Best Foot Forward: The 4,000-mile Walk to Freedom

Best Foot Forward: The 4,000-Mile Walk to Freedom

By Mr Ghaz, 1 March, 2010

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Best Foot Forward: The 4,000-Mile Walk to Freedom

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In March 1942 six Indian soldiers on patrol in  the Himalayas were startled to see a small group of men wearing animal skins stumble down a mountain trail toward them .The soldiers were even more amazed when the four emaciated strangers-who a few moments before had scarcely been able to walk-began to laugh and dance, hugging each other and singing.

The four had every reason to rejoice: they had just completed a 4,000-mile trek on foot from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia.

Secret Adviser

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The leader of the group was Slavomir Rawicz, a young Polish officer sentenced to 25 years of hard labor for spying. He had been sent to Camp 303,400 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in February 1941. His first thought had been of escape.

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Rawicz received help and advice from an unexpected source: the wife of the camp commandant, Mme. Ushakova, who virtually planned the escape for him, Rawicz should head south, toward Afghanistan or India. It was a long and treacherous route but the safest; he would face certain capture if he were to take the shortest route east toward the Pacific.

Following her instructions, Rawicz recruited six other like-minded prisoners. They stole the skins of animals that had been trapped by their guards and made them into clothing and moccasins. In secret they devised fire-lighting tools, knives, and other necessities. Meanwhile, Mme. Ushakova stole an axe for the group and filled a sack for each man with a few day provisions.

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During a snowstorm on the night of April 9, 1941, Rawicz and his six companions slipped under the wire and clambered over the outer fence of the camp. For two nights they ran cross-country without pause, hiding by day to snatch bits of food and a few moments of sleep. There were no signs of pursuit; the snow had covered their tracks, and the choice of a southern route seemed correct.

The first real rest for the escapees came after they crossed the Lena River, where they ate the only fresh food they had had in nine days: fish they caught by smashing through the ice covering the river. The next objective was Lake Baikal, 500 miles farther south. Seven weeks later they had crossed the lake and entered Outer Mongolia, 1,200 miles from Camp 303. By then the party was eight strong, for they had met a Polish girl, Kristina, who had escaped from another labor camp.

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Travelling in Mongolia was relatively easy. The friendly population let the little band work in exchange for food. It was apparent, however, that they would be safe only when they reached India, 2,500 miles away on the other side of the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas.

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The journey across the Gobi, a grim expanse of bare rock that burns by day and freezes at night, claimed the lives of Kristina and one of the men. By then they had finished their meagre rations; for three weeks the remaining fugitives survived by eating snakes. In October 1941 reached Tibet, where, once again, the local residents helped them on their way. The next stage of the journey took the group into the Himalayas, where another died in his sleep of the cold. In crossing the mountains, the five survivors forced themselves to remain awake day and night to avoid the same fate.

Encountering Yeti

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At last the group started the descent toward the Indian border. Then a bizarre incident occurred: two apelike creatures, seven feet tall, barred their path. In his book The Long Walk, Rawicz shared his belief that they were elusive “abominable snowmen” of the Himalayas. To avoid the strange creatures, the group made a treacherous detour. Unfortunately, one man fell into a huge crevasse.

Rawicz and his three fellow survivors were to endure another eight days without food until at last, nearly a year after their escape, they surprised the Indian Army patrol.

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The men were taken to a Calcutta hospital, and only after sleeping almost continually for four weeks after sleeping almost continually for four weeks did Rawicz believe he was a free man. He then rejoined his Polish regiment, and fought with the Allies during World War II.