Elvin ‘Speed’ Homan was among the fortunate few who were imprisoned in POW camps where there was a reasonable degree of compassion and concern for prisoners. The Camp Commandant was a Harvard graduate German officer who, Speed tells me, could speak better English than anyone in camp. Although it was common knowledge that the German civilians, in the camp area, were severely deprived themselves, barter through the fence was an accepted practice. The Red Cross cigarette ration provided a special and ongoing resource for trade that permitted the prisoners to augment their meager food resources.

In reviewing Speed's Wartime Log, I am impressed and moved by his remarkable sense of humor, resiliency, creativity, artistry, patriotism, and sense of love and connection with his homeland and the people and place of his origin. I have selected a cross-section of text and illustrations which I believe reflect all of these attributes. I have limited the scanned images to from one to three items per page to try and reduce the download times from the Internet to a minimum. For those of you who have slow speed connections, as I do, it still may require a bit of patience. Be assured, it will be worth to wait to access these meaningful documents created by the minds and hands of POWs longing to return to the freedom, associations and environments that they were fighting to protect and defend.