DASH FROM GERMAN TRAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3125, 2 July 1917, Page 4

DASH FROM GERMAN TRAIN

BRITISH OFFICERS* ESCAPE FROM? i GERMANY. Lieutenant Bertram Ratclift'e, West Torks Regiment, who after two and a* half years in Bavaria escaped and reached England, relates that he made a dash! for liberty with fom-'fellow-officers from a German train. "As it was just on dusk," he said, "we felt the moment had come to tiy onv luck. Few people were about, but most| of them were evidently, too paralysed at the sight to do A few gavo chase, but we soon outdistanced thoni." After a heavy trano.v over ploughed fields the party got cteari away. "The only food we had," LieuteriJ nnt Ratcliffo said, "was a tin of chocolate! with a few biscuits, but we were too keen, on regaining our liberty to worry, much! about eating, though we were hungry enough before we reached safety. Thirst was worse than the hunger. We had nothing to drink and daro not ask for anything: At night we slept in « wood. It was freezing, and the only covering wo had was a British 'warm' "(officer's short groat-coat) wrapped' round us." Burins' his long captivity in a German fort enemy officers often cross-examined him about the war. "They wero very anxious to know how long we thought the war would last. They seemed to think it would be over in 'three months. But wo always said, 'Oh, another year or two/ in a nonchalant sort of way."