The guards lived in a building just outside the main gate and they
raised chickens. Sometimes the birds would wander into the area we
could see but not go into. One of the guys got a few kernels of corn
and tied them at the end of a long string. He would throw it out near
the chickens and slowly pull it back trying to got a chicken to
follow. He did this for hours and finally caught one. We heard all
the commotion and ran down to see what was going on. He had the
chicken tucked under his arm, it was squawking like crazy and he was
running in one end of each barracks and out the other with a German
guard chasing him. After going through five or six barracks, the
chicken was silent and the guard lost them. The guard searched awhile
then gave up. Somewhere along the way the chicken had been hidden and
some POWs had a chicken dinner that night.
Many of us tried to catch birds, mostly sparrows, which we intended
to eat if we could catch them. We put out a cardboard box with one
end propped up with a stick and attached was a string that led in
the window. We put bread crumbs under the box and took, turns
watching from the window. The birds were so fast that they always got
away before the box fell. We never got any but we never gave up
trying. Another way we passed the time was by laying on our bunks and
watching flies light on the ceiling. How do they get their feet on
the ceiling? Do they do a loop the loop, half roll or flip? We spent
hours arguing about this but we never solved the puzzle.
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