"the first thing they took was my escape kit. This held some emergency food, money, maps, pep pills, a compass, and pictures of me in civilian clothes in case the Underground tried to rescue me." from the story above.
a interesting side note. i remember my dad talking about this escape kit. it had a regular compass, a couple hits of speed...bug out pills as they were known...a very drab b&w pic you could use if you were lucky enough to get a forged passport...and a fair amount of foreign currency you could pay to the locals for food and etc. pilots also carried another compass which they hid because as you see above the escape kit was usually compensated. this other compass was a very small with a string attached. the imagination doesnt have to wander far as to where this was hid. years after the war my dad had a chance to talk to one of his squad mates that had been taken prisoner and the topic of that compass came up. the story as i remember the pilot after being shot down was taken to a nearby prisoner staging area. he was searched and stripped for de-lousing. as he stood there naked a nazi officer looked him over and noticed the string. the officer demanded to know what the string was about. the pilot bends over and looks between his own legs and remarks "i dont know what you are talking about. i dont see any string." the officer insisted one was there. after a few words back and forth the pilot told the officer, "well if you see a damn string, PULL it!!" the officer hesitated and abruptly ordered the pilot on to the next stage of processing ( with out pulling the string ). the pilot was never able to use the compass to escape but the war was soon over. and of all the trinkets my dad brought home...that is one he left over there.
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