The Escape of a Princess Pat: Being the full account of the capture and fifteen months' imprisonment of Corporal Edwards, of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and his final escape from Germany into HollandPearson, George
History
The Escape of a Princess Pat: Being the full account of the capture and fifteen months' imprisonment of Corporal Edwards, of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and his final escape from Germany into Holland
Pearson, George
Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
"September fifth: Stopped raining and a little warmer. Got our clothes
dry once more. Cover in a wood outside a small town. Going last night
good, after we had crossed another peat bog. Meals: milk, baked
potatoes and apples. Hope to reach the river to-night. Bad feet. Best
of health otherwise."
"September sixth: No rain and warmer. Heavy dew. Fairly good going.
Best of cover. Had a fire. Pretty comfortable. Milk, potatoes,
apples."
"September seventh: Still fine weather. Very poor cover in a hedge.
Good road to go on. Made pretty good time last night. Feet feeling
better. Running out of tobacco. Otherwise in the best and still hope
the same. Meals: potatoes and beets."
We spent a great deal of time discussing ways and means of adding to
our stock of tobacco. Any smoker knows what it is to want the weed.
Consider then our half famished, wet and utterly weary condition. It
was a real necessity to us. We discussed waiting at the roadside until
a man with a pipe appeared; when we should rob him. We dismissed that
as too hazardous. It would be necessary to kill him and that seemed a
bit thick for a pipe of tobacco. So we did the only thing that was
left to do--cut down our already scanty rations of tobacco and took
scrupulous care to smoke to a clean ash every vestige of each heel of
old pipe, but in spite of that our supply became exhausted.
"September eighth: Lovely weather to-day. Good going last night in
small swamp. Good cover in a forest on the banks of the Ems. We will
try to cross to-night. Meals: potatoes and mangels. Our final try for
liberty. Feel good for it."
We had arrived at the river at two o'clock that morning, too played
out to attempt the crossing then. We retraced our steps to a potato
field, dug some of the tubers and, when daylight came, lit a fire and
roasted them. We were in a dense forest of young trees, so that by
lighting the fire before the mist lifted, the latter hid our smoke.
We remained unperceived, though we could hear voices and footsteps on
every side.
"September ninth: Swam the river and two canals. Crossed a large
swamp. No rain but very cold. Think we are over the border. Very poor
cover in a hedge. Wet to the skin. Clothes got soaked but in best of
spirits and confident."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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