13 Days: The Chronicle of an Escape from a German PrisonCaunter, John Alan Lyde
History
13 Days: The Chronicle of an Escape from a German Prison
Caunter, John Alan Lyde
Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
A few yards farther on we passed an old church in the side of the
road; from the windows of this a faint light was shining. The bell
rang again, and we located the sound as having come from the church.
Evidently an all-night mass for the dead must have been in progress.
On clearing the village we seemed to leave civilisation behind us and
entered an area of wild moorland. At first here and there
quaint-looking houses were dotted about, but even these we left behind
in our rush westwards over this moor.
_Saturday, 30th June._ By this time it was fairly light and we had
covered a great distance in a very short space of time. A hiding-place
was forthcoming when we decided to rest, and with a plentiful supply
of water not very far away we managed at last to get a good hot drink
before sleeping.
The wildness of the country and the need for speed moved us on again
at about 3 p.m. Excellent water was abundant in all the low land in
this undulating moorland district, and after a good drink we felt very
strong in preparation for what we decided must be a great march before
we rested again.
While following a rough track over the heather-covered slopes, a young
hare foolishly sat down in a tuft of heather a short distance ahead of
us. This we proceeded to stalk, and thinking of the possible food
supply in front of us we went very carefully for it. I took a detour
round it so as to occupy its attention, while Fox, armed with a
water-bottle held by the strap, warily approached it direct. He got to
within two yards of it before up it got.
A wild swipe with the water-bottle missed it by six inches. The hare
galloped off, while our water-bottle let its valuable contents run out
rapidly. However, Master Hare had not apparently had enough of it, for
he again squatted in a tuft some two hundred yards farther on. The
same plan of attack was carried out, and again Fox got to within
striking distance.
This time, feeling that the strap had only retarded the attack, he
hurled the whole thing at the hare, narrowly missing it, but this time
scaring it so much that it disappeared in the distance at a great
pace.
At about 10 p.m. we got near a village we had been making for, with
the object of striking a road. This village, although nothing very
important, proved to be the point of concentration of roads and tracks
crossing the moor. In making a careful detour round the northern
outskirts of it we suddenly came upon three men in dark clothes,
standing on one of these tracks. Turning sharply to the north we made
for a wood a mile or so away, and watching them carefully out of the
corners of our eyes we slunk along rapidly. They did not really follow
us, although they took a few paces in our direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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