Prisoner of War Chess Set

During the 22 months that he was held captive at Stalag Luft I, a prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany, First Lieutenant Harold Weachter carved this chess set as a means of passing time. Weachter served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a navigator for the 100th Bombing Group and was captured in 1943. Weachter wrote a humorous poem about the creation of the set, detailing after how he had spent months carefully carving it, the Red Cross delivered numerous chess sets in their Christmas parcels for the POWs at the camp.

This set was loaned to the World Chess Hall of Fame by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.