THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JULY 21, 1918.
Pari
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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.
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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
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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."