Four-Fifty Miles to FreedomJohnston, Maurice Andrew Brackenreed
History
Four-Fifty Miles to Freedom
Johnston, Maurice Andrew Brackenreed
Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Turkish
Having had only our memories of the bearing and distance to Cyprus
from Rendezvous X to guide us, we had worked out in the ravine that
the bearing on which we had to steer would be S. 50° W. On sighting
the island in the afternoon, we had found that this was too much to
the west; so Cochrane had altered the course to make for the western
end of the high range of mountains visible about due south of us. When
about two miles from the shore we turned eastwards, and moved parallel
to the coast, on the look-out for a good anchorage, if possible near
a village. Finally, about a hundred yards from the shore, we dropped
anchor in a wide bay.
On leaving Yozgad each of the party had possessed a watch, but by this
time only two were in working order, and these were Old Man's and
Johnny's. As the chain rattled over the side, the latter looked at the
time, to find that the hand once more pointed to the witching hour of
midnight. This timepiece served its purpose well, for it was not till
an hour later, when it had ceased to be so essential, that it shared
the fate of most of its comrades and was broken. It was interesting to
find later, on comparing the Old Man's watch with Cyprus time, that
there was only two minutes' difference between them. We had checked
our time occasionally by noticing when one of the "pointers" of the
Great Bear was vertically beneath the Pole Star; the solar time when
this occurred on any night had been worked out before we left Yozgad.
Fairly accurate time-keeping was of importance, for on this depended
the successful use of both the "sun-compass" and the star-charts.
And so we had reached Cyprus, but we were all in too dazed a condition
to realise for the moment what it meant; in fact, it took many days to
do so. On arrival in the bay, Cochrane, with his keen sense of smell,
had declared that there were cows not far off, and at about 3 o'clock
we heard a cock crow. We said we would eat our hats, or words to that
effect, if we did not have that bird for breakfast. There was not a
single light on shore, and we had no idea whereabouts in Cyprus we
had dropped anchor. As the stars disappeared in the coming light of
dawn, we saw the coast more clearly. Then by degrees what we thought
were ruins on the coast, rocks a couple of hundred yards east of us
took form; later these proved to be the still occupied Greek monastery
of Acropedi. Then a house or two near by stood distinct; then trees;
and finally our eyes beheld not a mile away a large village, boasting
churches, mosques, and fine buildings set in trees, and beyond a
mountain-range rising sheer from the very houses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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