Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky SpyHaslett, Elmer
History
Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy
Haslett, Elmer
World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
We crawled into our bunks without removing our clothes for the reason
that it was too cold to sleep without them and we also intended to get
out during the night. About two o’clock, after continued tossing and
tumbling, wondering just what process we would follow in the attempt, I
got up and awakened Davis; then I crept to the window. After a good
twenty minutes of tinkering with that window, cautiously moving it an
eighth of an inch at a time, I finally got it open to such a point that
we could get out—at least, so I thought. Directly in front of us was one
of those little houses so commonly used at garrisons in France and
Germany, known as Sentry Boxes. I figured the old boy would be in there
all right, but he would be fast asleep, so I stuck my head out, gave a
little spring, and as I brought my stomach up on the sill like a flash
from out the sentry box stepped this hardboiled Boche. He had a huge
flashlight and immediately I was in the spotlight. The window was the
stage and I the star. There is some humor in the situation, now as I
look back upon it, but believe me, there was none then. For when that
German began to excitedly ejaculate “Loze! Loze!” whatever that is, I
took my head to cover just like a tortoise draws his protruding
physiognomy into the secret confines of his shell.
“It’s all right,” I called as we hit for our bunk, “we’ve got to have a
little air.”
That night we almost froze to death, for we didn’t dare to close the
window, for we did not know the extent of the German sentry’s memory of
foreign expressions, and the fact that we left the window open all night
would be a good alibi for opening the window in that we did need air. It
was a hard result, but since it was our story we shivered and stuck to
it. Take it from me, we were icebergs the next morning.
Fortunately they served us an early breakfast, which consisted of some
hot German Ersatz coffee, which is no coffee at all. It is made from
acorns and it doesn’t go well as a substitute. In fact, you must train
your appetite and taste for Ersatz just as you do for olives. They
brought us a little confiture, which was also imitation and it didn’t
have any more consistency than a marshmallow. The orderly started to
walk away and simultaneously Davis bawled out, “Where is our bread?” The
orderly explained that they had given us our allowance last night for
twenty-four hours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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