AN AVIATOR'S DARING ESCAPE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1918, Page 7

AN AVIATOR'S DARING ESCAPE

PROM HIS GERM AX CAPTOKS. | JUMPS FROM A .MOVING TRAIN. 1 San Fr.-incisco,. IJec. 17. Cabled details have just coiutf to hand 1 regarding the sensational -escape from ' Germany-' of Lieut. Patrick O'Brien, of Momence, Illinois, south of Chicago, who has the proud distinction of being the ( first American member of tli- British , Flying Corps to manage to escape from Germany. Tie lias arrived in. London. According to information cabled to [ Chicago, O'Brien eluded his c-aptora by [ jumping from the window of a speeding ; train. He then became a fugitive for seventy-two days, and, as his goal was ; within sight, narrowly escaped electrocution from the charged wires along the . Holland frontier. After cabling to his aged mother, Mrsj Margaret O'Brien, at Momence,'to ex- . pect to see him soon, Lieut. O'Bjrien calli ed upon the American Ambassador,' Mr. ■ Page, to seek advice regarding Ms desire ! to be transferred to the American Flying • Corps. In London he was entertained ) by a group of admiring birdmi>n, who, 1 like scores of friends along the front, : had believed he had been, killed when lie was reported missing on August 17 last. •HAILED FROM CALIFORNIA. i r O'Brien, who is a sturdy young man of ! 27, was flying in the American Aviation • Squadron at San Diego, Southern Cali- > fornia, when 'he went to Victoria, British I Columbia, and obtained a commission In [ the Canadian army. Going to France, ' l the next year he distinguished himself ; by his great daring over the German lines. On the morning of August 17 • enemy gunners forced him to descend, ! but fortunately he landed behind his 1 own line?. ! Late on the afternoon of the next day he was up again over the German lines, fighting the enemy. There were twenty German machines to six British in the 1 encounter. O'Brien's machine alone en- | gaging four enemy craft atid accounting for one before O'Brien was shot through [ the upper lip. He fell with his damaged airplane from a height of 8000 feet. ( When he regained consciousness he was ( in a German hospital. ! Later the lieutenant spent tihree weeks . at a prison camp at Courtrai before he ' was started for the interior of Germany. ! There were three other prisoners under , a strong guard in his compartment when ■ O'Brien, as a ruse, had the window , opened by complaining ui the smoke. JUMPS PROM EXPRESS. When the train was sixty wiles inside 1 Germany and travelling almost at express speed, O'Brien jumped from the' train, skinning the whole side of, liis face, re-opening the would in his lip, and losing consciousness. Providentially, he fell on soft ground, but it was four o'clock in the morning, and the darkness shielded him. When lie recovered he was lying in the field. Then for seventy-two days he was a fugitive, travelling only at., night. He trudged through fields and swam rivers and canals in Germany, Luxemburg, and Belgium before he reached the Dutch frontier. At the time of his flight lie had a piece of sausage on which he subsisted several days, after which his sole sustenance consisted of turnips and other vegetables found in fields. . O'Brien did not know the German language, but lie used a little French on a kindly Belgian, who was so liappy to meet an. American in British uniform that he sheltered -him several days- The Belgian then gave him old clothes to cover bis uniform and directed, him to the nearest route to the frontier. O'Brien swam the River Meuse near Xamur, and tiho' next day was challenged by German sentries who decided he was a peasant. NARROW ESCAPE. But hig narrowest escape was reserved for his last day as a fugitive when he. could see Dutch territory. To -circumvent. the charged wires O'Brien built a bridge in a nearby wood arid threw it. across the wires. ' But it broke under his weight, and O'Brien received a shock which lie said he could still feel after reaching F.ngland. When lie recovered he dug with his bare hands a tunnel under the wires, ?and although it Was slow progress after several hours he had a hole ibig enough to crawl through, tie then hurried 'to the nearest British Consul, who arranged for his transportation to London, O'Brien took up aviation five years ago, when he 'was a locomotive engineer on the Santa Ife Railway at Richmond, California, and at San Francisco. When he left Canada he was in command of twenty men.