TUNNELLING TO FREEDOM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17730, 15 September 1919, Page 2

TUNNELLING TO FREEDOM

FROM A GERMAN PRISON CAMT. AX AMAZIXLr EXPLOIT. "J'OLD BY A W'ELLIXGTON AII;MAN. Probably no officer or man who Jkm roti.rned to New Zealand during or since the war has had stioli amazing storie.s ol adventures to toll us Lieutenant I'M gar 11. L>aj"jimd. of tho Royal Air I'orco (a. sou ot Air I'iank J,. of Oriental BayJ, v. tio returned to Wellington via Amorica by tho Tolua 011 tiaturoay last. It only I veil bo related that he was taken prisoner ■1. 1917, was incan crated in £0 prisons, and escaped from ,-t: .'"11 of them before finally freeing himself, M , show the mot tie of li'u> 11an, and tiie amazing experiences ho went through to <jt t back to "Us own." 1 110 II euu!.-; of Uie Germ-in War Ollico show that he v.as regti'ded as one of the most and elusive of tho .British olßccie held prisoner by Germany. His record t> 1 t ami v bears this out. Lieutenant Gatkukl learni, his flying l at Kohimara.ua (Auekliii:<l) in 1914-16, and ioitiod up with the Lntish Air Forces in 1915. Jt was in 1917 tin,t his squadron was derailed t;> intercept a flight of Got'.ias which had been repe.rted over England, bombing small towns, iilying an 80 hone power fx: Rhone machine. !:g accompanied t!ie squadron to a position over Ostend. Whilst manoeuvring there bis machine ''wenc dead" v.'hen at an altitudo of 17,000 ft, and he was forced to cici'cond on enemy-held icrritory. Ho was immediately surror.nde<"l bv '/erma.i troops, taken prisoner, subjected to the usual erossexarninction, and told the lunal military lies, and was sent to prison at lirugge. Irom there ho was shifted to Courtrai, end then to Kailsruhe. A FAMOUS ESCAPE TUNXEL. It was whilst imprisoned there that sen cus consideration was given by the prisoners ti. tho possibility of escape by means of tunnelling, but before the dangerous job ciuld be ftarted, Lieutenant Garland was removed to Holzminden prison. There, in rollusion with other prisoners and miller the eyes of the German guards, an escape Unnel was oomineneid. The dicing continued for nine months. Twelve officers whoso work had familiarised them with tnnrel construction, were chosen to direct the work. Regular hours of work were allott-or to thom. The first job. however, was to select the best spot for the tunnel. The entire prison was inspect?:], and eventually a tinv lumloer room under a staircase in one of the 'buildings was selected. It, was fe'.er insncctcn by th.T German guards, a.5 it was protected by a hugo padlock. W T ith tho first step taken, preparations were made to take out tho first shovelful of earth. Uniforms were procured from British privates, prisoners detailed <0 act n; orderlies to the British officers. Ilio' officers who compospd the working parties each c'ay wore the orderlies' uniforms and tin, orderlies wore tho officers' uniforms, and mingled V";th the officers, so that the guards would licit notice the absence of the t unnellevs. !• l.iorboards in t!u> lumber roc.'a were piized loose, and in tho middle of December the digging began. It -vas not difFii'it at first to remove the earth, but* as the rhaft went •Jc e[>v the task became harder, (he earth, stones, and old roots of trees were carefully concealed Mn small bags, and stored in the apparently padlocked lumber 100 m until opportunity served to remove tbom to tho shrubbery surrounding ciic tennis court. It was not until several weeks had elapsed that tho direction of the tunnel was changed, and tho work of pushing it toward the boundary line of the prison camp attempted. The entrance was 4ft across, and at tho base of tho shaft the tunnel was rounded out so that a man might change his direction without becoming jammc-d, but from that point on economy was resorted to to avoid more digging than was absolutely necessary. The tunnel was bored just largo enough to permit the passage of a man's body. It was planned that packs should be pushed ahead ofstho men when the timo for escape came.

KNIVES AND TRENCHING TOOLS USED. Shovels, such as tho Germans used to dig themselves in with at the front, were unceremoniously abstracted from the storehouse in tho prison yard. A supply of jackknives intended for the prison garrison was sampled soon after its arrival, and enough of tho knives wero obtained to reinforce the supply of tools. The end of December saw the digjrinp: temporarily halted. Captain Gray, of tho Indian Forces, apd Lieutenant Murdoch, his aid in directing- the excavating, wero told at 4 o'clock one morninp that a huge hurra of sandstone liad been uncovered immediately in the path of tho tunnel. Examination by tho officers in the hole at the time proved that the obstruction was too his; to bo moved back to tho shaft, and thence to the surface, and it could not have been disposed of could it havo been so handled. Captain Gray crept from his cot, clad in his underclothing only, to the tunnel-head, and after examining the position said that the direction of tho tunnel would have to bo changed to pass the obstruction. This announcement created something akin to consternation owinp: to the amount of useless work which had been done. But the turn had to bo made, and it was so. . INSTALLING ELECTRIC FANS. Then presented itself tho problem of ventilating tho tunnel, as the farther tho diggers progressed from the shaft tho worse tho air became. There seemed to bo no feasible method of forcing fresh air into tho burrow. Work had to be stopped until Lieutenant Garland and another officer found timo and opportunity to get several electric fans and two air pumps from tho storeroom. Up to that timo the diggers had worked in complete darkness. Once, however, it became necessary to provide energy for the operation of the air pumps and fans, tho officers lost no time in tapping the prison lighting circuit, thereby obtaining current for ventilation and illumination. The fans and pumps and a dozen incandescent bulbs were arranged in place, and wires were led into the tunnel arid connccted with them. The vibration of the pumps and the whirring of the fans, it was at first feared, would betray the tunnelling operations to the guards above ground'. To keep the apparatus from letting the entire camp know what was going on, the bearings wero well -;o:ikiHl with oil. Even then, in the conlined space, tho noi.s(i of the machinery of tho pumps and tho hum of the fans were almost deafening, and for a breathless halfhour following the turning on of the power ilie officers waited for the discovery which seemed so certain. But to the great joy of all concerned in the plot the German sentries failed to nolk-o anything, unusual. Shifts were chanced regularly, and tho tunnel slowly lengthened out towards tho csmp boundary. A I'ERILOUS TIME. By the end of the fourth month the work 5} had progressed a distance of 150 feet. . I'Jk 11 danger thj walls and roof coliapunj. was always present, for wood to shore" up the sides was not to be had without exciting suspicion. Now and then whilo .i man was digging ahead and was out oi breath with ins exertions he would hear a stone or handful of earth fall in the pas sago behind him. Under such circuin stance* it was not surprising tnat tho ten sion causei by iuch slight accidents wa. tiemendous and tho men suffered accord ii'gly. Tlic eighth month found the tunnel fin is hod to a point where the officers were ready to turn to.vards the surface. Com passes and measuring cords had been usee to determine tho approximate spot where the end of tile tunnel would be located, anc it was believed flat tho exit shaft wouki break through tho surface just outside tlic electrically-charged barb-wire entanglements beyond tho wall. PRISONER CAUGHT CUTTING THE WIRE. Just as the exit shaft was about to Ik started an ollicer who had knowj; notliint of tho cutting of the tunnel—a ,nan win had been coniined in anotiier part of tlic prison—was cauglit cutting tho wiro alii ost at the exact spot. whc:o the tu.uie. would emerge. His eirori to escapo was detected by tha guards aim ho was broughi back. Ills attempt resulted in tlix- Gerniar conunandoL- ordering a fpeciaf guard foi (fio weakened barrier/.. Mew surveys were made, and it was decided to push the tun i'el out undor a wJiciit-field a 100 ft from lh< barrier. Another inojth was occupied 11 boring tho extension, and it was not unti August, nine months after the work liac begun, that all was ready for light. Th< shaft was dug to within a foot of tho sur face, and 29 officers, including Lioutcnam Garland, wero instructed L-y Captain Graj to bo ready to enter tho tunnel on fiv< minutes' notice. THE ESCAPE. " I was warned at 3 o'clock one- morninj to bo at the of the lumber ioon ir. iivo minutes," said .uieutemint Garland " 1 slipped into the orderly's uniform tha 1 had concealed in my mattress, and sneakec into the orderlies' quarters The Gormni sc-ntry outside was leaning on his rifle hal asleep. Tho luoibcr 'oom was crowded and after waiting a few minutes I wa: passed inside. A humming noiso cauoj from the mouth of tlio «unncl. 1 ccruic

1 hear the sound of talking anil tho buzz of t.ho tans. Unco in tho tunnel I pushed the pack in front of me and started to crawl down the steep inebno t.'iat led to the passage prop?r. Th:;ro was no room iibovo inn to raiso my head, and I woihed njjsolf forward by pushing against the s:de walls with my feet. J lure and there on the floor of the passage I came acro-s cans of bully beef aliandoiiril by men who hail f <>ne belore me. f S. anxious were they m get away tlu-it [ ll'tv were leaving behind tiiem stores of | fr,od that had taken woeks and montris to J oollect. I had t,o jamb the abandoned tins 1 into the earth under rue before 1 could ail- > vance. ( "Half-way to the wheat-field a big fel- | low just ahead of me bo;:ame jammed. < His shoulders we.-o witter than tho tunnel j at ono spot and no could neither go lor- ( ward nor retreat. i 1 is bulk filled tnc pas- j sage, and at tho end of 20 minutes the t ventilation failed to operate and tho air ; became stifling. s "Finally, ho managed to work himself : loose. I helped hiin to crawl back a foot, and ho succeeded in working himself out j of tho heavy trench coat ho had foolfShly i worn. Again, far ahead of us another man 1 became jammed. He was just beneath the exit The man behind him and the one in ] front tried to extricate him, but his and their struggles did just what was most feared. They looseneil the roof and tho 1 walls, and with a crash tho exit cave col- 1 lapsed. " All of us who were in tho passage had 1 to crawl back to the lumber loom as best w~ could. There is was found that 29 of til:• party ha/1 succeeded in getting away. "The entrance ;va.i boarded over in the 1 hope tliat tho Germans would not locate the cave in. and we returned to our cots ' feeling pretty done and sick at heart. THE AFTERMATH. : " Tho dawn witnessed tho aftermath of ' the adventur.?. The British officers were summoned into tho yard for roll-call, and when the German sergeant-major discovered a shortage of 29 lie nearly collapsed, lie counted the men present, anil then turned to tho commandant, Ilauntmann Xicmeyer. "' Twenty-nine are gone!' he fairly screamed. " Nieineyer became a madman. 113 raved and cursed and threatened to shoot tho first British officer seen near the walls. He ordered a thorough search of the prison. Tho tunnel was found at tho end of the' second day after intelligence agents had been summoned from headquarters near by to aid in the search." Lieutenant Garland, who subsequently effected his escape in a manner yet to be related, was afterwards appointed a member of the British Military Mission to the United States.