Cadat6: If you are speaking about the time after V.E. day specially, no I did not see much AWOL or even hear about it. We did not want to louse up our time to go home
in any way. Besides, life was pretty good with no one shooting at us anymore. Far as
"borrowing a vehichle" yes a lot of that went on . It wasnt "stealing" just "utilizing" a
mode of transportation and putting it to good temporary use as needed. for a hour or two. Fact is one never left a vehicle with out removing the distributor rotor AND chaining the steering wheel and locking it with the wheels well turned as a precaution.. This helped a bit to keep it from being among the missing. As gasoline was not really on the market yet in Germany to much extent, motorcycles could be obtained by trading a carton or two of cigarettes. Which I did. When I left I gave it to a friend who was not due to go home for a while. With little traffic on the roads it was a pleasure to use for hunting as it was easy getting around in the forest trails which were well kept up. Fact is, being young and single and no more fighting I actually enjoyed this time while waiting to get home. To me it was the best time I spent in the Infantry. But was damn glad to get back home.