The POW Diary John Teune: The Germans are Coming

John Teune, second from right, with his brothers, all dressed in their Army Air Corps uniforms.

August 24, 1944

I had been asleep a few hours when Hoop woke us up and told us Romania capitulated. It was hard to believe, but it was confirmed. The guards were doubled in anticipation of an attack from the Germans. Everyone was up and around being very happy, excited, and unexplainable. We immediately packed and prepared to go, anticipating a German attack, but we got back again at 3 a.m. and tried to sleep. We repacked in the morning. I received some food from the boys which they had saved for this purpose from the Red Cross parcels. The admiral and the Baron left early to go to Sinaia and promised to get some information and phone us. We were in the dark as to what to do and where to go. We ate a full meal at noon, and then some Russians pulled out. We gave the Russians and Romanians plenty of food, cigarettes and clothing. We planned to go into the woods in small groups if the Germans attacked. Foster, Britt and Smith were going together. We received an official note to show the peasants in the hills who might not know of the change and secure help from them. We then heard from the Admiral in Sinaia who said trucks were coming to take us to another location away from the road and railroad where we were now located. We waited and then an alarm -- airplanes were coming. Not likely though because it was raining heavily. Then we were told the Germans were coming, so off to the hills, but not too far. An hour or so later we returned and waited. Then the trucks arrived, open junks. We piled in and sat on the floor in the rain for 45 minutes. We then headed for Sinaia. We had several blankets which we put over us. I had a civilian overcoat and a leather jacket. We rolled and slid around the hairpin curves and by now the blankets were soaked and our fannys plenty sore. We stopped several times due to road blocks and we passed many German vehicles going North. Eventually we passed through Sinaia and took a secondary road which was nothing but a gavel and mud road. We waited here at Petrosita, 50 kilometers N.E. of Ploesti. We were taken to a home, very clean, and with little delay, book off our wet clothes and went to bed. The floor slept fairly well in spite of many bugs.