Strawberry Red

Chapter 27 Buck

"There are orders for me to take inventory of all Jewish prisoners of War at Stalag Luft three," said a high-ranking German officer. The krauts had gathered some of the prisoners to talk about the "Jewish situation" as they called it. Buck was standing next to Bucky, looking dead ahead onto the table. Months had past and they were still stuck in Stalag III. The weather had slowly been improving over the recent weeks, but it was still freezing cold during the night.

"There are only Americans in Stalag Luft III, Major," answered the Colonel. He had taken over the lead of the Americans. He always had sure his men were treated well, even when it sometimes was quite a challenge. "Only Americans."

The German officer looked around the room, inspecting all the prisoners. He only looked at them for less than a minute, but it felt like hours. The officers tried to intimidate them, to give up their own men. But when they didn't, he finally let them go.

Buck went back to work after the interrogation. The men were gathering more and more firewood for colder periods to come. They'd use it primarily for heating. But it also had a different use, the men took this as a chance to build up strength and muscles. And they also used a part of the wood to craft weapons if it came down to fighting their way out of Stalag III.

"Looks like a work camp the way you jackasses are grinding away. Take a break, come on. Let's play some ball." Bucky joined the working men. He was standing next to Buck who was overseeing the rotations. "You boys want to play some ball? Come on skins versus bones. Skins can be the uh- away team, actually no we're all the away team. So, bones can take first bat by mutual agreement-"

"Either pitch in or knock it off," said one of the men standing near them. He had an annoyed look on his face.

"Shut the hell up." Bucky pushed the man backwards.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" exclaimed Buck and pushed Bucky away from the working men. They needed to keep working, otherwise the rotation would be off.

Bucky dropped to the ground and got comfy in the mud. "You're the new King of the camp and I'm just in the way. Oh, King Cleven says no baseball just work. Work is all he wants to do. What would your Queen say if she saw this?"

"Get up to work." Buck ignored Bucky's last comment and offered his hand to help him up. But Bucky pushed it away with his foot. "Get up!"

Bucky pulled Buck down onto the ground. They started to pull and push each other. Bucky twisted Buck's leg and he let out a scream in pain. In return Buck punched Bucky into the face and Bucky's grip on his leg loosened up.

"Achtung, Achtung: Wichtige Befehle aus dem Hauptquartier," said an officer over the loudspeakers. The officers rushed the POWs back into their barracks.

"Looks like the krauts got some bad news," mumbled Buck. He stood up and stretched his hand out for Bucky to take. "They landed didn't they. We're finally in Western Europe."

Buck entered the small library to pick out a new book. He was already done with his last book, so he needed a new one to keep him entertained. One of the Tuskegee airmen was sitting at a coffee table, drawing into his notebook.

"You know I started out wanting to be a fighter pilot. But I ended up falling in love with the big birds," said Buck to Tuskegee airman, called Alex. Alex also lived with Buck and some others of the 100th.

"I've been building model planes since I was a child. I built every model imaginable. But you know my absolute masterpiece is a super marine Spitfire. I got the plans myself from a newspaper photo," told Alex.

"How about that," said Buck grinning and picked up the book which laid on the small coffee table. He hastily flipped through the pages of the book when a folded piece of paper caught his attention. He slowly opened it and saw a pretty precise map of Germany. "Did you draw this?"

"Yes, Sir," answered Alex hesitantly. He had stopped drawing.

"Is this the scale?" Buck was still looking at the drawing in awe. It was precisely the map of Germany.

"More or less." Alex nodded.

"We could use your help-," started Buck.

"We?"

"There's a group of us, figuring out or next move, running scenarios. We can't just stay sitting ducks," explained Buck the situation.

"You noticed the new and improved super goons?" Alex smirked.

"I got a plan for that."

"What do you need me to do?"

Buck raised the map into the air. "This. We need help charting the area to get out of there."

"Back on the first day, all the guys looked to you. You have the final say. Why didn't you gripe about us bunking an eight?" asked Alex curiously.

"Well, let's just say I at least knew you weren't spies." Buck stood up and stretched out his hand. "Gale Cleven, Major, 100th bomb group. But everybody calls me Buck."

"Second Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson." He too stood up and shook Buck's hand. "332nd fighter group.

For the next months the men were planning out their breakout options and continued to work out to gain more strength and muscle. They were getting ready for every scenario possible, so that I've it came down to one of them, they'd be ready.