MODERN ODYSSEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25457, 11 February 1944, Page 2

MODERN ODYSSEY

AN OFFICER'S ADVENTURES IN AND OUT OF ENEMY HANDS (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Feb. 10. Adventures that could come from the pages of a novel befell a New Zealand officer. Captain Colin Armstrong, M.C., of Wanganui, in Europe during the past two years. There are still parts of the story that cannot yet be told, but Captain Armstrong, on his return to New Zealand with the furlouigh draft, gave a glimpse of numerous escapes, and of wandering journeys that stretched from Libya to Sweden, until he arrived safely in civilian dress in England towards the end of last year—to be greeted on the streets of London with the query why he was not at the war. His experiences until he was captured with Brigadier Hargest in Libya in 1941 were but the prelude to an Odyssey that did not finish until his arrival back in the Dominion.

Captain Armstrong left with the second echelon, “and from England I went to Egypt, to Greece, to Crete, and back to Egypt,” he added casually. Then came the Libyan campaign, his capture, and his transference to Italy in a submarine. That was in November, 1941. In July of the following year he and a friend, Captain Alan Yeoman, of Wliakatane, made their first escape. Three Weeks’ Liberty

“Italian camps were very difficult from which to escape,” he said. “The Italians used to regard officer prisoners as pieqes of gold, and sometimes hundreds of guards would be employed keeping watch over a few prisoners.” Their liberty, though it lasted only three weeks, was nevertheless a record at that time. Italian internal security was obviously excellently organised, and when they were recaptured at Spezia steps were taken to see that they did not escape again. They were sent to a punishment camp near Genoa, “ a great grim old castle where they make certain there is no escape,” Captain Armstrong said. “We were there until the armistice with Italy. Extra Italian troops were drafted to the castle after the armistice, and preparations were made to defend it against the Germans. The Germans fired a few shots, however,” he added, “ and the Italians surrendered.”

Captain Armstrong and other prisoners were taken over by the Germans and sent to a prison camp m Austria, about 40 miles inside the border. The thought of escape wa? never out of their minds, however, and when the prisoners arrived at the camp three of them, Captains Armstrong, Yeoman, and Mac.pherson, of a Scottish Commando unit, took advantage of the general confusion and hid while the rolls were being made up. The result was that they did not appear on any roll in the camp, and when four days later they escaped they were not missed. Back over the Alps to Italy came the three men. Captain Armstrong said little about the journey, which must have been an ordeal in itself. They were 50 miles inside the Italian border when one wet miserable night they encountered a German patrol. Captain Yeoman fortunately was not at the time with the other two, as he was acting as advance guard. “ I haven’t seen him since, but he is liable to turn up any day,” said Captain Armstrong. The patrol arrested the other two, and questioned them for 24 hours. They tried at first to bluff their way out of the situation, but realised at the end of 24 hours that they would have their choice of admitting that they were escaped prisoners or of being treated as British spies, so they chose the wiser course and admitted their escape. Headed for Germany Placed on a train with Italian prisoners of war, they were headed north into Germany. Then followed five days of misery- “Apparently we had been forgotten,” he said. “We spent five terrible days in a steel cattle truck until we found ourselves in a prison camp in East Prussia. We were the only British prisoners, the remainder consisting of about 30,000 Italians.” They were kept in close confinement, and they believed they were there for the duration of the war. But their adventures were far from over. Ultimately they were sent to a British prisoners’ camp in wnat was formerly the Polish Corridor. There they were well looked after and fed, and, as Captain Armstrong said, their morale improved tremendously—so much so that they began to think about escaping. It was exactly a week after arriving at that camp before they did escape. Of the following events Captain Armstrong was very reticent. How he and Captain Macpherson did it he would not tell, but it was not long before they were in Sweden, and after their arrival at Stockholm they placed themselves in the care of the British Legation. They were a week in Stockholm before their return to England, where they stayed for six weeks. The finale to his adventures came with Captain Armstrong’s return to Cairo and home to New Zealand.