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[[strikethrough]] CONFIDENTIAL [[strikethrough]]

We travelled approx. 6-8 miles and had to stop and rest up. It was getting hot and our packs were getting heavy. It was 1:30 then. We rested awhile then drank very little - we were getting strict with it for we didn't know how far we had to go with what we had. We ate a little out of our emergency rations and then tried to sleep. We were all too full of thoughts and we couldn't get much rest. We prayed several times for safe deliverance and our hope and strength returned with each prayer.

We spent our time in this way and after a little talking it being much cooler, we put on our packs again and set out. This was at 5:30.

We came to the edge of the cliff of this hill we were on and could look out for miles on more or less fertile ground. Our prayers, it seemed, were being answered. We decided to go into the valley for trees and scrubs of grass were much greener than we had seen in four days.

We got down in the valley and could see trails still leading SW - right down the center of these rows of hills. We walked for 6 more miles and had to finally rest in a clump of trees for it was too dark to go on. It was now about 7:30 p.m.

We rested an hour then fixed something to eat and tried to go to sleep. It started to get cold and we had no blankets with us, so we had to build a fire. Incidentally, this was the first night we had neither good protection from the wind or warm blankets over us and a bed roll and rubber mattress below us. We spent the night feeding the fire and getting an hour or two of sleep. Our muscles ached like the very devil in every part of our body and the sand and rocks weren't too comfortable or helped those muscles in any way.

We prayed for safekeeping in the morning and safe deliverance. Morale is still very high - but our muscles!

Sunday - March 14, 1943:

We arose at daybreak, 6:30 a.m. and made preparations to go deeper into the valley which seems to lead south now.

We put our packs on our complaining backs, and after a prayer, started out. We traveled about 2 miles and walked about an hour and a half's worth and came upon many fresh camel tracks and Arab tracks.

Our hopes reached a new high and our prayers were indeed being an swered. And they were for we came upon a well in the middle of this valley. The well was circular and dug down and the xides had a very neat stone cementing job all around and as far down as we could see. The water level was about twenty feet from the top.

The ground all around the well was very moist where the Arabs had spilled it in filling their water bags and feeding the animals probably the day before. All the signs we came across seemed very fresh - giving us lots of new hope.

So we stayed for the rest of the day, resting, drinking water, praying, and hoping like the very dickens. S/Sgt Petchal went exploring deeper in the valley. About 30 min. later we saw his running back pointing to the southwest. Off in the distance just above the hill we could see two DC-3's flying as if they were on course to Dakar.

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[[strikethrough]] CONFIDENTIAL [[/strikethrough]]