DARING ESCAPE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 244, 2 December 1940, Page 2

DARING ESCAPE

INCIDENT IN FLANDERS BRITISH SOLDIERS CRAWL DOWN DRAIN The hazardous escape/ oi' a private in the Royal Scots who, with a companion, was made a prisoner in the fighting in Flanders at the end of May, can now be related.

The men, who belonged to a company .which was .surrounded by tanks raid infantry 011 May 29, were sent back to battalion headquarters to get reinforcements. They delivered their message, but on the way back they were surroundered by the

enemy and, on taking cover in a ditch at the side of the - road, were surprised and taken prisoner by ; party of 40 Germans.

Before they were taken to the German headquarters they were stripped of nil equipment, including their steel helmets and respirators. Though there Avas a guard of some 50 Germans armed Avith rifles and Tommy guns in charge of 30, British prisoners, the two privates determined to escape as soon as darkness fell. They had noticed a large sewer in the open field some distance away from the group of prisoners. As soon-as it Avas dark the two men made for this drain , and for two hours craAvled through it Avithout knovsang where it Avould lead them. When at last they came out they found themselves in tAVo feet ! of Avater in a large ditch. They proceeded doAvn it, crouching as loaa' as possible, for lavo miles before they realised that it Avas leading them further'into the German lines.

They decided that the quickest way back td their oAvn troops lay across the flat fields, Avliioli presided no real cover. Over this plain the slithered throughout, the night until, in the first light of daAvn, thej' found themselves furnishing targets for machine guns and rifle fire. One of them Avas hit in the neck. The other bandaged him as well as he could, and the tAvo continued their attempt to crawl to their OAvn lines for some six hours more. At last it Avas no longer possible ior the AA'ounded man to make any further move. The' flat fields Avere too open for his friend to carry him, so he sat doAvn beside him till the end camel some hours later. After that he crawled on until late in the afternoon he came to a canal, only to find that every bridge OA r er it had been blown up. He swam the canal, however, and making the'best of the little cover available, proceeded until dark toAvards Avrere he believed the British troops to be. At that moment he heard soldiers marching doAvn a road. To his joy he found that they AA r erc the Royal Irish Fusiliers, to whom he attached himself.