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S/S Fetchal came back about 10:15 and said that Lt. Weidner had gone on to the next hill and made him turn back. Petchal reported that he hadn't seen any settlement, but things looked greener and better in general. Things are so barren right here where our plane is situated. We are among the sand dunes in fact.

Lt. Weidner came back about 1:30 p.m. all tired out and pretty warm. We had him rest and gave him something to eat. He reported that conditions were better over two hills south & west and that he had run across a camel trail or something leading down dry streams. So we are planning to break camp under the left elevator, destroy the plane and take only what we need with us. Something tells me it is going to be a long walk, but we can't sit here and rot. We've got to do a something or go batty, anyway.

I spent some time calling with the plane radio and emergency radio. I think it is just a lot of wasted energy, but we have got to try everything we can.

We have made some plans for the morrow, when we plan to leave, we don't exactly know yet.

Our morale is still high notwithstanding the fact that we haven't head a drone of a plane although many times we though we did. We have many comforts more than we bargained for, for instance, or rubber boat has inflated to give us protection from the wind.

Saturday - March 13, 1943:

We arose at daybreak, around 7:00 o'clock. We fixed a little breakfast and then made preparations to leave. We fixed up our Army musette bags and put in all the food rations we could carry plus a pair of stockings plus cigarettes, matches, chewing gum, and medical supplies. I still need patching up twice a day and the boys attend to it patiently.

We threw all our clothes and what we didn't take with us all around the plane and in the plane and Weidner and Petchal poured gas all over the plane. We took our supplies some fifty yards away from the plane and the boys went back and shot a flare into the plane to ignite it. I couldn't bare to do it, in face, I was willing to let her be. But it had to be destroyed and it was completely.

It was about 9:00 o'clock when we left the plane. We picked up our supplies and our five gallon can of water and started to head southwest. Some distance away, the tanks of our plane exploded and a column of black smoke arose fifth feet in the air.

We kept moving S-W into the nearby mountain - it was easier walking - particularly so after having tramped through sand dunes for 30 min.

We rested on top of the hill, and then we proceeded on our way. The weather favored us as the clouds kept the sun covered pretty well. It did manage to sprinkle a few drops, too. Every so often, we would stop, rest, pray that we were going in the right direction, and then pick up our loads and kept moving.

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