ESCAPE FROM DENMARK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 10 January 1944, Page 3

ESCAPE FROM DENMARK

HAZARDOUS AIR TRIP The story of a remarkable escape to Britain by a Danish officer in a 13-year-old aircraft is told in a news bulletin received by the Danish Association in New Zealand from the Danish Council information office in London. Recently, after a hazardous flight across the North Sea, the officer landed on a field near Edinburgh and later in London he gave the story of his escape. In spite of the order of the German authorities in Denmark that all private aircraft in the country must be made useless for flying, the Danish officer kept his 13-year-old Gipsy Moth in an airworthy condition. Almost drop by drop, he collected the petrol and in the dark and mist of an early morning he set off. He kept above the clouds so that he could dive into them if he met a German machine. When the improvised lighting in his open cockpit failed he used a hand torch until daylight and steered by compass. The flight was uneventful, but he was h a PPy to see land after five hours of flying. Not having been in the air since April. 1940, he could not risk a rough landing and. after searching for a suitable place, he brought his plane down m a field bordered by a highway. The farmer who owned the field welcomed him with coffee and bread before the arrival of the authorities, who quickly made him aware that it was impossible to plunge down on to a country at war without giving satisfactory proof of identity.