The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-07-08
LIEUT.. GEORGE BUCHANAN
British Middle East Forces
Written for NEA Service

July d was captured by TWO
armored cars which came whist
ling over a desert hillside while
/ was destroying trucks. / tried
firing, but rifle is not much
good against an armoured car.
Quickly ! was being taken back
to the German lines.
My compass and field glasses
were removed and papers look
ed at. / happened to have a de-
tailed return of the number OF
full and empty water cans in
the battery, which seemed to in
terest them very much.
After the questioning, I was
r'lt in the back of a car and
rode that day with the German
advance. 1t was a filters truck
and we all became quite friend
ly.
1t was like being an umpire
on field day, studying a Ger
man advance from German
staff car. 1t was something
which had not been done by a
British officer in this war. l OBJ
served all I could, hoping to
make a break for freedom at
nightfall, but the camp was too
alert.
In the morning, the mail wag-
on reached this enemy camp
with letters from Germany and
Italy. 1t was a curious situation
to be in a German truck eating
the contents of parcels which
had been sent them from their
homes.
One of the Germans produced
with pride some "Benzine Kuch-
en-" baked in petrol. I did not
understand the point of this, un-
less it was propaganda to show
that they had so much petrol
they were able to use it for pur-
poses that no one would have
dreamed of before the war.
ONE WORRIED
ITALIAN
I also read German newspap-
ers. While engrossed in one, an
Italian came up. He could not
make out who l was at first, and
was very relieved to find that l
was "prisoniero."
He stopped in front of me and
said "Inglese!", making a throat
cutting gesture. grinned at him
and made an offensive remark
in English but in quiet tone of
voice. He could not understand,
but the tone pleased him and he
went off. :,
While talking with the Ger
man filters as they worked, it
was interesting to learn they
had been told German casual
ties on the Russian front were
160, 900. / suggested 100000 as
a more reasonable figure but
they received it coldly.
About IL o'clock / was trans
ferred to another truck which
was going around with petrol.
There was on chap in the back
with me and re was SO slow get
ting on the truck I thought he
was going to miss it and there
would be my chance to escape.
However, he thought so too
and dashed into the next truck
and followed right along. Then
was put into little Dodge
truck, which had driver and a
corporal in front and a corporal
in charge of a double machine
gun mounted back. Both corpor-
ais were armed with pistols.
We started we'll up front with
the column when it began ad-
vancing on patrol activity, but
we're soon left behind when we
had to stop and tow several
trucks stuck in the sand. One
truck in particular we had diff
Guilty with and l was asked to
get out and help push. l realized
it was about the last chance to
escape.
TWO NEAT
TRICKS
The corporal lowed the truck
from the sand by an ingenious
method of his own, which was to
back right on to the truck he
was towing and then suddenly
to 60 flat out, which nearly
broke the rope but got the truck
from the sand.
When the success of this stunt
became evident, the corporal
was very pleased with himself
and came out rubbing his hands,
leaving the engine running. He
made some remark to me like
"that'll show these youngsters.
The other corporal was tired
and was leaning against the
back of the truck. STOPPING to
disengage the tow rope, I took a
deep breath, then dashed into
the drivers seat, plunged the
gear shift into second and raced
off. One corporal had managed
to get on the running board, but
the rough ground and my driv-
H.. shook him off. There were
few shots but I was safely
away.