Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-07-26
OuTWTTING
@'&z@THE Him. M
HL|EUTENANT
II PAT 0'BRIEN.
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NsaS@ GA

whenever the word was passed that
we were out. At times the German
guards would strike the women n
children who crowded too close to us.
One day 1 smiled and spoke to a
pretty girl, and when she replied, a
German made a run for her. Luckily
she stepped into the house before he
reached her, or I am afraid my salu-
tation would have resulted seriously
for her and 1 would have been power
less to have assisted her.
Whenever we passed a Belgian
home or other building which had
been wrecked by bombs by our airmen
our guards made us stop a moment
or two while they passed sneering
remarks among themselves.
One of the most interesting souve-
Courtrai is a photograph of a group
of us taken in the prison courtyard.
The picture was made by n of the
guards, who sold copies of it to those
of us who were able to pay his
price-one mark apiece.
"a VIC ldSCd IlC dL1C1 L ouPPOoC
we all tried to look u happiest, but
the majority of US, 1 am afraid, were
too sick at heart to raise a smile,
ever for this occasion. One of u
Hun guards is shown in the picture
seated at the table. 1 am standing
directly behind him, attired in my fly
ing tunic, which they allowed me to
wear all the time 1 was in prison, as
is the usual custom with prisoners of
war. Three of the British officers
shown in the picture, in the fore
ground, are clad in Shorts"
Through all my subsequent adven-
lures 1 was able to retain a print Of
this interesting picture, and although
when l gaze at it now it only serves
to increase my qualification at my ulti-
mate escape, it fills me with regret to
think that my fellow prisoners were
not so fortunate. All of them by this
time are undoubtedly eating their
hearts up in the prison camps of in
terror Germany. Poor fellowsi
Despite the scanty fare and the re-
strictions we were under in this prison,
we did manage on one occasion to ar
range a regular banquet. The plan
ming which was necessary helped to
pass the time.
At this time there were eight of us.
We decided that the principal thing
we needed to make the affair a sue
cess was potatoes, and I conceived a
plan to get them. Every other after
noon they took us for a walk in the
country, and it occurred to me that
it would be a comparatively simple
matter for us to pretend to be tired
and sit down when we came to the
first potato patch.
It worked out nicely. When we
came to the first potato patch that
afternoon, We told our guards that we
wanted to rest a bit and we we're
allowed to sit down. In the course
of the next five minutes each of us
managed to get a potato or two. Be-
ing Irish, I got six.
When we got back to the prison, I
managed to steal a handkerchief full
of sugar, which, with some apples that
we were dllOW0u " puIClldSc, we eds
lily converted into a sort of jam.
We now had potatoes and jam, but
no bread. 1t happened that the Hun
who had charge of the potatoes was
a great musician. 1t was not very
difficult to prevail upon him to play
us some music, and while he went out
to get his either 1 went into the bread
pantry and stole a loaf of bread.
Most of US had saved ONE butter
from the day before, and we used it
to fry our potatoes. By bribing n
Of the guards, he bought some eggs for
Is. They cost 25 cents apiece, but we
were determined to make this banquet
a success, no matter what it cost.
The cooking was done by the prison
cook, whom, of course, we had to
bride.
When the meal was ready to serve
it consisted of scrambled eggs, fried
potatoes, bread and jam, and a pitcher
of beer which we were allowed to buy.
That was the 10Th of August. Had
I known that it was to be the last
real meal that / was to eat for many
weeks, 1 might have enjoyed it eve
more than I did, but it a certainly
very good.
We had cooked enough for eight, but
while we were still eating, another
Joined US. He was an English officer
who had just been brought in on a
stretcher. Fol seven days, he told us,
he had lain in a shell hole, wounded,
and he was almost famished, and we
were mighty glad to share our ban
quet with him.
We called on each man for a speech,
and n might have thought that we
were at a first-class club meeting. A
few days after that our party was
broken up and some of the men, I sup
pose, I shall never see again.
One of the souvenirs of my adven-
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