I don't know the details very well so I'll let more knowledgeable war historians fill in the blanks for me:
My grandfather was a random farmhand in central France, about 20 when the French government surrendered. A couple years later, he joined the Resistance, not knowing how long the war was going to last. Turns out he joined at the end of 1943, so it was only a few months later that the US army ended up wining the French territories back.
When the US forces arrived near my grandpa's countryside, his *maquis* (Resistance group) essentially offered their services as scouts/reconnaissance, since they didn't have much firepower but they were quite good at sneaking around. They ended up making their way through eastern France and into Germany, liberating various small towns on the way (although my understanding is that the Wehrmacht was essentially fleeing at this point).
Enter the small town of Annweiler in Germany. My grandpa is making a reconnaissance round, when he hears a patrol coming around and has to hide quickly. He knocked on a random door, and asked in broken German to be hidden inside ("Versteck mich"). They accepted, and in that house, my grandpa met the daughter of the family, just three years younger than him. Her name was Anna. They... Kept in touch, and he came back with his hat in his hands a couple years later, and asked for her hand.
They settled in Lorraine, a region that historically got passed around between France and Prussia/Germany, and where a French-German couple would not be judged quite as harshly.
60 years of marriage, six children, and a gaggle of grandkids and great-grandkids later, they p****d a**y a few months apart from each other. They're buried in the tiny graveyard of the church of the village where I grew up.
My grandfather was a random farmhand in central France, about 20 when the French government surrendered. A couple years later, he joined the Resistance, not knowing how long the war was going to last. Turns out he joined at the end of 1943, so it was only a few months later that the US army ended up wining the French territories back.
When the US forces arrived near my grandpa's countryside, his *maquis* (Resistance group) essentially offered their services as scouts/reconnaissance, since they didn't have much firepower but they were quite good at sneaking around. They ended up making their way through eastern France and into Germany, liberating various small towns on the way (although my understanding is that the Wehrmacht was essentially fleeing at this point).
Enter the small town of Annweiler in Germany. My grandpa is making a reconnaissance round, when he hears a patrol coming around and has to hide quickly. He knocked on a random door, and asked in broken German to be hidden inside ("Versteck mich"). They accepted, and in that house, my grandpa met the daughter of the family, just three years younger than him. Her name was Anna. They... Kept in touch, and he came back with his hat in his hands a couple years later, and asked for her hand.
They settled in Lorraine, a region that historically got passed around between France and Prussia/Germany, and where a French-German couple would not be judged quite as harshly.
60 years of marriage, six children, and a gaggle of grandkids and great-grandkids later, they p****d a**y a few months apart from each other. They're buried in the tiny graveyard of the church of the village where I grew up.