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
A few seconds later H---- dashed in. They were calling the roll. We
carried the boxes outside, there to be met by several officers who had
come back, so they said, to collect some firewood for the journey, but
really to make our late appearance as unsuspicious as possible. No
wonder we were as happy at Changri as it was possible to be, having
men like these for our companions.
You may think that it was not worth our while to have taken so much
trouble for so small a chance, yet you probably take a ticket in the
Derby Sweep. It was, we admit, a small chance, but the prize was a
great one, so we were unwilling to let it slip by. Although a roll-call
was held, we heard afterwards that it was only as an afterthought on
the part of Sami Bey, and despite our disappointment after coming so
near to success, we had at least the satisfaction of finding that our
late arrival caused no suspicion in the minds of our captors. After a
little difficulty in finding carts which were not too overloaded to
take our two precious boxes, our party was soon marching southwards
with the rest of the prisoners.
Although the direct distance from Changri to Yozgad, as the crow flies,
is barely 80 miles, the only road open to our wheeled transport was
that which runs by way of Angora: our march was then about 100 miles
longer. For the first sixty, that is to say to Angora, the country was
familiar to us, as we had marched along this route in the opposite
direction on the way to our first camp, Kastamoni, nearly two years
before. It was impossible, unfortunately, to induce our commandant to
say beforehand each day where would be the halts for the midday meal
and the next night; in fact, he did not know himself, as this was
a matter to be fought out with his brother officer in charge of the
transport. In other respects this march, like that from Kastamoni, was
a pleasing innovation after the monotony of our long confinement. After
the first few hours the escort wearied of their primary keenness, and
allowed us to march pretty well at our own pace, except for occasional
halts to allow the carts to come up. In fact, precautions against
escaping _en route_ were unexpectedly lax. On the very first day, for
instance, it was not until after dark that we halted for the night,
and a dozen officers might easily have slipped away from a party which
went to the river a few hundred yards distant to fetch water: roll-call
was not held until we marched off next morning. We had agreed amongst
ourselves, however, that we would now wait until we reached Yozgad,
and could contrive some plan by which all parties might once more have
an equal chance of escaping. It was for this reason that the above and
later opportunities to make off while on trek were allowed to slip by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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