Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

36 move, and move quickly. It was just luck that they did not receive a direct hit. Now fully awake, it was time to get off the battlefield. I asked my dad about his choice in direction. “We made a decision and it turned out to be the right one.” I did not ask the practical questions about how you show up on the Russian side in the middle of battle and not get shot. Or how you explain why you were there in the first place, or what temperament the Russians were in regarding the British. War is more organized chaos. In this case, it all worked out, yet again. Fighting with the Resistance and Russians The story about the vodka led me to the understanding that my father spent 18 to 24 months of his four plus years spent in Eastern Europe outside Lamsdorf, Stalag VIIIB. I was not aware of this part of his life until he was in his late seventies. Having escaped at some point, he knew his geography. It would be very difficult, with a low probability of success that he could make it back to Britain. He rationally chose to stay in Eastern Europe with the hope that the Germans would lose the war and allow him to return home. He found himself