FAMILY’S DASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1940, Page 2

FAMILY’S DASH

DESPERATE DASH FROM PARIS. 600 MILES IN 14 DAYS. To escape the Germans in France an English family cycled 600 miles in 14 days. They had very little food and for 13 nights slept on straw in outhouses. Enemy tanks were never far behind them. Frequently they were bombed. Then came three days of a very rough crossing of the Bay of Biscay, and Mr and Mrs Laurence Smith, with their two sons, aged 12 and 14, arrived at an English port. Mrs Smith told how they bought four bicycles in Paris and abandoned their luggage. The main road was choked with troops and refugees and was being repeatedly bombed. The side roads were nearly as choked and there were frequent air attacks. At La Rochelle the Smiths found that the last ship for England had gone and the Germans were just outside the town. They had to go to Bayonne, right in the south. On the way there was no food to be had beyond an occasional bit of bread or a glass of milk. “The rest of the time wc drank water and tightened our bells,” said Mrs Smith.

When they reached Bayonne Gorman ’planes bombed the town. And they were again too late for a ship. After another long journey they were "third time lucky.” Three refugee ships were in harbour and they got permits to go aboard one. They travelled in the hold.