SAVED BY SECONDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 5

SAVED BY SECONDS.

FACED RIFLE SQUAD. BRITISHERS IN BELGIUM. MISTAKE* FOR PARACHUTISTS —^—— y (Special—By Air Mail.) LOXDOX, May 25. Two Englishmen, mistaken for enemy parachutists, recently faced a Belgian firing squad. They escaped death by a few seconds. British military police arrived in the nick of time to stop the execution. The men who escaped were Mr. Thomas Odams, 33-year-old golf professional at Ghent, and his friend, Mr. David Fullerton. They w«re stopped by the Belgians ae they drove through the little town of Ath, near Mons. The back of their little car was Uttered with golf clubs, some golf balls and unwound balls of twine. The Belgians thought the twine w«e the remains of a parachute. And to them the golf clubs looked like some new type of <reapon. The Englishmen's identity cards had been issued in Ghent an<i the Belgians decided they were German forgeries. Immediate execution was ordered. "Our soldiers stopped the shooting," Mr. Odams said. "It was the narrowest escape. The news that parachutist* had been caught brought the whole town out to see us die. And when the Belgian soldiers were prevented from shooting, the people, not yet understanding that we were English, tried to lynch us. It was terrifying. Be"if?.e me after that it was a relief to sj'ind . J five hours in gaol while the Belgians «!confirmed our identity. ,-| "Once free of Alii we tried to escape I from Belgium, but it took us nearly a ; J week to get to a port. Every road was i blocked by troop*. One port was closed, >Uo we had to journey on All the time 'bombs were falling."