IN DESPERATE PLIGHT.

Wairarapa Age, 6 July 1932, Page 5

IN DESPERATE PLIGHT.

SUFFERINGS OF TWO GERMAN AIRMEN. WANDERINGS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA. AGONISED SEARCH FOR FOOD. WYNDHAM, July 5. “Bread, bread, bread! Have you any bread ’ ’ cried the German flyers, Bertram and Klausemann, when Constable Marshall found them. They said that they had kept themselves alive for ‘days on lizards and snails. The joy at being rescued after their dreadful experiences unhinged their minds for a few hours after they were found. Bertram wept almost the whole day. They are expected to recover with careful treatment.

Bertram’s account of their sufferings, written down by Marshall, is a moving document. The story is told briefly but, reading between the lines, one gains a picture of days and. nights spent in agony through swollen limbs, of starving men grubbing in dirt for snails and searching rock crevices for lizards in order to keep alive, and, finally, of two men, too exhausted to fight any longer, lying down behind some rocks waiting for death to relieve their sufferings. Bertram’s statement says: “We left fo” Australia at midnight on May 14 and flew into a strong storm. For hours we were flying blind. At seven in the morning of May 15, we landed with our last drop of petrol. Wo thought we were on Melville Island, and walked east for three days. We saw no game or natives. We lost all our clothes and belongings. We swam a big bay and ate gum leaves. We returned to the ’plane and made a boat of the float. We had no food or water, but caught herrings in the bay, and when it rained we drank water from the wings of the ’plane. The engine water we had drunk previously. “We left the ’plane and drifted in the float in the open sea for five days without food or water. On May 2d, a steamer passed within a mile of us. Wo rowed day and night in an effort to get back to land. We came back near Cape Bernier. We still thought we were at Melville Island. After two days ’ rest we explored further and discovered we were between Wyndham and Cape Londonderry. When we returned to the boat we found that it had been, badly damaged by stones at the landing. We saw a big fire inland, but found, it was a bush fire. All this time we were living on lizards caught in the rocks. With our last hope we set out to row to Wyndham, but arrived at our present camp and could go no farther; for days we lay too weak to move. We could hardly hunt for snails an hour daily. We mostly lay behind the stones, thinking of home and praying to God. On June 22, we saw a native and called him. He came at once and said he was from Drysdale and gave us a big fish. We then saw another party of Drysdale natives, who brought us food from the mission. They stayed with us and caught kangaroos and fish. They told us a lugger or launch would find us. We could not walk, but lay with a new hop<e. Help, however, came from another direction. On June 27, I got Constable Marshall’s note and the next day we were able to embrace Marshall and Smith and pour out our joy in tears. On June 14 an aeroplane passed overhead, but did not see our two red signals. Later it passed further inland. This is the only time we saw a ’plane.” AIRMAN’S PARENTS. GOOD NEWS RECEIVED BY CABLE. BERLIN, July 4. Hans Bertram’s parents are innkeepers at Remschfid, near Soligen, Westphalia. They received a cable: “Rescued well—- greetings everybody—God lives.—Hans. ” Anxiety had so affected Bertram’s mother that her black hair turned white. His father has also teit the strain and is now suffering from heart trouble. His grandmother was much affected when the airman was reported missing, and died a fortnight ago. mentally unbalanced. CAREFUL NURSING NEEDED. (Received Tuesday, 11.40 p.m.) PERTH, July 5. The only news of the rescued German aviators is a brief statement that both are mentally unbalanced and require careful nursing for at least a fortnight. They are to go to Wyndham Hospital till they recover. The German Consul at Perth offered to pay the costs of repairing the seaplane. The Norddeutscher Lloyd Shipping Company has offered to provide free passages for Bertram and Klausemann back to their Homeland and also to ship the seaplane free of cost.