OBERLISTINGEN

About two nights before we crossed the Weser river we had been proceeding through a very heavily wooded area – a lot more wooded than it used to be and a lot more hilly. It was raining, chilly and rather miserable. We had to set up for the night, so we pulled into Oberlistingen late that afternoon. All the white flags were out as frequently has been the case the last few days. After we cleared the town we pulled up the vehicles at the church – every town has a church, some have two. We parked some of he vehicles behind the church and set up a procedure whereby some of us would sleep in the church. They had these cushions in the church that people kneeled on and we moved the cushions together and had a pretty nice mattress. Plus it was a lot warmer in the church and it was dry. Even though it was supposed to be spring, it was still cold. We had our guard shifts watching the vehicles – we always had guards on the vehicles. We took shifts to sleep in the church then swap off with the guards outside. That’s how we spent the night.

One of the guys said, “This is the first time I’ve ever been inside a church. It’s not so bad after all.