Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 271, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1917 — Lowell Boy’s Dash To Freedom Amazes Britain [ARTICLE]

Lowell Boy’s Dash To Freedom Amazes Britain

The big story of the morning papers today is .this that of the.daring escape of Lieut. O’Brien, a member of the British flying corps, who esr caped from the Germans and was a fugitive for seventy-two days before again reaching, allied soil. Mr. O’Brien’s mother lives just south of Lowell. O’Brien was being taken to a German detention camp, when he leaped from a car window in the train in which he was riding, and escaped his captors. The* story of Mr. O’Brien’s escape is one of the most thrilling ever narrated and will no doubt prove of great interest to our readers. The following is the story of O’Brien’s escape as told by the London press: * London. Nov. 30.—Lieutenant Patrick O’Brien; twenty-seven, a Momence, DI., man attached to the British flying corps, found more thrills in escaping from Germany than he had experienced in air battles.

He has reached London and has told of his escape .to a number of admiring *comrades who though him killed. O’Brien has been much dined by his friends. He had been missing since August 7. O’Brien was flying in the American aviation squadron at San Diego, Cal., when he went to Canada and secured a commission. While flying in France he made a record for daring and skill. The day before his capture his machine was damaged, but he managed to land in side British lines. The next day he went up again as one of the six British flyers to give battle to twenty-two Germa#-planes. O’Brien was shot in the lip and his machine so damaged that he fell from a height of 8,000 feet. When he regained consciousness he was in a German ■ hospital. When partly recovered he was ordered to a German prison camp, in the interior of Germany after spending three weeks in a prison camp at Courtral. He was on the train, en route to the prison, when he escaped.

He was guarded by three officers to whom he complained of the tobacco smoke. They raised a car window and he leaped out, despite that the train was running thirty miles an hour. He was stunned by the fall and it was night before he regained consciousness. His wounds had been reopened by the jump, but he made his way toward the Dutch frontier, living on a piece of sausage and vegetables from passing farms. He had to swim rivers and canals in Germany, Luexmeburg and Belgium. He did not' know the German language, but managed to pass as a peasant when challenged by German sentries. He met a Belgian, who was pleased to meet an American, and who gave him shelter and furnished him clothing to cover his uniform.

He dared to travel only at night and he was seventy-two days in reaching Holland. He swam the Meuse near Namur. It ■was near the Dutch frontier that he encountered the last and most thrilling part of the experience. Near the border the Germans had an entanglement of highly charged wires. To cross, he built a bridge of sticks, but they broke under his weight and he suffered a severe shock, rendering him unconscious. When he recovered he burrowed a tunnel under the wires and crowled to the other side. After reaching Holland he was not sure he was outside of German territory until he saw Dutch peasants waking wooden shoes. Then he abandoned all caution and hurried to a British consul for transportation to London.