ACROSS THE FRONTIER
During our rapid march we passed a few houses, and shortly afterwards
began to cross an open moor which spread flat and wide in front of us.
Our map showed a canal bordering the frontier itself, and it was along
this canal that we anticipated having to avoid the line of actual
frontier watchers.
We were desperately anxious to make the frontier line within the next
half-hour, in order to avoid having to lie waiting for the next night
within a mile or so of it, as so many unfortunate escaped prisoners
have been caught while hiding near the frontier itself. This anxiety
on our part was now the cause of our making an appalling error, which
nearly ended disastrously for us both. When within a mile of a line of
trees, which we decided must be along the canal bank and must
practically define the frontier line, we suddenly saw two German
soldiers advancing some thousand yards in front of us. Had they seen
us? We dived to the ground and lay still, in the hope that we had not
been seen. Soon there was no doubt whatever that we had been observed,
as the two Boches came straight towards us at a steady walk.
We decided that by separating one or both of us might succeed in
getting away from them, and so I crawled towards the north while Fox
went off southwards towards a peat observation hut.
Fox was dressed in his dark blue suit still, and I had now got my
khaki coat as my outside garment. The value of the khaki coat now came
out.
They evidently saw Fox crawling and not me, as they very soon changed
their direction slightly in order to go after him. Fox and I had
crawled two hundred yards apart when he must have had no doubt that
they were definitely after him, and I suddenly saw him get up and run
off, away from the frontier direction.
He seemed to me to be keeping the hut between him and his German
pursuers. The latter, probably oldish men, or wounded and not
absolutely recovered, had no idea of running after him, and I suppose
they knew that their shooting was not good enough to score a hit at a
running-man four hundred yards from them. However, they followed his
course at a brisk walk, passing me at some hundred to two hundred
yards distance.
I saw them go to the hut, look in, and not finding anything in it of
interest to them, continue their pursuit. Fox led them over the worst
pieces of boggy ground he could find. Having no boots and very light
footwear, by reason of the two pairs of socks being his all, he was
able to do excellent "time" over the peaty soil.
The Germans got others to help them, and eventually had quite a number
of Boches after him. Finding a hole in the ground which satisfied his
requirements, Fox got into it and covered himself over with peat and
heather.
The "field" now included dogs and cyclists. When the dogs had got
sufficiently near him to cause real alarm a marvellous stroke of luck
came to his assistance. A flock of sheep, grazing on the moor,
wandered right across his track, drowning all scent and completely
defeating all the efforts of the dogs to follow his line.
After lying shivering in his hole all day he commenced his final dash
for the frontier at about 11 p.m., and crossed a mile or so to the
north of the place at which I passed through the German frontier line,
without seeing any sentries.
After the Germans had gone well past me in their hunt after Fox, I
began to crawl again; but I made slow progress, as going on all-fours
was out of the question, the vegetation being seldom more than
eighteen inches high and in places considerably less. It was a most
tiring game this sort of land-swimming, and I continued as long as I
could each time I did a crawl, and then rested a space. In three hours
I covered five hundred yards and then considered that I was far enough
from the scene of our discovery to be safe, should the Germans return
to see if anything of interest had been left at the place where they
had first remarked Fox crawling.
I then lay still and began to feel fearfully cold on account of the
soaking wet clothes clinging to me. I had a meagre meal. I had no
water, so soon began to feel thirsty as the day began to warm up.
Sleep was out of the question, firstly on account of the cold and
afterwards on account of the great heat when the sun got high.
I lay and thought of many things, mostly of that line of trees I could
see ahead of me which I knew must be practically along the frontier
line. The fear of recapture now became haunting. Up till then I had
been fully prepared to find myself rounded up and then taken back to
five months' solitary confinement, and I had managed to think of that
probability with complete calm, as so few of the many who try to
escape have the luck to get right through with it.
But now it was different, to be so near and know that twelve or
fourteen hours of inactivity lay in front of one before the last great
effort could be attempted, in which time one was powerless to move in
the midst of this "Frontier" zone, was a nerve-shattering experience.
It would have been much better with a companion, as a whispered
exchange of thoughts makes all the difference.
I wondered whether Fox had been caught and whether either of us would
get over, but never dreamt that we should both have the marvellous
luck to do so. While lying there waiting for night good luck again
came to my assistance. The German relief for their posts actually on
the frontier, marched across this open moor every two hours, and they
passed along a track within 200 yards of my hiding-place, so that I
could time their passing and was able to make plans accordingly.
They passed me regularly at half-past-five, half-past seven,
half-past-nine, etc., and those that were relieved and had to return
across the moor generally came by about three-quarters of an hour
afterwards.
I was also able to watch them until they disappeared every time in a
clump of bushes under the trees I had already noticed and conjectured
must be along the frontier. Thus, I could fairly well assume that the
position of one post was fixed. The afternoon wore on and I managed to
pass some of the time by drying the compass, which had got full of
water during the previous night's swim. With the exception of the
regular passings of the Boche sentry-relief, the only other human
being who showed himself was a shepherd, some five hundred yards away.
I had an anxious time for a spell as he drove his sheep towards me,
and I feared that if they came past me the dog might give me away.
Fortunately he turned the flock homewards when still some three
hundred yards from me. Evening slowly came, and the long hours of
twilight gradually gave way to partial darkness. I cannot call it a
stronger darkness than that, as the moon rose at once and the north
never lost its weird light all night. I felt the want of sleep badly,
but had not been able to sleep for even a quarter of an hour all day
and now could not run the risk of waking too late, so had to do
without it.
At 10.30 I came to the conclusion that I could move at last, and very
pleased I was to stand up and rub my legs after my enforced
uncomfortable position all day.
Setting out cautiously towards the frontier post that I had been able
to more or less mark down, it was not very long before the mile or so
of open that had to be covered was completed.
I thought that, were I to pass close to the post of which I knew the
position, I must necessarily be as far from the unknown one on my
right as possible.
At about 200 yards distance from what I judged to be the line of
posts, I got on all fours and worked forward noiselessly. My khaki
coat again stood me in good stead, as I must have been an extremely
difficult object to see, even in the light which was at that time
quite strong.
Once more my luck held good. When about midway between the posts, the
Boche sentry on duty on my right, about whom I knew nothing, very
obligingly chose that moment to stand up against the sky-line and
begin singing "Die Wacht am Rhein." It was a fine night, which
perhaps caused him to be jovial, but probably it was the result of
smuggled spirits.
After singing a bit, my friend the sentry began shouting to his
companion next beyond him.
This made matters easier for me, and I was able to crawl forward in
full confidence. A dyke, at the bottom of which was a little water,
had to be crossed, and then some rough fields.
Shortly after this I heard a patrol which I easily avoided in the
corn. Several more dykes, the deepest water in any of them only
reaching to my knees, had to be crossed, and I was once more on arable
land. I must now have been two miles inside Holland, but now again I
heard a patrol. This time a cyclist dashed along the road on hearing
me, I suppose, and once again the same curlew noises began to spread
themselves around me.
However, this time I knew about them and pushed on extremely rapidly,
cutting across country and keeping to the cornfields where I knew I
should never be followed and be very difficult to catch.
I soon left this danger behind, and then struck a pave road and a
railway line. The sleepers were wooden, whereas in Germany they are
iron.
I felt now that I was across, but continued steadily on my way. Seeing
a great number of powerful lights in front of me I made for them, and
eventually reached them, to find that they belonged to a factory
working at top pressure. Around this factory straggled a large
village.
_Tuesday, 3rd July._ Here I found no guards and sat down to wait for
daylight to show me the language of that village as indicated on the
advertisements in the shop-windows. I had got in here at 3.30 a.m. and
at 4.30 knew that the words in the shop-windows were Dutch and not
Boche. What a great feeling of relief and rest it was!
The first man I saw was a soldier on a bicycle, to whom I made myself
known. He was very quick to find me breakfast at the cottage of a
fellow soldier of his. The latter refused all payment, and was an
excellent fellow. Later I reported myself to the local policeman, and
while talking to him heard Fox's voice. He had arrived two hours after
me, after crossing the frontier a mile to the north of where I had
passed the line. We were delighted to see each other, but at the time
were not so tremendously struck by the fact that we had come together
again. Of course it was an extraordinary thing to happen really, but
we only realised that later.
At the moment we only thought of the fact that we were both safely
across and would be home in due course, and that we had had the most
marvellous luck that could well have come our way.
Fox had covered this distance, roughly a hundred and seventy miles as
we did it, in twelve and a half days, and I had taken thirteen days
and a few hours.