River Boat Seized For Escape To West Berlin

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29844, 9 June 1962, Page 11

River Boat Seized For Escape To West Berlin

(N Z.P.A .-Reuter— Copyright) BERLIN, June 8. Fourteen East Germans sailed a pleasure boat to freedom under a hail of Communist bullets today, after getting the captain and engineer drunk. West Berlin police, who provided covering fire as the steamer Friedrich Wolff came ashore in the Landwehr Canal, said none of the refugees was hurt.

The escape had been carefully planned. Most of the men involved were employees of an East German company that runs pleasure cruises.

Late last night they had a party on board the Friedrich Wolff at which they got the captain and engineer drunk. They then bound and gagged them. The men brought their relatives aboard and sailed along the River Spree for their escape. There were eight men, five women and a baby in the group, the Associated Press Said. Sailed Across River

Police said the men sailed the steamer across the river to the west bank, which forms the border of the West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. Three East German police patrol boats fired on the steamer as it headed across the river. West Berlin police fired back when bullets from the East hit Western territory. Nobody was hurt in the gun duel West Berlin police said the Communist patrol boats used a light machine-gun. Extra fire came from police posts on the East bank.

The river is about 150 yards wide at the point of escape West Berlin pc -i ce said the Western fire drove the Communist guards away from the border, the British United Press reported. Police said the vessel was one of the numerous white painted excursion boats that ply on the rivers and lakes

of Berlin. Since the division of the city, the movements of these little ships have been curtailed. For a while the East Berlin authorities kept them running, but found too many people were jumping overboard and swimming to the West. Last September, new routes were devised to keep them well away from Western waters. Taken to Camp The refugees were taken to the Marienfelde refugee camp in West Berlin, the British United Press said. Twenty minutes after arriving in West Berlin, the pleasure steamer slowly sailed back to East Berlin again with only the captain and engineer aboard. The shooting went on sporadically for about 10 minutes. according to nearby residents who were wakened

by the sound of shots outside their windows, the British United Press said.

West Berlin police estimated that the Communists fired at least 200 times. Police disclosed that the group made a similar attempt to escape a week ago. They sailed one of the excursion boats down the Spree but at the moment they should have turned into the canal their passage was blocked by a passing barge, so they had to go back to East Berlin, the Associated Press said. Mrs Elfriede Kleinert, a housewife, who saw the escape from the window of her third floor flat, said that just after 5 a.m. she was awakened by gunfire. She ran to the window and saw the boat in mid-stream.

“I saw it suddenly make a big turn and dash for the entrance to the Landwehr Canal,” she said.