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The Atlanta Prisoner of War base camp and its branches could boast of "never having had a successful escape." However, that was more semantics than fact. Prisoners did indeed get away from Atlanta and Indianola camps, but all of them were recaptured or returned voluntarily. |
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One incident at Camp Atlanta has become legend. A group of fifteen prisoners
and their guard were taken by truck to a farm near Bertrand, some thirty
minutes distance by gravel road from the base camp. When their work was
completed, the prisoners and their guard piled back into the truck and
returned to the Atlanta camp late in the afternoon. When a head count was
made, it was discovered the contingent was one man short. Apparently no
count had been taken before they left the work site. After a good deal
of rechecking numbers and reviewing work assignments, it was decided that
there indeed had been an escape.
This was new and exciting territory for the guards and MPs at Atlanta. A prisoner had escaped from the main camp! There was a flurry of activity as guard dogs and their handlers were sent out on the trail, jeeps with armed men roared out of camp, and truck loads of guards followed. The State Highway Patrol, sheriffs' offices and local law enforcement people aid in the hunt. About ten o'clock a lonely figure walked up the road and approached the guard at the camp's main gate. It was the missing prisoner! "Vy de go off und leaf me?" he asked in broken English, following his long walk back to camp. Further questioning determined that the prisoner had stepped behind a tree to relieve himself before the rough truck ride, and when he had finished, the truck had already pulled away. |
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