NEW ZEALANDER’S ATTEMPT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23810, 2 December 1942, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDER’S ATTEMPT

escape from french INTERNMENT CAMP LONG JOURNEY IN NORTH AFRICA (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, Nov. 30. Life was dull at the Aumale internment camp in French North Africa. There had been no attempts to escape since the guards fired their rifles at one man who was attempting to get away, and other prisoners flung empty bottles in an attempt to divert the fire—which they did by attracting it to themselves. Bored by the inactivity, Sergeant L. Belcher, of Amberley, bet a member of the English crew with whom he had bailed out of a bomber, that he would escape. , ~ , . “I have 200 francs here to say that you won’t,” said the Englishman. ‘‘p.K. replied the New Zealander. It is as good as mine.” . Sergeant Belcher had earned out a tour of operations as a navigator, and he had observed that too many people had known about other attempted escapes. He therefore confined his helpers to three. He took a small compass, a water bottle, a loaf of bread, a cooking pot, and some money, but unfortunately a map was not available. He arranged his bed to make it appear that he was sleeping. Just before lights out he arranged to be one of three men walking up and down outside the quarters. Then he quickly dived into a hollow, while another man took his place. A guard came up and planted himself a few feet from the hole, forcing Sergeant Belcher to crouch there for two hours until the guard was changed, when the New Zealander moved slightly closer to the barbed wire, where he had previously made a hole. He had to lie there for another two hours. Once a guard shone his torch seemingly in his face, but did not notice him.

'Journey of 200 Miles When the guard was again changed, Sergeant Belcher clambered up a drain-pipe to the rooftop, and walked along the top of a wall until he reached a telegraph post, down' which he slid. He was out, but how was he to reach Melilla. in Spanish Morocco? He travelled 200 miles in a fortnight and reached Novi, which was still some 300 miles from Melilla. Sergeant Belcher had been a bus driver in Christchurch before he joined up, but previously he had worked on his father’s sheep farm. He was a seasoned deerstalker. This now stood him in good stead. He guided himself by the stars and kept off the roads, using mountain tracks. Arabs chased him with lanterns all one night. He soon ate up his bread, so he stole grapes and pumpkins, making soup from the latter in a cooking pot. Once an Arab chased him with a shotgun while he was attempting to get grapes. He sometimes bought bread from Arabs to eke out his meagre rations. Travelling mostly at night, he often boarded buses as they were reaching the tops of hills. He walked through at least nine tunnels, one being three miles long. Sometimes it rained heavily. Then came an incident which forced him to give up. Tired, he sat down to wash his feet in a stream, and then found shelter under bushes, where he gratefully smoked one of his last cigarettes. It was so pleasant and

warm and he was so weary that he dropped off to sleep. He woke up with a start to find that an Arab had stolen his boots and water-bottle. There was no alternative but to walk barefoot six miles on the bitumen road to an Arab village, where he bought a pair of Arab shoes. He began Ad get very thirsty and soon the bad water gave him dysentery, but he reached the sea. Treated as Spy Belcher lay for two days on the beach hoping to recover, but he still felt very ill and for that reason decided to give himself up to the French police at Novi, two miles away. They treated him as a spy and flung him into a bare cell, where he received no attention. Later they interrogated him. attempting to find out details of where Wellington bomber aircraft engines were made. They were very angry when he refused the information. He was next taken to Algiers, from where he was handcuffed and chained. Ho was returned to Aumale and then sentenced to a month’s solitary confinement, while all the other prisoners were confined to barracks for eight days. Belcher finished his solitary confinement at the Laghout camp, and was later taken to hospital. His escape was regarded as the best of all among the British interned in French North Africa. Belcher has not collected the 200 francs yet. “But I am going to stay with my English pal during leave, when we will spend the winnings,” he said. “He is one of the best.”