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Escape fever
A memoir by a British prisoner-of-war during WWI who escaped from Strohen Camp and made his way to Holland.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
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February 28, 2016
A memoir of life in a prisoner-of-war camp during WWI and an audacious escape to Holland.
Geoffrey Harding was a young British officer who was shot down over Germany by one of the Red Baron's squadron. Miraculously surviving the crash, he and the pilot are immediately captured by the Germans. After days of forced marches, interrogations of varying degrees of brutality, they are separated. Harding ends up in Camp Strohen, and immediately starts plotting his escape. As the book's title indicates, there was frantic escape planning ongoing at any time in this and other camps, and the author describes a number of successful and unsuccessful attempts. Apart from mad dashes for freedom beyond the barbed wire, there were attempts to impersonate German officers leaving the camp, and of course, tunnels. After multiple failed attempts, Harding and his New Zealand friend Fitzgerald manage to escape by posing as ordinary soldiers getting water from the camp pump. For more than a week, they walk across Germany by night, holing up in barns and sheds at night. On several occasions they narrowly escape running into patrols or civilians, but it's hunger and thirst, and in the case of Fitzgerald, a gastrointestinal upset, that are the hardest to bear. Despite having no compass and only a rudimentary map, they reach the river Ems, which they cross by swimming. Soon after, they manage to reach Holland, literally crawling close to the ground to escape being seen by the border patrols. After a short quarantine they find a passage home to England, where they are received by the King.
This book from 1933 was fascinating to me because it was written in the plucky, stiff-upper-lip style that seemed de rigeur with the British at that time. For instance, the author refuses to dwell on the deprivations of the camp, focusing instead on the organized disobedience perfected by the imprisoned officers. The prisoners play pranks on the guards and find a hundred ways of humiliating and irritating their captors, especially the pompous camp commander.
The second thing that struck me was the contrast with WWII. For instance, there are no stories of prisoners being shot or brutalized, and the worst punishment that seemed to have been meted out was a few days in solitary confinement, a punishment that the British officers made fun of by committing so many offenses that there was a waiting list of several months to sit out one's time in
" the jug". It also seems that the security at the camp was pretty lax, because it seemed that officers escaped all the time (even if they were usually captured after a few days).
Bottom line : an interesting read of human pluckiness, inventiveness and perseverance. With hand-drawn maps of the camp, the route the escapees took, and various tools they fashioned to assist them in their escape.
Geoffrey Harding was a young British officer who was shot down over Germany by one of the Red Baron's squadron. Miraculously surviving the crash, he and the pilot are immediately captured by the Germans. After days of forced marches, interrogations of varying degrees of brutality, they are separated. Harding ends up in Camp Strohen, and immediately starts plotting his escape. As the book's title indicates, there was frantic escape planning ongoing at any time in this and other camps, and the author describes a number of successful and unsuccessful attempts. Apart from mad dashes for freedom beyond the barbed wire, there were attempts to impersonate German officers leaving the camp, and of course, tunnels. After multiple failed attempts, Harding and his New Zealand friend Fitzgerald manage to escape by posing as ordinary soldiers getting water from the camp pump. For more than a week, they walk across Germany by night, holing up in barns and sheds at night. On several occasions they narrowly escape running into patrols or civilians, but it's hunger and thirst, and in the case of Fitzgerald, a gastrointestinal upset, that are the hardest to bear. Despite having no compass and only a rudimentary map, they reach the river Ems, which they cross by swimming. Soon after, they manage to reach Holland, literally crawling close to the ground to escape being seen by the border patrols. After a short quarantine they find a passage home to England, where they are received by the King.
This book from 1933 was fascinating to me because it was written in the plucky, stiff-upper-lip style that seemed de rigeur with the British at that time. For instance, the author refuses to dwell on the deprivations of the camp, focusing instead on the organized disobedience perfected by the imprisoned officers. The prisoners play pranks on the guards and find a hundred ways of humiliating and irritating their captors, especially the pompous camp commander.
The second thing that struck me was the contrast with WWII. For instance, there are no stories of prisoners being shot or brutalized, and the worst punishment that seemed to have been meted out was a few days in solitary confinement, a punishment that the British officers made fun of by committing so many offenses that there was a waiting list of several months to sit out one's time in
" the jug". It also seems that the security at the camp was pretty lax, because it seemed that officers escaped all the time (even if they were usually captured after a few days).
Bottom line : an interesting read of human pluckiness, inventiveness and perseverance. With hand-drawn maps of the camp, the route the escapees took, and various tools they fashioned to assist them in their escape.
Displaying 1 of 1 review