ESCAPING FROM GERMANY

EDWARD PAGE
Private Royal Marine Light Infantry

ANDREW MELROSE LTD: LONDON
1919

First edition.
A rare WW1 prisoner of war escape memoir.

PREFACE. IN writing the story of my three attempts to escape from Germany, and the experiences and impressions during the three years I was a prisoner of war there, I do so for several reasons, the chief being the requests of my family and intimate friends, that they shall be placed on record, and a feeling within myself that in so relating them an opportunity will be given, not only to my own countrymen and countrywomen, but to the folk of the other allied countries now linked together in the great fight for democracy and freedom, against tyranny and oppression, of studying for themselves the conditions under which we were compelled to live. They will thus learn our sufferings, both mental and physical, of our struggles against starvation, disease, vermin, and filth of all kinds, and in the study be able to compare the treatment meted out to Germans interned in the different countries of the Allied Powers, particularly our own, and that which we received from the hands of our captors during the time the fortunes of war had caused us to be interned in Germany.

Half-starved, ill-clothed (particularly during the winter of 1914-15), covered with vermin from head to foot, compelled to live in vile dens of huts like cattle, they could not browbeat us ; they could not, try as they might, crush that spirit that has made our race. I take great pride in placing upon record this fact: we never for one moment forgot that we were Englishmen—I mean, of course, Britons; and no matter in what circumstances of difficulty or misfortune we found ourselves, we always stood up to them, very often having to suffer ill-usage as the consequence. We could not help it—the old spirit was there and it would force its way to the surface. There are scores of thousands of Germans who will never forget the " Englanders " who came as prisoners of war amongst them;

CONTENTS
PREFACE
RECALLED TO THE COLOURS
THE FALL OF ANTWERP
FIRST WINTER IN CAPTIVITY (MUNSTER I. LAGER, WESTPHALIA)
TRANSFERRED TO DULMEN LAGER
THE FIRST BID FOR FREEDOM
BACK TO DULMEN LAGER
INTERVIEWED BY "THE GREAT WHITE CHIEF"
FIFTY-ONE- DAYS' IMPRISONMENT
TRANSFERREDTO A MUNITION WORKS (DORTMUND, WESTPHALIA)
THE SECOND BID FOR FREEDOM
THE SURRENDER
ARRIVAL AT MUNSTER II. LAGER, WESTPHALIA
TWENTY-ONE DAYS' IMPRISONMENT
LIFE AT MUNSTER II. LAGER
OFF TOTHE BALTIC SEA (LIFE ON A GERMAN FARM IN MIDWINTER)
BACK AGAIN IN MUNSTER II. LAGER
TRANSFERRED TO DUISBURG (RHINELAND)
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSFELD LAGER (RHINELAND)
OFF TO ESSEN (AN AIR RAID)
BACK AGAIN IN FRIEDRICHSFELD LAGER (RHINELAND)
THE THIRD BID FOR FREEDOM
OVER THE HOLLAND FRONTIER (LIBERTY AT LAST)
CONCLUSION

18 x 12 cm. xvii + 387 pp + b/w photo plates + 4 pp publisher's adverts.

Good condition. Spine repaired, endpapers renewed. Frontispiece missing. Pages age toned towards the edges. Cloth worn on the edges