Bill Donegan participated in some of the skirmishing at Old Bedford Village during the 1940’s Living History Weekend on August 7-8. Here is his report:
The Germans were in control of the village. It was a beautiful summer day, the sky was clear and blue, no humidity and about 75 degrees fahrenheit. Villagers were out for a stroll, some were having a picnic, others sitting on porches visiting with neighbors. The Germans who had taken up residence in some abandoned dwellings were sunning themselves, washing clothes, airing uniforms, mending equipment etc. No one was itching to fight. There were even tourists roaming about asking questions and taking photographs.
On the other end of the village a group of Russians had taken up residence, across the street from a German police unit and observing a truce. People of Europe can actually live at peace with one another, provided that politics doesn’t raise its ugly head.
Then the peace of the village was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an American jeep. An American patrol was probing into the village to look for Germans. Someone reported the American presence to Ray Partenheimer the village Feldgendarm, who blew his whistle. The German abteilung of the Hoch Gebirgs were the first to respond, led by Mark Laratonda and his dog Blitz, other Germans soon ran to the woods between the river and the main road into town to set up an ambush. I was in the process of changing out of shorts to long woolen keilhosen when this happened and only got into the woods seconds before the Americans arrived. Joe Wiedel yelled for me to hide because my mustard yellow Luftwaffe tunic, (our unit had been supplied by the Luftwaffe) might give away our position.
A sniper Kevin Ecke, positioned himself behind me and was among the first to fire a shot at the enemy. We heard Ray’s whistle and knew that we had to lay down suppressing fire.
I could not see who I was shooting at but shot in the direction from which I had seen an American helmet.
The fire-fight lasted only about 15 minutes with the Amis being chased out of the village.
Bill Donegan
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