POW diaries - Captain Percival Lowe, item 173

• June 30, 2017 21:33:54 Annick Rodriguez

                                                                         86.

  We were joined by 4 other  English officers a Colonel & 3 majors

  who had been sent to a camp after passing the board, for

  reprisals.

  In due course the train moved out. In a very short time

  I saw the German & Swiss sentry boxes on the side of

  the line. Then the Swiss Doctor shook hands and said

  now you are in switzerland. A sigh of relief here was

  not I think out of place.

                      _______ .  ________

  Note A.  The first of all planted firs trees outside there along the

  inside of the boundary fence. These were of course most useful

  in an escape .The hole we originally made in the fence was

  screened by a large firs tree from the sentry on the beat  in

  the tennis field. The Russian hole would have also been quite

  impractical except for these same trees. When the officer escaped

  out of the bottom fence, all the young trees both outside &

  inside this fence were dug up. This at the time top of our

  tunnel. A kind garden was constructed outside the front

  of the camp & this also was decked with paths & fir trees.

  Then also there was a wood, all the lower branches of which

  were cut down. It was on a little walk, A path & steps

  were made & on the top was constructed what purported to

  be a summer house. Here perhaps the commandant could

  sip his beer [encircled] & watching the prisoners [/encircled] in seclusion with his

  lady friends. It also seemed an ideal place for  a machine

  gun to command the camp.

  Take all this in conjunction with the ornamental trees

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