ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1751, 13 November 1917, Page 1

ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

AUSTRALIAN'S ADVENTURES. London, Oct. 14. An officer of the Australian'forces, Lieutenant Mott, who has reached England, has told a remarkable story o'f pluclc, endurance and physical strength which enabled him to survive and escape from Germany. When trying to reorganise his company at Bullecourt he received five successive wounds in the hand, arm, ear, chest, and neck, the last touching the spine and knocking him from the parapet to the bottom of the trench. He was unconscious, and was in the trench for three 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 to discuss his experiences and treatment in Germany, but gives a running account of his' adventures prior to reaching Holland, and safety. “The bedtime 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 hiy 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 hogs, intersected by watercourses and drains which were too wide 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 us. 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 I rushed back and rejoined Fitzgerald. The sentry did not fire. We made a detour around another senti'y, and reached a bank. Packing our wet clothes, boots, and food on our backs in the darkness, we jumped into the icy water. Halfway across we heard the cry 'Halt!’ but did not heed it. We reached the bank, staggered forward, and fell into a muddy ditch. We heard the sentries shouting as we rushed into the forest. I lost my dear old pal. I Avaited a long time for him, and I suppose he was recaptured. “Having Avrung out my clothes, I set off doAvn-heartedly through the lonely forest. Shivering- Avith cold, I stumbled in the blackness of the forest for tAvo hours till I came to a sheet of water 250 yards Avide. It Avas hopeless for me to try to sAvim it, as I was Aveak from my wounds, Avhich had not healed. After a rest I explored, and found a narroAv 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 Avide stretcli of green, slime-covered water ahead. I AA-as overjoyed at finding a boat, and I jumped in, but found that it Avas chained and padlocked to a tree, and I was unable to release it. Hopelessly I walked into the Avater, but found it shalloAA r , and waded through it to the other bank. Then I felt that I was Avalking on air, for I knew this to be the last of the rivers, - HOLLAND AND SAFETY. “I was noAV three miles from the frontier, I stood all day swinging my arms and stamping my feet to minimise the cold and to help me forget my hunger, for my food had sunk in the river, I hoped that for the last night there Avould be a hurricane, but it was clear starlight, and the slightest sound seemed like thunder to me, 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 everyAvhere, I came to a road I had expected, crossed it, and kneAv that I Avas safely in Holland.”