MANY EXPLOITS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21816, 12 September 1945, Page 6

MANY EXPLOITS

ROVING WAR PRISONER SERIES OF ESCAPES “CIVILIAN” IN VIENNA Although he was captured over four years ago, Private K. G. Poulson, Kaitaia, North Auckland, who arrived in Auckland with a draft of repatriated prisoners of war, enjoyed more chan the prescribed amount of freedom through his own efforts. He made three escapes from the Germans and one from Yugoslav guerrillas and during one period of liberty he lived as a civilian in Vienna. Apart from a wound in the arm deceived from a German guard’s bayonet, he is little the worse for his varied exploits. Frivate Poulson, who has three brothers in the services, left New Zealand with the Second Echelon. He wav captured in Greece in April, 1941, and a nightmare journey in crowded cattle trucks eventually took him to Austria He was put to work on a farm and although he was well treated by _ the family Who employed him. he decided to make for the Swiss border. Caught Near Border

Early in 1942 he and a fellowprisoner walked off their farms and began a 200-mile trek to the west. Luck favoured them for three weeks, but they were caught on a goods train only three miles from the Swiss border.

After 21 days in solitary confinement, Private Poulson was taken to on Austrian town near the Yugoslav border, where he worked in a flourmill. His Czech employers treated him. as a member of the family, but after about eight months the New Zealander and an Australian set off into the Alps Austrian soldiers helped them and fed them as thev made their way through the enemy lines into Yugoslavia. Unploasant Stay With Guerrillas

Within a few days they were with Yugoslav guerrillas but in a very short time they were convinced that life in the enemy camp was far more comfortable. According to Private Poulson, the guerrillas and their Russian officers treated them little better than they would Germans and about, two months after their arrival the two men escaped back to their ,old captors.

Another 21 days’ solitary confinement was served and then Private Poulson was sent back to his. old calling on a farm about 200 miles from Vienna. Life again was fairly comfortable. but the New Zealander was still restless. His opportunity came when r person who flourished on the Vienna black market lent a sympathetic ear. The outcome was that he was supplied with a good suit of civilian clothes, a forged passport and a firstclass rail ticket to Vienna. Delights of Vienna Life in the capital was better even than Private Poulson expected. He was provided with good living quarters by his helpers, and although he had m remain under cover during the day he enioyed the tourist’s share of night life. The New Zealander knew that the delights of Vienna were bound to come to an end, and he was philosophical when German soldiers came to arrest him.

A court-martial awaited him when he was handed over to the authorities and a long, broad scar on his left arm, the result of a bayonet wound, is a lifelong reminder of the incident. Final freedom came when the town in which Poulson was quartered was freed by the Russians. He set off to get back to Vienna, now in Allied hands. He commandeered a German staff car and travelled several hundred miles in state to his old haunt, acquiring petrol on the way from Allied soldiers. After six weeks in Vienna he was flown to Italy and then he travelled by ship to join repatriated New Zealanders in England.