大象传媒

My brother, Dick, joined the RAF in August 1938 as ground crew. At the beginning of 1940 he was posted to 13 Squadron, an Army Co-operation Squadron with the BEF. When the German attack came in May 1940 the allied armies could do little to resist the enemy advance and a large part of the BEF was soon being evacuated from Dunkirk. The remainder, together with the French armies, was retreating southward. Unable to reach Dunkirk, Dick somehow extricated himself from the chaos that ensued and he made his way through France and eventually got back to the UK. His journey took ten weeks. My brother died in 1996 and when his wife died three years later his step-daughter sent me his personal papers. It was with the arrival of these papers that I began to realise that what he had told us many years ago about his 'adventures' in France in 1940 was true. From these papers and other sources I have pieced together the story of his escape.

A young Lancashire lad of just nineteen, he had never travelled abroad before and he knew no French. Yet he managed, using his wits and a lot of luck, to travel through occupied and unoccupied France during June, July and August 1940, eventually reaching Switzerland, from where he returned to England via Spain and Portugal. After the war he did occasionally talk about his adventures in France, but we as a family were busy with our own lives and never pressed him for details of his escape.
Apart from myself, my two sisters and a cousin are the only close family who now remain and from them very little information was available to help flesh out the details of Dick's escape. It was agreed that he was stationed near Abbeville. My cousin remembered him saying that the personnel of the camp were awakened by the words, 'RAUS! RAUS!' The Germans had overrun the aerodrome and they were taken prisoner. They were marched along a road in a long column - long enough for the guards to be at quite a distance from my brother. So Dick took a chance when the guards were out of sight and went over the wall that bounded the road and escaped.
My cousin also remembered that Dick had been arrested in Port Vendres on the south coast of France. A woman he met there with another couple tried to pass him off as her husband to enable him to escape by ferry to North Africa with the French who were being given preference. However, an Englishwoman, recognizing Dick as being English, demanded to know why he should be included with the French group and not her. The ensuing argument was heard by the police who arrested him and marched him off in handcuffs.

One of my sisters remembered Dick saying he was in a cabbage field being shot at but, when and where that was, she couldn't say. My other sister remembered the letter that came saying he was missing. My own memory is equally vague. My brother was given to romancing. He enjoyed telling a good story. I remembered a tale about a baronness - Irish - with whom he stayed, who gave him one of her husband's suits - how he escaped from a prison and, in the process, injured his ankle - how he set off in a boat from the south coast of France and was shot at and, somewhere in my memory, a man who accompanied my brother for some part of the journey who was(here the story goes off into family speculation) perhaps an agent - somebody who knew his way around. But my brother had kissed the Blarney Stone and so who really knew what had happened to him? It is possible that no one in the family ever learned very much about Dick's escape. When he eventually returned to England he was probably told to keep secret the details of what had happened. It was common knowledge in the family, however, that he managed to reach Switzerland and from there he was sent to Portugal. He was flown back from Lisbon to Poole in Dorset and then, after debriefing, he rejoined a squadron at Manston.

There were many great escapes that have been well documented by those concerned. Unfortunately, what I have is only an outline of my brother's travels with many gaps in it. From about the 24th May to the 28th August Dick was on the run, trying to return to England. What is so fascinating to me is that he managed it at all and so I am writing his story, hoping that some of the gaps may, even at this date be filled.
Opening the envelope from his stepdaughter was like opening Dick's life again. Things he had touched - had used - that had been the means of bringing him safely back to his family were there. The first thing I found was a passport issued at the British Consulate in Geneva and dated 10th August1940. It gave his full name and he was described as a chauffeur. It included a photograph of a much-slimmed-down-brother, and this passport was perhaps the most significant article in the collection of papers. This confirmed that Dick had in fact travelled through France and made his way to Switzerland safely. The passport also included transit visas issued by the French, Spanish and Portugese Consulates in Geneva giving him permission to travel through France and Spain by train to Portugal. A receipt from a jeweller in Grenoble dated 14th August1940 shows that he stopped there - to change trains most likely. It may be that this was where he bought a watch that he later wore. From there he appears to have made his way safely to Lisbon. This is surprising as he spoke no French, Spanish or Portugese. Did he return with a companion and was this man the family thought was a returning agent? The family, knowing about Dick's impetuosity, either created this shadowy figure to explain his success in coping with this journey, or he did exist. If he had got into Spain on his own, there is little doubt he would have been interned. It is almost impossible now to imagine what it must have been like on trains in the south of France at that period. The French police (or some of them) may have checked passports and arrested suspicious persons or, on the other hand, some French police may have helped my brother. it is clear that, during the journey from Switzerland to Portugal, his transit visas gave him immunity from arrest.

There was also a British Airways flight ticket dated 28th August1940 which he used to return to Poole in England, probably by flying boat. By this time my mother had received only four messages relating to him. The first was a Field Postcard from France on the 24th May saying he was 'quite well'. This was followed by a note, hastily written on a piece of lined paper, that reached my mother on the 4th June. This said:

Dear Mum, You OK? In fact I suppose everybody's OK. Am a bit pushed for time so forgive brief missive.
More later.

Love, Dick
PS Send this letter to Grandma. Don't reply.

Perhaps the brevity is understandable if one remembers what was going on in France at the time. Then,on the 10th August a telegram from Dick arrived from Geneva. It said:
'Dear Mother.
Am well and safe. Shall be home near future. Stop.
Cheerio. Dick Clifford.

The other letter was from the Air Force Record Office stating that Dick was believed missing. My mother had been in communication with the Air Force regarding Dick and a letter dated the 15th August1940 informed her that he was posted as missing 'consequent upon the withdrawal of our Forces from the Continent. You will appreciate' it said, 'that your sone being missing does not necessarily mean he is killed or wounded.' Luckily Dick's telegram had already arrived. These few documents were the only evidence I had at first of Dick's escape from Occupied France. It would have been easy to leave things there but their arrival had aroused my curiosity. An article in 'Saga'about the Escape Lines caught my attention. I contacted the author, Mr. Stanton, who was most helpful. He told me that all personnel who escaped from occupied Europe would be debriefed as soon as they got back to England and it might be possible to obtain a copy of my brother's debriefing report from the Public Record Office. The report confirmed Dick's story and gave more details of his escape. Sixty years after the events it makes fascinating reading.

On the 26th May Dick had arrived at a deserted aerodrome near Nantes. He found a car and petrol and started to drive south. He picked up some French refugees at one point who appear to have travelled with him for much of the journey south. It took them about a fortnight to reach the south coast at Perpignan. At that time this part of France was crowded with people trying to escape - French, British and other nationals and quite a number of allied servicemen. Dick and his companions tried to get into Spain but at the frontier near St. Girons they were turned back by the Spanish. They then maade their way along the coast to Port Vendres which was a port of embarkation for the British, but by the time they got there it was too late. It appears that Dick separated from his companions at this point. He met a wealthy gentleman from Monte Carlo who had two women with him (these must have been the people referred to by my cousin) but they were unsuccessful in their attempt to get him on the ferry with them. He was arrested by the French police in Port Vendres and he mentions walking throught he streets in handcuffs. This had obviously stayed in his mind. Until that time he would have regarded the French as allies.

On this occasion he seems to have escaped without much difficulty and somehow managed to steal a motor boat. But he was arrested before he could get very far and again escaped. Either the camp was carelessly guarded, if at all, or by now Dick was becoming an experienced escapee. He next reached Argeles, where an English woman, a Mrs. Davis, put him up for the night. Then he got a lift on a diesel truck to Avignon and from there another lift took him as far as a bridge over the River Rhone. He continued walking in the general direction of Marseilles and spent the night before he reached that city in a small village on the outskirts. When he reached Marseilles he found accommodation in a Seamen's Mission where he stayed for about two weeks. Whilst there, he met several British soldiers and a group of American seamen. He decided to try for Spain again with one of the soldiers but they soon split up. Dick made his way alone via Bohen, Salon and Arles to Beziers where again he was arrested - and again he escaped to continue his journey westward through Narbonne to Perpignan.

It seems that the French authorities treated escapees like Dick in a variety of ways. The Garde Mobile gave him a 'sauf conduite' whilst others arrested him. This period must have tested Dick considerably. Luckily it was summer and sleeping in an orchard or wherever would not have been too uncomfortable but there is no information about how he obtained food or what he ate. On his return he mentioned very few people who had helped him and one can only speculate as to how he survived. Of the people who helped him, those he specifically mentioned were Mrs. Davis and a Russian woman who was a refugee. But there must have been others (or so we would hope). Certainly this part of his debriefing suggests that, apart from the two weeks in Marseilles, Dick was constantly on the move. He now gave up the idea of getting into Spain and decided to try for Switzerland. Whilst in the Perpignan area he met a Czech who spoke English. Together, with some money given to them by the Russian woman, they took the bus northwards. How much of the jouney they walked and how much they went by bus is not clear, though Dick says they 'walked to Andancee and on to Vienne'. The Germans had troops in Lyons so they 'decided to go to Grenoble'. They walked another 9 kilometres from Vienne and 'stayed the night in a tramshed'. In this way, walking and sleeping rough, they reached Annecy, where they tried to obtain further 'sauf conduites'. This time Dick was asked why he had not been demobilised and presumably because he had no satisfactory explanation he was arrested again and put in 'a subterranean prison'. But the Czech was allowed to go free. Dick was beaten up and generally badly treated in the prison. Whether this was by the inmates or warders is not clear. perhaps the French authorities thought he was a German spy - he was tall and fair-haired. On the other hand this was about the time of the attack by the British fleet on French warships in Oran so it would not be surprising if many French people were anti-British. Dick became ill, possibly as a result of the harsh treatment, and was moved to the barracks from where he escaped yet again.

The final part of his journey to Switzerland he describes vividly - the railway line, the barbed wire, the sentry patrolling the border and the vineyards on the Swiss side. He made an unsuccessful first attempt(too noisy) and then was across. In Switzerland he wasn't asked to show any papers and soon arrived in Geneva and, from then onwards, was helped by the British Consulate. His journey from Geneva to Lisbon appears to have been uneventful. My brother's debriefing statement is now at the Public Record Office. That I was able to obtain a copy of it has helped me gain further information about his escape from France. When Dick was on the run there were no official escape lines. These were set up later. The designation of 'free runner' was given to those men who, like Dick, made their own way home. It seems to me a very appropriate description of my brother. After serving in the Air Force throughout the war and returning from France to be posted to Manston to take part in the Battle of Britain, he 'escaped' to new Zealand for a time and then to Canada and America before returning to England and settling down in Yeovil, Dorset. He never returned to France

One can imagine the tremendous relief felt by our mother and members of the family when this telegram arrived. There had been no news of him between the 4th June and the 10th August, about nine weeks. In fact he had been posted missing and a letter from the Air ministry to this effect did arrive in mid August, shortly after the telegram from Geneva.

The following source material is available;
1. Photograph: Aircraftsman R.T.Clifford 1940
2. Sketch map of the escape route.
3. Field Service Postcard; RTC to mother 24.5.40
4. Post Office Telegram from Geneva, 10.08.40
5. Several pages fro the passport issued by the British Consulate, Geneva, 9.08.40
6. Debriefing Report: War Office: M.I.9: 28.08.40 (Public Record Office)

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