DARING ESCAPE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 2

DARING ESCAPE

FROM GERMAN CASTLE

GENERAL GIRAUD'S STORY

I LONDON, Feb. 2. The thrilling story of how General Giraud escaped from the medieval castle of Koenigstein, in Germany, down a precipice 150 ft hig*h, was told by General Giraud himself to Mr. G. Ward Price, special correspondent of the Daily Mail, at Algiers. For eight months after falling into the Germans' hands General Giraud's old wounds kept him a cripple, walking with the aid of two sticks. For a whole year he was engaged in planning his escape, which was made in January, 1941. He had discovered a corner of the garden out of sight of the sentry on the watchtower and chose this point for his escape. For months General Giraud secretly collected every bit of cord and string he could find to make a rope. These pieces he hid in the garden. But he soon found he could not make a rope strong enough to bear his weight of 133r stone. Wire in Jam General Giraud continued: "Fortunately, I had an old friend in France with whom I had left a prearranged code, in case I was taken prisoner. I wrote to him asking him to send lengths of rubber insulated copper telephone wire hidden in jars of jam. "I wrapped this, as it gradually arrived, around the rope. "I also asked my wife to send large quantities of chocolate frequently." General Giraud, through another prisoner, sold the chocolate to the Germans at half the market price and thus accumulated 600 marks for the escape. With some of this money he bought an old pair of civilian trousers and a battered raincoat, which he hid.

Meanwhile, General Giraud sent messages by code to his old friend, who arranged for a daring French, agent to meet him near Koenigstein on the day planned for the escape. General Giraud also managed to secure a German identity card, on which he described himself as a commercial traveller. In the meantime General Giraud saved up enough food to last three days. "At last the day came," he said. "I had to make the attempt at daylight, as the descent of the precipice was impossible at night. Joked With Patrol Officer "A German non-commissioned officer patrolled every quarter of an hour, so, at 9.30 a.m., when I was waiting near the buried rope, I joked with him. Then, the instant he moved out of sig>.t I dragged the rope from its hiding place, climbed the parapet, and began to slide down the precipice. "It took four minutes to descend the 150 feet. I hid in a clump of bushes. There was no sign of excitement, so I shaved off my moustache, put on a pair of dark glasses, changed my general's uniform for 'civvies' which I had brought down with me, and walked openly to the rendezvous. There the agent, who was a stranger to me, gave the prearranged password. "I changed in the nearest wood into full civilian clothes, walked to the next station, and entrained for Breslau. "I knew the Germans would expect me to go to France, so I went eastward." General Giraud, who has a good knowledge of German, changed into trains going in various directions. His identity card was examined several times, but without suspicion. He saw placards offering a reward of 100,000 marks for his arrest. Finally General Giraud reached France, where he was shadowed by the Gestapo for six months. ' Then, on November 2, he received secret information of the AngloAmerican landing in North Africa, to take place six days later. Then started another series of adventures leading to Africa.