TCD MS 10823 folio 30 recto
[Sept 1918] was the main road and beyond this again was a wooded hill. Once a few yards within the wood we should be out of sight.
So after arranging with Lord Farnham <who was a fellow prisoner, that had arrived a short time previously from Clausthal, to do a few gymnastics> to attract one of the sentries attention, we strolled down through the garden towards the spot we intended to make our attempt from. Edmundson had the wirecutters and was to do all the cutting, while I was to follow on behind with the Kit. On seeing that neither of the sentries were looking at the wire, we took off our coats and Edmundson started to cut two strands of the first fence. The wire cutters were very blunt, but he managed it all right and crept through the hole made to the next fence; I followed after with the kit, and lay down just behind him as he started cutting through the next fence. One of the officers that we had as a look out gave a gentle whistle, and we lay flat, as the sentry that had been watching the tennis started to walk in our direction. He did not go far however and then turned back again, allowing us to get on with the cutting of the wire. Owing to the bluntness of the wire cutters, this took much longer than we had anticipated, however at last the second fence was cut through and we just managed to squeeze through and stand up in the narrow space between the fence and the wooden palisade. It was a very tight fit indeed and our shirts were torn to ribbons in doing so. Up till now, we had been unseen but just as Edmundson was cutting the last <of the three wires> on the palisade, one of the sentries saw us and shouted. We jumped down onto the road and then ran across it and up the hill into the wood as fast as we could go. Five shots were fired at us as we ran, but the sentries were not good shots.