Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 95 continued ... For a few moments they crawled along behind the heavy trucks. The congestion got steadily worse and Hank, never one to waste gas, called a full stop and the jeep pulled to the side of the road. Of course, for an up-and-coming supervisor to sit still and just admire scenery isn’t quite playing the game and besides, you never can tell when you may run across another Gestapo canteen. So the jeep was no sooner stopped than Hank was out poking around. Casually he strolled toward a little wood. As casually he leaped over a log – smack on top of a German sniper! The German sniper was surprised, but not half as much as our Hank. The sniper leaped to his feet and Hank sized him up. In a flash he got a bare outline, the details would have to wait. The German was seven feet tall and four feet across. His intention was perfectly clear. He was coming for Hank and in just about half a second there was going to be no more Hank. That is, if someone didn’t do something pretty darn quick! The driver, as all drivers must, had stayed with his vehicle and was now a pop-eyed grandstand of one as he saw what promised to be a new Lewis – Schmeling bout, with no holds barred. Hank broke a cardinal rule of the ring right off the bat. He kicked the advancing German square in the stomach. That slowed him up. In a trice Hank had him by the arm and down on his knees went the German crying pitifully: “Good Kamerad”. The driver, by this time, decided he might as well get into the thing too, and hot-footed it across with a revolver that he proudly presented to Hank. The German’s cries became moaning sounds as he saw the revolver. Again and again, he insisted that he was all through fighting but there was hopelessness in his tone. Obviously, he thought that this demon who waved the gun at him was just waiting for the right moment before finishing him off. Taken Back It was with difficulty that Hank got his German on his feet. But finally, he crawled to a standing position. Hank was surprised how he had shrunk in size. But he was still plenty big – about five feet 10 inches and weighed pretty close to 180 pounds. The German eyed the jeep with distaste. Obviously, he was merely being transported to another place for execution. But the revolver was still covering him and with one arm hanging limp he climbed into the back seat. From the front seat Hank’s trigger finger poised with the hammer cocked. The driver devoted all his attention to getting back to headquarters. But it wasn’t going to be headquarters. The German, after the first few bumps, was looking as if he wished Hank would shoot him. It was clear he was in great pain, so carefully the driver picked his way to a field dressing station. Heavyweight boxers, Schmeling and Lewis - 1938 continued ...
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