The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1918-12-13
Tennessee Boy Swms the Rhine to Swiss Soil After Days Of Tramp
Ing Through Enemy Counry-Seventy Americans in Con-
certed Effort to Escape From Pson-Three Get Through
Swiss Give Them Kindly Welcome

Somewhere In France. Seventy
Americans In the German prison camp
ut Villingen. Germany. mnde a desper-
ate and concerted attempt to escape
on the night of Sunday, October q. So
far three men have crossed the border.
The first Is Lieutenant Aviator George
Wright Puryear Of Memphis, Tenn.
Puryear swan across the Rhine to
Swiss soil early In the morning OF
october II. Two days later Harold
Willis Of Boston. former Lafayette
escadrille flyer who was captured ut
Serdun In August, 1917, and Naval
Lieutenant Edouard Isaacs Of Ports
mouth, Va. escaped into Switzerland.
Only few days previously, on DC
tober 8. the first American soldier to
escape from German prison camp
into Switzerland arrived ut Red Cross
headquarters in Berne. He was Frank
Sovicki Of Shenandoah. Pa, Polish
American who enlisted a few days af-
ter America declared war. Puryear
wns the first American officer to es-
cape from Germany.
On June 20. while patrolling near
Vile Neuve sur Fere, about four kilo-
meters southwest of Fere en- Tarde-
nois. Puryear engaged an enemy ma
chine In combat. The fight carried
him unawares into the German lines.
Puryear shot down his adversary.
MORALLY wOunding the observer Of the
German machine. Seeing one OF his
adversaries was badly wounded. and
believing himself In allied territory.
Puryear descended, intending to re-
move one or both of the aviatOrs as
prisoners to an American hospital.
Such desccnts In tilted territory to aid
badly wounded adversary have been
part of the knightly code of the air.
Captured by Germans.
Upon landing and before he could
burn his machine Puryear was cap
tured by German troops. who were In
hiding. The German pilot Of the ma
chine whom he had descended to carry
To hospital insisted that he be shot
ut once for shooting at wounded
man"--the observer of the German
plane.
IN TO u hospital which was also nm
Intelligence examining post. He was
kept there for three hours. From the
hospital Puryear was taken to cas-
tie. where he was again examined by
~ intelligence officer.
Next day he was marched, again
alone. ten kllometers behind the lines
ia unnthnr iutollionnna pnSt yrhnra ha
was once more examined. On the fol.
lowing day, with fifteen captured
Americans OF the Twenty-sixth divi-
sion and about 200 French soldiers. he
was taken to Laon.
Az each stop intelligence officers ex-
amIncd him.
On August = Lieutenant Furycar was
August he escaped with Andre Con.
renu, Il French aviator. August @ and
they spent In the woods. At a.
III. on the morning OF August s. how
ever, they ran plump into n German
sentinel. They were taken under
guard TO .Kehl, where they were given
good meal. Two guards accompa-
MED them back to Restatt. where Pur-
year was imprisoned five days. Later,
when he was transferred to Villingen,
Purycar served nine more days of the
fourteen-day sentence imposed on him
for trying To escape.
Makes Break for Liberty.
On August 10 Puryear was trans
ferred to Karlsruhe, the concentration
camp for all prisoners, where he
stayed until August 10. He was then
taken To Landshut on II closely guard
cd train, together with number of
Royal Flying corps aviators. At
Karlsruhe the British and American
nviat0rs were separated. The Ameri