WAR PRISONERS’ MASQUERADE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27010, 9 April 1953, Page 8

WAR PRISONERS’ MASQUERADE

ESCAPE ATTEMPT RECALLED CHRISTCHURCH SOLDIER’S EXPLOITS “For two years, I masqueraded as a New Zealand soldier, one Winston Mearil Yeatman, of 11 Hopkins street, Christchurch,” wrote Mr Richard B. Pape, a former Royal Air Force navigator, now living in Johannesburg, in a letter to “The Press.” Winston Mearil Yeatman, of 52 Amyes road, Hornby—alias Richard Bernard Pape, alias a Polish airman, alias Flight Sergeant A. F. Wiles—was able to expand the story when he was interviewed yesterday by a reporter from “The Press.” Mr Yeatman explained that he had adopted his various aliases during his confinement in German prison camps in the Second World War." Mr Pape wrote that he wished to communicate with Mr Yeatman, so that his photograph could be secured for inclusion in Mr Pape’s book, “Boldness Be My Friend,” which will be published t soon. One publisher’s reader has described the book as “the most fantastic adventure story of the Second World War.” In the book, Mr Yeatman is a central figure. Mr Pape wrote to “The Press” because he received no reply to letters sent to what he thought was Mr Yeatman’s Christchurch address. “This man was magnificent in his courage, daring and loyalty. He and I changed identities, and Yeatman went to great trouble and suffering at the hands of the Germans to keep up the masquerade in order to facilitate my escape,” wrote Mr Pape. After being captured in Crete in 1941, Mr Yeatman was taken to Stalag 8B at Lamsdorf, in Upper Silesia. The camp included about 500 Royal Air Force prisoners who were locked in their own compound and who, being officers, were not required to join working parties. Identities Switched

Richard Pape, of the R.A.F., determined to escape. When Messrs Pape and Yeatman were drawing tea for their respective compounds at 6 o’clock one morning, they silently switched places in the dark, and pulled their sledges back to the wrong compounds. Previously they had become familiar with each other’s identity after they had broken through the- fence which separated them. Another New Zealand soldier. George Potter (thought by Mr Yeatman to be living now in North Auckland), also switched with a Polish airman who was to aid Mr Pape. The escape went according to plan. Mr Pape and the Polish airman went to work in a coalmine, obtained civilian clothes, and walked out one night with Polish civilians who were leaving the mine. Mr Pape had managed to send warnings of his escape by code to England. Mr Yeatman’s mother, Mrs H. C. Yeatman, of 1 Hobson street, Woolston. said yesterday that she had been notified by the New Zealand High Commissioner in London (Sir William Jordan) of her son’s safety, his assumed name, and the need for keeping it a secret. She began sending letters and parcels addressed to Richard Pape. When Messrs Yeatman and Potter, under their assumed names, were moved to Stalag Luft 3 (of “Wooden Horse” fame), they decided to switch identities again, and Mr Yeatman assumed the guise of the Polish airman and Mr Potter that of Richard Pape. But there was yet another change in name for Mr Yeatman. “All Poles had been ordered to Stalag Luft 1, and as Flight Sergeant A. F. Wiles wished to go there to join friends, he became the Polish airman and I became Flight Sergeant Wiles and went tq Stalag Luft 6, at Memel, in Lithuania,” said Mr Yeatman. that he ha* s an English name Mr Yeatman decided that it would be safe for him to write to his mother. ‘He Wrote to me as his cousin, and under my maiden name, care of the Ferry Road Post Office,” said Mrs Yeatman yesterday. Plot Discovered of flight Sergeant Wiles had been discovered by the Germans, and Mr Yeatman was interrogated by a German security officer named Muller. Muller was a good linguist, and detected almost immediately that Mr Yeatman was a*New Zealander. The Germans then determined his true identity by checking his fingerprints. When asked the reason for his change of identity, Mr Yeatman said tha«. it was his duty to help airmen to escape. “They will return and bomb Germany,’’ said a German officer. Mr Yeatman replied: “You bombed London.” The officer countered: “That did not affect a New Zealander.” Mr Yeatman was sent back to Lamsdorf.

Mr Pape had been recaptured and returned to Lamsdorf. On Mr Yeatman s arrival there, he found that Mr Pape still bore the name of Yeatman. The Germans succeeded in unravelling the whole plot. Mr Yeatman was. sentenced to 21 days’ detention in a cell for escaping. Soon afterwards the Russian forces closed on Lamsdorf. Mr Yeatman and other prisoners were marched to Austria. They were liberated by the American 3rd Army under General Patton m May, 1045. Mr Yeatman intends to send a photograph to Mr Pape immediately. He explained that the address he had given 12 years ago was not 11 Hopkins street, but 18 Hopkins street, the home of his sister.