Evening star., 1945-11-13

Jap OVerSeer could make his rounds
They set up the SO lathes, but the
Jap discovered that 88 of them
would not work Vital parts of the
machines had been removed by the
Allied enlisted men and buried in
the cement which covered the
buried lathe.
Tokyo sent war production
specialist to the factory and for a
time it appeared that things would
go very hard for an American
technician named Savoie. foreman
of the crew concerned. But Savoie
blandly misanswered all questions
flung at him.
This is the worst piece of sabo-
tage I have ever seen in Japan!" the
expert shouted as he stomped off
1t was a tribute to Savoie and his
brave men.
Steal Electric Motors.
Our soldiers at the factory, taking
everything that was not riveted Sc
curely, stole electric motors, ex-
pensive parts and metals. When
Jap guards were not looking they
would toss this material over the
factory wall at a prearranged spot;
the stuff would be picked up by a
waiting Chinese, then taken to
the Mukden black market and sold
Our men and the Chinese who
worked with them split the profits
$3.50, and with this money our men
purchased TO b acco. occasionally
some food, and enough clothing to
keep from freezing to death.
The Japs made the grave mistake
one, day of ordering a group of our
soldiers to unload a carload of
sausage and dried meat for the fac
tory commisSary, and then assigned
too few guards to supervise the I'M
loading. Our boys must have got
away with good half of that car
load, right then and there, sticking
the sausage in pockets, shirts and
down their tied pants legs. Later
one of the boys picked the lock OF
the warehouse and the Japs lost
much of what they had been able to
save in the first place The meat
had to be hidden and furtively eat
en- at the factory, and the boys ate
it until it ran out their ears.
The Japs began searching the
enlisted. men upon their return each
evening to the prison camp, and for
a time it appeared that the holiday
W was oveFAs They haa to come m
camp because an eight-foot wall
with electric wire on its top, pre-
cluded any other means of getting
back in.
Hide Food in Barracks.
But one clever soldier devised a
false bottom for the large food
buckets which were carted from the
camp to the factory each morning
and returned empty each night
Traffic in smarl stores such as to-
bacco and small-packaged fooo
picked up briskly-to the joy anc
gratitude of our officers who, be.
cause they refused to work in the
factory, were being punished by the
usual starvation method.
The officers began buying any.
thing edible or smokable brought tt
them by the enlisted men. 1t wa.
the first chance the officers hac
had to spend American money for &
long time, and they spent it so en-.
Enthusiastically that prices rose diz.
zily.
The cost Of a can of milk, OF
pound of powdered milk, rose to S25
a 12-ounce can of corned beef wa.
worth as much as $25; a package ot
American cigarettes brought Sc
The enlisted men were given more
to eat than the officers, so the lat.
ter occasionally even bought left.
over food. Sour -four buns sold fol
81 each, with more bidders than tht
enlisted men could supply. On.
boy is said to have amassed nearly
$4,000 during his stay at Mukden
If SO, he earned every penny of it
for the chances he took were ap.
palling.
Another American soldier, a boy
Of Polish extraction, got out of tn.
factory one evening with a bottle
of ink and few pencils-a semi.
priceless haul in view of the ex.
4 treme shortage of such things a
camp. The bottle was too big tt
get in the false bottom of -fooe
|, bucket, however. But the Polish