It took me and Hy Hatton, several days to go by train up to the Baltic Sea. We went first class on a regular passenger train. We had a compartment, but they didn't let us look out of the windows. It was a civilized journey, that particular ride, but it was the only one! We reached Hydekrug, our camp, at the end of the first week of May, 1944.
Frankly, the Germans didn't give us much. We had to make do on our own. We made coffee cups out of margarine cans. We took some tin and made a handle on the outside. Strips off the Klim cans were wrapped around the handle and anchored it to the cup. We used it for that peppermint tea the Germans served us. After about two weeks, those cups got pretty cruddy. The next step was to clean them out with sand and water until it got nice and shiny inside.
I'm doing that one night, just about a half hour before lockup. I'm sitting there with Hy Hatton, from my crew and talking, while I'm cleaning out my cup. The cup's about half full of sand and dirty water and I'm thinking:" I'd better get rid of this stuff." I got up and went over to the door, opened it up without looking, and flicked the water out into the yard.
Just then a German guard was coming up the stairs to put the bar on the door. Man, I got that guy right in the chest. The two of us just froze, and he stared at me like I was crazy. It took a second or two, but I said;" OH SHOOT, let me help you with that!" I started brushing his coat off frantically:" SORRY MAN!" I guess he didn't know what to make of it, because he pushed me away and locked up. He was muttering something about "crazy Americans!"
