NAZIS EVADED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 173, 24 July 1942, Page 2

NAZIS EVADED

ESCAPE FROM GREECE

AUSTRALIAN BACK HOME (0.C.) SYDNEY. July 22. Back in Australia after having escaped from a German prison camp in Salonika, Sergeant Stuart Brown, who left with the first A.I.F. troops for the Middle East, told of repeated attempts by comrades and himself to evade the Nazis in Greece and Crete. After his escape Brown wandered around Greece for eight months with companions. They were desperately hungry most of the time and frequently without boots in the bitterest Greek winter for 50 years. "But for the Greek peasant we would have starved," Brown said. "For almost three weeks at one period, we existed on weeds. The Greeks had little enough—most of their wheat had been transferred to Germany—but they shared their last crust with British fugi.tives." After the Crete capitulation. Brown and three mates decided that, rather than surrender they would make a break. With the aid of a Greek officer they obtained a rowing boat, but they were captured by Germans. "They marched about 400 British troops, including many Australians over 200 miles in five and a half days," said Brown. "Conditions were awful. We were exhausted and had to scrounge for food on the way. We were taken to Salonika—about 1500 of us by this time—in a boat of about 700 tons. We called it the Hell Ship."

Australian ingenuity was quickly tried out on the German sentries at the camp in Salonika. "There was a drain which ran about half a mile through the camp and outside the gates," said Brown. "I was too sick to be in this escape, but it was a classic. About 3 p.m., a great crowd of the boys collected around the drain mouth and put on a game of two-up. As the game went on there were whispers of 'Two more for the guts,' and two more of the troops would sneak into the sewer. About 70 were away before the Jerries woke up to what was going on." Later it was decided to construct an underground tunnel. A shaft was sunk about 14 feet under a building. With a rail from a staircase and a small hammer the men worked swiftly but quietly. "We had only about five yards to reach our objective when we learnt we were being taken to a camp in Germany," Brown continued. "I didn't want to be in that, so, with two mates, I persuaded the others to nail us down in the tunnel. There was a lot of excitement when we were missed at roll call. We stayed like mummies all night, and at the changing of the guard we slipped through."

The escapees again obtained a boat, again were captured by the Germans and again escaped. The Greeks again fed them. One Greek official used to tramp 20 miles with food for them. Finally eight escapees got a boat and sailed it to a Middle East port.