March 1: Up at 7:30 - still snowing. Late breakfast but good. Eat about a dozen eggs a day now. Often the only food we can get. Off at 11 AM. Easy trip - two hills - trail all mud. Everyone rode - snow stopped. Arrived at 5 PM and stopped once for an hour. Bunks no good but enough room. Didn’t eat until 9 PM, then to bed.

Humby Map # 3 Note the dates from March 2 — 21 (Fuping) to 25, to 28 and then a sharp left into April.

March 2: Went down one month ago today and it has been a long haul. Should arrive at Fouping today and find out what the score is. Still lousy - eat peanuts all day every day when we can get them. Cold much worse - good mule today and trip pretty short. Arrived Fouping 4 PM and met Dolan and Domke, the Americans (spies). Discussed air strip but it sounds bad. Think Americans won’t send a ship unless it is absolutely necessary. Ate with eight Generals - food not so good - played finger betting games and all got feeling good on the wine (loser must bottoms up). Pretty good crowd - got private cave with four orderlies and two interpreters. Saw old copies of Time, Saturday Evening Post and Readers Digest.

March 3: Hardly a wink of sleep last night due to the worst coughing fit I have ever had in my life. Saw Doc and got some sort of medicine. It was due to fumes from the small fire burning in the cave. Off to look at landing site 30 Li away. Trip took 2 1/2 hours on good horses. Ground a little on the soft side but we figure we can fix it up in two weeks for a C-47.

OSS Men, Domke & Dolan with two Guerrillas at Fouping.

Ate - food no good - returned to base - three hours. Threw up on way back due to cold on chest. Called Morrison and he and Lt. Double will be here in two days. His eyes and foot are much better.

March 4: Sunday, but you would never know it. Slept a little last night but still have a terrific cough. Pretty good breakfast - scrambled eggs and rice. Sent message to Yenan and now we must sweat it out for a week. Washed socks, feet and hanks. Am in misery with my cold. Spent the day reading Time and Readers Digest. Day is real cold and windy - sure glad we are not on the road. Eating much bread, rice and honey.

March 5: Up at 7:30. Wash, coffee, breakfast at 9:30. Still cold and very windy. Feet cold all the time. Throat still raw and cough almost unbearable. Hear that Morrison is in a hospital with frost bitten toe - hope it isn’t bad. Four of our five Chinese friends from back East arrived and we had a reunion. Interpreter says that Chief of Staff is going to give me a Jap pistol. Still no bath or haircut due to cold - no shave since going down. Still pray a lot and wonder about home and Bette. Bowels regular - use peanuts and cheese to tighten and pears to loosen. Teeth are black. Still eat only two meals a day when we can get them and dream of American food. We all feel pretty sure now that the Squadron will be gone from our base and we will return to the States. They took our picture today and I gave them a roll of mine to develop. Got measured for underwear which is all I wanted. To bed at 7 PM.

Above: Capt. Humby and Cpl Kamiak with two Guerrilla Commanders. Right: Capt. Humby with Cha Ming (our favorite interpreter)/

We spent the next nine days at Fouping (Chin Cha Chi Headquarters) sweating out an answer to our many radio messages asking for a rescue plane. We sent at least seven or eight messages to Yenan, Chunking and the American Observers. NO REPLY! I believe that the Communist guerrilla either never sent the messages or did not give us the replies. I believe that they delayed us for propaganda purposes or to get more aid from the United States. At that time the aid was going to Chiang Kai-shek who they themselves were fighting (Civil War). It was very frustrating and nerve racking and almost caused a mutiny when some of the fellows nearly took off on their own … Japs or no Japs. Finally, when the guerrilla realized that we were at the breaking point, they agreed to continue our walk out.

The reader may wish to skip, in the diary, to March 15th since nothing much other than the above, happened during our stay at Fouping. The 4th through the 14th could prove to be dull reading. We did not do much other than eat, sleep, read, play basketball and volley ball and get on each others nerves. There was no Jap threat in this area.

March 6: Up at 8:30 after 13-1/2 hours in the sack. Slept nearly all of that time. Throat much better but still hurts plenty. Four cups of coffee, than breakfast. No wind today but it is still cold. Should get an answer from Yenan in a couple of days. Read the Readers Digest most of the day. Got Chinese shoes - real warm. Bowels loose. All these Chinese are learning slang from us. We play numbers and knife, paper, stone game for wine (loser drinks up). Eating lots of rice and sugar. Peanuts and pears all day every day. Still have lice. Boys went to a Drama and stayed from 2 to 12 PM, leaving when the thing was still only half over. They had to sing a song for the audience (I’ve Been Working On The Railroad). I hit the sack at 6:30.