BRIGADIER HARGEST TELLS ESCAPE STORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1944, Page 5

BRIGADIER HARGEST TELLS ESCAPE STORY

NEW ZEALAND PARTY

Dig- Way Out Of Castle

In Italy

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 16. Brigadier J. Hargest, Tu.P., of New Zealand, who arrived in Britain recently after escaping through Switzerland, France and Spain from a war prisoners camp in Italy, received his decoration as Commander of the British Empire and two bars to the Distinguished Service Order from the King at a recent investiture at Buckingham Palace. Extracts are now available from Brigadier Hargest's speech last week to a private meeting of the Royal Empire Society at which General Sir Alexander Godley presided.

"We in our small country get a great deal of credit from the exploits of our soldiers," Brigadier Hargest said. "To-day the young New Zealand soldier has followed his father and uncle in the last Avar and provided good troops for the defence of the Empire, but the foundation of that spirit and efficiency was laid down by General Goaley and his staff. He was brought to New Zealand in 1911 and everyone of us who knew him in those days appreciated the fact that he maintained a very high standard, of which we fell far short." Referring to Crete Brigadier Hargest said: "I thought I had been under severe bombardments but I had never seen anything equal to the bombardment the Germans gave us before he sent in his gliders and parachutes. When he stopped the bombardment and sent in his airborne troops I do not think we had a single soul alive in that sector. I lost over 70 per cent of my brigade and still I believe that if we had had air support we could have held Crete. The governing factor was that we had no cover for our ships." Escape from Italian Castle On the subject of his imprisonment in Italy the speaker said: "I went to Salerno, in the Abruzzi country, and only recently had a letter from my own son who wrote, 'I am just one ridge of country removed from your old home.' Later we went to Florence and lived in a castle there with 14 senior officers and 15 men. We decided that as soon as we got ourselves organised we would endeavour to escape. "We decided to make a military operation of it and to dig out of the castle. It took us five months. We began by collecting what money we could, food, such as chocolate and various stores. We cut up an Army blanket for clothes and made a cap and jacket for each of us. I dyed my trousers with a bottle of ink and a tin of blacking. "Five of us dug' down and made a way through the castle chapel, which we used as a place in which to put stores. We dug down 10ft and along the length of the room under the battlements, under enclosed country and up again outside. It was very solid ground, nearly all rock, and the only tools we had were a kitchen knife and bars of iron, which we used as levers. We eventually worked our way out. AVe shored up the hole so that no unsuspecting Italian should fall in, and then we waited for a stormy night in order to deceive the sentries. We also believed they would stay in their boxes. We eventually got the right kind of night, and as the sentries were inactive we got out."

Warm Tribute to People of France After seven months in Switzerland Brigadier Hargest set out for Spain. "Of my travel through France I must not say much," he added. "I had been a bit critical of the people of France since the capitulation, especially after having heard that they had become apathetic and defeatist. Germany was giving out that propaganda all over the world. All the time the Italian papers were full of the apathy of the French. "That is not true. To-day in France there. is a stirring such as has occurred in few countries at any time. I was helped by hundreds of people, most of whom had not the slightest idea who I was or what I was about, but they knew I was a rofugee. They belonged to all classes, rich and poor, the very' humblest working people and servant girls. Everyone of them had the power to hand me over for a good reward to the enemy, but I don't believe it ever entered their minds. "We Will Take the Risk" "Once or twice I had to go into houses in a great hurry and ask them to help us. There was no question about that. They just said 'We will take the risk.' To-day in France there are thousands upon thousands of young men who have given up their homes, having been called up for forced labour in Germany, but instead of going to Germany they have taken to the mountains. They are doing their best to hold their position until the Allied armies come. They go down to the railways and sabotage trains. "I was greatly moved by the way the French were carrying on, and were prepared to carry on, in the hope of having some share in the redemption of their country. We know that there are a great number of Vichyites. A great many young people have been poisoned by German propaganda and have become members of the militia, but that is not France. "The main body of France is waiting for its chance. I am hoping that we, the British people, will give them that chance," he concludccl, "and that once they have got then freedom we will help them to th_1 feet."