Karl Heid was sleeping with two of his friends in a church somewhere in Russia. In the morning after he woke up, Karl got up and walked out of the church. There he got to be face to face with a Russian soldier who was holding a machine gun on a tripod. Both men looked in each other's eye and neither could find it in their hearts to start shooting. Karl greeted the young Russian soldier in a respect full way and the Russian soldier made the same greet to Karl. It seemed like both men, in that moment in time, lived a private moment of freedom.
Right at that moment another Russian soldier walked by and saw Karl and instantly started shooting. Karl ran away looking for cover when he was hit in the side of the head and thrown to the ground.
When Karl regained consiousness he found himself in a dry river bed at the edge of the town with no recallection what so ever what happened in the last half hour. Karl stayed in the dry river until a German unit came to give him aid. His two friends who were in the church with him have never been found again. Karl believes it is the young Russian soldier whom he met outside the church, who helped him to get to the river bed, but he has never been sure.
After the war Karl walked back home, from the Russian front to Germany. He took a young German soldier, about 14 to 15 years old) with him to see that he got home okay. He brought the young boy home to his parents near Cham. Karl then returned home to his wife (my living grandmother) to never fight again and to live in peace. Karl Heid rests in peace.
His grandson Alex Hagl
