am not much past my eighteenth birthday , too ask him what this number on his arm meant , he said “son you don’t really want to know “ I didn’t accept that answer I pushed and asked again , his response “ concentration camp courtesy of the German army “ I was a loss for words .I had read and heard of this but never in my life had met a survivor of this tragedy . Joe said he was 275 pounds when he entered the camp. His weight during his long stay was only 96 pounds on the day he was rescued. He had slaved for 3 years as a worker and I think we all know what he had to endure at that time in his life . Nearing the end of the war Joe was dying malnourished , over worked , disease ridden. He was laying in his cot drifting in and out, waiting to die , then he heard a sound something unlike any thing before . A rumbling sound , the ground was vibrating,,, it was trucks. The allied army that had landed on D day had fought their way across Europe . Convoys of tanks jeeps, trucks wcs 6x6s ambulances, filled with supplies, food ,medicine , blankets , fresh water , and much other needed supplies finally arrived .Joe was put on a stretcher and loaded in to a back of a 6x6 like cord wood along with other survivors , he said and taken to field hospital were he was treated , it took Joe many years to fully recover ,at least the physical part he vowed that the only thing he would he try to remember was the sound of the allied army vehicles that came to his aid .When he had the chance Joe left Europe once and for all, he came to Canada where he started over . This kind of makes you wonder ,years and years later ,when you see a old army truck laying in a field rusting or in a parade restored and painted what a important part they played in our past .To the men who fought so bravely ,who conquered and freed Europe God Bless you….. This story is dedicated to my father and uncles Danny ,Joe , Billy , Russel , George and the other sixty five thousand souls who landed D day !
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