Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-07-11


lar place during air raids. Several
: times when our airmen raided that
section in the day time I went out and
watched the machines and the shrap
mel bursting all around; but the Ger
mans did not crowd out there, for their
own antiaircraft guns were hammer
ing away to keep our planes as high
in the sky as possible, and shells were
likely to fall in the prison yard any
moment. OF course l watched these
battles at my own risk. Many nights
from my prison window / watched
with peculiar interest the air raids
carried on, and it was a wonderful
sight with the German searchlights
playing on the sky, the flaming on
ions" fired high and the burst of the
aLtiaircraft guns, but rather an IN
comfortable sensation when l realized
that perhaps the very next minute a
bomb might be dropped on the building
In which l was a prisoner. But per-
haps all Of this was better than no
( excitement at all, for prison life soon
| became very mOnOtOnous.
One of the hardest things 1 had to
endure throughout the two weeks
| spent there was the sight of the Hun
machines flying over Courtrai, know
. ing that perhaps I never would have
another chance to fly, and | used to sit
by the hour watching the German ma
chimes maneuvering over the prison,
as they had an airdrOme not far away
and every afternoon the students-or
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, il
seemed, as if he knew an airman i'm
|. prisoned there was vainly longing TO
try his wings again over their lines.
But L used to console myself by say
ing: "Neyer mind, old boy, there was
never a bird whose wings could not
be clipped if they get him just right.
and your turn will come some day.
One night there was an exception
ally heavy air raid going on. A num-
Der of German officers came into my
room, and they all seemed very much
frightened. l jokingly remarked that
it would be fine if our airmen hit the
old prisOn-the percentage would be
very satisfactOry-one English officer |
and about ten German ones. They |
didn't seem to appreciate the joke, |
however, and, indeed, they were ap-
parently too much alarmed at what |
was going on overhead to laugh even |
at their own jokes. Although these 1
night raids seem TO take all the starch |
out of the Germans while they are
going on, the officers were usually as
brave as lions the next day and spoke
cOntemptuously of the raid of the
night before.
l saw thousands of soldiers in Cour-
trai, and although they did not i'm
press me as having very good or abun-
dant food, they were fairly well
clothed. do not mean to imply that
conditions pointed to an early end of
the war. On the contrary, from what
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 ridiculous. 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 seven
o'clock. Breakfast came at eight. This
consisted of a cup of coffee and moth
ing else. If the prisoner had the fore
sight to save some bread from the pre-
viouS day, he had bread for breakfast
also, but that never happened in my
case. Sometimes we had two cups of
coffee, that is, near-coffee. 1t was
really chicory or some cereal prepara-
ton. We had no milk or sugar.
For lunch they gave us boiled sugar
beets or some other vegetable, and
once in a while some kind of picked !
meat, but that happened very seldom. 9
We also received third of a loaf of
bread. This war bread {
was as heavy as a brick, black and $
sour. 1t was supposed to last us from !
loon one day TO noon the next. EN- {
,ept for some soup, this was the whole I
lunch menu.
Dinner came at 3 80 p. NJ, when we I
sometimes had little jam made out a
If sugar beets, and preparation I
allied tea, which you had to shake Wig I
,rously or it settled in the bottom of
he cup, and then about all you had a
vas hot water. This tea" was sad o
,low to the EngliShmen. If it hadn't r
'een called tea they wouldn't have felt W
10 badly about it, perhaps, but it was p
dding insult to injury to call that c
tuff tea" which with them is almost W
national institution.
Sometimes with this meal they gave
IS butter instead of jam, and once in r
while we had some kind of canned II
1eat. L
This comprised the usual run of eat II
bles for the day. can eat more than s
hat for breakfast! In the days that "
'ere TO come learned that was to e
are considerably worse, 81