After fleeing from the house in the woods (see previous thread) my father,SQMS J Alcock of C3 patrol Operation Pistol, and his men approached another farm. This was a house he had been told was safe to approach. The house was below at the bottom of a hill. As he and his men left the woods of Koecking to approach the house they heard a truck coming towards then up the track from the direction of the farmhouse. They drooped down in the grass and waited. The truck past. Before they could get up they noticed a farmer approaching them. he told them the house was occupied at night by german NCO.
So dad and his men slept in the house during the daytime for a couple of days. These facts are part of his oral story and do not appear in the official pistol report. I visited this farm two years ago and approached it from the same direction that my father had. Eighteen years before that I had visited the area with my father but we did not have his report then. My father died in 1997 and I contacted a Major Druce in British Columbia who gave some of the Pistol post operation reports. he gave me my fathers report, corporal Hill's report and ones by some other patrols in Pistol I think this was before they were in the public domain but I may not be correct in that.
Some time later Tim Williams visited me and I was able to give him a report that referred to his grandfather. tim contributes to this site. He has since gone on and put his information on wikipedia - look for pistol on Wikipedia.
So dad and his men slept in the house during the daytime for a couple of days. These facts are part of his oral story and do not appear in the official pistol report. I visited this farm two years ago and approached it from the same direction that my father had. Eighteen years before that I had visited the area with my father but we did not have his report then. My father died in 1997 and I contacted a Major Druce in British Columbia who gave some of the Pistol post operation reports. he gave me my fathers report, corporal Hill's report and ones by some other patrols in Pistol I think this was before they were in the public domain but I may not be correct in that.
Some time later Tim Williams visited me and I was able to give him a report that referred to his grandfather. tim contributes to this site. He has since gone on and put his information on wikipedia - look for pistol on Wikipedia.