I had a hunch we would be forced to walk, so I made overshoes out of a pair wool socks with Klim tin soles, which I could tie over my shoes. I made heavy mittens by stuffing German toilet paper between layers of cloth and insulating my blankets with layers of toilet paper. A backpack was made by sewing one stocking on the top of a bag and one on the bottom and putting a belt as a strap between them.

On Saturday, January 27, 1945, the Russians were knocking at the door of Breslau and Steinau. Then, like a bolt of lightning, at about nine P.M. the order came: "FALL OUT FOR A FORCED MARCH AT 11:O'clock"--in two hours. And the big flap started.

Men rushed about making packs, bashing food, throwing away useless articles and preparing to move. Joe Doherty ran to the kitchen and started making a huge batch of fudge--it really seemed funny at the time. Everyone's bowels moved about three or four times in the first hour. Boy, what excitement!! At the last moment, I decided to make a sled and Schauer and I took four bedboards--used to as runners and two for the platform and put tin on the runners.

At 2:00 in the afternoon, we reached Halbau, which we found containing mostly French forced-laborers. The weather was freezing and several of us already had frostbitten feet and hands. We were finally put up--about 2,000 of us--in a church, whose capacity was about 500. It was so crowded we all had to sleep in shifts, and it was very, very cold. We ate a late meal of cold meat and crackers.

We left Halbau at dawn, cold and stiff and hungary. We walked past Freiweldau. It had a long hill in town and we were all so weak we had trouble making it. From there on, we hit flat farmland and the wind and cold blew through us. We finally came to a small village where we were put in one-story barns--about 500 men to one barn. The only reason we got this stop was the fact that we had General Vanaman along with us.

It was so crowded that all of us could not sleep at the same time, so some would walk around while others slept. Still there was bitter cold and no German food. We were eating Red Cross food, cold, and it gave a lot of the fellows loose bowels.

The general talked the Germans into letting us stay here for one extra day, in order to dry out socks and shoes and rest up. We would dry out socks by putting them next to our bodies while we slept. We fixed our shoes, packs, and mittens here. We also did a little trading with the German civilians for onions, hot water and brew, in exchange for cigarettes and soap.