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TUNNELLING TO FREEDOM

FROM A GERMAN PRISON CAMP

AN AMAZING EXPLOIT

TOLD BY A WELLINGTON AIRMAN

Probably no officer or man who 11113 : returned 10 Now Zealand during or tjinco the war has had such amazing stones of adventure to tell as Lieutenant Jidgar .11; Garland, of the lloyal Air force (a K)ii of. Mr. Frank L. Garland, oi Oriental Bay), who returned to Wellington via "America by the Tol'ua oil Saturday, .last. It only I need be related that he .was taken prisoner in 1917, was incarcerated in twenty prisons, and escaped trom (seven of them before finally treeing liiiyeelf, to show the mettle of the man, and the amazing experiences he went through in order to get back to "his own," , The records of the German War Office show that he was regarded as ono of the most dangerous and elusive of the British officers held prisoner by Germany. His recoj-dj certainly bears this" out. Lieut. Garland learnt his hying at Ivohimarama (Auckland), in 1914-15, and joined up with tho British Air Forces ii\ 1916. It was in 1917 that his squadron was detailed to intercept a flight of Gotlias which had bee,n reported over England, bombing small towns. Flying an 80 horsepower Le Ehone machine, he accompanied the squadron'to a position over Ostend. ,"Whilst manoeuvring there his machine "went 1 dead" when' at an altitude of 17,000 ft., and he'was forced to descend

on enemy-held territory.' Ho was immediately surrounded by German' troops, taken prisoner, -subjected to the usual cross-examination, and , told the usual military lies, and was sent, to prison at. Brugge.. From there he was shifted to Courtrai, and then to ItarJsruhe. A Famous Escape Tunnel. It was whilst, imprisoned there that serious consideration was given by the prisoners to'the possibility of escape uy means of tunnelling., but ociore. the' dangerous job could be started, Lieut. Garland was removed to Holzminden prison. There, in collusion with other prisoners, 'and under the eyes of the German guards, on escape tunnel was commenced...The digging continued'for nine months. Twelve officers whose work had familiarised them with tunned'construction,, were

ciio'sen to direct the 'work. Regular hours of wort were allotted.to them. The first job, however, was to select the best spot for the tunnel, Tho. entire prison was inspected, and. eventually a tiny lumber room under a', staircase in one of the buildings wag selected. It was never inspected by the German guards, as it was protected by a 'huge padlock. With the first, step taken, preparations were made to take .out .the fast-shovelful of earth. Uniforms were procured from British privates, prisoners ; detailed to act as orderlies to the British officers. The officers who composed the working parties ■ each day wore |tho orderlies' uniforms unci the orderlies wore ttio officers' uniforms, "\ and mingled. :witn the officers, so that the guards would not notice the absence 'of the .tunnellers. Floor-boards in the lumber room were' prized loose, and in the'middle of December, the digging began. It was not difficult nt first .to remove the earth., but as/the shaft went deeper the tas£ became harder. The earth, stones, and old .roots of trees were carefully concealed in. small bags, and stored in the apparently padlocked 'lumber room imEil opportunity served to remove them to the shrubbery surrounding the tennis court. It was not until several weeks had i elapsed that tho •direction of the tunnel was changed, and the work oF~pushing it toward Hie-Boundary line of the prison camp attempted. " .The entrance was four feet across, arid al the base of the ghnff the tuirnel.was rounded, but so that a man might change his direction with" out becoming jammed,-bit from that point on economy wasresorted to /to avoid more digging, than was.nheoluteiv .necessary.. The tunnel, was bored just large enough' to perrnjt the passago of a man's body. It was''planned that packs should be pushed a'head of the men when the time for escape came.. '.. Knives 'and .Trenching Tools Used.

Shovels, such "as the Gerinnns used to dig themselves in with nt the front, were unceremoniously abstracted from the storehouse hi yard. A supply of jack-knives Intended for {Tie prison garrison was sampled soon after its"arrfval, and enough ,of the knives were 'obtained to reinforce the supply of toifis. The end of December saw fhe (filing temporarily halted. 1 •' Cjantain Gray, of tho Indian Forces, and Lieutenant Murdoch, his-aid in directing the excavating, were toldat4o'clockonemorning' li fnat a hugs lump of sandstone had been uncovered immediately in the path of the tunnel. Ex animation by the officers in the hole at the time proved that the obstructiofl jyas> too big to be moved back to. the shaft, and thence to the surface, and it could not h<ive been disposed of could it have been so handled. Captain Gray crept from_ his cot, clad in his underclothing only, to the tunnel-head, and after examining the position said that the direction of the tunnel would have to be changed to pass the obstruction. This announcement created something akin to consternation owing to tho amount of useless work which had been done. But the turn hud to bo made, and it was so.

Instilling Electric Fans,

Then presented itself the problem of ventilating the tunnel, as the farther the diggers progressed from the shaft the worse the air became. There seemed to bo no feasible methidi of forcing fresh air into tho burrow. 1 Work had to be stopped until Lieutenant Garland and another officer found time and opportunity. to get several electric fans and two air-pumps from tho store-room'. ■ Uj> to that time the diggers had worked in complete darkness. Once, however, 'it, became necessary to provide energy for the operation of the air pumps and fans, the officers lost no time in tappiflg the prison lighting cironit, thereby obtaining current for ventilation and illumination. The fans and pump 3 and a dozen incandescent bulbs were arranged in place, and wires were led into the tunnel and connected with them. The vibration of the pumps and the whirring of the fans, it was at fifst feared, would betray the tunnelling operations to the guards above ground.. To keep the apparatus from letting tho entire camp know what was going on, the bearings were well soaked with oil. Even then, in tho confined space, the noise of the machinery of the pumps and the hum of tho fans wero almost deafening, and for a breathless half-hour following the turning on of tho power the officers waited for the discovery which seemed so certain.

, But to the great Joy of nil concerned in the plot the 6entries failed

to notice anything unusual. Shifts were changed regularly, and the tunnel slowly •lengthened out towards tho camp boundary. ' .>■. A Perilous Tlm9, By the end of the fourth month the work had progressed a distance of 150 feet. The danger of the walls and roof

collapsing was always present, for wood to , shore up the . sides was not to be had without exciting suspicion. Now and then whilo a man was digging ahead and was out of breath with his exertions he would hear a stono or handful of earth fall in the passage behind him. Under such circumstnaces it was not surprising that the tonsion caused by such slight accidents was tremendous, and the men fuffered accordingly. The eighth month found tho tunnel finished to a point where the oificers were ready to turn towards the surface. Compasses and measuring cords had boon usa.l to determine the approximate spot ■where tho end of tho tunnel would bo located, and it' was believed that the exit shaft would break through tho surface just outside tho electrically-charged barbwire entanglements beyond the wall. Prisoner Caught Cutting the Wire. Just as the exit shaft was about to bo started an officer who had known nothing of tho cutting of the tunnel—a man who had been confined in another part of the prison—was caught cutting . the wire almost at tho exact spot w'hero •the tunnel would emerge. His effort to escape was deteoted by tho guards' and ha waa brought back. Elfl flttempb ro.

suited in the Gorman commander ordering a special guard for the weakened barrier. New- surveys were made, and it was decided to push tho tunnel out under a wheat-field a hundred feet from tho barrier. Another month was occupied in boring'the extension, and it was not until August, nine months aftor, tliej ■work had begun, that all was ready for flight. The shaft was dug to within a foot of the surfaca, and 29 officers, including Lieutenant Garland, were ; instructed by Captain Gray to bo ready to enter tho tunnel on five minutes' no- ' ■ The Escape. "I was warned at 3 o'clock- one morning to be at the entrance of tlie lumber room in five minutes," said Lieutenant Garjand. "I slipped into the orderly's uniform that I had concealed in mymattress, anrl sneaked into the orderlies' quarters. The German sentry outside was leaning on his rifle half asleep. The lumber room wa9 crowded, and after waitiug a few minutes I was passed inside. A humming noise camo from tho mouth of the tunnel. I could hear tho sound of talking'' and the buzz of the fans. Once in tlie tunnel I pushed the pack in front of me and started to

' crawl down tho steep incline that led to the passage proper. There was no room above mo to raise my head, and I -worked myself forward by pushing against the side walls with my feet. "Here and there on the floor of the passage I came across cans of bullybeef abandoned by men who had gone before me. So anxious were they to get i away that they were leaving bohind i them stores of food that had taken weeks | and months to collect. I had to iamb j the abandoned tins into the earth under me before'l could advance. | "Half-way to the wheat-field a big fellow just aiiead of me became jammed.His shoulders were wider than the tunnel at one spot and he could neither go forward nor rotreat. His bulk filled tho passage, and at the end of twenty minutes the ventilation failed to operate and the air became stifling. . "Finally, lie managed to work himself loose. I helped him to crawl back a foot and lis succeeded' in working himself out of the heavy,, trench coat he had foolishly worn. Again, far ahead of us another man became jammed. He was just beneath the exit. The man behind |iim and the one in front tried to' extricate him. but his and their struggles did just what was' most feared. They loosened the roof and tho walls, and with a crash the exit cavo collapsed.

"All of us who were, in the passage ih'ad to crawl back to the lumber room as best we could. There it was found that 29 of the party had succeeded in j getting away. I "Tho entrance was hoarded over in

the hope that the Germans would not locate the cave in; and we returned to our. cots feeling, pretty done and sick, at heart. > The Aftermath. • "The dawn witnessed the aftermath of tho adventure. The British officers wero summoned into the yard for roll; call, and when tho German sergeantmajor discovered a shortage of 29, he nearly collapsed. He counted the men .and then turned to the commandant, Hauptmann, Niemeyer. _ ".'Twenty-nine are gone!' he fairly

screamed. , , Tr "Niemeyer. Ijecame a madman. Ho raved and cursed and threatened to shoot the first British officer seen near the walls.fl Ho ordered a thorough search of the orison. The tunnel was found at the end of the second day after intelligence" agents had been, summoned from headquarters near by to aid m the Lieutenant Garland, who subsequently effected his escape in a -i-et to ho related, was afterwaivls appointed a member of the British Military Mission to thp United States.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19190904.2.22

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 291, 4 September 1919, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,990

TUNNELLING TO FREEDOM Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 291, 4 September 1919, Page 5

TUNNELLING TO FREEDOM Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 291, 4 September 1919, Page 5

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