Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-01-19
EXPERIENCES OF
BELGIAN SOLDIER
MAKES ESCAPE FROM GERMAN
PRISON CAMP AFTER A YEAR
OF HARD EXPERIENCE.
AWFUL CONDITIONS ARE DESCRIBED
Prisoners Dig Tunnel Underneath the
Electrified Wire Fence Which
Held Men.


pondent, Mrs. Norton, Of intense in
terest. In the letter Mrs. Norton
relates the experience Of a Belgian
soldier who was taken prisoner by
the Germans and held for about
a year. The conditions of the prls-
on camp and the experiences en-
countered in his escape are vividly
described by the Belgian soldier.
Following is Mrs. Norton's recent
letter:
London, England.
I had gone to India House, to see
the Belgian Military Attache, and
while waiting in the outer office, spl-
ed, sitting across from me an inter
esting looking Belgian soldier. ne
looked lonely, and rather sad, l
thought, so as the wait was long, l
crossed over and spoke to him In
French. A smile lighted up his face,
as he responded, and we chatted
quite q little while before the sum-
mons came for me to leave. Before
saying goodbye" to him, ! 80 had
his promise to take lunch with my
husband and myself the following day
and the hours we spent with him ON
the next day we shall never forget.
For the boy had a story how inter
esting:a one I will leave you to
judge He was an escaped war prls-
oner, escaped from a prison camp
200 kilometres from the frontier OF
Germany Later after he had re-
turned to the front he sent me back
the following written story OF his
escape, or rather his two escapes,
which I am giving below just as he
wrote it to me, save that in paren-
theses, I have added any details that
he has forgotten to write but which
he had told me formerly. 1t would be
no wonder that he would fail to write
all the details, for he told me IN
the same letter, that where he was,
back OF the lines, in an old barn, he
was suffering with the cold so IN
tensely that he could scarcely hold
his pencil:
ION the 4th of August, 1914. the
ship, "Daire HILL was stopped by
a German cruiser, at the entrance OF
the river Elbe, and consequently tow
ed into Hamburg, where said steam
er vas moored To the chains. Being
lappran4 4ice cn board, q allld of sD4Agian,
nationality, I expected to be Mtern-
cd with the rest 0E the crew s1nsssEa
concentration camp. Taking advant-
age Of my opportunity I managed TO
slip away unheeded, and after travel
ing 400 kilometres by train, reach
ed the Belgian border, where all COM
were interrupted.
'"The Germans had already invad-
ed the country, it being the 5th of
Aug. l walked my way from the
frontier towards Liege, but when
arriving in the vicinity Of the forts,
I was arrested by the Germans, busy
already at bombarding the Belgian
forts. I was falsely accused OF be-
ing a franc tireur,' in other words,
of having, as a civilian, shot down
on the German troops.
"On. the morning of the 9th, |
was marched out with a company OF
other Belgian civilians, and only mar
rowly escaped being shot. (What saw
ed him was a mere caprice OF one OF
the officers, who hearing him speak
such excellent German, decided
from some generous impulse to spare
his life, possibly because he thought
anyone speaking his native tongue
so fluently deserved life.) Other un-
fortunates as innocent as I, We're
executed at o'clock of the same
a sight / shall always re-
member, as seven of them were shot
not thirty yards from us.
"At about 4 o'clock in tie after
noon, favored by a panic Which en-
sued among the Germans, owing to
a severe BON bardment by So the forts,
I luckily got away, and mixed up
with some Belgians, (civilians), who
were fleeing from the artillery fire.
l reached Liege, then fiercely bonn
barded, the same night, and caught
the last train for Brussels.
"After my arrival home, I enlist
ed as a volunteer in our army, and
was sent into the firing line after a
months training.
Zone morning, at the User canal,
q fierce battle was raging, the Ger
mans charged with superior num-
bers as usual: Around us nothing
but dead and wounded. Being in the
lines farthest advanced, we were
surrounded in no time and taken
prisoners.
''Three days afterward we were
conveyed to the prison camp Of
'Friedrichsfeld' Wisel. Here condi-
tions of life were deplorable. At the
brink of starvation and covered with
vermin, we could not correspond with
our parents for some time. 1 per-
sonally, did not get any news until
three or four months later.
"a few days after my arrival in
Germany, some friends and I start
ed planning an escape. We dug
tunnel underneath the electrified
wire which surrounded the camp. AT
ter ten days work at it, we had a
subway of nearly thirty yards long,
and through it one day proceeded to
But no sooner did we get
out of the tunnel, than the German
sentries fired ON us. Some of our
little party went On, but were cap
tured afterward, others and amongst
these I was, thought it safer to
crawl back through the tunnel into
the camp and to await more favor
able opportunity.
about month afterward, we went
out on a working party at distance
of about fifteen kilometres from the
frontier, with the intention Of escap-
ing. We were quite ready to go, and
started taking the bricks out of the