25. Lying to Escape Death
Captain Partridge and Lieutenant Bostock reasoned that they were in a situation in which discretion was clearly the better part of valor. So they refrained from volunteering that it was they who had shot down the Germans. The British airmen claimed that they, too, were bomber crew, who had been flying a Wellington bomber when it was shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter.
Having established some commonality that crossed nationality, based on a supposed mutual detestation of fighter pilots – a detestation that was quite genuine on the Germans’ part – the grounds for a temporary truce were set in place. It was cold outside and getting dark, so Partridge and Bostock invited the Germans into the hut, while they left to find shelter elsewhere. They found it at the nearby Grotli Hotel – an empty summer vacation chalet, closed for the winter.