PRISONERS OF WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 23

PRISONERS OF WAR

MARCH TO GERMANY. GIRLS HELP AN ESCAPEE. LONDON, Aug. 14. I Driver Guetave Joseph Thibaut, of the R.A.S.C., has arrived in England affer escaping, with the help of two girls, from a German prisoner-of-war ' camp. His journey took twenty-five days. He travelled through France and Spain to the sea. He is twenty-seven. His mother was Spanish his father British, h« grandfather Belgian. He wae born in -Madrid and speake both French ami Spanish without trace of Engli«h accent. He joined up the day after war was declared. A month after he arrived in trance—this was before the Allied advance to tlio Belgian frontier—he met in Park the first of the two girl* who were later to help him to freedom. He. wrote to her in the weeks that followed. When the Blitzkrieg began he was stationed near Bethune, where the R.A.S.C. was supplying the Northumberland Fusiliers. Later, he and his comrades had to retreat before shell-fire, dive-bombiii" and tank attacks towards Le Havre. ° Tanks On Cliff. He was captured on the beach at St. \ alery en Caux on June 12, with about 400 other British soldiers and 15,000 French. "There were 300 tanks on the cliffs above us," Driver Thibaut said to a "Daily Express" reporter, "and infantrymen were strafing us with machine-<nin. hre. Some of Uβ'tried to put up a fight from a etom* jetty which ran out to a lighthouse. "We broke into the lighthouse, hopin' to signal for help to any British war° ships at sea. But someone had sabotaged the lamp, and we could not get it to work. We had to surrender. "About 20,000 of ue were marched off towards Germany in that prisoners' column. Near me were some men of the Black Watch, who had tried to fight tanks with riflee.

"Minus planes, minus tanks, and without the support of French artillery, in desperation they charged tanks with their bayonets. Not many of them survived the attack. "There was little for ue to oat on the march. We snatched up swedes which were being dried in heaps by the roadside for pig-food, and ate them as we marched, or boiled them when wa halted at night. French Favoured. "We drank water from our tin helmets. Our first meal—tinned stew—was ladled out into our hands. "We halted at an emergency prison camp at Doullens. There we heard that the French had capitulated. From that point the Germans had orders to give preferential treatment to the French eoldiens. "Before that, they had given preference, by choice, to the English soldiers. "At Doullene two or three Britons died of exhaustion. The Britons were put in camp on an evil-smelling rubbish' lump" "While the French were roped off in a wood a little distance away. French expected to be set free any day, and were granted the privilege of accepting gifte of food and cigarettee —or buying them—from civilians at the prison gate. But no one wae allowed to come near the British. "We had ehared our cigarettee with the French at the beginning of the march when they had none. But now that they had food and cigarettes in plenty they held us up to ransom, demanding big prices. "A French soldier made me give 5/8 for 20 cigarettes and £1 17/0 for a loaf of bread. Only Chance. "It wasn't until later that it became apparent that the Germane were not going to release the French after all. But at that time, I thought my only chance of escape lay with the French. "We marched on in stages, alwaye towards the German frontier. Then I decided to make a break. "After I had made the break I set out for Paris, and I found the world's oldest bicycle. "I forged papers which got me to the capital, when I took train for the south of France. Then I made my way to the Spanish frontier. "I found a ship and came to England." Driver Thibaut cannot disclose how the two girls helped him to escape, but he says: "When the war is over I will go to thank them."