Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1915 — DODGE FOE MONTHS [ARTICLE]

DODGE FOE MONTHS

British Soldiers, Separated From Command, Have Exciting Time. Play Hide and Seek With Germans for Nine Months, Cross Frontier Behind Enemy’s Lines and Escape Into Holland. Rotterdam. —There have just crossed the Belgian frontier behind German lines and come into Holland, six British soldiers. These men were at Mons, in the tragic days of August, and were cut off from their regiment in the great retreat. They crept through the encircling Germans, and, for nine months, have been fugitives in France and Belgium, living in fields and dugouts. They have passed through experiences probably Without parallel, playing, through all these nine months, a game of hide and seek, to have lost which would have meant summary execution. James Carrighan told me the history of the adventures: “It was on August 26 that the Gerbans got round us properly. Our little lot of odd men were collected, and went into one trench. ‘The Germans are surrounding us,’ said the captain. Then we heard the call to *Cease fire.’ ‘Don’t mind that, men,’ said the captain. ‘A German is sounding it.’ "Se we kept plugging away. Three times the Germans sounded the call ‘Cease fire.’ Then the captain stood up to send four men out to the flank. He got a bullet in the heart and was killed Instantly. then took command and gave the word to charge. We went at them once, but had to retire. A second time we charged. — got hit in the hip. “The third time, when we had another go, it was pitch dark. We had to come back again, and I found there were only seven men with me. We were absolutely surrounded. “But we managed to hide in a ditch,

tary training. Teach young men and boys to be soldiers.” where we stayed all night. Next morning we found ourselves in a little paddock, only two fields away from the Germans, in the middle of their lines. So we lay low all day. "Then eight Frenchmen crawled up to us. We managed to keep out of sight until most of the Germans had gone on. We had most of the time in orchards, and lived on pears for ten days. We were then a party of twenty-one, eleven English and ten French. As we were desperate for want of food we decided to make for a village and fight to the last man if we met any Germans. Just before we left the orchards twelve Germans caught two of our French comrades and bayoneted them without giving them any chance to surrender if they had wanted to. "We got to a village, making our way along the railway line and through the forest. Here we all lodged in a barn, and a woman, the best soul we ever met, brought us milk three times a day. “The Germans, who were searching for us, were in a horseshoe shape round the village, and were closing in on us. Private Jamieson, a scout, and a good one, took command. He got us out, nearly under the noses of twelve uhlans. We got into a field, and stayed there for a month, with

Germans only six fields away. “We dug a sort of trench along the fence, to hide in. The farmer gave us civilian clothes, and we worked for him in the fields for three weeks, under the noses of the Germans. Then we had to clear again. “We divided Into three parties. My little party of eight got into a field, where we made a dugout. We lived in this for a month, stealing out at night to get food from some people in a village close by. While we were there a Frenchman brought us a notice which had been stuck up by the Germans in the villages about. This said they knew where there were Englishmen hiding in the district, and that if we did not give ourselves up we would be shot when we were caught. “We made another trek, and then lived a month in a hut, which we built in a corner of a field. Then a 1 Belgian guided us to a village.” What happened to the fugitives after this must not be disclosed, as it might implicate friends who helped them to escape. Private Jenkins has scratches on his face and torn clothes, as a result of creeping through the barbed wire into Holland. For the first six months the six Intrepid fugitives wore their uniforms' under their civilian clothes. Said Private Carrighan: “We were determined to stick to our khaki.”