FOREIGN LEGION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOREIGN LEGION

ROMANCE DISPELLED' 1 ENGLISHMEN'S ESCAPE FORCED MARCHES IN DESERT Absolutely penniless and possessed of nothing saye the clothes in which they 'stood, two bronzed young Londoners, who had escaped from the Foreign Legion in Morocco, stepped ashore from a tender at Tilbury recently. They were John Newberry, aged 29, of Farmilo Road, Leyton, and David Witkin, aged 25, of Hazelmore Road, Kilburn, and they were brought to England from Gibraltar on the s.s. Hakozaki Maru. As thev /reached the pier barrier, a porter asked them for the tender fare, but a representative of the shipping company came to the rescue and secured free places for the men to Fenchurch Street. Newberry joined the Legion in August, 1925, and Witkin, in May, 1931. "It was hell on earth," said Newberry. " People at home would never belief the horrors. In the forced marches, men were left to die on the road; others went mad and ran amok. It is hard to realise that «we are home at last, and somehow, I do not seem to have the courage even to meet my own father/ ' " We planned our escape for months. In prison or on the march, we planned and planned. Our opportunity came on December 31 —a fete day. Four of us, an American, a Belgian, Witkin, an myself, slipped out of camp and into town. An engineer and his wife drove up to church in their car, and as soon as they entered, we rushed for the car, got in', and drove away. " We had a journey of about 300 miles, and I took the wheel in the all-or-nothing / dash. In Larache, t e Spanish police placed a chain across the road, stopped us, and put us into gaol. After 12 days the English Consul came down and took us away in his car. Eventually, we got to Ceuta, in Spanish Morocco, and then to Gibraltar, where we had the time of our lives. We landed there in our uniforms and received tlje clothes we now wear from a captain in the Royal Engineers. The Royal Engineers and the police gave us a great time, and wo left them our uniforms as souvenirs". Newberry still wore his foreign / Legion boots, and Witkin had the Legion waist band —a blue cloth of great length —around his middle. Witkin spoke of the trials of the scorching desert, and forced marches. " Just before we made our escape, he said, " I was in a forced march of 450 miles and fainted right out. Luc'kily, we were only one and a-halr miles from camp,' They took my rifle and left -fne ly '*% there until I recovered Then I Was able to walk back alone. The discipline was awful. Many men shot themselves to escape the brutal /treatment of the officers. That Was a common occurrence.'