Escape from Germany.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 15 November 1917, Page 4

Escape from Germany.

AUSTRALIANS' ADVENTURES.

LONDON, Oct. 14.

An officer of the Australian forces, Lieutenant Mott, who has readied England, has told a remarkable story of pluck, endurance and physical strength which enabled him to survive and escape from Germany. When trying to reorganise his company at Bullecourt lie received live successive wounds in the hand, arm, ear, chest, and neck, the last touching the spine and knocking him from the x)arapet to the bottom of the trench, lie was unconscious, and was in the trench for throe days, until the Germans carried him off. With a friend, Lieutenant H. C. Fitzgerald, the Australian plotted an escape. Lieutenant Mott refuses to reveal the method by which he escaped, or too discuss his experiences and treatment in Germany, but gives a running account of his adventures prior to reaching Holland and safety. "The bed time bugle was," says Mott, "the signal to dash through the lines of sentries, laden with packs and food, between the outbuildings. We reached a potato field ,every moment expecting bullets from the guards. A quarter of a mile further on we got into a scrubby moor. There was no sign of pursuit. We hurried forward, floundering and falling in the black bog. avoiding roads and farms, we covered miles and miles past sleeping villages. At daybreak we lay down in a wood exhausted, regardless of the rain. We travelled only at night, and one was always awake on guard. Our plan involved traversing forests, moors, and bogs, intersected by watercourses and [ drains, which were too wido to leap and too deep to wade, thus necessitating miles of tramping to find crossings. The guards at the prison had evidently sent out warnings and we were twice almost recaptured. We doubled on our tracks, trudged along watercourses, and walked backwards to deceive our pursuers. Once we were surrounded in some brushwood, and our chance of escape seemed a million to one against. The wind rustling the long grass enabled us to crawl into another thicket. Then we cleared away, expecting at every cross-road to meet the guards. LOSS OF COMPANION.

'' On the sixth night we crossed a river by a bridge adjacent to a tavern. We saw a sergeant and two privates drinking and neglecting to guard the bridge. At a second river I crossed alone. The sentry challenged, so .1 rushed back and to,-joined Fitzgerald, the sentry did not lire. Wc made a detour around another sentry, and reached

a bank. Packing our wet clothes, boots and food ~n cur backs in the darkness, we jumped into the icy water. Halfway across we heard the cry 'Halt,' but did not heed it. Wo fell into a muddy

ditch. We heard the sentries shouting as we rushed into the forest. I lost my dear old pal. I waited a long time for him, and I suppose he was recap-

tared. "' Having wrung out my clothes, I set oil! down-heartedly through t,he lonely forest Shivering with cold, I stumbled in the blackness of the forest for two hours (ill I came to a sheet of water 250 yds wide. It was hopeless for me to try to swim it, as I was weak from my wounds, which had not healed. After a rest I explored, and found a narrow stretch. I jumped in and swam. At last I reached the bank, and caught the branch of a tree. Unable to raise myself, I lay in the mud until I recovered strength. When I proceeded I found that I was on an island, with another wide stretch of green, slime-covered water ahead. I was overjoyed at finding a boat, and I jumped in, but found that It was chained and padlocked to a tree, and I was unable to release it. Hopelessly I walked into the water, but found it shallow, and waded through it 'o tlie other bank. Then X felt that X .vas walking in air, for I knew this to be the last of the rivers. HOLLAND AND SAFETY.

"I was now three miles from the Frontier, I stood all day swinging my arms and stamping my feet to minimise •;hc cold and to help mc forget my hunger. for my food had sunk in the river. I hoped that for the 1; st night there ■,vould be a hurricane, bvt it was clear starlight, and the slightest sound seemed like thunder to mc. I took off my boots and crept the last two miles, stopping and watching for sentries, thinking that every bush was an enemy. My nerves conjured up soldiers everywhere. X came to a road I had expected crossed it, and knew that I was safely in Holland.''