A Hundred Miles As The Crow Flies
The story of the largest mass escape of the Second World War, led by Australian Ralph Churches from Stalag XVIIID at Maribor.
- Author
- Ralph Churches
- Publisher
- Australian POW Association
- Price
- See notes
- ISBN
- 0646391178
- Published
- 2016
A Hundred Miles As The Crow Flies by Ralph Churches
This is the story of the largest mass escape of the Second World War from a German POW camp. Stalag XVIIID at Maribor in Slovenia lay a few miles south of the Austrian border. British, New Zealand and Australian prisoners formed the majority of those held there, many having already endured grim conditions in camps across Greece before being crammed into cattle trucks for the journey north.
Maribor was a vital communications hub for the Germans. Numerous security organisations—the SS, Gestapo and SD—operated in the area and reprisals were brutal; POWs were warned that escape attempts would mean execution and collective punishment. In March 1943, Australian soldier Ralph Churches became camp leader, building contacts inside and, crucially, outside the wire. Local partisans supplied intelligence and forged the links that made a breakout possible.
In September 1944 Churches and seven comrades slipped from the camp. Within days they decided to return for others. Ultimately 105 additional prisoners escaped, including ten initially reluctant Frenchmen. Guided by partisans through forested mountains, the column lodged in safe villages each night. Though the escape route’s straight-line distance was about one hundred miles, the group covered almost two hundred before reaching the SOE airstrip at Otok, where Special Duties Dakotas flew them to Italy.
Every escaper reached Italy safely and was debriefed at Foggia. Churches and fellow organiser Les Laws were later recorded at the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood in recognition of their leadership. Partisan archives preserve documents and photographs of the escape, alongside accounts of the diversionary actions mounted to keep German forces away from the column.
ISBN 0646 391178. Privately published by the Australian POW Association; try Pioneer Books, South Australia (postage may exceed the cover price).