ESCAPE FROM LEGION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 7

ESCAPE FROM LEGION

EX-GUARDSMAN’S ORDEAL Amazing experiences undergone while wandering in the North African desert with a price on his head were recently described by Mr Clarence Maxey, on returning to his home at Sheffield, after escaping from the French Foreign Legion. Mr Maxey, who is 32 years of age, is an ex-Coldsiream Guardsman with three decorations for service in the Great War. One of his colleagues in rhe Legion was Joe Mellor, who was in-

valided home to Sheffield, and soon afterwards was discovered with his throat cut. “I would not go back to the Legion to serve another three years if I were paid a million pounds. It was absolutely terrible, and 1 hardly know which was the worst, serving with the Legion or the hardships during my escape.” declared Mr Maxey. Describing how he deserted on the Moroccan frontier, Mr Maxey state!: “Not only hud we to fight the enemy, but our officers were terrible, and it was their bullying that finally forced me to put niv plan into action. I saw a German soldier, aged about 21, flogged every day in b •" for three or four days. Then he became strangely quiet.

1 wbndeed why, till I saw them bring a stretch j. take his body away Two me»j banged themselves together un a tree, and staboings and sudden deaths were the routine I well remember my regimen* being addressed oy a French general with the words, ‘Brave Legionnaires, yon were made for death. I am goim ’O '■•■•nd ynv «nmew h i<* wl -n yon will be killed.’ He was sincere—in fact, in deadly earnest. But we commented on it as discouraging. . “I and a German Legionnaire stole from our bivouacs during the night. I took with me a revolver and 12 rounds of ammunition, together with a wa r :r-

bott’e full of wine, bread, and seven . pounds of figs. My companion insisted

<»n taking bis rifle and bayonet, although I told him it was foolhardy and ho the penalty for his folly when Legionnaires f i.’owed us on horseback.

“Wc were running hard, but the German turned and fired at our pursuers. I think he wounded one of them, but immediately three or four shots rang out, and the German fell. The Legionnaires are crack shots and seldom miss. After that I ran and ran and ran, seemingly for days. I Mopped only at night to sleep, either on the desert or in the jlarrer mountainous country that lay (between me and, I hoped, safety. “It took me the next 29 days to

cover 300 miles to Oran. When the figE gave out 1 lived on berries, but for onC period—it must have been over a week —J had practically no food ai all, and was about exhausted, but managed to struggle rn. One day an made an attempt to capture nw, and one of bis dogs tore my but I fired at the nrin and w mnded iffti in the shoulder, broke bis rifle and told him to go or I would st on. him. .“I was stiU in uniform when I reached Oran, but managed to find a man who was prepared to sell me a snit of sorts. In that .1 went to the British Consul and, without saying what I was, obtained leave to work my passage homeward on a ship.”