In the summer of 1943, he was considered well enough to be redrafted. He was selected for the artillery and trained as a communications operator.
He was based in Normandy from January, 1944, onwards.
It was while he was here that he had first-hand experience of D Day, in all its horror. He became an American prisoner-of-war and,
after a short stay in England, spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Oklahoma (USA).
After being employed picking cotton, he worked in the car repair workshop in an American military camp. With makeshift tools he managed
to make toys for American civilian employees.
In the summer of 1946, he was released and returned to Pforzheim – his hometown - which had been completely destroyed in an RAF bombing raid.
He was lucky to find his parental home intact and his immediate family alive.