Eastern Nights - and Flights: A Record of Oriental Adventure.Bott, Alan
History
Eastern Nights - and Flights: A Record of Oriental Adventure.
Bott, Alan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Turkish
Several times during the days that followed I plotted with the Bosnian
in the garden, always with the English grammar as camouflage for
earnest talks. Finally, after discussing every detail, we evolved a
plan which seemed workable. When John Willie should have been posted to
San Stefano, White and I were to claim that we were cured. We should
then be transferred to Psamatia, which was already half-way between
Stamboul and San Stefano. He refused to take the risk of helping us to
escape from Psamatia, but he would meet us after we should have reached
the neighbourhood of the aerodrome. He could arrange to be night
orderly officer between two given dates, and during this period he
would seek us at the place of rendezvous, at three o'clock each
morning.
His plan, having found us, was to go to the hangars, and on the
pretence of testing a Rumpler two-seater, take it into the air. He
would land in a field near us, keeping his engine ticking over. White
and I must run toward him and climb into the rear cockpit. He would
leave the ground again immediately, and head for the Dardanelles.
Even taking into account the heavy load of three men, pursuit seemed
unlikely, because all the other pilots would be asleep in their
billets. In any case, it was improbable that the mechanics from the
aerodrome would see us climbing into the Rumpler. We abandoned the
suggestion that I should fly the two-seater while the Bosnian gave
chase in an Albatross, as we failed to think of a plausible tale for
John Willie to tell his mechanics, by way of explaining how the Rumpler
could have been stolen from him by strangers.
The Bosnian drew detailed maps, giving the position of the aerodrome in
relation to San Stefano station, with the hangars, the officers' mess,
and other buildings marked on it. The place of rendezvous was to be the
fringe of a small wood that bordered a field southwest of the
aerodrome, on the left-hand side of the road to Bulgaria.
John Willie also procured for us a German staff-map, which included the
countryside between Psamatia and San Stefano. White and I had decided,
however, that our best plan would be to give the guards the slip during
the daytime in one of the winding side streets of Stamboul, to buy
tickets openly at the railway station, and to travel to San Stefano as
ordinary passengers. Using John Willie's pencilled map, we could then
find the place of rendezvous and lie low in the wood until the
following morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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