THRILLING DESCENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5601, 5 April 1943, Page 6

THRILLING DESCENT

GENERAL GIRAUD TELLS OWN STORY OF ESCAPE This thrilling story of how I General Giraud escaped from the i medieval castle, of Koenigstein, in Germany, down a precipice 150 ft. high, was told by Genera! Giraud himself to G. Ward Price, special correspondent of the Daily ' Mail, at Algiers. | For eight months after falling into j the Germans’ hands General Giraud’s ! old wounds kept him a cripple, walking with the aid of two sticks. For a whole year he was engaged in planning his escape, which was made in January, 1941. He had discovered a corner of the garden out of sight of the sentry on the watch-tower, and chose this point for his escape. For months General -Giraud secretly collected every bit of cord and string ■he could find to make a rope. These : pieces he hid in the garden. But he J soon found he could not make a rope ! strong enough to bear his weight of . 121 stone. * * ♦ sfe ■ General Giraud continued: “Fortun- ' ately, I had an old friend in France I With whom I had left a pre-arranged i code, in case I was taken prisoner. I | wrote to him asking him to send j lengths of rubber insulated copper telephone wire hidden in jars of jam. I wrapped this, as it gradually arrived, around the rope. “I also asked my wife to send large quantities of chocolate frequently. She could not understand this as I was never fond of chocolate. She wrote, ■ appealing to me not to eat so much, I or I would ruin my digestion.” . General Giraud, through another ; prisoner, sold the chocolate to the Germans at half the market price ; and thus accumulated 600 marks for I the escape. ■' With some of this money he bought an old pair of civilian trousers and a battered raincoat, which he hid. Meanwhile, General Giraud sent messages by code to his old friend, who.-arranged for a daring French agent to meet him near Koenigstein on the day planned for his escape. General Giraud also managed to secure a German identity card, on which , he described himself as a commercial I traveller in artificial silk and to coni firm this description he forged several j letters allegedly from customers asking him to visit them. In the. meantime. General Giraud saved up enough food to last three days. * * * # “At last the day came,” he said. “I had to make the attempt at daylight, as the descent of the precipice ■was impossible at night. A German 0 non-commissioned officer patrolled every quarter of an hour, so, at 9.30 a.m., when I was waiting near the buried rope I joked with him. “Then, the instant he moved out of sight, I dragged the rope from its hiding place, climbed the parapdt, and began to slide down the precipice. “I had to go slowly for fear of losing my grip. It took four minutes to descend the 150 feet. I hid in a clump of bushes. “There was no sign of excitement, so I shaved off my moustache, put on a pair of dark glasses changed my general’s uniform for ‘civvies’ which I had brought down -with me, and walked openly to the rendezvous. There the agent, who was a stranger to me, gave the pre-arranged password. “I changed in the nearest wood into full civilian clothes, walked to the next station, and entrained for Breslau. 1 knew the Germans would expect me to go to France, so 1 went westward.” General Giraud, who has a good knowledge of German, changed into trains going in various directions. His identity card was examined several times, but without suspicion. He saw placards offering a reward of 100,000 marks for his arrest. Once General Giraud was nearly caught in a train, in which a strict examination of identity papers was in progress. There was an officer from one of Rommel’s panzer divisions in General Giraud’s compartment. He was an Iron Cross winner with the words “Afrika Korps” on his sleeve. “I engaged him in conversation,” said General Giraud. “Never was Rommel so lauded to the skies as he was by me, an dthis secured the attention of fellowpassengers. “As a result, the Gestapo man scrutinised the others’ papers, but did not venture to inspect those of the civilian who apparently was on intimate terms with such an high officer.” General Giraud reached the Swiss frontier and lay in bushes all night. He heard sentries discussing his escape. “If only he would come this way!” one said. “Bah! What a hope!” answered the other. General Giraud lay still as a corpse. Then in the morning, one sentry said, “Perhaps we shall have better luck to-night.” General Giraud reached France, where he was shadowed by the Gestapo for six months. Then, on November 2, l he received secret information of the Anglo-Am-erican landing in North Africa, to take place six days later. Would he come by submarine and co-operate with the Allies?

Then started another series of adventures leading to Africa, which are already known.