GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
I confess that I thought the scheme a little wild and the more people I talked to about it the more convinced I became that I was right. Ronnie, however, was absolutely determined to try it, basing all his hopes on the fact that the guards, who had probably been pacing up and down that self same beat for months if not years, would never think of anyone trying to get away with such a crazy idea and would consequently be slack; that they were slack there was no doubt. We used to take it in turns to watch them at nights and we found they spent most of their time stamping their feet to keep warm and furtively lighting cigarettes. Ronnie was absolutely determined to have a go at it and I soon found myself fired by his enthusiasm ... ’
A meeting of the Escape Committee having been convened, it was decided to give the scheme an airing, though the team was increased to four members, namely the addition of Captain P. R. “Pat” Reid, R.A.S.C., in lieu of his skills as a locksmith, and Flight Lieutenant H. D. “Hank” Wardle, R.C.A.F., to represent the Air Force. Clothing and false papers were quickly set in motion, Stephens and Litterdale adopting the identities of French workmen returning home on leave by train - ‘and we decided to go flat out to make Switzerland in three or four days’.
Colditz - The Escape Of subsequent events, “Pat” Reid wrote in Colditz - The Full Story:
‘After evening Appell on 14 October we all made the highly dangerous run to the kitchen: Malcolm McColm was with us to cover our traces. Balaklava helmets and gloves covered out white skins. Hank and I got out through the window, made our way across the low roofs and dropped to the ground. A British orchestra - which the Germans had had several nights to get used to - was playing in the Saalhaus, conducted by Douglas Bader. Bader had a clear view of the sentry for the whole of his beat. The idea was to use the music for signalling: when they stopped playing it meant the escapers could cross his path.
The orchestra was playing as arranged, but each time I started across on the cessation of the music, it started again. Then I heard German voices. It was an off duty officer on his rounds. Suspicious, he was questioning the sentry. Five minutes later the music stopped again, but this time I was caught napping, and dared not risk a late dash. I waited a long time and the music did not begin again. Obviously things had gone wrong for the orchestra. I decided to wait an hour, to let suspicions die down. In the hope that we could hide in that time from any passing Goon, I tried the handle of the door in the angle of the wall where we were hiding. It opened, and we entered warily. It was pitch-black inside. We went through a second door and took refuge in a room which seemed to contain no more than rubbish.
When the hour was up, we crept out again, and moved to the end of the wall as the sentry’s footsteps indicated that he was turning on his beat. I peered round the corner, saw the soldier ten yards off marching away, and with Hank close behind tiptoed across the pathway (we wore socks over our shoes). Soon we were hiding in a small shrubbery near the entrance to the Kommandantur. Ronnie and Billie clambered across the roofs from the kitchen when they saw us cross the path, and in no time we were all in the pit.
My next job was to see if I could open the door into the building from which Dominic Bruce had escaped. It was fifteen yards away. I reached it, and apart from a hair-raising interruption when I heard Priem returning from an evening in town, I worked for an hour without success. We would have to find another way out. A tunnel led from our pit under a verandah. We felt our way along until we came to a cellar. At the far end was an air-vent or chimney flue. At first it seemed impossible for a man to negotiate this shaft, but after a few moments of despair I found that by removing some of my clothing I could slide up easily enough. I could see that it led to a bared opening at the level of the ground outside - that is, on the far side of the building, where lay the moat for which we were heading. One of the bars was loose in its mortar socket; I freed one end and bent it nearly double. We could just squeeze through!’
It was an enormous struggle, and we each had to strip naked, but by 3.30 a.m. we were all lying in bushes on the moat side of the Kommandantur. Indeed we were on the very edge of the moat. We peered over. Luckily the moat wall was stepped into three successive descents; the drops were about twelve feet and the steps were about two yards wide. We made a couple of sheet-ropes and climbed down, fully clothed once more. It was 4.30 a.m. By 5.15 a.m. we were over the outer boundary wall - none too soon, because we had a long way to go before dawn ... ’
By this stage, Stephens was longing for a smoke. Reid asked him how many cigarettes he had. “Fifty Gold Flake,” came back the reply. “Then you’d better start chain-smoking,” said Reid, “because, with luck, you’ve got about three hours before you mix with civilian people. That’s 17 cigarettes an hour. Can you do it?” - “I’ll try!”
The daring breakout of “The Four” had quickly prompted the appearance of a Gestapo “wanted poster” on 16 October, complete with their photographs and descriptions - thus ‘STEPHENS, William Lawson, Korvettenkapitan. Born 19.10.10. P.O.W. No. 18660. Height 1.83 metres. Fair hair. Blue eyes ... All means are to be taken to capture the escapers and to prevent them crossing the border!’
But, as confirmed by M.I. 9 records, team Stephens-Litterdale was already ahead of the game:
‘After separating from Reid and Wardle, we walked into Rochlitz, which was reached at 0730 hours. We were wearing civilian clothes brought in our attache cases. At 1805 hours we left the train for Chemnitz, arriving at 0920 hours. We took tickets for Stuttgart. We were questioned by the railway police, but our papers were satisfactory. We left Chemnitz at 0940 hours. We had to change at Hof at 1500 hours and until 1930 hours, when the Danzig express left for Nurenberg, we walked round in the town and drank beer in the station restaurant. We reached Nurenberg at 2300 hours.
We slept in the station restaurant until 0530 hours on 16 October, when we left by Schnellzug (fast train) for Stuttgart arriving at 10.15 hours. We had been told by a Polish officer in the camp that Stuttgart main station was strictly controlled, and to avoid booking from there to the frontier, so we went by train to the suburb of Esslingden, where we travelled by electric train to Plockingen, Reutlingen and Tubingen. From Tubingen we went to Tuttlingen. We took the wrong road out of Tuttlingen and had to spend the night of 16-17 October in a wood 6 k.m. S.E. of the town.
At daylight we made out our position by aid of a small map and home-made compass, and we went on foot across country to the railway just south of Immendigen. Here we rested until dark, when we moved on down the valley, in which the railway ran to a wood above Engen.
We lay up in the wood until dark on 18 October. The day was uneventful except that a man was shooting rooks with a rifle, and later a terrier came to look for us, but made no sign. We walked in the fields parallel to the railway and came into sight of Singen shunting yard about midnight. We retraced our steps and in crossing over the main line by a bridge were stopped by a sentry. We showed him our papers and satisfied him that we had lost our way to Singen station. After crossing the railway further north, we found the point where the Helsingen-Singen road meets the wood, shown to us as leading to the frontier.
We followed the wood, but it eventually became clear that we were wrong. We therefore lay up until dawn on 19 October and then reconnoitred to fix our position. Having done that we lay up until dark, and then, following a more easterly branch of the wood, arrived on the frontier road at 2100 hours. We were challenged by a frontier sentry, but owing to his credulity we were able to move away. We remained hidden until the moon went down, and crossed to the wood north of Ramsen, where we arrived about 0300 hours on 20 October. We remained hidden until dawn and then reported to the Swiss police in Ramsen.’
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