It was May 7, 1945, nearly five years since German soldiers had goose-stepped into city after city. The Allied victory in the Battle of the Bulge had ended that Nazi occupation; as of February 4, 1945, Belgium was free again.
As Malarkey sipped his beer, bells started ringing outside.
“La guerre est terminée! Les Allemands se sont rendus!” people were shouting in French.
Instantly: Smiles! Hollers! Hugs!
“The war is over!” an English-speaker, face aglow, said to Malarkey. “The Germans have surrendered!”
The grateful Belgians bought so many drinks for Malarkey that when he saw someone who looked like Frank Perconte walk by outside, he wondered if it was only the buzz from the beer. But then Perconte saw Don, burst through the pub’s door, and gave Malarkey a huge hug. The reunion only got better when Burr Smith, another Screaming Eagle, rolled by on a trolley—in fact, doing handstands atop the trolley—and joined the celebration.
What could be greater, thought Malarkey, than celebrating the war’s end with guys you’d been with ever since Toccoa? The three locked arms.
“This is it,” said Smith. “We’re going home!”