MY ESCAPEFROM GERMANY
Transcriber’s Note: in web browsers, and in some e-readers, you will be able to click the map image for a larger version.
Map illustrating the Route of Author’s Escape.
The Dotted Line shows the Route taken.
MY ESCAPE
FROM GERMANY
BY
ERIC A. KEITH
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1919
Copyright, 1920, by
The Century Co.
Published, January, 1920
INTRODUCTION
There is an element of chance and riskabout an attempt to escape from an enemy’scountry which is bound to appeal to anyone with a trace of sporting instinct. Viewedas a sport, though its devotees are naturally fewand hope to become fewer, it has a technique ofits own, and it may be better, rather than interruptthe course of my narrative, to say heresomething about this.
As always, appropriate equipment makes forease. But its lack, since a prisoner of war cannotplace an order for an ideal outfit, may belargely compensated for by personal qualities.
In considering the chances of success or failure,it must always be assumed that the routeleads through a country entirely unknown tothe fugitive. Yet this is not so great a disadvantageas one might suppose. Once free fromtowns and railways, a man with a certain knowledgeof nature and the heavens, and with somepowers of observation and deduction, can hardlyfail to hit an objective so considerable as a fron[Pg vi]tierline, even if a hundred miles or so have tobe traversed, provided he knows the position ofhis starting-point and is favored with tolerableweather.
With the sky obscured, he must at least havea pocket compass by which to keep his direction;though when the stars are visible it iseasier and safer to walk by their aid.
Next in importance come maps. With fairlygood maps, as well as a compass, the chances ofevading discovery before approaching the frontier,with its zone of sentries and patrols, are,in my opinion, about even.
Another indispensable requisite is a water-bottle—agood big one. My own belief is that aman in tolerable condition—let us say good internment-campcondition—can keep going forfrom two to three weeks on no more food thanhe can pick up in the fields. But thirty hourswithout water will, in most cases, be too muchfor him. Under the tortures of thirst his determinationwill be sapped. I was, therefore,always willing to exchange the most direct routefor a longer one which offered good supplies ofwater. In my final and successful attempt,when I was leader of a party of three and hadto traverse a part of Germany where brooks andstrea