大象传媒

MY GREAT ESCAPE 鈥� Chapter 2

I continued on a westerly heading for about half an hour and came to a steep sided valley with a river flowing along the bottom. I looked to either side of me, and there sat in on the ridge of the valley were large concrete pillboxes on either side. I realised now that I was on the much-vaunted German Sigrid Line, Germany鈥檚 West Wall defence area with Luxembourg.

A little off the rim of the valley I saw a small hut which was situated in a large vineyard. I could also see a slit trench zigzagging its way down the side of the valley amongst the vines. I quietly slipped down to the hut and opened the door. Inside I found farming tools, sacks and other agricultural implements. I decided to remain there until the following morning in order to spy out the lay of the land. Pulling some of the sacks over me, for the first time since I baled out, I slept reasonably well. On waking at first light, I studied the layout of the valley. Down to my right was a small village near the water鈥檚 edge. About half a mile down on the other side of the river to my left was another small village, which was in Luxembourg. Along my side of the river was a five to ten yard wide stretch of barbed wire. All I could do for the rest of the day was to watch the movements of the German troops coming and going between pillboxes and villages. I saw no movement in the village on the far side of the river. As daylight faded the soldiers all went back to the pillboxes. It wasn鈥檛 until then that I made up my mind to move. Negotiating the trenches and making my way down to the river in what daylight was left, I kept a sharp lookout for mines or tripwires. The trenches went along and through clusters of vines, which partially hid me from observation of the pillboxes above.

On arrival at the bottom of the valley, I could see a narrow road running alongside the river. I made my way along the trench until I came to the village. It was then getting dark. From my position I watched the village for signs of life, eventually quickly making my way across the road. I was acutely aware that I was right below one of the pillboxes higher up on the valley side. I searched each house in the village as they weren鈥檛 occupied, then I made my way down to the barbed wire near the river鈥檚 edge. I could see small mounds in the snow in the defence entanglements and realised that these were land-mines. I made my way along the barbed wire and came across to a metal plate attached to a post, which stated 鈥淢ines 鈥� Verboten鈥�. A few yards further on I noticed there was a gap in the mines through the entanglement about just over a yard wide with a slight dog-leg in the middle. I made up my mind to get through the barbed wire in that area. I didn鈥檛 see any boats around the village, the only way I was able to cross the river was to swim or make a raft. I went back into the village and searched a number of houses. In the backyard of one were 5 planks, which were all 8 feet long, 1 foot wide and 2 inches deep. I carried these to the area to where I was going to make my way through the barbed wire. I needed rope to tie the planks together, so I made a further search of the village, but all I could find was a large ball of string and a half pot of jam, which I ate.

I pushed the planks, one by one between the mines, using another one to push the first one ahead until I got four of them through. I also found a small piece of wood to use as a paddle. I levered up the first strand of barbed wire and slipped underneath. Lying flat I could clear the rest of the wire, and crawled along pushing the last plank ahead of me. Beads of sweat were covering my brow, despite the cold. I thus made my way through the minefield.

At the rivers edge I made my raft. I gently pushed it on to the river but as there was ice on the edge it made a crack as I went in it, and I waited for a while to see if anyone reacted to the sound. I took of my flying boots, trousers, pants and socks and put them in a sack of straw that I had found in the village. I tied up the sack, and with the loop of string, slipped it over my head, and if I fell into the river the sack would float behind me with my clothes. I now sat astride the raft and pushed myself, paddling my way across the river. The current was fast flowing, so I was moving quite quickly along, and as I got half way across, the string being inadequate broke and the raft broke up too, throwing me into the water. The water was so cold it took my breath away as I swam to the far side. On reaching the edge I crawled out up onto the road, cut the string of the sack, got my clothes out, my flying boots were soaked but the rest of the clothes were merely damp. I put my clothes on, but was unable to put my boots on as they were soaking, and made my way to the village. I hadn鈥檛 gone a hundred yards before I knew I was suffering from hypothermia. My battledress blouse started to freeze, so I ran the rest of the way to the village. On reaching the village I made my way to a house further back from the river and tried the doors. One was open 鈥� I walked into a kitchen and then into the hall, and then into another room where I nearly tripped over something on the floor. I bent down and picked it up and it was a duvet. I ripped of my clothes, wrapped the duvet round me and ran round the room for a full hour to get my circulation back. When I thought it was safe I went into a corner of the room, and with the duvet round me, went off to sleep.

The following morning I was awoken by the sound of machine gun fire. Dawn was breaking and I looked out of the window to see why the guns were firing. It appeared they were being fired from the pillboxes for target testing on my side of the river.

In one of the upstairs rooms I found an old pair of boots that were my foot size. As my flying boots were still soaking wet I was lucky to find a replacement pair, which fitted. In the kitchen there was a wood burning stove, so I broke up wooden furniture in the house and also a wicker basket which I had used with paper to start a small fire with the wickerwork and which I built up to a large fire with very little smoke coming from the chimney. The stove was covered in ceramic tiles with hot plates set in. I laid my wet clothes to dry out on the tiles. I found a saucepan and I used the water-pump to fill the saucepan, which I then put on the hot plate. I then put three Horlicks tablets in the water and made a drink for myself. This made me feel better. I now put another saucepan of water on to wash and shave with the razor from my escape pack, and again, I felt a great deal better.

I went upstairs and looked out the bedroom window to assess the layout of the surrounding area. A road went passed the back of the house about 100 yards down, and then started to climb the side of the valley. About quarter of the way up it went round the bend out of view. This was the way I was going to use to make my way out of the valley. Now was the time I had to make up my mind when to go, either during the day or at nighttime. I knew this side of the river must be mined and I wouldn鈥檛 be able to see the mines or trip wires in the dark, so I had to go during the day. I remember the day before, all the German soldiers disappeared at lunchtime, and as it was half an hour to go to that time, I thought it would be best to go then. So, with the flying boots in the sack, the sack my shoulder I made my way from the back of the house to the road, then proceeded along the road with my fingers crossed hoping there wouldn鈥檛 be a shout or machine gun fire. I reached the bend and went out of sight. Half way up the side of the valley I saw wire across the road and little mounds on the round way. I knew this was another minefield. I stepped over the wire and made my way cautiously between the mines and again stepped over wire at the far end. When I came to the top of the valley I let out a long sigh of relief. I was so lucky to get this far.

I now left the road and went on a westerly heading again, and I made my way across rolling terrain dotted about with small pinewoods. It was mid afternoon and the sun had started to break through, when I just left a small wood and to the south of me I could see a convoy of vehicles travelling along the road about half a mile away. So I changed my direction to a northwesterly heading to keep clear of it. As soon as I had done this, I heard aircraft in the clouds flying towards me, and just before the aircraft reached me they broke cloud and it was a flight of American Mitchell aircraft, carrying out a run in bomb attack on the convoy. Then I heard the whistle of bombs coming down, then all hell was let lose, because of the retaliatory fire from the convoy with the bomb bursts. One stick of bombs undershot and fell very close to me - thinking I was a goner; I bounced up and down on the ground with the bomb fragments screaming over my head. As soon as the bombing ceased, thanking my lucky stars I was still alive, I went on my way at a run.

After a couple of miles, sweating with my exertions, I slowed to a walk. Another small wood was just ahead. Suddenly, hearing low flying aircraft behind me and the sound of machine gun and cannon fire, I observed an American Lightening fighter being pursued by a German FW190 fighter. As the planes approached I threw myself on the ground, with cannon shell and bullets flying all around me. As soon as the aircraft passed over I saw the American plane was on fire 鈥� it crashed in the wood with a huge explosion.

I watched helplessly. There was no sign of a parachute and I knew I had better get away quickly, for the place would soon be swarming with German soldiers. Veering south to get away from the wood, I later turned west again. It was almost dusk now and I started to look for a place to hide during the night. Just to the south of me was an area of shrubbery farmland. Making my way towards the shrubs, I found a hollow in the ground, about 30 yards across, covered from side to side with bushes. The ground level was about 5 feet below the surrounding area, so I was out of wind and hidden from view in the hollow.

About two hours later, waking from a fitful sleep, heavy guns opened up from the wood to the north of me-. This went on for about 5 minutes. I assumed it was the Germans firing on the American lines. I now knew it was in the front line area. About ten minutes later, return fire from the American side began. Some of the shells fell short of the German battery and came close to my hideout, shaking the ground, with the shrapnel whizzing through the bushes above me. Eventually everything went quiet again, so I tried to get some sleep.

Next morning I moved off again, dodging troops all that morning. I tried to keep out of sight as much as possible. After mid-day, I spotted more soldiers in the bushes, and tried to get round them. This time I was out of luck. A shot went over my head and one of the soldiers waved me over towards him. There was no escape, for I was on open ground. After all my endeavours to reach friendly territory, it looked as if my number was up at last. It wasn鈥檛 until I got closer that I realised that they were Americans! Breathing a huge sigh of relief, I shouted out that I was a Royal Air Force Officer and had been shot down a few days previously.

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