Stalag Luft III was a big step upward for the Buchenwald airmen, but conditions were still difficult. There was never enough food, mail delivery was intermittent at best, and presence of Gestapo agents made camp life even more dangerous than it had been earlier in the war. The guards were nervous and sometimes acted irrationally, sometimes abusing prisoners with little or no justification. The camp records contain frequent protests over punishments, improper medical treatment, and shootings. It is a good thing Fred survived his abdominal crisis without surgery. On 10 November, only a couple of weeks later, Lt. Robert A Burke, assigned to the North Compound, died from untreated pneumonia. He’d been sick with fevers and a severe cough for 10 weeks before admission to the hospital. Although he had repeatedly asked to be taken there, the Germans said they had no room. Their only concession was to sen aspirin and cough syrup to his barracks. This was not the first time that neglect had killed a sick airman; Sergeant Wiseman had died under similar circumstances

earlier in the year.