AFTER TWO YEARS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21278, 15 December 1943, Page 4

AFTER TWO YEARS

RUSSIAN’S ESCAPE REACHED N.Z. LINES WALKED FROM GERMANY (By Telegraph—Proas Assn.-—Copyright.) tN /, E.F. Official War Correspondent.) (9 a.m.) Bth ARMY FRONT. Dec. 13. Among the latest group of escaped Allied prisoners of war to reach the New Zealand lines was a 23-year-old Russian tank driver captured by the Germans in heavy fighting near Smolensk two years ago.

Barefooted, bearded and in tattered civilian clothes, he had walked from Germany across several hundreds of miles of Italian mountains and hills to reach our front line. The New Zealanders gave him boots and the first cigarettes he had smoked since his capture in November, 1941. That was a few hours ago. Since then he had not stopped smoking cigarettes and eating cake after cake of New Zealand chocolate. “Before the war I had only read of the British,” he said. _ "Now I know they are good people." I-ie was even more .grateful when he found a New Zealand intelligence officer who spoke Russian. With the first few words of his own language he heard, he waved his arms and jumped for joy. Then, gravely he told the story of his captivity. With about 0000 other Russians, he was taken in -the German offensive battles around Smolensk, and he was sent to Germany. They were forced to work on roads and were given a little shelter. Their only food was a mixture of potatoes and dirt. Before his escape last September, 4(100 had died of starvation and exposure. As he spoke, some escaped British prisoners he had seen behind the German lines arrived at New Zealand headquarters. This strange .little group—Russian, South African. Scots and Cockneys—all of them looking like the poorest farm labourers, talked over their experiences in broken Italian. The Russian had cut every telegraph line he had seen in the German lines. “What do you want .to do now." the New Zealand officer asked him. “Return to Russia, of course, and kill Germans,” he replied.