The final push to the Border. Day's 13 & 14 of Jock's escape and day 7 of our epic journey

Well, this was our last day's running; a hot and humid 22Km into Losser and crossing the Dutch border to the north of Gronau. 

We carefully re-read Jock's account to make sure we crossed the border as close as we could to where he did and I'm sure we were. Not much has changed in the century since he passed through. The land is very cultivated now, so it's not really moreland but the forest he describes is still dense, the pond is there (I saw a small frog even) and the Dinkel isn't much more than a stream.

The border between Germany and the Netherlands does indeed bulge at this point, so they had to ensure they continued west to avoid drifting back into Germany once they'd crossed. What I suspect is the case is that they were well over the border before they saw the church at Losser.  Unless it's been rebuilt since then, it's not very large and the Dinkel at this point is well within Dutch territory. 

Working all this out as we completed our epic journey was fascinating.


13th NIGHT.
We were now within 12 miles of the frontier and as our food was almost gone we made up our minds to try and get across the frontier that night; but it was not to be as we experienced exceptionally heavy going, sometimes knee deep in bog, so that two hours from dawn we found we were still under half way. We had decided to approach the frontier right across what looked from the map like a desolate moor, our guide for a starting off place being a path running parallel to the frontier, crossing which was a small stream.

FOG IN MOOR
We eventually struck this path and later on the stream, over which was a small bridge. Our route over the moor now lay W. with a touch of S, but just as we had entered the moor a dense white fog came down, which added to the darkness, made it impossible to see a yard in front of us and after stumbling blindly in bogs, ditches, etc., and getting soaked, we decided to try and get some sleep until it was light, so lay down but not to sleep, it was far too cold and wet for that, so with the first streak of dawn we were up and off, feeling our way through the fog and steering a compass course for a small wood that was shown to be about the middle of the moor. About 6 a.m. we stopped on a small hill to try and locate the wood, but found although the fog was thinning we were still unable to see any distance.

While debating what course to adopt it being very risky to walk on in daylight, the fog suddenly parted in two, right in front of us for perhaps two minutes and there to our great joy was our wood, not 200 yards away. We, however, lay up that day in a small clump of whins just on the outskirts of the wood from where we could obtain a splendid view of the church spires of a village called Losser which we knew to be in Holland, in fact, all that day we could hear the church bell chiming the hours, and this acted as a splendid guide when we moved on at night. Our food that day was shared all round, each man getting a small square of chocolate and a few crumbs of biscuit to last him the 18 odd hours, or longer, just depending on what success we met with.

It is imperative that on the frontier one knows one’s exact position all the time, so that there would be no chance of walking out of Germany across a neck of Holland and back into Germany, as one or two poor fellows had actually done on previous occasions. 

14th and LAST NIGHT.
After throwing away everything we did not require, it wasn't much, we started off on what was to decide our fate, success or failure, there would be no half way measures , we all knew, either we crossed that night or were captured.

LANDMARKS 
The landmarks we were steering for were a small pond and some few yards to the south of it, a small clump of trees.
The first obstacles to be crossed were a railway, followed immediately afterwards by a main road. 

We successfully crossed the railway and were just about to cross the road when someone gave a whispered alarm so down we plopped in the ditch alongside the road and in a minute or so a cyclist patrol went past, some 6 or 7 machines, the last of which was using the Hun substitute for rubber tyres, namely two steel bands with coiled springs between. 

This was what we had to thank for warning us in time, otherwise we would almost certainly have been caught. The patrol safely past we crawled across that road and continued across the moor, passing a German Guardhouse a few yards on our left and then striking our two landmarks. 

We had steered our course so well that we actually heard frogs croaking in the pond on our right. The next thing we came to was 4 lines of barbed wire fencing under which we proceeded to crawl. While crawling through the second, we heard a cough just on our left and hardly daring to breathe we crawled on under the 3rd and 4th fences, continuing to do so for perhaps quarter of a mile or so, when all being quiet we got up and walked on towards the sound of the church bell.

From our maps we had noticed a small stream marked, called the DINKEL, about a mile over the frontier and you can imagine better than I can tell our great joy and unbounded relief when we struck this after some 10 to 15 minutes' walking. 'We were over and free! 

Our troubles now were over, the Dutch people treating us with every consideration and kindness and after a stay of 9 days in Holland we were brought back to the dear-old Country, the first sight of which from the deck of the steamer will always remain with us.

Ostbevern to EMSDETTEN. Days 10-12 of Jock's escape & Day 6 of our journey

For us, the intense heat of the past few days receded and most of the run was on very pleasant forest trails and cycle paths. Yesterday we had some tricky navigation around private land at Bockholt but I honestly can't see how the landscape has changed much over the years.  There is plenty of cover, lots of plantations and crops and scattered farmhouses.  Villages can also be identified by the huge church steeples that dominate the flatlands of this area.

The Ems canal is still 100yds wide and much have been incredibly daunting and one interesting fact was told to us by the landlady of where we are staying on these final couple of nights.  Many of the train lines Jock mentions are now cycle tracks. Rather than just dig them up like we did after Beeching, the Germans sensibly made them into paths to walk and cycle between villages off the main roads. 

This section ends in the Wettringen area, which for us is only 15Km from the border, so we will complete this amazing journey tomorrow.



10th NIGHT
After crossing the line from MUNSTER to LONGERICH at a level crossing we had rather an exciting chase. My friend rather foolishly said “good-night" in German to a Hun who was standing talking to a companion who had a rifle over his shoulder and also a bicycle. The Hun said "Good-night” in return then asked who we were, to which we did not reply. We then saw him drop his bike and run into a yard so decided it was time to hop it.

We hadn’t gone far when a fierce growl made us turn round to find three wolf hounds coming for us. I got the first with a kick on the head which made it turn and go off howling down the road. My friend got another with a stick he carried, after which we took to the wood and ran, as we could see 3 or 4 Huns coming after us. The dogs continued growling at our heels until we struck a fence over which, in my hurry I tried to jump, but was not quick enough to escape the dog which took a large piece out of a very value part of my trousers so that I had to spend the whole of the next day putting in a new one with the aid of a piece of packsheet and some string. The dogs left us after this I am glad to say, but in our flight we had completely lost our bearings and soon found that we were on the wrong side of a fair-sized stream which we eventually crossed a good a bit further north than we had intended. The next obstacle to be crossed that night was the Dortmund-EMS Canal. 

This promised to be the worst barrier of all if we could not find a bridge, or if that bridge happened to be guarded. We made for a small village called Bockholt beside which on our maps was shown a bridge. It was fairly light when we struck the canal, and it looked to be about 100 yards wide, a distance none of us felt capable of successfully swimming, so after carefully watching the bridge for some time and seeing no signs of a guard, although for all we could make out he might easily have been standing behind some of the uprights of the bridge. However, there was nothing to be gained by hesitating, so we took the bull by the horns and stole across that bridge with our hearts in our mouths. I am thankful to say we did not see any signs of a sentry; if he was there he must have been asleep somewhere.

CROSSING THE EMS
The final obstacle that night was the river Emms. We were following a cart track when we struck it and saw that there was a chain ferry used to convey passengers across, but unfortunately for us the ferry boat was on the other side. We were all pretty done up that night, and did not relish the idea of another swim, the river here being about 50 yards wide. However, it had to be for one of us at least, so we tossed odd man out with some of the German money we carried. 

The idea was that the first man across should, on reaching the other side, see if he could bring back the ferry boat for the other two. I lost the toss, and after tying my clothes up in my now well-worn Burberry, I swam across and found I could unhook the ferry boat. This I proceeded to do and pulled myself back across the river for the other two. While they did the pulling on the return journey I dressed and felt fitter than ever, the swim acting like a glass of champagne on my jaded spirits. 

After crossing the main road running due north from Munster to Ibbenduren we got into cover 2 miles west of this road. Our food was running very short now, and to supplement it we dug up potatoes in one of the numerous fields we were constantly passing, and these were sliced up as thin as possible and cooked in a Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin over one of our trusty trench cooker blocks. This meal was a very welcome one, being the only hot one we could get, all our cookable food having been exhausted. 

11th NIGHT.
The eleventh night passed without incident except I fell over a fallen tree and nearly broke my neck. We followed the banks of an abandoned canal which, we were afterwards told, the Germans had started to dig in 1914 with prisoners of war as labourers. Cover was obtained in an open ditch some few miles north west of EMSDETTEN.

12th NIGHT.
We continued for a bit along the canal until it turned N. after which we had great difficulty in finding tracks leading in the proper direction, in fact, for most of the night we simply walked over boggy moorland crossing the railway line BORGESTEINFORT—RHEINE  and further on a main road and another railway, after which we made better progress. We had now to go with extreme caution as we were within the frontier area, in which all main roads are constantly patrolled and of course all bridges, road, rail and water were guarded. 

Our cover was in the middle of a large moor in the centre of a clump of young fir trees, not three feet high. That day was one of the best of the whole trek, the sun shining gloriously all day, so that we were able to take off all our wet clothes and lay them out to dry, lying drinking in the warmth of the sun ourselves meantime. The only signs of life we saw that day were two Huns, evidently farmers, who passed in a cart some little distance away.

Hovelhof to Ostbevern. Days 6-9 of Jock's escape & Days 4 & 5 of our journey

This part of Jock's escape saw him travel from Detmold to Ostbevern, across what is now the Paderborn Ranges.  He took a more southerly route that we were able to (those army lads wouldn't be too keen on us wandering around their big toys playground), but we rejoined around Hovelhof.  This took us two days of running 30+km a day and Jock and his pals took 3 days, so fair play for the progress they made.  

Just like their experiences, it is still highly forested and traversing this area is quite easy.  Lots of cover and lots of tracks through the forests.  Unlike 100 years ago though, the weather for us was a brutal 35+ degrees and relentless sun.  We had to cut our days short due to exhaustion and it was getting pretty dangerous at times.

A couple of interesting things we noticed.  Milte is no longer a small hamlet of 6 houses but a thriving village with maybe 500+ houses, factories and the biggest church I've seen outside a city.  Then when we were passing Ostbevern, we too had a rainstorm. 



6th NIGHT.
At the start of the 6th night we got badly lost, principally due to ……  robbing us of the stars …… which always a nuisance to stop and try to get a bearing by the light of an electric torch. After wandering about for a long time, we struck a path going in the right direction and at daylight lay up in an open fir wood just off the track, some 4 miles due of E. of GUTERSLOH. We were not disturbed, however, and Leggatt who was a bit of an artist drew a very fine sketch of our small camp in a hollow of the wood.

7TH NIGHT.
The early hours of this night were spent in getting round GUTERSLOH our aim being a railway line running W. to HARSEWINKEL. In passing GUTERSLOH, we got a glimpse of the old camp where I was first taken to but whether it was still used as a camp we could not tell, although the fact of the Arc lamps still being lit made us think it must be. We found our railway all right and made very good progress along it, daylight finding us about 3 miles from HARSEWINKEL where we found a good hiding place in a thick plantation about ¼ mile N. of the railway line.
8th NIGHT.

LOVERS QUARREL
From our maps we could see that our only easy road for the next 8 miles was a main road which came up to the railway line about a mile from where we were, and as it was running through woody country with only one small village to detour, we decided to take it. We therefore re-joined our railway and walked along it until we came to the road. Just before leaving the railway we had to lie down to allow a train to pass, after which we took to the road, stopping at the first stream to have our nightly wash under the bridge. While doing so we were treated to a lovers quarrel above us in German of course. We couldn't make out all that was said but from a word caught here and there the Lady seemed to  be pitching into her faithless swain for having transferred his affections to someone else. We made good fast going along this road, only meeting one Hun who was whistling at the top of his power, so we stepped off the road to let him pass.

During our 10 minutes halts we always fell fast asleep now, and found it increasingly difficult to get up, shoulder our still heavy packs and move on for another 50 minutes. As day was dawning we crossed the main road from WARENDORF to SASSENBERG, finding cover in a wood just south of the last named village.

9TH NIGHT.
At the start, we got lost owing to the difficulty of finding a suitable track, but eventually struck one which led us to a second-class road just south of MILTE which village we partly skirted and partly walked through, as it was composed of only some half dozen houses and we knew there was not much risk of running into an armed policeman here.

This road took us to OSTBEVERN which village we detoured, helping ourselves to the produce from some of the gardens in passing and found good cover in a young fir plantation some 2 miles W. of OSTBEVERN.

Shortly after we got into cover, a thunderstorm burst over our heads the fierceness of which really frightened us. The flashes were, or seemed to be coming so close that every minute we expected some of the trees to be struck beside us and one could feel a strong smell of singeing in the air. We were soaked to the skin and did not get properly dry until 2 days later. Twice during the day we had to move, the first time for a German officer walking through the woods, and the second time for a gamekeeper whose dog came unpleasantly close.

Holzminden to Hovelhof area. Days 1-5 of Jocks escape & Days 1-3 of our journey

This excerpt from Jocks memoirs covers the first 5 days of his escape.  James & I went through the same woods outside Holzminden on Monday night so we could get a feel of what it would have been like. 

Our Twitter site @rge100yrs has Relive videos of our route and while of course, the area is now very urban there are still huge areas of forest and managed pine tree plantations.  

One other observation we've made is that back in 1918, the cornfield outside the camp was drying out and close to harvest.  There are still hundreds of acres of cornfields today but the crops are at least a few weeks away from harvest despite the excellent weather.  We weren't sure if this is climate change or advances in agriculture.

Anyway, here are Jocks words on his first 5 days of freedom that leads on from the previous post "Part 8: Jocks description leading up to the night of the escape" .

Outside the Tunnel

Nothing happened to disturb us and we had great hopes that by this time another 20 or 30 must be out, but as a matter of fact only
29 got out, the 30th man who was a South African Major of large proportions stuck in the sane place as I did, and it was not until nearly six in the morning that they managed to drag him backwards out of the tunnel into the cellar again. 

It would have been madness for anyone else to attempt to get through, so everybody returned to their rooms and got out of their filthy clothes before a roll-call was called.

Crossing the Weser

Reaching the Weser we got our clothes off as quickly as possible, tying them all up in our waterproofs as described before, and fixing the loops for towing the bundle after us. Leggat had made some sort of a raft for getting his stuff across, but it did not answer the purpose very well as he was the only one of the three who got his clothes wet. The current where we crossed was very strong so Purves and I waded in holding one another’s shoulders to prevent us being washed off our feet. 

We were very lucky in this crossing as we were able to wade across the river, the water at its deepest part coming up to our shoulders where it took some hanging on to keep one’s feet on the bottom. Once safely across we dried and dressed as quickly as possible, the sky showing that daylight was not far off. 

Half an hours walking took us into the woods at the foot of the hills up which we climbed until about half way up we struck a thick birch plantation and decided to make this our first hiding place. Our first job was to get some sleep as we were all pretty well done up after the exertion of getting through the tunnel. 

We were awakened about 9 in the morning by a party of school children searching about the plantation, but whether it was for us or not of course we could not find out. At any rate they passed within 10 yards of where we were lying. After this we moved into the centre of the plantation in amongst a pile of rocks which afforded splendid cover.

First Day in Hiding 

The sun came out and this was one of the two beautiful days we had out of the 14. All our clothes were spread out to dry and we lay about realizing at last we were free and now had a chance of pitting our brains against those of the Hun, although the odds were greatly in their favour. All that day parties of searchers passed round the plantation but none entered it. 

The method adopted by the Hun when a large party escaped was to give all the schools a holiday and to turn out all the military they could spare to join in a hunt. The first day they warned all villages within a radius of 10 miles to be on the lookout for suspicious looking people passing through. The next day they warned a 20-mile radius, the third day a 30-mile radius and so on as they knew that 10 miles was about the distance we would walk in one night.

Our hiding place was within sight of the camp and we would all have given a great deal to know what was happening there. It was months later, after the Armistice, that I learned that the tunnel was not discovered until about 7 in the morning when a roll—call was immediately summoned at which Niemeyer discovered to his horror that his hapless prisoners had once more scored and that 29 of his most dangerous were now on their way to the Dutch Frontier.

Darkness came on about 10.30 and found us ready and eager to be off. I may say we got hopelessly lost in the dense woods that 2nd night, and having no stars, we found great difficulty in keeping to our compass course but eventually we struck a broad track going in the right direction which brought us out at Bodexen cross roads where, from the signposts, we got our position on our maps.

It was here then Purves and I said goodbye to Leggatt who was going to try the journey alone and was going on a more Northerly route than the one we had selected.

Purves and I continued on until we struck the main road running N.W. at the village of Fursten which we skirted, and walked along this road until we struck a small village called Lowesdorf  where we left the main road for a track running due west a few miles along which we took to the wood, and found splended cover in a dense fir wood about a mile due south of Killerbeck. 

Probably most of you here have carried a pack in your army days so you will know how heavy they become on a long walk. Ours weighed about 45 lbs. and for the first few nights we would have given a great deal to have been able to leave them in some convenient ditch. Nor did they become any lighter, the weight did actually come down of course, but as they became lighter our strength also was getting less until on the last few nights  although our packs were practically empty they felt just as heavy as the day we started out. 

Our first job on getting into cover for the day was to don our warm underclothes, take off our saturated boots and put on a dry pair of sox. The next was to prepare a hot meal.

For the first week this consisted of my Plasman oats into which was put a soup and meat cube, the whole being warmed on one of our wax blocks. I believe these hot meals almost saved our lives, because for the most of the trek we were soaked through and these and plenty of Quinine kept either of us from taking cold. Sleep was the next thing we tried to get, but not with much success, two hours being the longest I found I could sleep at any one time. 

If the day happened to be warm one slept better, but we only got two really warm days out of the 14. Each of us had taken a book, mine being one of Stanley's Polar Expeditions. A book helped to pass the time and also kept one from wandering about where there was always the risk of running into gamekeepers and such like people.

3rd NIGHT.

10.30 p.m. saw us ready to move off, our first job being to find a stream in which to get a wash and to fill our water bottles. On a
show like this one drinks a tremendous amount of water. Later on, we suffered very badly from the want of it while passing through sandy country. We again took to the main road from Vorden to Steinhein running N.W. but this was about the last main road we walked along, for in passing through the village of Munsterbrock instead of detouring it, some villagers evidently did not like the look of us and started to give chase. 

The odds would have been all in their favour of course, because with a heavy pack one cannot run very far or fast, but a sharp corner at the outside of the village saved us, for on doubling round this we spotted a gate over which we jumped and got down behind a thick hedge, the hue and cry in a moment or two going past on the road at full blast. 

After this we kept off the main roads and detoured all villages. In coming out from the hiding place, my friend knocked a Hun off a bicycle, who was riding without any lights. Needless to say, we did not stop to apologise but hopped it across a field. At the cross roads the same night we came on three woman standing talking, who took to their heels on our approach.

Arriving at Steinheim in bright moonlight, we set about getting round it, a job which took us the most of the night as the going was very heavy and several streams had to be crossed. One pretty big stream the Emmer we crossed by a bridge beside some sort of a mill that was evidently running day and night. While passing this mill a Hun pushed his head out of a window and asked who we were, to which we answered nothing but kept an eye on him in case he decided to investigate more closely. 

Once clear of Steinheim we took a third-class road going due west from Wobbeck to Belle and lay up at a point about midway between these two villages again in a small but thick fir plantation, having a stream running through it. Nothing happened to disturb us that day and immediately it began to grow dark we set off.

4th NIGHT.

Keeping along the fringe of a big wood until we were well clear of the straggling village of Belle, we took to the road again which ran right through a very dense wood making the road as black as ebony. We passed several Huns on the road but they were more frightened of us than we were of them. This wood continued until a mile from the village of Meinberg whose outlying gardens we went through on S. side stopping to help ourselves to anything eatable, such as apples, peas, Etc., that we could lay our hands on then S.E. to Horn crossing the railway line Sandebeck, DETMOLD and giving the town of Horn a wide berth coming on to the main road with a tram-track running along the side on the S.E. side of the town. 

From our maps we could see that we were coming to a large range of hills across which the map showed only two routes, the road we were following which, however, would take us away down S. before we were across the hills and a track branching off the road which we had set our minds on taking, if we could find it and it was for this reason we ran the risk of walking along this main road which took us through a district where there were huge Hydros.

It must have been a health resort of the Huns. While walking on this road, suddenly in front of us in the moonlight we spotted two figures standing at the side of the road and on our coming closer they picked up a heavy bundle and made off into a wood at the side of the road. 

From this we gathered they were of the tunnel party and although we whistled the first line of "Annie Laurie" to which they replied they did not come near us, and we never found out who they were. Before we finally left this road, we passed two magnificent columns of rock. In the moonlight they looked to be about 200 feet high and the road was cut right through the solid rock.

It took us nearly an hour to find our path, having walked past it two or three times, but once found we were not long in getting to the summit of the range, from whence we got a dim view of a large trace of ground shown on the map as a manoeuvre ground and which we knew we would have to cross the next night, as there would be no cover there. 

Daylight found us leaving the hills, and we lay up again in a fir plantation at the foot. It poured solidly all that day so we made a sort of tent out of my friend's military cape, tying the neck to the branch of a tree and stretching out the ends and tying them to stones etc. under which we sat huddled all day with my Burberry round our shoulders. Our only visitor that day was a black cat to which we gave a small piece of bacon fat and hoped it would bring us good luck.

5th Night.

We followed the edge of the forest for about 4 miles along one of the darkest and filthiest roads I ever struck, until we came to a track shown  on maps as running almost due W. across the manoeuvre ground. About half way across this we stopped for our 10 minutes rest, our method of walking being walk 50 minutes and rest 10. We found we made better progress by this method and kept a steadier pace than if we did not rest at all. While resting and having a bite to eat a figure walked up to pass us, to which Purves said good-evening in German. The figure replied in very imperfect German and we were astonished to recognise Leggatt's voice who, you will remember, we parted from at Bodexen crossroads on our second night out.
He got down beside us saying how thankful he was to meet us, and he had found it an eerie business going alone and asked if we had any objections to his joining us. We having none, we three travelled together after this. Leggatt told us of rather an amusing experience he had when hiding the second day out. A patrol of boy scouts halted outside the wood he was in and shortly after, started systematically to search the wood. Leggatt got up a tree and although they searched the ground all round him they never thought of looking up.

We continued due S. until we got off the manoeuvre ground and crossed the main road from HOVELHONE to WELSCHMEYER thence N.W. along a track crossing innumerable streams and the railway line Hovelhof BIELEFELD lying up just E. of the main road HAUNITZ-SENNE. We were forced to stop frequently as Leggatt’s feet were giving him a great deal of trouble and continued to do so for some nights after this. 

He was wearing a pair of boots not his own, a great mistake, as a good fitting pair of boots is essential on a job like ours. He rubbed his sox with soap and his boots with fat, after which things improved a bit for him. This was an exceedingly open hiding place, and twice we had to move for people coming too close; after the second move we struck a deep ditch where we spent the rest of the day undisturbed.

Part 8: Jocks description leading up to the night of the escape

This is the last part of Jocks description of life leading up to the night of the escape (23rd July 1918).  Last night, precisely 100 years after this, we met in Holzminden and started our journey.  Have a look at our Twitter page [@RGE100Yrs] for videos (when the stupid GoPro decides to work)

This is a replay of the route we took last night

https://www.relive.cc/view/g22990882401

Preparation for Journey

The next to be given a chance were those who, in the eyes of the experienced Committee would put up a good show if they did get out.

For a week before the great day my friend and I spent hours studying the best route to follow, preparing our food, packs, clothes etc. The food we carried consisted of chiefly ships biscuits, dipped in molten dripping, stoned dates and great quantities of chocolate melted down into square blocks. In addition we carried meat cubes, Plasmon oats, compressed and mixed with Horlick’s Malted Milk Powder, Tea, Cocoa and soup cubes two tins compressed meat sausages and 15 or 16 trench coopers’ wax blocks with a wick in the middle on which to cook one hot meal per day. Each day's rations were made up in waterproof bundles so that when swimming rivers etc., the food would run a fair chance of remaining dry.

The clothes carried were two spare pairs of sox and some warm underclothes to wear during the day while lying in hiding. I also carried a Bilk shirt and found this a splendid thing for keeping in the heat.

We fully expected to have to swim the river Weser flowing about 50 yards wide so some means had to be devised of getting ones food and clothes across dry.

My old Burberry was treated to a thick coating of molten fat and rubbed well in, after which I put my pack and boots in, folding my clothes along the top and tied the Burberry along the top of the bundle with string. We next got a large tin bath and filled it with water and found that the bundle floated beautifully and after a quarter of an hour’s immersion everything was still bone dry.

New means of getting to Tunnel

We lastly provided ourselves with a loop from the bundle to go round our shoulders, so that when swimming the bundle would tow along behind and not get in the way of arms or legs.

To return to the tunnel, work had been going on night and day, mostly night for the last fortnight because the Huns had started a straffe, stopping all walks, games etc., and having a roll—call every two hours for some supposed ill-treatment to German Officers in England, so you can, understand that with a roll—call every two hours not much work could be done during the day, go night had to be resorted to. This meant that a new way of getting down to the tunnel had to be found as the doors leading outside were, of course, locked and a way was cut along the eaves of the roof through the orderlies quarters, down their stair to the cellar and go to the tunnel.

Precautions on Night of exit

Certain officers were detailed on the night of exit to come round the rooms as their occupant' s turn came for them to go. This was to avoid officers gathering in the corridors where they might easily be seen by the sentries outside, as the corridor lights were left on all night. In our room there were three occupants, a Captain Grey, an Officer who had done a great deal of hard work in the tunnel, a Lt. Purves and myself. Grey was one of the first to go through, and so left amongst one of the first 12. Purves and I were warned about midnight that our turn had come and were told that all the first party were safely away, so we gathered up our stuff, said good—bye to a few well-wishers and set off. At the tunnel entrance we tossed for who should go first, Purves winning, so he wormed his way in, I following right upon his heels, in fact, all the way through my head was running against his feet, as we wormed our way along, and the officer following me wag in the same position.

Getting through tunnel

Getting through that tunnel was a nightmare experience, the distance seemed endless as one pushed ones heavy pack along a couple of feet and then wormed after it. It would have been easier had the tunnel been level but in one place where it came from the 30 foot level to within two feet of the surface the slope was like going up the side of a house. I stuck at the bottom of this slope, as everyone going up had to dig their feet and elbows into the side to get a hold at all and of course loosened the sides so that stones earth rolled down and piled up at the bottom. Sticking wasn't a pleasant experience, one is apt to get panicky but the thought of others coming behind had a calming effect, and eventually I loosened the rock that was holding me and crawled or wormed my way up with frequent rests to regain my breath. Once the top was reached the going was easier and shortly afterwards my head struck solid ground in front, and on looking up I saw a dark blotch of sky and felt the first puff of pure free air in my face. 

On getting out, my first thought was, "What was the sentry doing" so I had a look through the beans and by the light of the arc lamps I saw him walking slowly up and down, rifle under arm, and coat collar up round his ears as it was raining hard with a strong wind blowing from the south west — a happy occurrence for us as it carried any small noise we did make away from the camp. 

I soon reached the corn and crawled through a lane as wide as a wagon track made by the fellows in front of us. Once through the corn we paused a few minutes for a much needed breath, and then set off for the river Weser being joined by another officer a Captain Leggatt who was going to travel alone. 
Nothing happened to disturb us and we had great hopes that by this time another 20 or 30 must be out, but as a matter of fact only 29 got out, the 30th man who was a South African Major of large proportions stuck in the sane place as I did, and it was not until nearly six in the morning that they managed to drag him backwards out of the tunnel into the cellar again. It would have been madness for anyone else to attempt to get through, so everybody returned to their rooms and got out of their filthy clothes before a roll-call was called.

Crossing the Weser

Reaching the Weser we got our clothes off as quickly as possible, tying them all up in our waterproofs as described before, and fixing the loops for towing the bundle after us. Leggat had made some sort of a raft for getting his stuff across, but it did not answer the purpose very well as he was the only one of the three who got his clothes wet. The current where we crossed was very strong so Purves and I waded in holding one another’s shoulders to prevent us being washed off our feet. We were very lucky in this crossing as we were able to wade across the river, the water at its deepest part coming up to our shoulders where it took some hanging on to keep one’s feet on the bottom. Once safely across we dried and dressed as quickly as possible, the sky showing that daylight was not far off. Half an hours walking took us into the woods at the foot of the hills up which we climbed until about half way up we struck a thick birch plantation and decided to make this our first hiding place. Our first job was to get some sleep as we were all pretty well done up after the exertion of getting through the tunnel. We were awakened about 9 in the morning by a party of school children searching about the plantation, but whether it was for us or not of course we could not find out. At any rate they passed within 10 yards of where we were lying. After this we moved into the centre of the plantation in amongst a pile of rocks which afforded splendid cover.

Tomorrow, we'll post About Jocks first full day and ours too. We will be taking half the time Jock took (somewhat understandably) so will get back in sync with his memoirs after tomorrows run

Part 7: Lecture by 2nd Lt Jock Tullis MC RFC on 23rd March 1921

Holzminden

On arrival there, we were greeted by this gentleman in a very hearty manner, he saying how glad he was to see us etc. etc., and that if we wished to escape we were just to give him 48 hours' notice and he would arrange it. 

It was on meeting this Neimeyer for the first time that I was struck by the extraordinary likeness to his brother at Clausthal. He spoke pretty good English and prided himself in his knowledge of English idioms. One amusing story is told of him that during a heated argument with the senior British Officer he wound up by saying "You think I know nothing, but I know damn a11". Roars of laughter from the assembled officers.

When changing from one camp to another in Germany, we were always searched on leaving the old camp and also on entering the new camp. After I read my maps which were worth more than their weight in gold to me, I had to devise some hiding place where they would not be easily spotted by the Hun but at the same time it must be a place where I could lay my hands on them at a moment's notice, in fact, it had to be a hiding place that I could carry about with me in case I moved from the camp. Train journeys were always a very favourable opportunity of making a bolt for it especially if the journey was an all-night one, for although there was usually one German to one Britisher in each compartment, they usually fell asleep some time or other and if you were watchful and ready, a minute need not elapse until you were on the footboard of the train and these trains travelled so slowly that one could almost jump from them without injury at any moment.

I have already mentioned that it was our custom when travelling to carry sufficient food for the journey as we never knew how long these would last, having only an imperfect knowledge of the country. I usually carried my food in a cardboard box about 12" long by 9 broad and 6” deep, so decided to try the experiment of a false bottom. I spent a great deal of time on this, and care, and when finished I was satisfied that it would never be spotted unless by a Hun that was looking specially for such a thing. I may say that this box successfully passed no less than four searches without being spotted. My compass I simply carried in my pocket and when being searched I slipped it under my tongue which will give you some idea of its size, it being little bigger than a sixpenny piece, but one of the most accurate and beautifully made instruments I have seen. On one search the Hun who was examining me went the length of making me open my mouth and never spotted it. 1 could even speak fairly well with it. 

We hadn't been many days in Holzminden until we learned that some great scheme for escape was on foot and the word "Tunnel” was breathed in our ear. 

It is a very difficult job for me to explain the situation, working and management, but with the assistance of a rough sketch I have drawn out I hope to give you a fair idea of the sometimes almost insurmountable difficulties that were successfully overcome by the small party of plucky officers who were running the tunnel.

The building from which the tunnel started was known as B. House and was a building about 200' long x 90' broad x 50’ high, having basement cellars running along its whole length. At the eastern end of the building there was built on to it a small house underneath which was a cellar having a flight of steps leading down from the ground level at the back of the building. The Huns had played into our hands in so much that they had wired up this staircase, making such a good job of it that it would be impossible for any of us to come up, and what was far more to the point, impossible for any of them to get down without spending a day or so in clearing away the wire. From the outside or eastern wall some 20' below the ground level to the wall encircling the camp would be about 10' and to the spot aimed at by the tunnel party, a cornfield another 40'. 

A sentry was posted inside the wall and another outside as well. I have mentioned that the only means of ingress to this cellar was by an outside sunken stair. Inside the building and built on to the western wall of the cellar was another staircase leading from the top to the bottom of the main building and down which the Huns used to page every day on their way to the cells and storerooms in the basement. One bright officer suddenly thought that under the stair down which we passed there must be a space and if one could get underneath they would be at the wall of the cellar to get through which would be no very difficult job. They decided to investigate and started operations on a wooden partition on the left-hand side of the stair. 

A very fine saw was obtained with which they sawed down between the dovetails of two of the boards making such a neat job of it, that unless it was very closely looked into one would not notice it had been tampered with. Once the sawing was done the boards were slipped out, the fellows went inside and the boards were put back into position again. Inside they discovered to their delight that there was a big space underneath the stairs and that they could easily get at the western wall of the cellar the bricks of which were removed and a steel plate thick burned through with acid obtained by bribery, and they were inside the big cellar. The tunnel was started at the eastern wall low down on the floor level and all the earth that was brought out of the tunnel was stacked round the walls of the cellar. You will be able to gain some idea of the quantity of earth that had to be brought out when I tell you the dimensions of the cellar were roughly 30’ long x 20’ broad x 6' high and on the tunnel being finished this cellar was full to the ceiling, a narrow passage only being left to get along to the tunnel.

Great care had to be taken when working below to let those working know when any of the Huns were coming, so that they could stop work until the danger had passed. A number of our fellows were always sitting about outside reading books etc., and on the approach of any German the signal was given to a man at one of the windows who by means of a string passing down through the floor, gave those in the cellar the signal to stop work, carry on or come up.

During the nine months that it took to make this tunnel, this system worked perfectly and with the help of our own orderlies in the basement of whose quarters the tunnel started, the work went on apace.

Four officers went down after morning roll-call and worked till three or four in the afternoon, when work ceased for the day.

As they had to go through the orderlies entrance, they had to change into orderlies clothes and at a given signal from an orderly always on guard at their door, walked along and entered the building, went downstairs, slipped out the boards and got into the cellar where was kept some old clothes for working in. The tools used were anything in the shape of iron chisels, coal shovels etc., that we could lay hands on. One man worked at the face of the tunnel, loosening the soil which was of a loose rocky nature, giving some people to believe that the river Weser which flows about a mile away must at one time have flowed round where the camp was situated. When the man at the tunnel face had loosened a quantity of earth, he filled it into a round basin to which was attached ropes to pull the loaded basin back to the tunnel mouth where it was emptied and then pulled back to the tunnel head once more. 

The tunnel was just large enough to admit a man's body lying flat, there being no headroom to admit crawling on hands and knees so you will understand how hard it must have been for a man to work in this uncomfortable position when there was barely enough room for the loaded basin to pass the man's body. It was considered a good day's work if a foot of progress was made. The basin had soon to be abandoned for the tunnel took innumerable twists and turns to avoid rock so that sacks had to be used and dragged back by a man put foremost lying flat on his chest. The workers changed rounds every hour, the two inside the tunnel coming out and the other two who were stacking the earth going in.

Very soon air became a hard problem to solve. You can easily understand that in a cellar with neither windows or doors the air would very soon become foul. AB the tunnel lengthened, an air pump wag made, something after the shape of a village blacksmith's bellows to which lengths of pipes made of twisted wire, covered with canvas were attached, having for their joints, Colgate's shaving tins which, as the male members of my audience will know, have a screw on the lid, but even with this, which at the best was far from perfect as the air got out all along the pipes I have known the air to be so foul at the tunnel head that if a match were struck it would only glow a dull red, and a candle would not think of burning. The fellows working had sometimes to be dragged out by their comrades in a state of collapse and with a head like a dozen hives of bees. Still the great work went on nearer and nearer to completion.

Sometimes we had bad scares and thought it must only be a question of minutes until the whole thing was discovered by the Huns. There were some 500 British officers in this camp everyone of whom knew of the tunnel it says a good deal for them that the tunnel went undiscovered to the end. Once or twice it was a near go, especially on one occasion when a newly captured Padre in the hearing of two of the German interpreters asked another officer what he knew about the tunnel. One orderley we were not too sure of who used to receive presents of wine from Neimeyer in the hope that he would give him information in return.

This orderley got very drunk one night shortly before the completion of the tunnel and fell downstairs, fracturing his skull, accidentally of course, so that was another danger removed!

Finding Position of Tunnel

The aim of the tunnellers was a cornfield about 40 yards outside the camp wall but they found they could not reach it before the corn would be cut, so a nearer mark was chosen in the shape of a tall row of green beans giving sufficient cover for a man to crawl away. The exact position of the tunnel was next noted by working up to near the surface where a small hole was made, through which was pushed a fine French fencing rapier having a small piece of white paper attached to the end. A man from one of the top windows of the house was able to spot this and from then until the rapier disappeared behind the beans this mark was used.

At last the great day dawned, August 25th, 1918 on the night of which the attempt was to be made. A round hole was made in the floor where the tunnel ended and the roof scooped away to within an inch or two of the surface across which was stretched a piece of packsheet so that last of the roof could fall into this and be lowered into the hole in the floor, leaving a free passage out.

I must here leave the tunnel and say a few words about our preparations for the long journey of 120 miles which we calculated would take us from 14 to 15 days walking.

As everybody in the camp knew of the tunnel and were one and all keen to be allowed a chance to get out, a Tunnel Committee was formed, who decided that after the originators of the Tunnel, preference should be given to     officers who had escaped before and who had refused to go to Holland on the Neutral Country exchange which was an agreement that after 18 months captivity officers of both countries should be allowed to proceed to Holland where they would have to remain until the end of the war.

Part 6: Lecture by 2nd Lt Jock Tullis MC RFC on 23rd March 1921

This instalment covers the time until Jock is moved to Holzminden...

Strohen   

Our sentence being finished we said goodbye to Clausthal and took train for Strohen, a camp in the middle of a large bleak moor and some seventy odd miles from the Dutch Frontier. This camp consisted of a number of wooden barracks with a dozen or so rooms in each, and was one of the most uncomfortable camps in Germany. It had been built to Straffe Russian Officers and I believe the poor wretches had a terrible time here for over a year. At each corner of the camp towers were erected in which sentries with machine guns were always on guard.

My first night there, looking back now, was really amusing although it did not seem so at the time. Like an ass I had come away from Clausthal carrying only sufficient food for the journey and no clothes, thinking my luggage would come on by the same train . It did not turn up for several days and all my store of tinned food was stolen on the journey. I was given a room with two of our Merchant skippers and after hearing their latest news I lay down to sleep, but was up again the next minute feeling for some very hard object in my bed and presently unearthed same in the shape of an old rat-trap. I should mention that the mattresses were stuffed with none too clean straw so that all sorts of weird objects found their way into one’s bed when it was being filled. Before I could sleep that night I had unearthed a goodly pile of broken bottles, old books, bread cards and goodness knows what else.

The life at Strohen was much the same as at any other camp so I will not dwell on it, but before passing on I should like to say a few words of what happened when this camp first became British. The first Britishers here were some fifty of sixty newly captured Merchant skippers, engineers and officers, mostly well on in life and with, of course, no knowledge of the ways of the Hun who did pretty well as he liked with them, so judge the surprise of the Hun when one fine day a party of fifty officers from Clausthal were seen marching up the road singing all the comic songs at the top of their voices and showing plainly enough that they did not care a rap for all the Huns

in Christendom. This lively party were met at the camp by the Merchant skippers crowding round the wire to exchange greetings, but this the Hun did not like and the Kommandt, Neimeyer the second, ordered his sentries to fix bayonets and drive them back to their rooms where they were locked in. This small show of swinishness showed our party the sort of Huns they were up against. On the first roll call things began to hum. To begin with we were always very careful to note that when a German called out our name he should give us our rank as well.

On this occasion, the Huns did not do so, and when the first name was called out, a Captain, he, of course, did not move. The

Hun interpreter could not understand this performance and after bawling out the officer's name half a dozen times he turned and shouted "Some of you fellows don't seem to know your names" upon which the first named officer quietly replied "There is a Captain KENNARD here.”  After this the Huns were always very particular to give us all our ranks.

Tin Hats

Some few days after this party' s arrival, the Huns gave

out an order that all British Officers possessing Tin Hats (steel helmets) must give them up at once, but rather than do this our fellows threw them into a number of small but fairly deep ponds that were in the camp. The Huns replied by sending in sentries armed with long poles attached to which was a long piece of string having a bent nail tied on to the end. 

One old Hun had quite a successful half hour's fishing and had brought up some six or seven hats which he piled up one on top of the other at his side. He was just in the act of landing his eighth when a couple of our fellows took a running kick at the pile and sent them all back again. The guard were turned out to drive our fellows into their rooms and I 'm sorry to say one officer was bayoneted through the leg while this was going on. This same officer, after he came back from Hospital , made a very clever escape from the bath shed, covering the 70 odd kilometres to the Frontier within a week and getting safely across the Frontier. This officer was mainly responsible for the splended supply of verboten articles such as maps, compasses, German money etc. that soon began to come in. It was in this camp that I received five Ordanance survey maps, a compass and an electric torch, all of which were sent out in a blue coloured Oval Tin sealed up and labelled on the outside, "Parson’s Farmyard Pork Sausages" with a small label on the top instructing the user not to open this tin unless for immediate use. Now although I knew this tin was coming, the name and method of labelling would have been sufficient to arouse our suspicions. We received so many tins that very soon we knew the names of all the well-known packers and their methods of packing, so that a strange name was quite sufficient to make us suspicious of the contents. This was the only tin in the parcel, the other articles being stuff that would be very valuable on an escape, dates, raisins, almonds, ships biscuits etc. These were the maps we ultimately used and they proved invaluable, and accurate beyond belief as the actual experience was to confirm.

Shortly after the episode of the tin hats, Neimeyer was removed from Strohen much to the relief of everyone, Germans included, his place being taken by a German Captain who was undoubtedly wrong in the mind. His pet hobby was to come on the roll-calls and try to get the crowd of British officers to give him a real military salute. His methods were many and varied but none met with much success. On one roll-call he came on and made a special effort to obtain his much desired recognition. On roll—calls we were formed up four deep in a long line and when your name was called you were supposed to walk a few yards to your left and get into the same formation. This was to enable the Huns to keep count of us all as previously it was an easy matter when a couple escaped to answer their names for them and by so doing give them a few days clear start. Our friend the Kommandt went up to the first officer, pulled down his coat, clicked his heels, straightened his shoulders and saluted, to which the British Officer paid not the slightest attention but only stared at him. The Kommandt tried again with a like result and then passed on to the next officer a giant of a Scotchman who, after the Kommandt had gone through his palaver, literally sprang to attention and saluted with a great wave of the arm. This so staggered our old boy that it took him some minutes to recover. 

When he did so he gave the Scot a genial salute and passed on in a dazed fashion to the next officer , who taking his cue from the other two, waited until the Kommandt had got his part over, then swept off his hat at the same time making a magnificent low bow. Amidst audible titters from the crowd, the Kommandt returned his bow and again passed on to the next officer, who, as I have explained, had three other officers standing behind him. Having seen how the previous three had behaved, they probably arranged their stunt, but be that as it may, after the old boy had again got his part off his chest, the four officers like one man put their hands to their foreheads and made a deep salaam, with which the Kommandt was delighted, but his joy was short-lived for this sort of thing was too much for our fellows who burst into a roar of laughter and the rest of the Huns, seeing plainly enough that we were making fool of their Kommandt, marched him off the parade and a few days later he was removed from the camp altogether.

Several escapes were tried from this camp, the cleverest of which was done by a party of officers dressed as British Tommies and one of their number who spoke-German dressed as a German Under Officer. ESCAPES . This party marched out one of the side gates of the camp, the sentry on guard being completely taken in and their absence was not discovered until the evening roll—call. However, none of them got through.

Another attempt that failed was done by a party of officers who got hold of a stout pole and after hanging about for days at a favourable moment, when the gentry was off his guard, they rushed at the main gate, a wooden frame filled in with Rabbit wire, their intention being to ram the lock and make a bolt for it. Unfortunately, the man who was steering the pole missed the lock altogether, all that happened being that the pole went through the wire instead, and one of the number received a bullet in the leg from the now frightened sentry.

Kinnard’s 

One other escape is worth mentioning, that of a Lt. Kinnard who made a key for the second main gate which he hoped would open it alright. All locks  on these were of the double turn type and, of course, one could not march up to a gate and try the fit of a key. Only one attempt dared be made and the gate had either to open successfully or not.

However, every night for a week or so this officer strolled up and down in front of the camp, awaiting an opportunity to make the attempt. One night he seized a few minutes’ opportunity, marched up to the gate and inserted the key and to his surprise and delight the lock turned easily. Out walked Kinnard and actually passed several German soldiers before he was clear of the outbuildings. Only out a week, however, when he was caught in a village through losing his way. One night, having lost his way, he struck a signal box on which he could faintly see a name, so he hunted around and unearthed a ladder up which he proceeded to climb to make out the name. At the top of the ladder, instead of looking at the name he found himself looking at the face of a frightened Hun signalman who, after a bit, proceeded to give chase but Kinnard got safely away. We also ran two tunnels from Strohen. 

The first was discovered and the second was given away by the roof falling in, leaving a gaping hole in the ground level, which of course was easily noticed by the Huns in their nightly inspection of the camp. Rumours began to circulate that the camp was to be broken up and sure enough in January or February 1918, a notice was posted up to this effect.

All officers who behaved themselves in the eyes of the Huns, that is, never tried to escape etc., were to be sent to the best camp in Germany, at least so rumour had it. I was not one of these fortunate people, our destination being Holzminden, where we knew one of the hated Neimeyers was Kommandt.