We all knew that if the Japanese learned of our attempt
 
to escape, or caught us in the attempt, our punishment would not
 
be pleasant to consider--we had seen too much of Japanese-devised
 
torture and death since we had become prisoners of war.
 
     "I will need a sextant," I pointed out, during a furtive
 
meeting of our little group.
 
     Lieutenant Boelens said that he could make a sextant
 
in the prison workshop. He not only kept his promise--he did a
 
bang-up good job into the bargain. In some manner, Mellnik was
 
able to lay his hands on a book on astronomy, and I was able to
 
obtain the necessary data on the principal stars, and also the
 
equation of time. We were also able to obtain the proper altitude
 
corrections; and since I could compute the correct ascension and
 
declination of the sun, I felt prepared to navigate within
 
reasonable limits. I also had a pocket watch which had a fairly
 
constant rate, and whose error I determined by comparing the
 
watch with the time of apparent local noon. (I found, when
 
finally I was able to get a time tick by radio, that I was only
 
fifteen seconds off.)
 
     All in all, at the beginning of March, plans for our
 
attempted escape were beginning to look good.
 
 
Lieutenant Colonel Mellnik:
-------------------------------
     We now selected March 28th as the date for our escape.
 
This was a Sunday, and we figured that once clear we would have
 
as much as eight hours start before the Japs discovered our absence.
 
                                                          - 71 -