'I Kept On Going Until It Got Light'

EAST ATLANTIC BEACH, NY — July 4 is an important day for William Kellerman. Not only is it Independence Day, but for the longtime East Atlantic Beach resident, it’s also the anniversary of when he was taken as a prisoner of war by Germans in World War II.

Kellerman, now 95, was a member of the 79th Infantry, 315th Regiment during the war, and landed at Utah Beach on June 12, 1944 — six days after D-Day, when he was just 19. His unit was stationed in Normandy, and were fighting off attempts by Germans to retake the area.

It was during one such skirmish on July 4, 1944, that the radio Kellerman’s unit had was shot and damaged. His captain told Kellerman to run to battalion headquarters and tell them they didn’t have a working radio, and didn’t know what to do or where to go.

The fighting was taking place in farmland, and the farmers there had hedges around their fields to separate them. Kellerman’s captain told him which direction to run, and with bullets flying everywhere, he started running.

“I would run across the field and dive over the hedgerow headfirst, and pick myself up and go again,” Kellerman said. “After about three or four of them, I picked myself up and there's a German tank. And they pointed it at me, so I gave up.”

The German soldiers came out of the tank with machine guns pointed at Kellerman and took him prisoner. He spent the night with them, and was taken away by officers the next morning.

Kellerman was kept in a building with 50 or 60 other Americans who had been captured during the German efforts to retake the area. After a day or two there, Kellerman and the other prisoners were rounded up and told to walk.

The Germans would march the prisoners at night, because American planes would shoot anything on the roads in daylight. When the sun rose, the Germans would put the prisoners in a farmer’s barn or in a building that they kicked everyone out of, and keep the prisoners there all day. They got a single piece of bread to eat per day.

After a week or two of marching, an opportunity presented itself to Kellerman. One night during a march, the Germans stopped. Just at the spot Kellerman was standing were heavy bushes. The Germans counted their prisoners every day, but only in the mornings. In the darkness, Kellerman seized his opportunity.

“I said, heck with this, and I crawled into the bushes,” he said. “They got up and kept walking. As soon as they were out of sight, I ran like hell in the other direction. I kept on going until it got light.”

When daylight came, Kellerman found himself at a French farmhouse. Kellerman didn’t speak French, and the farmer didn’t speak English, but he could tell Kellerman was American. The farmer gave Kellerman some food and clothes, and they burned his American uniform. But the farmer wouldn’t let Kellerman stay — if he was found, the farmer would be killed by the Germans for harboring an American fugitive. The farmer gave Kellerman and road map of the area, and he set off again.

Not sure where to go, Kellerman decided to start making his way toward Switzerland. At first, he only walked on the railroad tracks. After a few days, he got braver and began to walk on the roadside. Sometimes German soldiers would walk by and say “bon jour” to Kellerman, and he would respond in kind.

After days of walking, Kellerman saw two men fishing in a small creek, and they had a bicycle nearby. “I'm not really a crook,” Kellerman said, “but I stole the bicycle.”

Kellerman’s good fortune was short lived, though. After only a day or two of riding, he said his new bicycle got a flat tire. He walked it into another small town which, as fortune would have it, had a bicycle store.

He went into the store to try to get the tire fixed. But not speaking French, he was met with suspicion. Then the situation went from awkward to terrifying.

“Four guys come out of the back with guns pointing at me,” said Kellerman. “I said, ‘Oh shit. I stopped at the wrong bicycle store.’”

The men took the bicycle away and brought Kellerman to the local schoolhouse. They found a resident who spoke English and began to question him. Kellerman soon learned that the men who were holding him at gunpoint were members of the French resistance. They had thought Kellerman was a German Gestapo officer looking for them.

Once the French learned Kellerman was American, tensions eased. However, they wouldn’t let him leave. If the Germans captured him, they said, they would get their location out of him. So instead, they brought him to the Freteval Forest. The resistance had a camp there where they housed other escaped Allied soldiers, mainly British pilots who were shot down in the area. According to Kellerman, they called themselves the RAFES: Royal Air Force Escapee Society.

By the time he made it to Freteval Forest, Kellerman had traveled more than 600 miles since his escape.

Kellerman stayed with the soldiers in the forest for a few weeks. The camp in Freteval Forest was liberated by the Allies in August 1944. After nearly two months, Kellerman returned to his unit and was put back into active duty.

In April 1945, Kellerman’s unit was involved in combat with German soldiers and he was shot twice: once in the hand and once in the leg. “For a second it felt like a sting,” Kellerman said, “but then I saw the blood and passed out.”

Kellerman was taken to a field hospital, where the wound in his leg became infected. He was then taken to a hospital in Beyreuth, Germany, which is where he was when the war in Europe ended on on May 8. “Then I healed up and they put me on a boat in Marseilles and sent me home, and here I am,” he said.

After the war, Kellerman split his time between Havana, Miami and New York. In 1948, he met Sandra, the love of his life. The two were married in 1950, and settled down in East Atlantic Beach in 1952 or 1953, where they have lived since.

Kellerman is also being featured in an upcoming documentary called “The Girl Who Wore Freedom,” about the people who lived through the occupation and liberation of Normandy.

But Kellerman’s war story doesn’t end in a hospital in Germany. In 2018, he was invited to come to Normandy for a D-Day ceremony in France. There, Kellerman and others were awarded the French Legion of Honor — the highest honor bestowed by the French government — for their service in liberating the country from the Nazis.

Though Kellerman had traveled to France many times over the years, the ceremony was the first time he had returned to Normandy since the war. He and his family toured the area, revisiting places he had been to during his time in the war. They returned to Freteval Forest, which now has a memorial to the soldiers who lived there, including Kellerman.

All during his time in France, the people there treated him like a celebrity. Or, more appropriately, like a hero.

“At first, it was like a dream. Then reality struck,” Kellerman said. “The people were so enthusiastic. They were asking for my autograph and taking pictures of me and applauding.”