Palisadian., 1918-11-16
OSCAR MANDEL,
CRANTWOOD BOY,
CAPTURED ESCAPES
Continued from Page l.

Huns and unofficially with nine, was
attacked by three Germans near Cam
brai on September / at a height OF
S,000sfeet. ~ e@
81 managed to down one of them in
three minutes" he said, 'but a bullet
hit my engine and downed me. land
ed almost simultaneously with the Hun
chat / had downed However, the en-
envy machine went up in flames, burn
ing the pilot alive. The Germans con-
graduated me on my escape.
81 was taken to COnde, where met
Lieut.. Oscar Mandel of New York, on
September 3. Mandel and escaped
from prison by jumping from win
dow on the second floor. We landed
in the street and quickly mixed with
the crowd In that way we got out of
the city and reached an unguarded
German airdrome. After having diff
Guilty in trying to run out plane we
finally grew exasperated and tore down
the tent At dawn we got the plane in
shape to fly.
Almost Captured Plane.
aJust then a German mechanic ap-
preached and discovered us. He raised
yell. We grabbed him, and in the
russle he stabbed me in the back. Man
del put him out of commission by hit
ting him over the head with a flash
light. Then we ran for it.
ssWe passed through seven lines of
occupied trenches and got to a shell
hole before the German first line,
where we hid all day. During that
day an English battery wiped out
Hun battery near by. At night we adj
yanced across No Mans Land and
reached stream, where we peeled off
our clothes and were just ready to dive
when Hun patrol repairing wires
which the English battery had mauled
discovered and captured us. We were
taken to Fresnes, where we were kept
ID days in the solitary on bread and
water"
At this point Anderson took up the
story of the escape.
"There We're five of us" he said, sin
ciuding an English corporal. We plan
ned our escape for three days. All of
us were imprisoned above the guard
room, all on the same floor, and we
managed to loosen the heavy padlocks
on the doors. Meantime Mandel and
Donaldson, with a saw, cut hole
through the roof.
"On the night of September 26, while
the guard played checkers downstairs,
the five of us climbed to the roof and
slid down the side of the building into
a court We climbed wall into gar
den and so reached a canal and swan
it, floating our bundles of clothes
across by means of d plank.
Answer Sentry in German.
''Then we made our way into the
open country and reached barracks,
where sentry halted us, but we got
by when we answered, Was ist?' to his
challenge
""After that we kept to the fields,
travelling nights and sleeping days in
the woods and in barns. At daybreak
on the 9th we reached the Franco
Belgian frontier. The Belgians were
fine. They said the Americans had
saved Belgium, and wen save YOU
"Belgians hid us at many points un-
til we finally reached Brussels. We
had already obtained clothes here and
there, so we covered up our uniforms
with civilian stuff and walked the
streets of Brussels.
cat daylight Mandel and the corpo-
raj left us in Brussels. We haven't
heard from either one since.
Took Week to Cross Border.
"We continued our flight and reached
Hacht on October at midnight. Sud
denly we heard the click of sentry's
rifle and turned around-face to face
with another sentry. We uttered gut
tural greetings and kept on going. On
October ID we reached the Holland
border, where we spent week recon
noitering to find place to cross This
President Wilson's Favorite Photograph
Autographed especially for the New