AHEAD OF THE BEAR

A family's flight in 1945 from the Russian Front in East Prussia to the West

A true story set at the end of World War 11 as the Russian Army marched against Hitler's troops in East Prussia, and millions of native Germans had to flee to the West to avoid capture, imprisonment and worse. This is the story of how two young women; my mother and her friend, fled to the West, and how the rest of the family also had to leave their farm and home behind them.. Many adventures and close escapes later they were happily re-united in West Germany. My mother met my Irish father, they married and moved to England after the war, built a new life and family and had a wonderful life together. I gathered the stories from my parents and Aunt Liesel sent me her account of the family's escape in the Winter and Spring of 1945.