...one cup of water and a small piece of white bread. This was the ideal diet to lose weight.

In the evening we kept on walking. We reached a village, where people were just leaving a cinema. We split up into three groups of two POW's. At a distance, two at a time, we walked past the place. What we did not know was that some of those behind us had been caught already there, and messages were on their way to tell all police stations in the area about us. I became very thirsty and found some water in total darkness. Who knows what it was; it tasted awful and I soon became violently sick.

At the beginning of the next township, by the name of Vervier, there was a man's toilet. The water running down the wall was my saviour; I soon felt lots better. The two of us walked along the night street, nearing a bridge over a river, when I noticed two Belgian Policeman on the other side of the bridge. It was too late to go back, and the river was obviously not deep enough to jump in. There was no choice but to walk on.

Passing those Policeman, one of them said in German: "Halt, stehen bleiben!" (Stop, stand still!) I ignored this command and kept going, when I heard the pistols being loaded behind me, with a noticeable click. That was it; both of us turned around and were taken to the police station in Verviers and put behind bars. There were already two other POW's from our group. We tried to tell as little as possible, but it was obvious who we where. I saw a fault in the monkey cage I was in, which would have allowed me to get out, if it was not for a policeman sleeping in the same room overnight.

Early in the morning loud voices and Belgian Soldiers entered the room. I was absolutely terrified by their action and thought they were going to execute me. A very terrible feeling it was. Outside there was a Jeep with which we were taken to a Belgian POW Camp. Here I finally stopped worrying. I was strip searched and questioned further. At first I did not disclose where I had come from; only after I heard that here the POW's worked underground in a coal mine. I thought that was much worse than our job, so I told them that we came from the American Camp 3. At first they did not like to send us all back; we would have been handy working at this place. After some strong words, we were finally on our way back.

The Yankees could not understand why we tried to get away; they thought we had it so good with them. The punishment was 14 days confinement. As food we had only water and bread. A small barbed wire enclosure outside camp near the guard tower was our new accommodation.

We had two blankets per person; out in the open, on bare ground. Luckily it was summertime. Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner was one cup of water and a small piece of white bread. This was the ideal diet to lose weight.

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.