At this time some POW's had worked out how to escape.

A very sad incident happened one day during our march to the American depots. The guards were armed Belgians. On this day the long stretched line of POW's could not proceed as usual, when an irate guard fired at the last POW in the group and killed him.

The next two days nobody went out. We were demanding at least one American soldier to be with this group at all times, or we would not go at all. They had to oblige. A group of Red Cross people inspected the camp after they had received lots of complaints from the German camp leader. They did find a lot of things wrong. We never heard from them again.

A French mechanic in the motorcade was aligning an engine. When I came past, he pointed out that he needed my help. He showed me with his fingers what he meant (he wanted me to turn the engine) and said: "Comme ci, comme ca." This meant: so, so. (In German it means, stealing something). Then he said: "un petit peu, s'il vous plait." This meant: a little bit only, please. So I walked into the workshop when another mechanic sharpening something on the grindstone seemed to need some help. I took the handle and asked in just learned, perfect French: "comme ci, comme ca?" He dropped everything and was so happy finding somebody who talked French: "Oh, parler vous francais?" My answer: "Non parler francais, Monsieur."

A letter arrived; my parents telling me that my sister would soon be married. At this time some POW's had worked out how to escape. I was included in a group of six. We were the first to give it a try. One of the guards was bribed with pieces of soap, which were very rare in Belgium after the war. We already had removed the white POW from our American looking uniforms and slackened a particular section of the fence. The night had arrived. Five went through the fence; I was the last and got stuck in the barbed wire. Then a POW came and said that the guard will shoot if anybody else gets out. Having no choice I tore myself loose from the wire, and down a small incline, started running. I soon found the others and we started walking. It was a nice summer night. Some bushes had glow-worms flying around; I never saw that before.

Walking along country roads, hiding whenever a vehicle came past, I finally was on my way home. After quite a while advancing like this, I saw the Clock-Tower and realized, that we had walked in a big circle. The morning came and we took refuge around a recessed water hole in the centre of a meadow on top of a hill. It started raining, and I became hungry and thirsty. Taking no water along was one of many mistakes we made. The water meant for the cows, came in handy. During the day, we were almost discovered by a passing by farmer.