EXIT BLANK, SHEDS
A quiet day amid peaceful surroundings counteracted the effects of the
excitement of the previous night. We slept quite well by reason of the
good conditions, and but for the soreness of Fox's heel and my left
ankle would have felt extremely fit. We were guilty during the
afternoon of a piece of carelessness which nearly gave us away. Fox
and Blank were near the edge of our hiding-place, and went to sleep
with some of our kit spread about the ground round them. I was asleep
further inside our cover, but my boots were with theirs drying in the
sun.
Suddenly Fox woke up and saw a woman not fifty yards from them,
planting something in the field and gradually moving in our direction
as she worked. Waking Blank and seizing all the kit he could find he
crawled into the depths of our hiding-place, followed by Blank who had
got hold of other portions of our impedimenta. An hour or so later the
woman departed and we found that one of my boots had remained in the
open all the time. We decided that in all probability she had not seen
it, and so had no fears of discovery due to her.
The night's march began at 10 p.m., but it proved to be too early an
hour for such night-birds as we. Hardly had we moved two hundred yards
from our cover, when a youth with a shot-gun, prowling round in search
of rabbits, saw us from about sixty-yards away. We legged it and soon
left him wondering what three rough-looking men with heavy bags, and
of military age, were doing in that part of the country.
Making excellent progress that night, we crossed a wild stretch of
heath in the early hours of the morning, and then got back to more of
the abominable corn-land again. Crossing a railway and passing a
cottage by the level-crossing we were greeted with the usual barking
of a house-dog.
_Thursday, 28th June._ It was now high time to think of our
hiding-place for the day. Nothing presented itself and we carried on
with our rush westwards. Cover after cover we examined without finding
what we wanted, and at last, hearing German voices not far off, we
were forced to adopt the first thing which presented itself.
This proved to be a wood cut up with broad drives, with hardly any
undergrowth in it.
We had to make the best of a bad job, and by making a kind of zareba
of dead branches, some sort of cover from view from anyone more than
fifty yards away was possible.
The sound of voices on all sides of the wood, which was only about
200-300 yards wide, and the yapping of the ever-present dogs,
together with the fact that half-cut hay-fields touched the wood on
two sides, made it imperative that we should have a sentry all the
time. After a hot drink and a breakfast of beef and biscuits, which
made us feel a little warmer, Fox and I lay down to sleep. Blank, who
had asked for the first watch, for the two hours till 7 a.m., because
he said he was too cold to sleep, was to undertake the duties of
sentry. It is necessary to state here that, now we were so rapidly
approaching the Ems river, Blank had begun to have serious misgivings
about his ability to swim it.
We had fully made up our minds that there was to be no looking for
boats or building of rafts for that river. The Germans, we knew, were
certain to have this obstacle well guarded, and the only chance of
success, and that but a slight one, lay in dashing through the
watchers and swimming it. Blank had spoken of trying to find a boat in
order to tackle the Ems on his own.
Well, Fox and I went to sleep feeling fairly secure with a sentry to
warn us in time to get away should we be discovered. After about an
hour we both woke up, instinctively feeling something was wrong. Blank
had disappeared. On looking out of our hiding-place I saw him lying
fast asleep in the full sunlight, right in the middle of the drive
some fifty yards away.
We woke him up by throwing some pieces of wood until we hit him.
He came back to our hiding-place, and naturally Fox and I felt much
annoyed that the trust we had put in his watching should have been
betrayed. This incident, combined with Blank's fears for the future,
when in all probability he would have to swim the Ems, made it
imperative for us to come to some arrangement. It was decided that
Blank should go on by himself from this point. We arranged to divide
up our supplies and equipment so that he should have a third.
Accordingly, after I had copied the map for him, all was ready by noon
for his departure. Taking a third of the food, a water-bottle,
compass, and a copy of the map, he left us, determining to push on by
day as he was unable to find his way at night by himself. The line he
decided to follow involved his following the main-road through ----, a
large military centre. However, he hoped to get through this place,
trusting to his luck, civilian clothes and a fair knowledge of German
to assist him.
Leaving us lying in our hiding-place, he was soon out of sight, and we
saw or heard nothing more of him.
At about 10 o'clock we, Fox and I, began our march. We struck
northwards now in order to get off the line taken by Blank in the
morning, in case he had been caught and had thus made the Germans more
wide-awake.
Proceeding at a decent pace we soon came in sight of some sheds which
lay directly on our line of march. Being curious and feeling much
more confident, as we were now only two, we decided to go as close to
the sheds as we dared in order to get a good look at them.
We were able to see them excellently, although we never got very close
to them. What prevented us from approaching any nearer was the sound
of a concertina issuing from a hut a hundred yards from us. German
voices could also be heard, so we considered that we had done all that
could be done and left the place exceedingly rapidly, feeling that we
should be safer when we had put a few miles between these sheds and
ourselves. A very wooded country now lay before us, and we made good
progress by walking along the fire cuts and drives, which conveniently
ran east and west. We soon struck a main-road, which we followed for
some time. While proceeding along this a cyclist dashed past us making
practically no noise, so we had no time in which to take cover. He
looked at us when passing, but it was so dark under the trees, that he
could not have got any impression of our appearance.
By now both of us were suffering very much from our feet, and on
leaving the main-road and taking to rough tracks over wild country we
suffered intensely owing to the inequalities of the ground.
_Friday, 29th June._ At about 4.30 a.m., thoroughly tired out, but
pleased with the distance travelled that night, we found a place in
which to hide.
A rest till noon, and then feeling that we had barely sufficient food
for the distance still to be covered, we decided to try and push
forward a mile or so during the afternoon in the rough country of that
distance. Leaving our hiding-place at about 3 p.m. we cautiously
crossed a road and continued slowly working forward till about 6
o'clock. Here, finding excellent cover in a very thick fir plantation,
we halted until dark.
We were well north now of our original route, and we must have been
more than twelve miles away from the east and west line Blank had
taken.
At first we had been worried over the idea of his probable capture
affecting us also. But remembering that the Germans did not know that
the parties had amalgamated, and were looking for one single man and
two in a separate party, for the original report from the camp must
have started the existence of two separate escapes, we felt much
reassured. If they caught Blank they would naturally conclude that
they had re-captured me, and that the original party of two might be
anywhere, and nowhere in particular.