RELEASED OFFICERS CHAINED HAND AND FOOT FOR FOUR DAYS

Chronicle (Levin), 24 June 1946, Page 5

RELEASED OFFICERS CHAINED HAND AND FOOT FOR FOUR DAYS

—Press Association

r " By Telegraph-

Received Moncjay, 12.15 p.m. JERUSALEM, June 23. Two of the kidnapped British officers,' Captain D. T. Ray and Flight Lieutenant T. A. Russell, were released by their captors last night, says Reuter's Jerusalem correspondent. Both are reported fit. They were clean shaven and looked well when brought by car to Yarkon Hotel, Tel Avlv, from which they were kidnapped. Freed by their kidnappers, Captain Ray and Flight Lieu|Wtnt Russell told Military Headquarters that they were f w»d hand and t'oot for four days in the cellar of a Tel Aviv Flight Lieutenant Russell said he was about to enter the officers' club on June 18, when two men rushed across the road and forced hirn at revolver point to enter the club, in the clining room of which he found officers and the staff held up by armed Jews. After a few minutes the raiders gave orders in Hebrew and left the room. Flight Lieutenant Russell, imagining that the raid was over, moved towards the exist. Just outside two raiders prodded revolvers into his back and ordered him to walk outside, where his cap was replaced with a white panama and he was pushed into a taxi holding four men. A fifth jumped in and told Flight Lieutenant Russell* "Don't worry. You are a gentleman and I am a gentleman. You are being held as a hostage." The raiders tied Flight Lieutenant Russell's hands behind his back. They stopped the taxi after five minutes, near a small green lorry, on which there was a large green crate with a hinged lid. Flight Lieutenant Russell was put into the crate, and here he found Captain Ray, who was gagged with adhesive tape and bleeding from head wounds. Several hours later Flight Lieutenant Russell and Captain Ray were dumped in a cellar. A man wearing a black mask ordered their* bonds to be removed and replaced them with ehains on their wrists and feet. There was ample food in the cellar, and nightly at eight o'clock the guard commander, invariably masked, brought more food and also, at Captain Ray's request, .a Bible and shaving gear. ' "At 8.45 p.m. on June 21 the commander entered and returned our possessions, except my identity card," Flight Lieutenant Russell continued. "He gave an order and we were unchained. He pushed one Palestine pound into my pocket, saying it was for wear and tear, and any inconvenience I had suffered. He insisted that I take it, and when I tried to give it to one of the guards he refused." Flight Lieutenant Russell and Captain Ray were forced to wear dark goggles before they were escorted from the cellar to a taxi. A woman was in the taxi, which the leader and three or four guards entered with Flight Lieutenant Russell and Captain Ray.