PRISONERS OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 December 1940, Page 9

PRISONERS OF WAR

ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE FROM CAMPS DISCONCERTING HAZARDS. MOST STRINGENT PRECAUTIONS TAKEN. Two recent items in the newspapers brought a reminiscent smile to my face—the escape of German prisoners from a northern prison camp and the escape of two British prisoners from a “kreigsgefangenlager,” which is the German name for the same thing, writes Captain W. E. Johns, in a London journal. Frankly, my sympathies were with the prisoners, for I know just how they felt. Three times in the last war I was “on the run’’ in enemy country, a sensation not eas'ly forgotten. This is what a Britisher trying to escape from Germany is up against: To start with, he is in a prison camp surrounded by a high, thick fence of barbed wire. The camp is probably on an island, either in a river, or, worse still, the Baltic. The barbed wire may be electrified. Probably it has bells hanging on it, which jangle if the wire is touched. Every yard of it is patrolled by armed sentries, who load their rifles in front of you to let you see that they use ball cartridge and not blanks. At intervals round the wire there are floodlights, so that at night the place is as light as day. At night prisoners are locked, in their cells or cabins. Their boots are taken away. Notorious escapees are probably in prison clothes —black suits with broad yellow stripes. There is a roll-call every few hours. In short, every possible precaution is taken to keep prisoners in their pens, and when one is inside the chances of getting out look very -remote indeed. The incred • ible thing is, in spite of all this, prisoners do get out. Now, let us assume that you have achieved the apparently impossible and find yourself outside the camp. What then? I regret to say that the business has only just started. The real difficulties now begin. The prisoner finds himself in a hostile country, with every hand against him, probably 200 miles from the nearest frontier.

To reach this frontier he must creep cross-country by night and hide by day. The journey may take anything from a fortnight to a couple of months.

“MUST EAT” , The trouble is, the human system will not function without sustenance; the fugitive must eat. Where is he to get food? Even if he can speak German well enough to evade suspicion. and tries to buy it (and few prisoners speak German well enough for this), he has no money. Only those who have been on the run for several days in winter without food of any sort, have any conception of how quickly vitality is lowered. Herein lies the great danger, for. driven to desperation by hunger, a fugitive will take outrageous chances. Let us assume that the prisoner succeeds in reaching the frontier. What does he find? Barbed wire, anything from 10ft to 40ft thick. Some of the strands may- be electrified. Any- strand he touches may strike him dead. There are guards every few yards, to say nothing of cavalry patrols, motor cyclists, and, worst of all, dog patrols —packs of Alsatians trained in the art of man-catching. This, you might think, is bad enough, but it is not all. The Gel-man is a cunning fellow. There are such

disconcerting hazards as dummy frontiers. so that when the prisoner has got across (as he thinks) and starts to run. he collides with the real frontier. The difficulties here described are the most common ones; there is always the unexpected to be facedsuch as swimming across a river of unknown width in the darkness. Yet with all this prisoners are always getting away, and a fair proportion succeed in getting out of the country. I don’t know why, but there is something in the British make-up that comes to the top in such circumstances; certain it is that British prisoners are by far the worst offenders. It is their duty to try to get away, for this kceos troops at home guarding them. Men thus employed might otherwise be at the front. \