AMAZING ESCAPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1941, Page 6

AMAZING ESCAPE

BRITISH OFFICER’S ORDEAL ELUDING THE NAZIS. ADVENTURES IN FRANCE. A young officer in the Royal Artillery—whose identity will be covered by the letter “X”—has made one of the most remarkable escapes from captivity since the war began. Although captured in May of last year, he did not reach England until August. In the -last week of May, accompanied by a gunner, “X” found himself detached from his unit on a beach a few miles from Calais. There he fell in with a number of men from Queen Victoria Rifles and Rifle Brigade. The Germans were on three sides, and it seemed that the enemy tanks must soon advance upon them. On the fourth side lay the sea, with British warships some miles out. The men on the beach signalled to them in vain. At last “X” decided to swim for it. He went out for a mile before the tide turned against him. He was drifting farther away from the warships and there was nothing for it but to turn back to the shore. On the beach he was joined by two other officers and a private and the four of them decided to try to break through the encircling Germans. They avoided capture for a couple of days, but on the third night they were called upon to surrender by a German patrol. Two of them were captured, but “X” and another officer managed to escape across the fields to the shelter of a small wood. TRACKED BY FOOTPRINTS. They took cover in a hut, in which they spent the night. When they awoke in the early morning Germans were standing over them. Their captors told them they had been tracked by their footprints across the fields. They were taken to a prisoners of war camp, and from there with other prisoners in a column guarded by an escort on lorries armed with machineguns. ' On the fourth day of the march “X” made up his mind to risk an attempt at escape. Passing through a village, he saw his chance. He slipped down a passage between two houses and was soon racing across the fields to the cover of a barn. From theafe, in the morning, he made his way the farmhouse itself. It was empty when he arrived, but he had not been there long before Germans arrived to ask for eggs. He had to think quickly and, in a twinkle, he was bargaining with the enemy and finally bartering eggs in exchange for the Germans’ tobacco which, to his joy, was accepted by the Germans, who did not dispute his right to the place. Even the villagers took his position as temporary caretaker without challenge, and he was able to keep his pose for over a week. In one instance he beguiled the Germans by telling them that the eggs had been given to another party of their men not five minutes before.

HAZARDOUS MEETINGS. This rest enabled him thoroughly to refresh himself and after acquiring a bicycle, he reckoned that he -was prepared to make an attempt to reach the coast again. It was June 14 when he set out for Brittany. He had hazardous meetings with Germans and once he was stopped. He was just breathing relief after a German mobile unit had flashed past, when he was challenged by a German soldier. But he only wanted him to bury a pig and for this service he was rewarded with a meal and cup of coffee and told that he had been picked upon for the job because he was the first civilian to pass through the village. He continued on his way and was able to convince such Germans as stopped him that he was a French refugee. He'slept sometimes in woods beside the road, sometimes in deserted houses and once in the ruins of: a monastery. He collected what food'he could find as he made his way and ."by the time he reached the coast he had collected six bottles of water, a torch and a compass, and the last bought with his last sou. THREE DAYS AT SEA. Up and down the coast he patrolled, looking for a boat. At length he found one and hid his belongings in a hole in the cliffs while he slept in a wood. At midnight on June 28 he set out in his boat. He was three days at sea before sighting land. His relief soon changed, for he found that the “land” was the Channel Islands and that he was in as great danger as ever and it' did not take him long to discover that they were in' German possession. Tide and weather were against him and his effort to cast away from the islands only brought him again to the coast of France. By this time his face was sun-tanned and his beard ragged, and he looked every inch a Breton fisherman and walked unchallenged through the village streets. But he had io admit that his boat was unequal to its task and he had to set about finding another one. For over a week he went on this mission and at last he found a motor boat and petrol. It was the last day of July when he put out across the Channel. On the evening of August 1 he sighted the Needles and the next morning he was picked up by a patrol boat in the western approach to the Solent.