A DASH FOR LIBERTY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 10

A DASH FOR LIBERTY

BY GERMAN OFFICER PRISONERS IN ENGLAND. After excavating a tunnel from the camp for German officer prisoners of war at Sutton Bonnington, near Nottingham—a task which occupied nearly three months—2s officers interned there escaped. During the day, however, nine of them were recaptured. The men from Sutton Bonnington got clear away from the camp despite the recent redoubling of precautions. They had excavated an opening into the grounds, a work which ono of them, recaptured later, stated had been going on at intervals for three months, the tunnel extonding 50 yards, and being a foot in diameter. All traces of the excavation had been carefully covered until at one o'clock in the morning the men left in parties of four. Once outside they took different directions, most of them travelling in couples and making for the coast. The ringleader. Otto Thclen, who had previously mad© several attempts to escapo, is among tho nine men retaken, and others are Stephen Proudzvlisk, Herman Genest, Gustav Lutz, Eric Landsberg, and Emilo Lahman. These six men were apprehended by special constables in tho Nottingham district. Two of them were found asleep in a wood, worn out by their walk, and two others were taken within a mile of Nottingham. Wheir challenged by a police inspector they roundly abused him in English, and threatened to Teport him for incivility to an officer of the German army.

Two of the other prisoners were captured by a farmer, who found them crouched beneath a hedge playing cards —a pile of provisions by their side— and a ninth man taken was Captain Muller, of the Emden. School children, who were blackherrying in Tollerton Wood, discovered him and raised the alarm. Muller, who had three times previously attempted to escape, had on him a compass and money and food.

A disquieting feature of the escapes was the great quantities of provisions with which the prisoners were provided. One had a pood-sized portmanteau packed with all kinds of food, including meat extracts, biscuits, tinned dainties, and a German sausage. Maps were also found on most of the. men. They had aroused suspicion by inquiring the way to the railwav station. Thelen, the leader, 'had previously organised similar expeditions, _ all of them, however, attended with little success. Tn October-. 191.5, with Lieutenant Keilhack, he cscaoed from Doninaton Hall after tunneling under the cellars to a spot outside the barbedwire.- This task was accomplished with an old poker and a trowel. \ The men actuallv pot aboard an outwardbound vessel, but were discovered on the voyage and brought back. In February, 1916, Thelen, again with Keilhack, nearlv succeeded in fretting nwav from the Holypovt Camp, Maidenhead; and again last May he succeeded in breaking out of Chelmsford Gaol, going to enormous trouble, to mako dummy locks and false keys.