From Fire to Faith and Freedom

the Germans were wise to prisoners tunneling down and away under the hut floors and so the new huts were raised on concrete pillars. The guards used to get dressed in special gear to go to look under them for any signs of possible escape attempts. We called them ferrets."

In his crippled plane Bill had a choice. He was over a beach, one side held by the Germans, the other by the partisans. The problem was he didn't know which side was held by which side. He made his decision. It was the wrong one, hence his presence in Stalag Luft 7. And the mention of Rhodesia brought back another memory for Jimmy. While they were there they were going through their initial training at an airstrip at Shabani. "We were flying Tiger Moths and as we were heading back to the base we could look down and see lines of dust rising from the very dry ground. Driving the vehicles were some really nice local ladies who were on their way to give us afternoon tea:· It was on the way to Stalag Luft 7, at the initial holding camp of Dulag Luft, that the PoWs were asked by the guards to give their word that they wouldn't try to escape. Jimmy explained: "If you agreed you had to step forward but none of us did. For that we had to give up out belts, braces and shoe laces to make it more difficult for us to escape. Of course by this time

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