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[Page 25]
how we treasured this find and studied it until we knew it by heart, and the hope of escape it inspired !
With such knowledge of the country and our whereabouts, we began preparing our clothes, a long tedious work, but full of interest. Our interpreter, a [indecipherable] who had previously made an attempt and failed, was the main instigator, and we others were only too thankful to get his views and criticisms. Our plan was that six of us should break away as soon after the sentries had done their rounds as possible. Just at this time a photographer came round to take our photos at 3/6 per dozen, and we seven Colonials were taken as a group so to make the Corporal of the Guard easy, and to keep us as much in his favor as possible, we gave him one of the photos. He thanked us and said he would remember us when the war was over, at which we had to have a laugh to ourselves, thinking he would have good cause to remember us long enough before his precious Fatherland was crushed.
In preparing our clothes we had to be very careful indeed, as the sentries were always dodging in and out of our rooms the better to see what we were at, and whether we appeared at home and satisfied, or uneasy and discontented. So that we had to make believe that we were quite satisfied with our lot, and to further allay any possible suspicion to the contrary, I purchased a cheap fiddle, and would of an evening or Sundays, play a few old tunes, then my mate, who was musical, got a mandoline, and we would often play together, whether in harmony or not was for someone else to judge, but we managed to give our sentries and visiting officers the impression that we were satisfied and contented to carry on as we were and wait patiently for the end of the War.
I well remember one of the official visits when we had "Martial Law" read out to us, and were made to sign a document to that effect, in case of subsequent trouble, or unruly behaviour, in which case the officer trying us would ask – "You understand our Martial Law and the gravity of your offence?" and if we had so heard the Law, then the punishment was meted out without further ado. Then one night when we were asleep, dreaming of home and freedom (that most precious dream of our existence "freedom"), we were rudely awakened by the roar of anti-aircraft guns, and joy of all joys! our Airmen were over giving Fritz a little of his own medicine. Our hearts were as light as feathers, in fact they must have reached up to those Airmen, so pleased and overjoyed did we feel. At the first shots we were all up in our shirts and rushed to the window to see what was doing, but to our disappointment they dropped nothing near us as we all hoped to see a big burst, more especially we hoped to see the Station and lines damaged, but we had to be content to know they had been over, and eagerly looked for their next visit.
The only direct result that came to our notice was that a "Zepp" that had been making daily flights near us, did not appear again, whether it was destroyed or sent to the front we do not know, but of course tried to persuade ourselves that it had been destroyed. The