Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-16
"OutWitting the Hun"
Copyright, 1918, by Pat Alva o'Brien.)
By Lieutenant Pat O'Brien

, ing in which 1 was prisoner. But
perhaps all of this was better than
no excitement at all, for prison life
soon became very monotonous.
One of the hardest things / had to
endure throughout the two weeks l
spent there was the sight of the Hun
machines flying over Courtrai, know
ing that perhaps L never would have
another chance to fly, and used to
sit by the hour watching the German
machines flying over Courtrai, as
they had an aerodrome not so far
away and every afternoon the stu
dents-or I took them for students
because their flying was very poor
appeared over the town.
One certain Hun seemed to find
particular satisfaction in flying right
down over the prison nightly, for my
special discomfort and benefit it
seemed, as if he knew an airman inn
prisoned there was vainly longing
to try his wings again over their
lines. But 1 used to console myself
by saying: Never mind, old boy,
there was never a bird whose wings
could not be clipped If they got him
just right, and your turn will come
some day."
A Night Air Raid
One night there was an exception
ally heavy air raid going on. A num-
ber of German officers came into
my room and they all seemed Very
much frightened. 1 jokingly remark
ed that it would be fine if our air
men hit the old prison-the percen-
tage would be very satisfactory-on
English officer and about ten German
ones. They didn't seem to appreciate
the Joke, however, and, indeed, they
were apparently too much alarmed
at what was going on overhead to
laugh even at their own jokes.
Although these night raids seem to
take all the starch out of the Ger
mans while they were going on, the
officers were usually as brave as lions
the next day and spoke contemptu-
ously of the raid of the night he
fore.
l saw thousands of soldiers in
Courtrai and although they did not
impress me as having very good or
abundant food, they were fairly well
clothed. l do not mean to imply
that conditions pointed to an early
end of the war. On the contrary,
from that / was able to observe on
that point. unless the Huns have an
absolute crop failure they can, in my
opinion. go on for years! The idea
of our being able to win the war by
starving them out strikes me as ridi-
culous. This is a war that must be
won by fighting, and the sooner we
realize that, fact the sooner it will
be over.
Rising hour in the prison was Z
o'clock. Breakfast came at eight.
This consisted of n cup of coffee and
nothing else. If the prisoner had the
foresight to save some bread from
the previous day, he had bread for
breakfast also. but that never hap
pened in my case. Sometimes we
had two cups of coffee. that is, near
ly coffee. 1t was really chicory or
some cereal preparation. We had no
milk or sugar.
For lunch they gave us boiled
sugar beets or some other vegetables.
and once in a while some kind of
picked meat, but that happened
very seldom. We also received a
third of o loaf of bread-war bread.
This war bread was as heavy as
brick. black and sour. 1t was SUP
posed to last us from noon one day
to noon the next. Except for some
soup this was the whole lunch menu.
Ito BE Continued)