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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1918)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JULY 21, 1918. Pari row Ik Brilliant Death-Defying Exploits Which Have Won Honor and Decorations for Many Captured Allied Soldiers Who Risked All in One Dare Devil Stroke for Liberty. BT ARTHUR BARRETT. AMONG the many brilliant deeds of daring in th world.. war. no class of exploits has stood out more conspicuously than the numerous suc cessful escapes from German prison, camps. Time after time, wltb superhuman strength and courage, captured soldiers of the allies have cut through electri fied barbed wire, Ainneled under rock walls, slain sentinels and thrown off their pursuers. Tracked by men and bloodhounds, they have hidden for weeks In marshes and forests, living on roots and berries, traveling: on all fours at night like hunted animals, swimming: rivers, scal ing; mountains, finally to cross the bor der into Holland or Switzerland. - And in almost every instance they Group of French Aviators Who Escaped After Many Severe Hardships From a German Prison Camp. M-r"'.; It - a. - v ' , 5 v ' f 4 J 1 - , - f 4 ' '. i- r Lieutenant Pat O'Brien, Who Escaped by Leap ing From a Fast-Moving Train. have escaped, not to withdraw from the great conflict, but to hasten back again to their posts on the fighting: line. The history of the war contains hun dreds of instances, which continue to multiply in the daily newspaper re ports, of prisoners who have risked al most certain death for the mere chance of effecting- a hairbreadth esdape and who have succeeded. One of the most astonishing: achieve ments in this line was that of Rene Latour, a French lieutenant, captured near Solssons and interned in a camp near a forest, some SO miles from the Dutch border. Bach day he and other prisoners were marched out of the barbed wire en closure to work with pick and shovel on the neighboring roads. Finally he secured and concealed in his Jacket the broken point of a pick ax, which he fashioned into a rude dagger. After months of apparent submissive labor, he finally found himself alone for a moment outside the enclosure, with only one armed sentinel standing near. In broad daylight he sprang; like a tiger upon the back of the sentinel, drove the improvised knife into his heart before the man could make an outcry, and started on a wild race for the shelter of the forest. He had covered several hundred yards before the alarm was raised, and man aged to outdistance his pursuers de spite the rain of rifle bullets. The fortunate presence in the forest of a brook enabled him to throw the bloodhounds off the scent, and four weeks later, after living like a hunted wild beast in the depth of the woods, he worked his way to the border and escaped. Today lie is back la the fighting lines. , Pat O'Brien's GHifft Lieutenant Pat O'Brien, an American In the British Royal Flying; Corps, es caped by leaping; from a train running SO miles an hour. He had been brought down wounded inside the German lines, and after a short time in a hospital was transferred to a prison camp. There he began to lay plans to escape. and succeeded In stealing German road- maps from an interpreter. ills opportunity came when he and' a 7 w mm m 7S'. : . - v ' fwmwm VJ W4 0, 111 Jlpi1 TP r f 4 In the First Panel, Roland Garros Is Shown Sewing on the Disguise in Which He Escaped. In the Second, Captaid Goysqui Is Tunneling His Way to Liberty. In the Third, Pat O'Brien Is Seen Making His Desperate Leap From a German Train. 1 number of other wounded prisoners were put into a train to be transported irora one camp to another. O'Brien has vividly described his leap to liberty. The car was full of smoke." he said. "I looked across at the guard, a rather old man going home on leave, who seemed to be dreaming. I resolved to take my chances at the risk of breaking my neck. I began to cough as though my throat was irritated by the smoke, and then I opened the window. The guard paid no attention. The train was going between SO and 35 miles an hour. Standing up on the bench as if to put my bag on the rack, I shoved my feet and legs out of the window and let go. I expected a bullet between my shoulders, or that I would be dashed to pieces on the rock ballast. But no shot was fired. "I landed on my. left side and face. cutting it open, closing an eye, cutting my hands and shins and straining an ankle. For a few moments I was com pletely knocked put. If they could have stopped the train right then, they could easily have captured me. but it was going very fast, and they prob ably didn't stop within a half mile of where I lay. so I got away." Captala Goyaqal's Exploit. Following his leap from the train O'Brien hid by day, traveling on foot at night, living mostly on raw vegeta bles, and finally made his way safely across the border. Another famous escape was that of Captain Goysquoi. . one of the first French aviators to get away from a German detention camp. He was brought down by a German aviator in side the German lines and spent two months in a detention camp. He fi nally escaped by digging a tunnel under the electrified barbed wire that sur rounded the camp. After traveling by night for over a month, living on roots and raw vegetables, he finally succeed ed in getting into Switzerland, from where he made his way back to France. Captain Goysqui, Who Evaded His Captors by Tunneling Under Electrified Barbed Wire. For this he was decorated with the1 Legion of Honor, which is shown on his breast in the photograph which ap pears on this page. The celebrated French "ace" Roland G. Garros, escaped by repeating the ex ploit of the famous German. "Captain Koepenlck." After having been twice caught and punished for attempting to escape. Garros and Marchal recalled how gullible the people and soldiers proved themselves in the case of the shoemaker Voight, who, under the name of "Captain Koepenlck" and in an officer's uniform, laid everything under contribution and was saluted and honored as only a German military of ficer could be. 60 they made French blue, horixon cloth uniforms resembling as closely as possible thoee of German officers. When they were finished all they had to do was to simply walk out of their prison, out of the camp and out of the town, saluted on every hand by senti nels, soldiers off duty and civilians. Once clear of the town they doffed the uniforms and made their way to the Holland frontier by rail quite comfort ably. Their greatest difficulty was In crossing the line. It took them three days, during- which they crept on hands and knees backward and forward alter nately, dodging sentinels. Few of the many thousands of pris oners captured by the Austrlans during the war have had the good fortune to escape to civilisation. One of the lucky few was Ugo Minervlni. of 1022 Hoe avenue. New Tork City. He not only escaped, but he swam the Plave River, towing by the collar a comrade who could not swim a stroke, in February, when the water was as cold as ice could make it. American Daring. As if that wasn't enough, he was as sailed with bombs and machine guns by both Austrlans and English after he landed. By strict attention to business his guardian angel contrived to get him out of the scrape alive, although wounded in both legs, both arms and the head. American prisoners In the hands of THE HOUSEBOAT ON THE STYX (Continued from PMrat Pg- ten, that after all, underneath all your purple velveteens and ermine bathrobes and gold-lace smoking jackets and diamond-studded chest protectors, you and yours weren't any more than com mon garden folks like all the rest of us, and that what you carried under your crown was as perishable in the end as that which the ordinary beggar on the street carries under his hat. Royal robes, however spick and span, belong in the old-clothes closet or on the comic-opera stage these days, and ten years from now, if we see 'em at all, it wiU be In the museums along with other curiosities and stuffed, only they will be stuffed then . with, real stuff, and' not by the Imitation stuff that stuffs them now. There was a crash on the outer circle of the group. His unfortunate Majesty Charles the First, still thinking of the Divine Right of Kings, agitated by Franklin's words, had fainted and fallen to the floor. "Gosh, Ben." said Bonaparte, as he raised the fallen body of the fallen monarch and replaced his head, which had rolled under the table, once more upon his shoulders, "Bill's Idea of doing something to make kings stick together is at least timely. I wonder what can be done to etick this one together so that he'll etay atuckr" . . "Search, xnel" eaid Franklin. the Germans have shown themselves equally daring and resourceful In grasping every opportunity for escape, and already there are a number of in stances of men in khaki who have suc cessfully eluded guards and electrified barbed wire and made their way back into Franca. Since America entered the war the Germans have made escape more diffi cult by establishing guards and an elec trified wire barricade along the entire Dutch border, and many prisoners have tramped hundreds of miles across GerJ many only to ftnd this barrier lmponlJ hie to cross. But even despite this nt difficulty escapes continue to take rplace. DEATH OF ALBERT MILDENBERG MOURNED SINCERELY THROUGHOUT MUSICAL WORLD (Continued Frem Flrt PK. would give her eye-teeth to be in my shoes. We are playing in the open air now as It's getting so warm over here. It's terrible to play In the tents the water Just runs down our backs, be cause the tent Is packed with boys and every window Is filled with them on the outside, as there Is never room for them all inside. That keeps out all the ventilation and there isn't breath of air. "We had a huge audience at one place and we were on a platform in the biasing sun. But we were perfectly happy and they were taking moving pictures of us. We are giving three concerts a day here lately as we want to reach all the men. Today we play at a hospital then have dinner with some officers and then give two more concerts. I'll have some Interesting tales to tell when I get home. The other Sunday we had a nice time some of the boys brought in a lunch that the cook at their camp fixed up and they brought It into town. We ex pected to eat In the woods, but it was a rainy day so we ate at a big, long table in the hotel. One of the boys couldn't come in. mm he had to wait on the officers' table. 0 when he did get in quite late we dragged everything out and had the party all over again. "We stayed at one hotel in that place for one night and it was so dirty that we moved to another the next day. Then after we'd been there several days they put us out because we didn't take meals there. 60 we went back to the first hotel and they were very nice to us perfectly willing to talte us in. Vou ought to see some of thee FTench villages little crooked streets and hardly any sidewalks and everybody walks in the streets on those dreadful cobblestones. Little boya and girl walk along carrying bread In their arms without a sign of paper to wrap it up and they often lay It right down in the street; The little boys who go to school wear aprons Just like girls, that come down to their knees. When ever we get a chance over here in be tween concert or any old time we wait on the boys at the canteen sell them chocolate and cigarettes, etc "I love to make change in French money it's great fun. The soldier who had charge of the canteen in one place saw me making change and asked If I wanted a Job we spent the day at that place as it was there the movie was taken. But he fired me later on because I wu always busy. The only time any of us could do It that day was when we had a choice of that or having our picture taken at the officers' hut and I had already ac cepted an offer for the latter. It must look funny to see a girl all dressed up in a light dress waiting on a canteen. When you get near the front, the boys have to watt on the canteen as no women are allowed there. But the Sal vation Army women come up very close. They are wonderful." Percy Grainger has received his full citizenship papers. It has seemed a strange phase that although a man might have given himself into the United States Army this did not con stitute fuU cltiaenshlp. It is, however, under consideration now, and hence forth his willingness to serve in our Army will make him a full citlsen of this country. Mrs. Rom Grainier, mother of the noted soldier-composer- pianist, announces her Intention to tk out papers to make her a full American citizen. t YANK HELD GOOD FIGHTEH British Soldiers Express nigh ReH gard for Americans. LIVERPOOU July 1. The high re gard In which the American soldier li held by experienced British fighter! Is attested by a correspondent of th Liverpool Post. He writes: "The official testimony as to the quality of the American troops is con firmed by unofficial evidence that tht new fighting fores is appreciated high ly by the veteran warriors of three ol four years of war. Oun own men al first were Inclined to be suspicioul of the Americans because they thought they would 'swank' about coming in t finish the war, but when they found that the Americans did not 'swank? and were eager only to learn the ail of warfare, all suspicion vanished, an 4 a comradeship In arms Is springing un "The Americans in this country ar creating an excellent impression, an when we get over our shyness, and when the American wounded are tn trusted to our care, relationships aril become still more intimate. An Au.i tralian officer told me that he and hit friends had come to regard leave t England as equivalent as nearly al possible to a visit home, and it Is hoped that the Americans will soon come l( have the same feeling."
