Award DCM Gnr. C.E. Harrison, Royal Artillery (Escaper & Evader)

Gunner Cyril Edgar Harrison, Royal Artillery attached School of Artillery Forces, British Expeditionary Force
Award: Distinguished Conduct Medal
Service No: 950369

1. CAPTURE

We had been sent out from Forges in a flying column on 16th May 1940. I was acting as a truck driver. Our column was ambushed by the Germans and I was captured just outside Albert on 20th May 1940.

2. After captured we were taken into Albert and thence, via St. Quentin to Belgium on route for Trier. From the main distribution centre at Trier I was sent to Oflag VIIC (Laufen) and remained there till April 1941. At this camp officers had priority in escaping. I was employed in general work around the camp and for part of the time as an orderly.

I left Laufen in April 1941 for Fort 8 (Posen) attached to Stalag XXI D. This was the ‘reprisals’ camp and here again officers had priority in escaping. Here I worked in the tailors’ shop, having had experience of the trade as salesman in peacetime, and helped in the making of civilian clothes for the officers who escaped from the Fort. Here I helped in a tunnel scheme, but the tunnel was not completed by the time we were all moved.

Here also I had no opportunity of escape. Again I worked in the tailors’ shop, making civilian suits and also three German uniforms which were used in a successful escape from the camp. In September 1941 I was transferred to Oflag VI B (Warburg), where I also worked in the tailors’ shop. In April 1942 I was sent to Stalag VIII B (Lamsdorf).

3. Attempted escapes:

(a) From Arbeitskommando 428 (Derschau)

From Stalag VIII B I was sent on a working party at a sawmill at Derschau, North East of Oppeln (Germany 1:100,00, Sheet 117). I escaped from the billet at the sawmill with a L/Cpl. in the Royal Engineers on 28th July 1942. We collected civilian clothes. Some were stolen from the sawmill and I had a pair of blue dungarees which my parents had sent in a personal parcel inside a pair of pyjamas. We escaped from the upper floor of a two storey building adjoining the sawmill. We cut through the bars of the window in the afternoon with a hacksaw blade which we stole from the sawmill and covered up the cuts with chewing gum. After dark we pilled ou the bars, and lowered ourselves down a blanket of ropes. We had save food from the Red Cross parcels and I had a small map of part of Poland which I had stolen from a railway carriage. I also had a compass which I had had in France. We walked alongside the main road leading to Loz and then struck across country for the river Malapane, intending to head for Cracow, where we hoped to get help from Poles. We followed the river, intending to reach the railway line at Graenweiler (Germany 1:100,00, Sheet 118). At Grafenwiler there was a thunderstorm during the night and we got thoroughly soaked. We lay up in bushes on the river bank to dry our clothes and were detected by a woman herding geese. She informed civilians who sent for the police. We were sent back to the main Stalag and got seven days in cells. During this attempt we walked only by night and lay up by day. As we had civilian clothing, this course was a mistake.

(b) From Arbeitskommando 211 (Triebitz)

About 12th September I attempted to escape again, this time from Arbeitskommando 211 at Triebitz, 17km from Zwittau. This time there were five others with me, including Pte. Morley Australian New Zealander; and L/Cpl. Eric Egan. We had food from Red Cross parcels, but no money. I had two maps which I had copied – one down as far as Innsbruck, and the other of the Swiss frontier. I also had a compass made from a razor blade. We left he Arbeitskommando in pairs, intending to try to reach Switzerland. Egan and I went together and about five hours later ran into two of the others in a wood outside Zwittau. The four of us went on together for the next two days, walking across country to avoid co… and road blocks. We were wearing battle dress when we left the working party, but on the second night broke open a box on the railway line and each got a civilian working jacket. While walking along the railway line we encountered a Czech soldier on guard. He arrested the three others, but I managed to get away by rolling into a ditch near the line. Next night I walked to a railway goods yard from which I had heard shunting while lying up during the day. For about two hours I managed to avoid the two Czech soldiers who were guarding the yard. There were a lot of trucks in the yard, but none seemed read to leave. Then a goods train came in on the central line and as the train was about to leave again, I got into the brake van of a truck in the middle of the train.

After about three hours the train arrived in Brunn (Brno). This was the third day after my escape. I left the goods yard immediately and crossed a railway bridge to the river bank, which I followed for about two miles till I found fairly good cover and lay up for the day. I started off just before dark and got on to the main Vienna road on the outskirts of the town. I walked for several nights and lay up by day.

I had left my water bottle with one of the men who had been captured and suffered considerably from thirst. One day, in fact, I went 5km out of my way to a village just to get water. There were civilians and two policemen near the village pump, but hey did not pay any attention to me.

After several days’ walking I stole a bicycle from an entry at a fairly large farming village on the main road, and rode onto Vienna, entering the city just after dark. I had some difficulty in getting through Vienna, as the lights went out at 22.45 hrs and I could not read the signposts. Eventually I reached the railway station at Vienna-Odling. I left the bicycle outside the station and made my way into a goods yard, but could not find a truck bound for Linz, for which I was hoping to make.

While returning to get the bicycle I was spotted by a man, who spoke to me. To avoid him I got onto the platform. A train came in bound for Radstadt (South East of Salzburg) and I entered it with the passengers.

I was suffering from dysentery, and spent the journey in the lavatory. The train pulled up at the wayside station at Loebersdorf (South East of Vienna) out of which I got through an open gate in a goods yard. I was then in a pretty weak state, but I found cover on a riverbank outside the town. During the next day I made a fire in the woods and boiled myself some cocoa, potatoes and Oxo cubes. I was two days in the district.

At the end of the second day I returned to the goods yard, and found goods wagons labelled ‘Linz.’ I was taken ill again, and went into the shadow of a factory wall, where two watchmen with torches found me. This was the 13th day of my escape. I was taken to the police station, where, in view of my weak state, I was very decently treated. I was sent to Stalag XVIII A, a camp occupied by Russians and Jugoslavs. On my return to Stalag VIII B I was seven weeks in hospitals.

(c) From Arbeitskommando 453 (Stramberg)

In Lamsdorf I met Pte. Oskar Scharf, a Czech Jew, who joined the British Army in Palestine, and we went out on the same working party (Arbeitskommando 453) at Stamberg (South of Mahrisch-Ostrau), on the Czechoslovak frontier, Scharf went as interpreter. On the working party Scharf and I got in touch with Czech civilians (Communists) who were willing to take us to Budapest. We collect as much money as possible by selling cigarettes and clothing from parcels, and I had about 400 RM.

Scharf and I left the working party on 26th-27th April 1943. A guide met us outside the factory boundary at 23.00 hrs and took us across country till we met four or five more Czechs on a road. They fitted us out with old clothing for the journey across the hills into Czechoslovakia. After crossing the hills we stayed from morning till afternoon in a village hotel. We left the hotel to catch a bus to the Slovakian border, but something seemed to go wrong with the arrangements, and we went by lorry instead. We left the lorry – Scharf, three Czechs, and myself – and while walking along a country road carrying our luggage we were overtaken by a car containing three Gestapo men. One of the Czechs got away. The rest of us were arrested. Scharf and I showed our Stalag identity discs which satisfied the Gestapo. We were both sent back to Lamsdorf. I was sentenced to 14 days cells, but did not serve any of the sentence, having already been 25 days in civilian prisons.

4. Escape from Breslau Gas Works

On 23rd September 1943 I escaped from Breslau gas works. The plans for and the execution of this escape are described in the report of Sjt. Crowley (S/P.G. (G) 1501) with whom I escaped.

I followed Crowley over the gas work wall, getting over at the second attempt, the first having been spoiled by the presence of a civilian on the street. I got over about three minutes after Crowley, and was just in time to see him catch a tram.

I walked towards the town for about ten minutes and then got the tram to the Haupthahnhof, arriving at 15.50 hrs. I spent some time looking for Crowley, who had never seen the station, which I knew fairly well. I eventually saw him in a ticket queue. I got into another queue, in which there was a delay, as a result of which I missed the train.

We had an alternative plan, however, and I took a ticket to Reppen to which I had no intention going, but which was on the way to Frankfurt. There was no train leaving immediately on this route except an express to Dresden. I took the express and charged at Leignitz, an hour’s journey from Breslau. While I was checking train times from the indicator in the station at Liegnitz a railway policeman (in blue uniform) asked me what I was doing. I saw I was a foreign worker waiting for the train. He seemed satisfied. And merely glanced at the forged Asuweis which I had obtained in the camp. From Liegntiz I went onto Sommerfeld and changed there for Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. Here I booked again for Stettin via Eberswalda. I arrived in Stettin at 13.53 hrs on 24th September.

From the station in Sttetin I made my way to the docks. I walked along the river bank and then out to the suburb of Gotzlow. We had been advised in the camp to go there, bit I saw no sign of Swedish hips. I returned to the town and decided to seek help of Frenchmen.

The first foreigner I spoke to was a Pole working at a cement factory on the way back to town. He said there were Belgians working there, but they were all sill prisoners. He took me to the Lager where they lived, but I decided the place was too risky.

When I got back to the town I tried two Frenchmen wearing red white and blue badges. They were suspicious, though I gave them half a bar of English chocolate, and would not help. About 15.30 hrs I decided to try the other side of the river. Here I spotted one more Frenchmen. As they passed me one of them pulled out a packet of French cigarettes. I asked them for a light and got into conversation with them, telling them who I was, and showing them y POW disc and a letter addressed to em in the camp and stamped by the German censorship. This satisfied them and they took me to their Lager, about ten minutes’ walk away. Here there was a man who spoke English. He went out and returned with Crowley.

The rest of my journey is narrated in Sjt. Crowley’s report.

WO 373/94/209

Gunner C E Harrison (service number 960369).
Service: Army, RA [Royal Artillery].
Escape from Stalag VIIIB, Breslau, Germany, to Sweden.
WO 208/3316/1523

Name: Cyril Edgar Harrison.
Date of Birth: 14/5/1918.
Place of Birth: Mansfield.
Service: British Army.
Rank: Private.
Regiment/Unit/Squadron: Royal Artillery.
Service Number: 960379.
Date of Capture: 20 May 1940.
Theatre of Capture: Albert.
Camp Name/Number: Oflag VIIC Laufen.
PoW number: 797.
Date of Death: [unspecified].
Number of Photographs: 1.
Number of Fingerprints: 1.
Number of X-rays: 0.
Number of Cards: 3.
WO 416/164/386