CLEVER RUSE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23014, 4 October 1944, Page 7

CLEVER RUSE

Captivity Avoided

RIMINI, October 1

Two. New Zealanders who were woun.ded and taken prisoner by a Turkoman unit of the German forces spent a day in captivity, but by a clever ruse on the part of one of them, Sergeant W. .Windsor (Wellington), were able to regain our lines later, and have now been evacuated to hospital. Shortly, after dawn, when Sergeant Windsor’s platoon was occupying a forward position in the line beyond Rimini, they heard the sounds of Spandau and Tommy-gun fire coming from a house some 200 yards distant. Thinking that another platoon was engaging the enemy there, Sergeant Windsor took forward a small party to give assistance.

They came under heavy Spandau fire.

Sergeant Windsor was wounded and several others were captured and placed in a house 'with two members of the New Zealand Armoured Regiment who had been captured when their tank had been knocked out earlier. The Turkomans mustered the prisoners for a march to. the rear, but one wounded tank survivor was. unfit to make , the journey. Sergeant Windsor, who was not seriously wounded, pretended he was too ill to move, and he was so successful in his deception that he was also left behind. He waited all day for the opportunity to escape, which finally came toward evening, when the Turkomans, evidently considering the prisoners too much of an encumbrance, went off and left them.

The New Zealanders quietly returned to their own lines.