WAR ADVENTURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20660, 10 January 1942, Page 6

WAR ADVENTURE

CORPORAL’S ESCAPE ENEMY TWICE ELUDED An amazing story'of adventure, and one that gives an indication of why he was erroneously' reported as being killed in action, -is-revealed in a letter .received in Hamilton from Corporal Frederick Bolton, of Hamilton, from Libya. On December 10 his mother, Mrs. Bernard, of Hastings, received official notice that her son was killed in action. A few days later this was officially corrected by a message that he had been wounded. “On November 30, just before dawn, -we. attacked a Jerry and Italian position,” Corporal Bolton writes. “It so happened, through no fault of our Authorities, that our platoon was cut off by machine-guns and we could not move an inch. Dawn broke, and there we were in full view of the enemy, and one by one they picked us off until I must have been the only one left. “About 8 a.m. our forces must have been withdrawn, because the Italians came out, from their positions and started walking round. I must have moved, because one of them came over and kicked me in the ribs, breaking'two'of them." Corporal Bolton added that when lie was being carried in by the Italians someone opened up with a Bren gun, so' the Italians dropped him and scuttled back to their pillbrixes. From there they fired a mortar bomb, which landed about a yard away, lifting pirn in the air, but not injuring him. Shortly after this he was-hit in the thigh by a piece of shrapnel. He lay there all day playing dead. During the night he made his way back five miles and rejoined his company. Thrills During Escape

Two days later, while in the field ambulance, he was captured by (lie Germans. They were told that as soon as it could be arranged they would be sent back to a prison camp. That night 38 of them stole a truck and' drove out under the noses of the guard. They travelled all night through enemy'outposts-and convoys' and finally reached safety: They had numerous thrills on the wav back and had to dodge back on their tracks' several , times to avoid convoys. The party consisted of a colonel, a major, two captains, four lieutenants, 24 medical orderlies, and the remainder were’ patients. “We were in a terrible condition when wd arrived, weak with hunger and no wash for three weeks,” Corporal Bolton added. “We had not even had our clothes off during that time, but everything is O.K. now and I will be up to .scratch again in a week or. sod’ „