The Great Escape - Fact & Fiction Part Two

Richard Attenborough as Roger Bartlett - Mirisch Films

Roger Bushell - wikipedia




Donald Pleasence as 'The Forger' -
Mirisch Films

Alex Cassie - Forging-
getsurrey.co.uk

Tim Walenn - The Forger - IWM
 

 

James Garner as 'The Scrounger' - Mirisch Films

Sagan 111 (IWM HU21013)



It was every serviceman’s duty in World War Two to try and escape from captivity. Conditions inside German Prisoner of War Camps and the daily strain of being behind the wire focused the mind on freedom, or at the very least, working with others to effect escape attempts. This would help the war effort in tying up enemy resources to keep prisoners behind the wire and hunting for escapers who were at large. Allied servicemen clung to the dream of breaking free of the immediate camp area and reaching safety in a neutral country. In reality the odds against escaping were low and of reaching a neutral country extremely remote.

Prisoners of War (kriegies) looked for anything to help them get through the long days. In The Great Escape film, education was one of the activities utilised to ‘put the goons to sleep’ whilst the escapers began to tunnel and make other preparations. Roger Bartlett (modelled on Roger Bushell – the actual Big X in Sagan 3) used this strategy as a ‘means to an end’ in the overall escape operation. The reality had some parallels, but Jimmy James said that in the camp, education, study and lectures also helped to pass the time.  

Sagan 111 had a large lending library with books provided by the Red Cross and YMCA. Harvey Vivian was the head of education in the camp. Examinations took place with papers being set by professional bodies and sent in through the Red Cross. Examinations were formally invigilated by other POWs from education backgrounds and lectures took place from qualified academics who were in the camp. Not all kriegies were hell bent on escaping, although Jimmy James observed that continual study within the confines of the camp had a blinkered effect on the person and as soon as the study was over, the kriegie became more acutely aware of the ‘barbed wire and goon boxes’, which in some cases led to temporary insanity.

Donald Pleasence* (Colin Blythe ‘The Forger’ in the film), used a lecture on bird watching as a ‘blind’ to cover the escape organisation’s work on forging documents if a ‘ferret’ (German guard specifically detailed to ferret out escape activity)  was sighted nearby. If there was danger of discovery, all documents were quickly hidden and an innocent lecture was seen to be in progress. Pleasence’s character was a combination of Flt Lt Desmond Plunkett, the map maker and a much younger man Flt Lt Gilbert William ‘Tim’ Walenn who sported a large ‘handlebar’ moustache and was head of the real forgery operation at Sagan 111. He had been a POW since September 1941, and possessed the ideal skills for that line of work, having been a graphic artist designing wallpaper and fabrics in his uncles’ business before moving into banking. The forgery department became known as ‘Dean and Dawson’ after a London travel agency.

The ornithology lecture was confirmed as occurring by escaper Bob Vanderstok, but there were other subjects. Alex Cassie was forced to quickly begin a fake lecture on psychology with the other forgers sitting around pretending to listen when a ferret nicknamed ‘Adolf’ was seen hanging around and looked in one of the hut windows.

*Donald Pleasence had personal experience of the era, as he had been a member of wartime aircrew and a POW. 

*

 

Activities in preparation for escapes were carried out with a chain of lookouts known as ‘stooges’ strategically placed and covering all sight lines to spot ferrets, guards and other potential dangers. A sophisticated system of signals to warn of impending danger was passed down the chain to give the operation time to shut down and cover up. This is illustrated in the film and also described by Paul Brickhill:

 
‘When the stooge in 103 saw a ferret approaching, he opened a window, the man in 109 immediately saw this and put a folded paper against the window. The stooge next to the library caught the signal, knocked on the wall, and the stuff was out of sight in a few seconds.’
 
Another method of signalling was for a stooge to sit outside a hut with a towel around his neck, which meant all clear. The towel on his knees meant ‘German in sight’ and if he sat on the towel it meant that a ferret was near or a German was approaching the hut.

*

 

The scene with James Garner as ‘The Scrounger’ (a representative character, as the camp had a number of such operators) and the ferret Werner was illustrative of a whole raft of incidents involving ferrets and guards who were subject to bribery, blackmail and general softening up by the POWs.

The contents of ‘The Scroungers’ cupboard in his hut was from Red Cross parcels. They were the POWs lifeline, given the inadequate German rations, and contained coffee, biscuits, chocolate and other luxuries that the guards and ferrets could not obtain.  As the numbers of POWs in the camp were high, in addition to their own Red Cross parcels, the escape organisation was able to skim off a selection of goods from others to tempt the enemy; after softening them up with a few regular visits to a hut for a cup of real coffee, a chat and cigarette, plus maybe some chocolate to take away for their families.

 
The scene in the film portrays this well and although Werner does not succumb to bribery, he has his pocket picked and loses his wallet with papers, Ausweiss and identity card in. He is hardly going to report it, so in desperation returns to ‘The Scrounger’ who promises to help him find the missing wallet - the alternative for Werner is ‘The Russian Front.’ The trade-off is a 35mm camera with a 2.8mm lens and focal plane shutter. Copies of Werner’s documents would be taken by the forgers before they were ‘found.’
 

In 1943, the course of the war was shifting in the Allies favour. Outside of the German hardliners in the camp, some of the Luftwaffe ferrets and guards had become more pliable. Many were family men themselves and this proved to be a useful line to pursue when gradually trying to befriend them. The escape organisation had a whole network of POWs working on the weaker ferrets and guards, often with individuals being targeted with specifics in mind. Paul Brickhill describes a typical straightforward example:

 

‘There was a very young Obergefreiter (private) who was persuaded to bring in a pair of pliers and was paid very generously in chocolate. His contact explained apologetically that he had to draw the chocolate from his room mess and had to account for it. Would the Obergefreiter mind signing a receipt for it? Just a formality. Why no, the Obergefreiter wouldn’t really mind at all, pocketed the chocolate and signed on the dotted line.

He came to regret it. Later he brought in passes, money, files, maps, tools and even some German uniform buttons and badges. It was much better than having his receipt handed over to the Lageroffizier and getting a bullet for trading with the enemy.’

 
The escape organisation obtained numerous items and information this way, including the geography around the camp, train times, places to avoid – even details of planned searches of huts.

*

 

One incident not included in the film was the 1943 Christmas/New Year’s Eve* agreement brokered with the Camp Commandant to give the POWs and  guards more freedom over the festive days in return for a promise that there would be no attempts to escape.  *Accounts vary as being Christmas or New Years Eve, but it is likely to have been the former. For the kriegies, snow, frozen ground and sub-zero temperatures made escape virtually impossible anyway and there was a temporary lull in activities. Various versions describe what happened that evening.    

 
Jimmy James reported that eighty seven per cent camp distilled alcohol (often made with raisins from Red Cross parcels) was offered to the guards. One collapsed unconscious and got dragged across the compound by the two dogs in his charge; whilst another fell out of a ‘goon tower.’

Ken Rees says he remembered little about it, as it took him three days to recover, whilst Bob Vanderstok said that many guests could not attend his planned ‘banquet’ because of starting early at the various ‘bars’ that had been set up in some of the huts:

‘Some guards lingered after appel and in many places were invited to the banquet, but the ferrets did not participate……It wasn’t long after dinner that we heard an excellent duet of Lili Marlene outside our window. When I looked to see who had done us the honour, I saw that…one of our Dutch roommates and a guard had performed the lovely serenade. Both were beyond the stage of normal comprehension.’

 

In the South Compound an American walked over the warning wire and started to climb the fence under one of the sentry towers. He was heard singing ‘Silent Night’ in the tower with the guard before climbing down the ladder, making his way to the main gate on the outside of the fence and asking permission to enter. The guards who had also ‘lost their edge’ were taken aback as they had been told there would be no escape attempts and must not shoot. They opened the gate as they thought he had come to give them cigarettes. The incident was hurriedly resolved by Colonel ‘Bub’ Clark who was an American assigned to RAF 31^st Fighter Group at Tangmere and the first US POW to arrive at Sagan 111. He had watched events develop, intervened apologised to the Germans and escorted the American away.

These were rare moments where the war was pushed aside for a few hours. Matters had got out of hand that night as a number of American and British POWs had also climbed the wire fences separating their compounds, prompting the Camp Commandant Colonel Friedrich-Wilhelm Von Lindeiner in his letter of 27^th December to Senior Officers, RAF Group Captain Herbert Massey and US Colonel Charles Goodrich to remove the concessions granted over the Christmas period and prohibit the possession and use of drinks containing alcohol immediately.

*

 

Near the end of the film, fifty of the captured escapers are taken in three Lorries to separate locations and machine gunned. The reality was that under Gestapo orders they were taken out singly or in small groups from various locations and shot. The differences between fact and fiction here are unimportant – fifty unarmed men were murdered for doing their duty in trying to escape.  

Sources

Moonless Night - B A 'Jimmy' James
The Great Escape - Paul Brickhill
Lie In The Dark And Listen - Ken Rees
War Pilot Of Orange - Bob Vanderstok
Web Site The Great Escape -Rob Davis- http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/


©Keith Morley

THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish it to appear on this site, please message me with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed

The Great Escape - Fact & Fiction Part One




Bob Vanderstok (Ian Le Seur)





B A 'Jimmy' James   'IWM'



 

Sagan 3

 

Harry

 

It was every serviceman’s duty in World War Two to try and escape from captivity. Conditions inside German Prisoner of War Camps and the daily strain of being behind the wire focused the mind on freedom, or at the very least working with others to effect escape attempts. It would tie up enemy resources in preventing escapes or hunting for escapers who were at large. Allied servicemen clung to the dream of clearing the immediate area, striking out for freedom and reaching safety in a neutral country. In reality the odds against escaping from a camp were low and of reaching safety in a neutral country extremely remote.

 

‘The Great Escape’ of Allied prisoners of war from German camp Sagan 111 in Silesia has arguably been the most documented POW breakout in history, and the subject of one of Hollywood’s most watched films. MGM’s work was a fitting dedication to the fifty men who were murdered by the Gestapo, and although not an exact portrayal of all events and personnel, it did get close to life in the camp, the true heroes and in many cases actual events. 
 

Because of the film’s success, actual events in the camp and around The Great Escape have sometimes become clouded, producing popular misconceptions. Additionally some unusual happenings have slipped under the wire with barely a mention. This is the first of two posts taking a random look around fact and fiction:  

 

1) The film portrays American servicemen involved in the actual tunnel escape. The reality was that Americans had been heavily active with tunnel digging and all aspects of the escape operation until 8 September 1943 when they were re-housed in a new South Compound in the camp (six months before the actual Great Escape).

Dutchman Bob Vanderstok, one of only three escapers to break out and reach safety, described what actually happened and its resultant effect:

‘Without warning it was announced that American prisoners would be transferred to the new south compound. This measure did far more harm to our Big X organisation than they (the Germans) would ever know. Almost half of the Kriegies in the North compound were Americans; consequently half of our best talent was American. The tailor’s ‘shop’ (the tailor who made civilian clothes out of virtually anything), the false paper forgers, the diggers, the stooges, the engineers and the carpenters all lost their best workers. It was a true disaster. We were in the middle of producing clothes and false papers for two hundred escapees. It was not the kind of work which one could recruit new helpers in a short time.’

 

2) In the film, the ‘covers’ to the tunnel entrances for ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’ are accurately portrayed, except for them being attributed to the wrong named tunnel.

The film shows ‘Tom’ being discovered on 4 July 1943 in one of the huts after a German search , when a ‘ferret’ (specially trained German prison guard to discover escape attempts) accidentally drops a drink of hot coffee onto the tiles around the stove. The liquid disappears between cracks in the tiles because the cover containing the tiles is false and effectively the tunnel ‘cover.’

In reality, Tom was discovered in September 1943, just before the Americans were moved to their new compound in the camp. The tunnel entrance was concealed within a concrete floor in Hut 123 in a small passage near the hut kitchen.  Tunneller Wing Commander Ken Rees describes the set up:

‘Some Polish officers headed by Minskiewitz were the trap experts, par excellence….Tom’s trap was to be situated in a dark corner of the concrete floor just outside the kitchen. The Poles had liberated some cement left behind by careless German workers, and this was used to cast a concrete slab in a wooden mould about twenty four inches square. Minskiewitz chipped out the concrete in a darkened area outside the kitchen in Block 123, the exact size of the slab he had made. He handled the chisel with great precision, and when the block was finished, with two lugs set in its sides, it fitted in the hole perfectly. When it was laid in place, any minute cracks were filled with cement paste and dusted with dirt, it was almost impossible to detect.’

The actual discovery occurred when one of the ferrets (Paul Brickhill refers to him as ‘Herman’) was taking part in a search of Hut 123, jabbing his probe around the concrete floor listening for hollow sounds, when the tip suddenly stuck in the concrete. Startled, the ferret pulled the tip away and a small chip of concrete came away. As he was short sighted he got down on his hands and knees, felt around and made out the faint outline of a trapdoor. Tom was discovered. 

Tom’s stove and tile arrangement in the film was actually used by the escapers in Hut 104 for ‘Harry’,  which the escapers used to finally break out of the camp. The film shows ‘Harry’ as starting in the washhouse. Tunnel ‘Dick’ was in the washhouse of Hut 122 as Ken Rees describes:

 

‘In the middle of the concrete washroom floor in Block 122 was an iron grating about twenty inches square, into which water flowed from showers and washing clothes. Under the grating was a small chamber about three feet deep with a pipe about a foot from its bottom to carry away the water, which meant that there was always about a foot of water in the chamber. Minskewicz lifted the iron grating, baled out the water and chipped away one blank side… Once again he cast a slab to fit the side he had chipped out, and when this was put in place, the cracks filled with soap and sand, and the chamber filled again with water, it was, we considered, impossible for the ferrets to detect.’

 

3) There is a scene where the Fourth of July is celebrated in the compound by the Americans with their own distilled alcohol. RAF escaper Jimmy James described the events:

‘From dawn on the fourth of July the camp began to resound to the beating of drums and the blare of bugles as a bunch of  ‘Red Indians’ followed by an army of ‘Colonists’ emerging howling from their blocks to re-enact the Boston Tea Party with kriegie brew….the Americans were joined by the British and together we marched round the compound and through the barracks, singing and whooping as we celebrated American Independence – to the astonishment of the Germans who could not understand, why the British or for that matter, or for that matter any nation would want to celebrate the loss of colonies.’

This culminated in three Allied ‘High ups’ and a few others being thrown into the fire pool. (As the huts were wooden, a pit was always filled with water in case of fire.)     

 

4) The film shows the character ‘Ives The Mole’ who is on the point of going ‘wire crazy’ stepping over the warning wire after he learns of ‘Tom’s’ discovery. He attempts to climb the barbed wire fence and is machine gunned from one of the sentry towers (k/a ‘Goon Towers by the POW’s.) As with a number of characters in the film, ‘Ives’ is a compilation of real POWs in Sagan 111. There is a reference to him as ‘Piglet’ which is a link to Flt Lieutenant Henry W "Piglet" Lamond, who was a regular tunneller and escapee but who did not escape in this breakout. Other character traits link in with 'Shag' Rees and 'Red' Noble, the frequent ‘goon baiters’ (antagonising the Germans) who spent many days in the camp ‘cooler’. (solitary confinement – the word ‘cooler’ became used by both prisoners and captors.)

 The actual wire incident did not occur on the fourth of July, but was intended to be representative of a number of similar occurrences, including as Bob Vanderstok recalled, an Irishman called Mcintosh who thought he could make himself invisible, saying that he could climb the fence without being seen by the guards. Despite Kriegies trying to stop him, verbal warnings and three warning shots being fired by the guards, Mcintosh reached the inner fence, climbed to the top and jumped over onto the upper barbed wires of the outer fence before being machine gunned. 

Life in a POW camp was often on the edge.

Sources & Recommended Reading

Moonless Night - B A 'Jimmy' James
The Great Escape - Paul Brickhill
Lie In The Dark And Listen - Ken Rees
War Pilot Of Orange - Bob Vanderstok
Web Site The Great Escape -Rob Davis- http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/

© Keith Morley


This blog claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish it to appear on this site, please message me with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.
  

The Guides - Part Nine



Le Chemin de la Liberté



Le Chemin de la Liberté







Andrée De Jongh (Dédée)

Baron Jean-François Nothomb (Franco)

My apologies for the late post – have not been able to sit and type at the PC due to RSI.

 
In the Mountains

For many evaders and escapers in Holland, Belgium and France, the natural barrier of the Pyrenees Mountains had to be crossed before travelling through ‘neutral’ Spain to Gibraltar. Few evading service personnel walked over without guides, and the organised escape lines relied on them totally.

Initially the main evasion route used by the Pat O'Leary Line centred on the Mediterranean coast at Marseilles, and escape by sea, but many other evaders helped by that network were subsequently filtered down through middle France to Agen and Toulouse, then on to the central Pyrenees and the starting point of Le Chemin de la Liberté route at Saint Girons in Ariège.  This difficult high mountain route had been carefully chosen to minimise travel near official checkpoints and reduce the risk of encountering German patrols. No climbers today would tackle parts of the journey without appropriate clothing, shoes and equipment, and most would avoid crossing in the winter. Evaders and escapers travelled over the route with their guides at all times of the year, often through the night and with no suitable clothing or equipment.  

In 1941 and 1942, the Comete Escape Line concentrated on the Atlantic coast area south of  Bayonne, with guides and evaders making a sixteen hour journey at night over the mountains from Urrugne (near Saint Jean de Luz), crossing  the Bidassoa River and then walking to Oiartzun where the evaders were taken on to San Sebastian.. This route became extremely dangerous because of its regular use, so alternative passages had to be found. From July 1943 to January 1944, the evaders left the Café Larre in Sutar (just south of Bayonne) with their guides and journeyed over the mountains into Spain via the established Saint Jean de Luz route or two new eastern passages known as ‘Larressore’ and ‘Souraide.’ These were all gruelling journeys with the latter two sometimes taking up to five days where variations to the route occurred.

 

Andrée De Jongh (Dédée) and Florentino Goicoechea the famous  Basque guide, led evaders over the Saint Jean de Luz passage until the former was arrested in Urrugne on 15th January 1943.  The route continued with Jean-François Nothomb (‘Franco’) becoming the main guide into Spain for the whole of Comete’s Southern Section. This included Larressore and Souraide once they were opened. As with Florentino on the Saint Jean de Luz passage, these longer routes also included carefully selected Basque guides. 

 

Herbert Spiller crossed at night via Saint Jean de Luz in 1942 with Dédée and Florentino. The terrain was steep and treacherous with the evaders  struggling to see in the dark and keep up with their guides’ zig-zag routes . Constant vigilance was essential. The party often stopped to hide and wait for enemy patrols and smugglers to pass. 

When they reached the fast flowing freezing waters of the River Bidassoa, which formed the natural border with Spain, Spiller described what happened next:

‘Dédée explained how we would cross. Trousers would be removed and the legs tied in a knot behind our necks. The loose ends of the trousers would serve as a handhold for the person behind, enabling the column to enter the water as a connected whole. Occasionally a small searchlight operated by the frontier guards was shone down river to detect smugglers crossing the water. If and when the command was given we must stop and bend as low as we could against the water but under no circumstances were we to look towards the light.’

Spiller had a further problem as he began to remove his trousers.

‘Dédée gave a gasp of horror as I revealed my white silk long johns and told me in no uncertain terms to take them off with my trousers and to tie both garments around my neck. It would not matter in the water, but emerging on the other side of the river I would be presenting a very white target for any guard on the alert.’

There was no time for modesty and he had to remove the underwear.

Apart from being spotted by the Spanish frontier guards, the river crossing was in itself hazardous. Spiller described how so much depended on the strength of Florentino after he had tied a length of rope around the base of one of the riverside trees:

‘We watched Florentino descend into the swirling water. The giant Basque pushed himself into the fast moving current to the extent of his rope and then turned to face us, holding the rope taut….One by one we entered the water holding on to the rope for dear life. Florentino was well up to his waist…The water was icy cold and already the current was pushing against my legs making moving forward a slow process. By the time the column had reached Florentino, the water was up to my chest and I was fighting to keep my balance. Florentino turned round and Dédée linked up with him as we each took hold of the trouser legs around the neck of the man ahead of us.
We began to move forward slowly, Florentino had let go of the rope and we were at the mercy of the river as the column swayed to and fro in the rushing torrent.’

Spiller and his group eventually made it safely across, but disaster struck American flyer Art Horning’s party when he crossed the river at a similar point. Florentino was absent that night with a high fever, a replacement guide was in charge and the river roared through again. An American evader and top Comete operative were swept away and drowned. (More on that incident in a future post.) 

On the Larressore routes, airmen reported long spells on the gruelling journey without food from their guides or shelterers. USAAF Sergeant Harold Pope reported that his party had nothing to eat for the first forty eight hours and First Lieutenant John Justice said regarding two stages of his journey over the mountains:

 
‘We came to a very small cabin way up in the hills and went inside. The four of us sat to one side, the man who lived in the cabin, the two guides, and two other Spaniards sat and talked and talked, ate bread and cheese, drank wine and offered us absolutely nothing. We tried to ask for food, but these people were mercenaries and mean and refused to feed us. We asked to go to bed. They took us into an adjoining building where the chickens were sleeping and told us to sleep on the floor.’
 

Later on in his crossing, Justice reported:

 

‘We walked mostly at night, staying in barns and eating sugar beets and fodder which we found in the barns.’

 

RAF Sergeant Kenneth Skidmore tackled le Chemin de la Liberte with another RAF evader, four American flyers and various guides. Parts of the four day trek were virtual mountaineering and sometimes the group fought their way through waist deep snow with no specialist clothing or shoes. Some of Skidmore’s experiences were typical of fugitives travelling on that route. He noted that the evaders carried between them:

‘two haversacks containing two cooked rabbits, two bottles of cognac and four bottles of cheap red wine. Surprisingly no water.’  He recorded what happened as the group continued to climb:

‘Conversation diminished as we went on. Every breath was needed to keep going as we continued to climb. We were short of more than breath. Climbing skill was absent as was safety equipment. Ropes would have been a considerable advantage. The culmination of these combined problems was that we lost our rabbits and bottles of wine during one of our many falls. This catastrophe left us with two bottles of cognac. After all the exertion we desperately needed nourishment. If only we had made sure that the supplies obtained for us by the first two guides, had included water instead of this useless cognac. Our present guides had come prepared with a skin bottle of water each, but this was sufficient only for themselves. My diary entry continued “We walked for twelve hours all through the night, climbing seven thousand feet high.” ’

One of the Americans (Pitner) eventually collapsed and was unable go on. Skidmore watched what happened:

‘Our leader anxious to press on said that we must get beyond a certain point because there were patrols who kept to a routine. We must pass this point at a certain time, he insisted. He appeared to be indicating that there was only one thing to do – leave Pitner behind. Under no circumstances would we tolerate or accept this. If he did not go, then we stayed. Without hesitation, he picked up the motionless Pitner and began to carry him over his shoulder. I was completely staggered at the sight of this feat. A man of such small stature able to lift, and carry through the snow, more than his own body weight.’

Sources:

Ticket to Freedom – Herbert Spiller

Unpublished Memoirs – John Justice

USAAF Evader Report – Harold Pope

Follow the Man With the Pitcher – Kenneth Skidmore


© Keith Morley

 

The Guides - Part Eight



French Bicycle

Dutch Courier




Evaders on Bicycles - 'Last Best Hope'

In occupied Western Europe, guides were often reliant on bicycles to move their charges in the early and latter stages of an evasion. Before escapers and evaders were filtered into organised escape lines they often travelled via this method aided by ordinary patriots or the Resistance.   

RAF Navigator Richard Pape hid in a barn in Holland with one of his crew. They waited for the Resistance to move them to a safer location.

Pape described in his own colourful style how their contact arrived and the pair were given detailed instructions around the next part of their journey, which involved travelling by bicycle. It is illustrative of how the Resistance operated in circumstances like this to avoid attracting suspicion and detection.

The contact gave warnings about in the event of their capture, the importance of sticking to a story about travelling through Holland together without any outside help, by stealing clothes and bicycles and not remembering place names. The contact left them, instructing that they ‘should leave in about two minutes.’ Pape and his fellow crewman ‘Jock’ collected bicycles from the arranged point and pedalled without a guide for about ten minutes before a chiming bicycle bell behind them warned that they were being overtaken. A man matching the description they had been given passed by. Barge cap, black jacket, light blue trousers and half his rear mudguard painted yellow. They followed the cyclist at a distance through heavy German military traffic and backstreets to a rendezvous near a bridge where they tailed a key Resistance operator on foot for about an hour before receiving instructions for the next part of their journey. The two RAF men were arrested a few days later by the Gestapo at a safe house in the suburbs of Leyden.

RAF Sgt James Bruce and American flyer S/Sgt Alfred Buinicky were on bicycles following their guides in the Pyrenees ( two other airmen were cycling ahead in the other pairing -  RAF Flight Sgt John Grout and USAAF S/Sgt Lloyd Frazer) and nearing the Spanish border when disaster struck. Bruce described what happened:

‘The arrangements were one guide, followed by Flight Sergeant Grout and an American at 100 yards, another guide and then 100 yards to S/Sgt Buinicky and myself. If anything dangerous was in front, the guide would wave his beret and we had to get off our bikes and scatter. At approx. 17.00hours two Germans passed us going in the same direction as us on a motor bike and side car and seemed to take no notice of us. However at a bend in the road we saw the Germans turning back and the guide waved at us to disperse. S/Sgt Buinicky and myself turned our bikes around and cycled back up the road we came as we couldn’t get into the fields because of 12 foot barbed wire fences along the road. Before we could reach a suitable point to get into the fields the Germans were on us, held us up and asked for our papers. I had passports etc. and showed them (their French was very bad so I managed to talk to them without (I think) them realising I was not French.) They were frontier guards recently moved from the Turkish frontier to the Franco-Spanish frontier. They asked me my name on the passports, where and when I was born etc and as I had memorised them I was able to answer them. S/Sgt Buinicky however was unable to answer their questions as he could not speak French and we were taken to their headquarters for interrogation.’

Airmen following the same route as Bruce and his party on the Comete Escape Line would most likely have cycled around 50 kilometres from Dax railway station on basic bicycles with their guides to reach an overnight stop at the Café Larre just south of Bayonne. They would then leave the next day on bicycles before crossing the mountains on foot.  

For the guides operating this stretch, meticulous organisation and execution of the operation was vital. Expert knowledge of the area was essential in order to take remote back lanes and tracks to avoid roadblocks and checks. The coastal zone required personnel to carry special papers giving them permission to be there.

Additionally, once the party had reached the point of crossing the mountains by foot, the bicycles had to be hidden, collected and transported back to their original point of pick up without suspicion, before the next group of evaders arrived. Also repairs and servicing of the machines was often necessary. (Later post will cover this operation)  The guides had to be aware of this and also how to obtain another bicycle if breakdowns occurred.

Pilot Officer Jimmy Elliott described what happened on his bicycle journey:

‘In the blackout was quite difficult at times to keep in touch with each other, but we seemed to be making reasonable progress. Suddenly there was a loud metallic crack, which was accompanied by a very well-known four letter American oath. Quickly we gathered round to discover that John’s bicycle chain had snapped. For a moment Max hesitated, then dumped the bike over a fence into a garden. With the American on his crossbar, we continued on our way.’

Alfie Martin’s chain also broke and his fellow evader got a puncture. Their guide went back to town to bring another bicycle and also mend the puncture.

One immediate question that evaders were asked was ‘Can you ride a bicycle?’ Some evaders found this a strange request, as at that time every serviceman would have learned to ride a bicycle usually during their childhood or youth. The reality was different:

Jimmy Elliott reported what happened when Flying Officer Norman Fairfax was handed his bicycle:

 ‘ But I can’t ride a bike!’ In unison his fellow travellers replied “Well now’s your bl***dy time to learn”’ …After 10 minutes he went ‘solo’ and despite a few minor prangs, he managed to keep up with the party.’ Fairfax admitted that it had been just desperation really’  

Things did not always work out so easily as Pilot Officer Bob Kellow described:

‘The guide looked worried when told one of the men couldn’t ride a bicycle.

“Won’t you try?” He asked with concern.

The young man made an attempt to balance on the machine, but fell off each time the guide tried to push the machine. It was hopeless; he simply had no sense of balance. I felt sorry for him, but I felt even sorrier for our male and female guides. They had schedules to meet and were responsible for all of us, but couldn’t think how to surmount the problem.’

The male guide decided in the end to wait for the next train for St Jean de Luz which is virtually on the border of Spain and accompany the man who could not ride the bicycle. It was too dangerous for the whole party to go because of checks (hence the use of bicycles in the first place). Taking enen one evader through the ticket barrier at St Jean de Luz was risky. The rest of the group would accompany the female guides on the bicycles as planned.

A more impromptu instance of improvisation occurred when one American evader was riding a bicycle shortly after being shown and suddenly veered across the road crashing into some cycling German soldiers. The guide went straight into action, shouting at the evader in French for being a drunken fool and warning he could be arrested for doing that. The Germans laughed and both parties moved on.

Sources:

Boldness Be My Friend – Richard Pape

Liberation Reports - National Archives

An Unusual Day – James M Elliott

Paths to Freedom – Bob Kellow

Bale Out. Escaping Occupied France with the Resistance – Alfie Martin

 

Next Week – In the Mountains


© Keith Morley

 

The Guides - Part Seven

Amanda Stassart - 'Diane'

Art Horning - False ID Photo

Arlon Station Belgium where John Dix Boarded the Train

 

 

On the Trains (2)

Guides had to be vigilant, resourceful and reliable under pressure, but they were only human. In many cases those operating in organised escape lines were not directly involved in formal resistance activities such as sabotage and had chosen this area of work as a nonviolent way of fighting the enemy.

Amanda Stassart (‘Diane’) had to call on all of her ingenuity whilst escorting American flyer Art Horning on the train after it had left Lille for Paris. Horning had a problem, as he had no identity card. His Belgian papers and money had been exchanged at a small farmhouse near the town of Beaumont on the French border. He had received French money, but no new card.

Shortly after leaving Lille, two German guards began working their way down the carriage checking ‘cartes d’identitie.’ Just before the guards reached Horning’s compartment, ‘Diane’ slipped on to his lap, put her arms around his neck and hugged him in an obvious manner. Horning takes up the story:

‘She really put herself in a precarious position. If caught – who knew what the penalty would be? But she knew the German mind because the guard examined the ‘cartes’ of the other passengers and made an unkind remark about the way the French behaved in public. But he did not bother us and her ploy worked. The other passengers wondered I am sure, but we embraced all the way into the Gare Nord in Paris…’

 

Sometimes the guides could do little about what happened around them, relying solely on a mixture of ad lib and pure luck. Pat O’ Leary was escorting two RAF evaders to Paris by train and found himself drawn into a bizarre sequence of events. As the three men had not eaten during the last twenty four hours, O’Leary decided to take them to the restaurant car for a meal. The only seats available were at a table with two German soldiers, so he led the airmen there and ordered beers. 

One of the airmen was clearly very anxious in the soldiers’ presence and knocked his drink over. It poured across the table into the Germans’ laps and they jumped up cursing and trying to mop up the mess. The frightened and flustered airman began to laugh. O’Leary’s stomach must have done somersaults; he began to try and apologise but the Germans began laughing too – soon he was joining in with the waiter and other diners. Incredibly nothing further happened and everyone settled down. The meal passed off without further incident and the Germans and evaders exchanged smiles. The account does not mention what O’Leary said to the soldiers. It must have been incredibly convincing or maybe the soldiers had just learned they had avoided a posting to the eastern front.

Events did not always work in favour of the evader. A German policeman stopped an evader on a train, indicating that the airman should follow him. A second airman noticed that one of his party was moving away with someone. Instinctively he followed as then did four others. The guide watched this from a traditional safe distance, powerless to anything as it was too dangerous to intervene. All the evaders were arrested. 

 

It is difficult to comprehend what must have been going through RAF Airman John Dix’s mind in 1943 on a train from Arlon Belgium to Brussels with his guide ‘Nicole’ and two other evaders. Dix had already managed to slip out of Luxembourg and unknown to him, moments before the train was due to leave Arlon the Gestapo had received a telephone tip off from a young boy travelling in the same party with another operator known as ‘Hubert.’

The train gradually slowed and made an unscheduled stop at Namur. No one was allowed to leave. The platform was deserted apart from two lines of armed German soldiers standing at ease about twenty feet apart on both sides of the train. ‘Nicole’ was certain that they had been betrayed and she whispered to Dix that they no longer knew each other and he would be on his own. (Often standard procedure in instances such as this)

Three key incidents occurred that Dix would look back on as contributing to him avoiding capture. The first was a man totally unconnected with the evaders or their guide making a run from the train across the tracks and being shot dead, the second was a quick capture of the other two evaders seated in the same carriage when they were unable to answer any of the Gestapo’s questions after presenting their identity papers.

The third incident resulted from Dix obeying instructions from ‘Nicole’ after she had met ‘Hubert’ in the area between carriages for advice. Dix discreetly disposed of souvenirs he was carrying in his pockets out of the carriage window once the train had cleared Namur. (Both the captured evaders carried incriminating items) Further searches were made on the train soon after it continued its journey.  

There was a limit to what some guides could cope with. Dix described what happened after his fellow evaders had been captured and taken off the train on to the platform.

‘For the third time the Gestapo returned to their carriage and ‘Nicole’ heard them talking. They were saying that they now had two of them and now had to find the third airman and the girl. They came down through the whole train once more…He prayed mostly that the Germans would not search the whole train again…  Nicole was sitting with her eyes closed and her hands were grasping the arms of her seat so tightly that her knuckles were white. Dixie does not remember doing something which ‘Nicole’ told him about some years later. Evidently she was shaking so badly that he had to hold her knees very tightly between his own to try and settle her down. He knows now that he had been trying to control a young girl who was having a nervous breakdown.’

Dix and ‘Nicole’ reached Brussels. He continued with his evasion, but she was unable to return to Luxembourg as it was too dangerous. After a spell of ill health in Brussels she was forced to flee to neutral Switzerland. ‘Hubert’ was eventually arrested and shot. The guides had risked and given everything.     

Sources

In the Footsteps of a Flying Boot  - Art Horning

Silent Heroes – Sherri Greene Ottis

Come Walk With Me – An Odyssey of World War Two – Unpublished Memoirs John Dix

 

Next week – On the Bicycles

 

© Keith Morley