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A FRENCHMAN'S ESCAPE

HIS REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. The Paris "Matin" publishes a remarkable account of a Fjencli officer who succeeded in escaping, after. being severely wounded, from captivity in Germany. The officer, who was a captain in an African rejjiment, was through tho battle of Chaneroi in August, 1914, and a few days later, during the retreat, had orders to capture a 'Gorman battery. During the charge he was wounded in tho chest with a bullet. His men left him for dead after removing his papers, but he was picked up by the German Red Cross. A. week later he was suffering from pleurisy. Even after two months his wound was still, discharging, and he was so weak that he could not stand. When other wounded were evacuated he was left, as too weak to movo. . Day after day, with enormous difficulty, he regained strength by gradually increasing exercise in his room. He let his beard grow and stopped washing, -so as to be able to pass as a tramp. A village gild,, a nurse, gradually brought him civilian clothes, gave him money,, and procured him a key of a secret door. He escaped one dark night in November, and, passing as a Belgian refugee, got rough farm work, and in return rough food and board. The wound, however,' reopened, and at all costs ho had to get attention,. so he forged a laisser passer and got into the town. , There, lie found ;aa l old trench doctor, who treated him. He was employed in the town in all sorts of odd jobs, as stableman, clerk, grocer's assistant, etc. During this period all men between eighteen and fifty had to go before the Military Governor, but he was not suspected. In March, 1915, nearly cured, he determined to get back to Franco. For this a passport, was necessary, but. obviously impossible to get. He had, however, made the acquaintance of an old smuggler, whom he persuaded to get him a passport. The smuggler got him a passport for a town near the Belgian frontior. He got into relations with a peasant, to whom he had an introduction, and who gave him a heavy cart. to drive over the frontier. As the cart,crossed it stuck in the mud, and a German sentry himself helped to get it out. In Belgium he got paperri as a Belgian citizen and permission to travel near frontier towns. He finally managed to reach Holland. To get a passport to England was an easy mafci ter, but once there he was arrested as a German soy, because of his curious clothing. He was released almost at once, and on his return hero was able to give valuable information to the military authorities. Having already been decorated with the Legion of Hon. our, he has now been awarded tho Oroix de Guerre. '

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19160306.2.40

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2712, 6 March 1916, Page 7

Word count
Tapeke kupu
474

A FRENCHMAN'S ESCAPE Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2712, 6 March 1916, Page 7

A FRENCHMAN'S ESCAPE Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2712, 6 March 1916, Page 7

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