DASH FROM A CERMAN CAMP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14287, 2 May 1917, Page 2

DASH FROM A CERMAN CAMP

BRITISH PARTY'S PLIGHT ACROSS

FROZEN FLOOD WATERS.

SOLDIER WHO WAS THRICE RE CAPTURED. ' pPAA

PRESTON, March 7. Rifleman Douglas Charles Milridr, who enlisted at the- *age .of 17£ m the 12th London Regiment (the Rangers), gives a . dramatic < *tpry , of Iris escape from Germany after. -nearly two ye?j*s. X * ■ Captured - at -the second battle . .of YjfJses plainer; had; -.been^transferred to, different; camps, bwingj he, .believed, to! his -repeated- efforts to escape. ; Oh one occasion Milner evaded iCAjpture for six days, but sinking, into a. bog up to. his # armpits he was dragged out by police .and sent back, to his .fcamp, -whena he was' punished by a fortnight's solitary con.finement. Ori his second attempt he ran into a militsycy: earn - *},- was -chaUtfcnged, fired at, aiid -Te-capttorea-..;. .-.' .P- ; - Last Christmas Milner was transferred to a camp forty -five miles from the frontier. Three" days 'later ;he' Tfcas;| caught cutting the wires the', camp. The prisoners vforked at cutting -timber, and the lieturn journey from work to camp afforded an opportunity I for escape. . . -, ..-;•>, The fact that the bogs m the ' neighborhood were frozen m. the great frost facilitated the plan, and Milnefj with' a Welsh fusilier, -and two ..Canadians .slip-, I ped away from tjie, main body of .return- ! ing prisoners, while the guards were m \ the rear. . A dash across ; S&ty yards of open bog-land brought the party off four to the centre of a thick wood. After balfVpn hour's wandering -the fugitives found themselves 'back at the same point on the • outskirts ofpthe wood. Pefepihg! out, the prisoners saw the remaining guard counting, the :-. other -pris- ' oners, . the others having obviously ; gonefn pursuit. ; A new start - waa then. made. ; The journey to the frontier occupied four nights and three days. On one night four miles of frozen flood- waters were crossed, and niany'titoes one or other of the p^rty fell through . the . ice. The sleeves of their shirts were used as wraps for .their frost-bitten feetj Tliey tried to obtain drink by melting show ih a nietal box-which they warmed m 'their, hands. The men were so exhausted when they reached, "the frontier that they recklessly crossed the triple line of German guards. :once. they passed within tell yards of a guard, who,', however, retired to, Ids sentry . box. At 1.30 a.in. op the, fourth day they heard for the first I time, and prepared to make a tight for it. .. ..- . . . ...^ , '