ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16037, 23 January 1918, Page 6

ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

CAPTAIN FITZGERALD’S EXPERIENCES'. / (Press Correspondent.) LONDON, Nov. 27. Captain Roy J. Fitz Gerald, of the Gloucester Regiment, a son of the late ■W, C. Fitz Gerald, Wellington, is again in London, after an interlude of a few month's’ imprisonment in Germany. Captain Fitz Gerald is a mining engineer, and before the war was in Nigeria, He got his commission in the Gloucester Regiment early in 1915, and since then has been more or less continuously at the front. " In May of this year his battalion was in action at Fresnoy, and his name appeared in the casualty list as wounded and missing. A week or two*later news came through German sources that he was a prisoner of war in Germany. 1 It appears that during the fighting at Fresnoy Captain Fitz Gerald was wounded and rendered unconscious, and when he recovered he was in Gorman hands.. He was evacuated to Germany, and sent to hospital at Karlsruhe. There he encountered two other New Zealanders—Lieut. H. D. Hamilto -,(Nelson), of the Royal Flying Corps, and Sub-Lieutenant P. R. Bearden, tin? only survivor ‘of H.M.S. Queen Mary. After being discharged, Captain Fitzgerald was sent to what is known as a “strafe” camp, where officer prisoners belonging to the Allies are subjected to especially rigorous treatment by way of reprisal for supposed ill-treatment of German prisoners. Captain Fitz Gerald <Tiad not been long there when he observed possibilities of making his escape, which he prepared to realise with the co-opera-tion of Lieut. Harding, of the Cheshire Regiment and R.F.C. The water supply in the camp was not satisfactory, and the prisoners were allowed to, iseud orderlies outside the barbed wire to a well. One night, at dusk, Captain Fitz. Gerald and Lieut. Harding dressed in “Tommy” clothes, which they borrowed from the orderlies, presented themselves to the sentry with buckets to pass out to the well. They were allowed to pass, but were carefully watched for a while. As soon, however, as the sentry had reached -the end o!; his heat, and was turning round, they dropped the buckets and ran, making their escape in the darkness. Before they were out of ear-shot of the camp they heard the alarm whistle sounded, and they made as rapidly as possible to a place of hiding, and lay quiet until the hue and cry died away. That night they made good a considerable offing from the camp, and thenceforward, for seven days and nights, they travelled continuously towards the Dutch frontier. Neither of the V;,could speak ,a word of German, and, moreover, they were dressed in British so they had necessarily to avoid, at any cost, encountering either soldiers or civilians. This they were successful in doing, and sustained by what food they bad in their pockets, and, supplemented by'any which they could safely get on the way. they eventually crossed the Dutch frontier. This important stage of their journey was reached in the night, and they were quite ignorant when they were challenged by a guard and fired at in the darkness that they were so rear to safety. When morning came they found themselves well within the Dutch frontier, and in a day or two they got their passage across to England. Captain Fitz Gerald is now enjoying short leave, and hopes to get back to the front. His brother, who is also a captain and .adjutant in the Royal Engineers, has been at the front for the last'year or tvo.