Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-11-13
CRAWL TO FREEDOM
Prisoners Make Daring Escape
From German Camp.
Cut Barbed-Wire Fences and Flee In
Night British Sergeant Tells
King Of Remarkable Feat OF
Self and Private.

London.-An interesting account OF
the escape from Germany of two pris-
oners of war, one q sergeant and the
other a private of a British light in
fantry regiment, has Just come to light
through the audience granted by the
king at Buckingham Palace to Ser
geant Birley and Private Haworth.
King George personally questioned
the two soldiers at great length re-
garding their escape. The story told
by Sergeant Birley was particularly
interesting.
1T took us just four days and five
nights to get free of German soil after
we had once broken out OF our prison
at Westphalia," the sergeant said. II
went to the front with my regiment,
the First Gloucesters, as soon as the
war broke out, and was captured on
October 20, 1914, near Ypres. On the
way to the prison camp In Westphalia
we were pretty roughly treated. One
night fifty-three of us were locked in
a church and had nothing to eat for
more than twentyfour hours. AT last
they emptied basket of moldy bread
on to the floor and left us bucket of
water. During the train journey fifty
three OF us were crammed into a
closed railway van for fifty-six hours.
Only once were we allowed to get out,
and that was for few minutes. For
food we had some scraps of bread.
AT the camp made several plans
for escaping, but never got favora-
BILE opportunity. | managed to get
myself transferred to another camp
and there began TO make my plans
which have succeeded so we'll.
1T was not an easy matter. The
camp was, of course surrounded by
high barbed-wire fencing. On each
OF Its four posts sentry was posted,
and night four powerful acetylene
lamps lighted UP the whole of the
camp
THE great night came. We waited
till one OF the sentries had his back
turned, and then wriggled on our
stomachs to the fencing. then man
aged to sever one strand of the fence
and, to my mind, the tang OF II made
the greatest noise I've ever heard.
But the sentry walked on. With beat
ing heart snapped the second strand.
That made an awful noise. Still the
sentry walked on. Then we crawled
out, free men. ! am glad we outwit-
ted that sentry, as he had caused US a
lot of trouble.
1--WE had to crawl for 100 yards be-
fore we could get any sort of shelter,
and then we moved away as quickly
as we could In the circumstances.
During the night a compass which l
had was real friend.
"The only food we had was a few
biscuits and little chocolate. When
ever we came near q farm the watch
dogs barked. In the nights that fol-
lowed the dogs always smet US when
we we're stealing apples In the or
chards. For three days we had no
other food but apples.
1t wasn't safe to travel by day. AL
though we had plenty of tobacco, |
had laid it down that there was to be
no smoking day or night until we were
out of the country. The smell Of Eng
lish tobacco might easily put an In
quisitive German on our track.
when we actually crossed the from
tier into Holland we were In Q pretty
bad condition, so cramped with sleep
ing out in the wet and our feet swol-
len and bleeding we could hardly
stand The first Dutch farmhouse was
godsend."