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On October 13,1944 I arrived at Stalag Luft III near Sagan, Germany.Benjamin Hill , the pilot of our crew, was the first person that I knew after entering the British compound. I was assigned to a room that had four British,four Canadians, and four of us from the United States. The room wasn't nearly large enough for twelve men to be at all comfortable in , therefore we spent allot of the time outdoors. There was a wood stove ,but very little wood to burn. The bunks were stacked three high and had only seven boards and a straw filled mattress to support the body . It was real difficult to find a comfortable position while trying to sleep,since these boards were only about five inches wide and the mattress was never thick enough. When the Germans had discovered the tunnel in which, I think, it was fifty six prisoners had made their escape and the bunk boards were used to shore up the tunnel, they wouldn't permit more then the seven boards to a bunk. This, by the way,was basis of that movie called "The Great Escape". The unfortunate part of the escape was that all but two or three were lucky enough to evade the Germans and make it back to England, the rest were all killed as they were captured. This was an all officer compound. Some of the British were prisoners since trying to evacuate from Dunkirk, France. I admired them greatly because of their attitude, they never once acted in a manner that wasn't becoming of an officer.

Our day to day activities were much the same,and we really looked forward to the times when something would take place to break the monotony. A theater group had been organized early on and the prisoners had to convince the Germans that a building was needed to put on the various shows that were being planned, the request was granted but the prisoners had to do the construction with very little lumber that was furnished by the Germans. I was amazed at the accomplishments of the British prisoners. From October 14th 1944 to January 27th 1945 my activities were of a rather routine nature. The theater group put on numerous shows during this period ,some good and some not so good ,but what was accomplished with so little, was always amazing.

On January 27th we were told to prepare to leave the Stalag that night,We were told that the Russians were getting to close. We started the march at 2:00AM ,it was snowing real hard and the ground was covered with about six inches of the white stuff and it was cold ,cold,cold. The fact that none of us were in very good health certainly didn't help the situation. I carried a pack weighing about 65 pounds,which contained cigarettes ,candy and soap,some food and what little clothing I had. The cigarettes ,candy and soap would be used to barter for food along the way,and believe me,it did work. There were about 50,000 of us on this march, and our group arrived in Selingersruh at about 8:00 PM.Wehad to bed done on some straw that was spread on the ground and most of us had only one blanket to cover with and keep the falling snow from coming in direct contact with our outer clothing .My broken ankle became swollen and I made the mistake of taking off my shoe which allowed the foot to really expand, and then I wasn't able to put the shoe back on .I was able to gather enough straw to fashion a boot,so that this foot wouldn't become frost bitten, it worked amazingly well,in fact,that foot stayed warm for the rest of the journey to Moosburg,Ger. From this village 18 other prisoners spent the next night in a small school house waiting for a horse drawn wagon to take us to a train station in Spremburg,Ger. For one cake of soap and a bar of candy I convinced a little girl who had paid us a visit,to tell her mother that we were hungry and needed some food. Her mother came into the school, and told me that the only food she had to feed so many were potatoes. This certainly was OK to us, she left and in about one hour she returned with a huge pan filled with cooked potatoes. For her kindness, most of the fellows gave her and her daughter additional soap, candy, and cigarettes. She claimed that this was the first time, since shortly after the war started that she had any good soap,and candy for her daughter. We never thought that the candy was very good because it was supposed to be healthy.

We arrived in Spremburg on February 4th were loaded, 50 men to a small box car. Three nights were spent in these cramped quarters . We arrived in Moosbug,on the7th of February, I think that most of us had stomach problems. After a few days we were able to take a shower and were deloused. Our life here in Stalag VII A was about the most miserable as any during our captivity, at least up to March 24th when the sun finally decided to come from behind the clouds. We also got full rations of Red Cross parcels which helped our dispositions immensely.We knew that the ground forces were getting closer and that we wouldn't have to wait much longer to be liberated.However it wasn"t until April 29th that one of General Patton's tanks ran through the gate of the prison compound.

We were then flown to La Havre. where we were housed in tents at a camp called Lucky Strike, near St. Valerie..We had to remain here until the first of June,because some one wanted us to be a little fatter, and look healthier when we would finally arrive home. The final leg of this journey was started on June 3rd 1945.

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