DRAMATIC ESCAPE RECALLED.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19268, 24 March 1928, Page 15

DRAMATIC ESCAPE RECALLED.

FRENCHMAN LEFT FOR DEAD. (BT CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPIRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABL2 ASSOCIATION.) (Received March 23rd, 5.5 p.m.) PARIS, March 23. The terrible death of Edmond Augier, aged thirty-four, a commercial traveller, which was caused througiJ his car goftig on fire after colliding with a post, recalls one of the most dramatio of authenticated escapes during the war. On August 24th, 1914, Augier was rttached to a mounted patrol, which was overtaken by Uhlans in Ardennes. His horse was shot, and Augier faced the enemy and killed a Uhlan. He was then taken prisoner and ordered to carry the German flag through a German village. He refused and was taken to the roadside, on the outskirts of the town, where there were eight other Frenchmen. A squad of the 33rd German Infantry, fired, and Augier received four bullets in the arms, legs, and side, but was not; killed.

During the night time lie _ recovered consciousness,- amid the bodies of his eight countrymen. He appealed to a passing cavalry , officer, wh<j fired at him and rode on. Augier lay thus "V three days, when the Germans discovered him, and, thinking lie had been wounded when fighting, took him to hospital. • He returned to France on September 22nd, 1916, in a convoy of wounded men. He was awarded the military a medal and was promised the Legion of Honour, but refused it when offered 't after the- War.