August 20, 1941 West of Strasbourg 0300
He stretched in bed. He looked out the window and saw the pale strands of moonlight dance among the leaves of the tree in his backyard. Two minutes later, his bladder was empty and he was tucking himself back into bed.
A heavy, impatient hand pounded on his door. The doctor in him was roused. Someone had to have gotten hurt tonight. As he went to the door, three German soldiers were waiting there.
“Herr Doktor, you are needed at the base camp”
Seven minutes later, he was adequately dressed and had his brown leather bag of supplies in his hand. As he stepped out of the door and towards the motorcycle side carriage, he wondered what the problem was.
The two motorcycles took off at high speed. The driver had minimal care for his life as he whipped around the rural roads hoping that no farmer was industrious and moving his milk to market early. At the camp, there was a commotion and screams of pain. Half a dozen men were in various states of shock and pain. A large van had tipped over, crushing one men and wounding the rest. First aid had been applied, but the camp had no one else with more training as one medic was among the injured and another medic was on leave.
Seven hours later, the doctor had stabilized all of the wounded men. Four would need to be shipped to the hospital, ambulances had been summoned for further care. The other two men would be on light duty. As he was cleaning up his supplies, the reserve officer in charge of the site thanked the doctor for his assistance to the Reich and invited him to come back for dinner and drinks at his convenience. The doctor agreed.
The ride back to his house was far less harrowing than the ride to camp. He was taken past Anna Marie’s parent’s farm. Half a dozen foreign laborers were working the near field. They were well fed and evidently well treated. He had examined them a month ago when they had been sent to the family. Besides the trauma of capture, they were in good enough shape. Now as the motorcycle entered the village, he wondered what was happening at the camp and how he could develop a relationship with the commander of the Luftwaffe installation.