1958-06-21 — Page 6

Page G

HE WALKED 8,000 MILES TO FREEDOM

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1958.

CHEATED BY A GUN

III

I had at a river

escaped wolves, secret police . . . death

THE noodle-sharp teeth of a starving wolf-pack were eating into my flesh. In a few terrifying seconds I would be finished and I screamed for death to cut short the agony.

I had dodged death for hundreds of miles and now, is the fangs

sank into my limbą, I was begging, pleading to die.

And yet, though I'did not know it, I WAS SAFE.

True. I had plunged from a tree into the middle of a howling, anarling, wolf-

pack. True, they had pounced.

But they had never reached me, my agony was all Imagination, and yet no less real for all that.

It took the hunters who saved me len minutes to convince me I wasn't dend.

Then Kolka said bluntly: "You're no itussian. Where are you from?"

fortably with these fine, has. pitable people, and the vision of my home in Munich, my target, began fan.

I took them 10 more minutes to convince me I was alive; then I stopped screaming.

So my great trek was to I had walked 1,700 go on. miles since escaping from a Rusian slave camp on the shores of the Behring Sen.

Thousands of miles fur fher away was my home in Munich, which I bad Inst seen as a German paratroop officer, and some day I

Rant to return.

canip mur-

I had beaten the quards, survived - a dernus attack by a manine bandit who had left me for dead, and now I had cheated the wolves.

I

THE TRUTH

Inked dazed at the hunters who had saved my life.

The men were yellow- Faced Yakula-members of a nomad tribe roving the Snow-covered Siberian plain.

The older nun, who intro- duced himself as Koka and his companion as Alyosin, told me how they had been trailing the wolves for days and had arrived just as the pack pounced on me. Then

I studied their blind, smiling faces. These men had saved my life, but they could turn me over to the police Just as quickly. Indeed, they would

criminals wake themselves they sheltered me.

If

in spite of this I decided they would not let me down,

"I am a German," I said quietly. "An escaped prisoner

of-war."

For

moment they sid nothing, and I watched their eyes carefully.

Thes Kolka put his arm around my shoulder and wald; "All right. Wo understand."

They took me by dog stedge to their village, a cluster of small tents. There Kolks took me to

his own tent and said: "So, tong 35 you are here, you are under

ny protection,"

Ant under his protection I remained until the manmer of Inst.

1

hunling with www

the Yakut. I learned to fish with hen, breaking holes in the ice, Eskimo-Inshion.

EVIL SMELL

their habirs

I even watched being born in their smoke-Mied, evil-smelling tents.

How these bables lived I shall over know. But live they did

he waited politely for me to ́--dozens of them. The Yakuts speak.

practised polygamy, which would have shocked the bureau-

It might have disappeared al- together had not Kolka returned with frightening news from a trading trip to Ayan, on the Sea of Okhotsk, about-250 miles from the northern tip of Japan.

The Russians, he said gravely, knew I was alive. And they shrewd der where I

ind a

might be, 100.

As soon as they had studied Kolka's papers and renilsed where he had came from, they asked him had he seen o big German, probably travelling alone, limping bestging for food.

SHREWD

When Kolka told them that he could not help them, they had said: "If you ever see him, let us know. We want that man,

1

The shrewd old warrior had probed them...___fur. further in- formation. They told him they

about me from had heard bandit they had arrested.

That could have been only the man who had one man left me to die. He had given the police a full description of me in the hope that they would deal with him leniently,

now I could only stand helpless

of a Sovies concentration camp, towers. I knew my only chanco A doctor was called. He won to find a weak spot in the examined my wounds carefully chain of posts and sneak across

had received them.. Hall 011 hour later I was being cross- which had to be crossed.

Eventually we came to a river examined by a whole posse of secret pollcc.

• Ex-German officer Clemens Forell walked nd must have guessed how I at night. 8,000 miles to freedom after fleeing from a

Russian slave camp in Siberia.

But by an

I made a raft of brushwood, put my clothes and rucksack on I told them I had served an

it and began to swim. Willem eight-year sentence and and followed me, though obviously

at Chita to have my citizenship restored.

✪ Wild animals, bandits, hunger, thirst and been told to report to the M.V.D. he thought I bat gane mod. disease dogged his every step. amazing feat he survived to tell the greatest

real-life escupe story of our time.

Clemens Forell's excune story is told by J. M. Bauer in "As far as My Feet woll Carry Me" (Deutsch, 151.3.

By CLEMENS FORELL

my hair and shaved off my beard.

Then he handed me a frag- ment of mirror.

warn you

In

friend who will good time of danger,"

And then be was gone la

of mow, leaving me zazing sadly after, him, over- come by the kindness of these proud Siberians,

swirl I gazed into it and the Yakuts howled with laughter at my expression

bmazement.

I was gazing at the face total stranger. It WDS and gaunt and pitted suffering,

of

of

old

with

as

me

The women made me a ruck- suck from skins.

ilain LR parchment and packed it with

Rave tood. Then Kolka some sound advice.

"If people ask, who you are." he said. "tell them you are a convict on your way back to work. They will sympathise with you and help you.

"Never way you are a fren man or you will find your- self behind bars."

FRONTIER

for the Mongolian frontier. Once We agreed that I should make over that, and I might be free.

Early next morning Alyosha was ready with a sledge and 15 huskien tu start me on my of journey.

But his treachery earned Do reward. "They shot him." sald Kolka with a grin, That gave me a feeling Savage satisfaction. But

my position

didn't shake less precarious.

Kolka. "And better."

I

"I must leave you," wondering als of Moscow but seemed to

1 hesitated, whether I should fie whether I could trust them with the truth about my- Relf.

work well in the Province of Yakutsk.

Despite this, I began to feel Breure for the first time in 18 months. I settled down com.

National TRANSISTOR

it

we set off together on a course

1 thanked them. But inside I was terrified. That train could deliver me right into the arms of the secret police.

The lumberjacks were decent- fellows. Not only did they give me food and shelter, but they lund jobs for Willem and me.

I said I had worked in a gold mine and described the condi- tions vividly, praying thal questioners had never seen gold mine.

ту

U

Then

I reached mid- stream I saw to iny horror that a steamer was nosing lin way awitly towards mel

It spotted me, tooted Its siren and altered course to avoid me. And, as it swished past, about 200 passengers crowded the rail, cheering and hooting at the sight of a naked man, struggling along with a dog and a raft.

I sank on the 'other bank ex-

When I had finished, the men sat in silence. I sat in suspense and watched the senior offie slowly roll himself a cigarette. One phone call to Chita 10 cheeks my story and ... bul they never made the call: They hausted. Later, while waiting believed me) The officer stood for my clothes to dry, I caught up and said: "We'll help you."

large Osh. But I couldn't cook it, because I was afraid to The next day I was put on a

light a fire. train for Chith with Willem- viso deloused.

I left the loin with the name Kyukhta, the town which was my next target, pounding in my brain. The nex! morning hailed a lorry an ancient tin-

They persuaded the timber control officer to let us travel lizzy, driven by a Chinese. we

on a freight train es guards.

He was going in the general For five days we rumbled direction of Kyakhts, on the cross Siberia with plenty to Mongolian border, and gave me

1 named the dog Willem and roughly, wex. For days marched, until the terrain be- came less desolate, the aur- roundings more civilised.

We reached a small surrounded by farms, and

a store shed and broke into stole enough food to last the pair of us for several days.

village,

Life seemed almost comfort- able until I ran stay into trouble at a time when I least expected 11.

1 walked from a forest into m clearing and found myself sur- rounded by a bunch of swarthy, close-cropped lumberjacks. casual wave

I tried to walk past with # my hand. But It was no good. The foreman shouted: "Hot Where are you going?"

MY BLUFF

We travelled for, two days, any covering about 80 miles, and came to a river. The lee didn't told seem thick enough to hold the "Chito,"

shouted back, a man, let the sooner the weight of

alone choosing the name of the first That of a loaded sledge, dogs convenient city that came to and two men.

my mind.

The next day Kolkn gave me a leather shirt, a pair of long. supple boots and 1 nex flint for my under box.

Alyosha cut

RADIO

You ask for the Best

When you ask for NATIONAL

But we glided over it. And Travelling on duty?" on the other bank. Alyosha said I remembered Kolka's advice. with a grin: "Now nobody can "I've just finished eight years' follow you. Nobody could cross forced labour," I said, "Now that river-exccpl a Yakut.” I've got to report to the M.V.D.

He haixied me a pair of light chief at Chita." bunter's sk, present from A once they were sympa Kolke. Then he unhitched one thetle. "You must go by rail," of the leading dogs from the they said. "You'd better come Bledge.

"Kolka

wants you to him," he said. "He says must have someone to talk

back to our block house for the have night and tomorrow we'll see you about getting you on a timber to, a train"

FERDINAND

3

Instead, I tried to eat it raw, but it lasted terrible.

WATCH-TOWERS

Angrily I tossed it to Willem, who seemed to swallow it whole, his tail thumping the ground with pleasure.

On we walked on and on

Dry, and as I ambled through them a strange prace stole over this,

eat and plenty of time to rest. a lift into the middle of what and on. We came to a forest of When the freight train finally seemed like a desert. jerked to a stop I had leap- frogged 800 miles to Ulan Ude, from the Mongolian border. Now I had to rely on bluff,

not far

HE GUESSED

Cautiously I pulled wagon door-and found myself face to face with

fat litle man with an official air.

open a

妇

"Who are you?" he snapped. "Timber escort."

He studied me for a long time and I realised that I must have been worth studying. My clothes were ragged.

My beard had grown again and mmy hair was round my reck. I was like a scarecrow.

"You'd better come and have a wash, And a delousing too." That salted me fine, But t didn't know that a wash was going to bring me face to face. with the M.V.D.—the dreaded secret police,

There he turned

off and me. In a setling ke left me alone in the sandy danger simply could not exist,

Tisere was no sound, __no_sim_of_life, no_indfestion

waste.

whatever of where Kyakhta

utterly fort.

might be.

I picked a

And then I stepped out into clearing-and-sw-three-watch-

I was hopelessly, towers less than a stone's throw

away!

For a moment I could do chance direction nothing. I was paralysed with tear. I tried to mave, but my and walked until I was

austed. Then I lay down with legs were numb. I stood stack- Willem by my side and slept still, helpless, vulnerable. until it was light.

ex-

the

I BBW the sentry on We awoke parched with thirst. nearest watch-tower siruighica Willem licked the dew from the his back, yawn and shume

So did I. Then round. Steppe grass.

we began walking again-unili the dog froze in his tracks.

Across the plain, topplag the huis (bal stretched to

Then he saw me and left his platform.

I found myself looking horri

rizki and left in the distance, fed straight into the barrel of were four watch-lowers, with between me and freedom.

hile sub-machine-gun. He stood

a quard on each of them. I had reached the Soviet. Mongolian frontier.

But those guards could soon the countryside for miles around. It one of them had I saw the attendants watching turned field-glasses in our direc- me closely as I splashed around tion, he could have spolied them whispering together as ! under the shower. I watched easily. dried myself.

And then I realised they were Gazing at my scars... the scars

us

I hid until the sun went down. The next morning we began walking parallel to those watch-

By Mik

NEXT WEEK:

Willem saves my life-and is killed. An Armenian low puts me in touch with

an anti-Communit underground movement,

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