It was considered to be worth five dollars and some
fellows sold all they could get for IOU notes and planned on
collecting the money when they got home. I knew these guys were honest
and no doubt some made several hundred dollars this way. This system
worked very well and points were given to every article in camp. even
clothing was sometimes traded for D-bars.
The enterprising guys were keeping busy with different projects like
the one from Pennsylvania who wrote the book about the prison camp. Ht
had a rough draft and went all through the camp taking advanced orders
for it. He had it printed after the war and contacted everyone. He
made three dollars a book. Someone else drew a poster of a pilots head
in uniform with the left side all gears, wheels and levers depicting
the makeup of a pilots head. It was an exceptional picture poster.
At one of the camps we were in one of the guys bribed a guard to get a
camera and film. He took several rolls of pictures and also took
orders for $5 and I signed up for them. I received these without any
problem after the war. Another fellow had a real business going. He
melted the solder off the bottom of the cans which held the "church
key'. He made a smal1 ball of this solder and took a three inch piece
off your dog tags chain and soldered it to your pilots wings, then
soldering it to the ball. This signified your inability to fly with
the old ball and chain symbol.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167