The Road to En-Dor

[Gunner Bailey]

Just aquired a odd little book. The Road to En-Dor, by E.H Jones. Published first in 1919, it tells the story of two British Prisoners who escaped the Turks. The book also seems to contain a lot about spiritualism, OUIJA boards and all. Have not started it yet but would be interested to hear from anyone who has read it. Would I be wasting my time reading this????

Gunner Bailey

[centurion]

Its a good (true) story of how two British officers used fake seances etc to almost con their way to freedom from the Turks (the armistice just beat them to it). The classic Science Fiction writer Eric Frank Russell nicked the story and transliterated it to a downed inter stellar scout pilot using the same technique to escape from his captors on a distant planet.

[Chris_Baker]

One of the more famous memoirs about the escape in 1918 of two British officers (actually one Welsh and one Australian) from the Yozgad POW camp in Anatolia, Turkey. Jones masterminded an incredible effort that first persuaded his captors of the existence of what he calls a 'Spook' through use of a ouija board. The Spook went on to instruct the Turks to move the officers to Constantinople and to eventual freedom. The journey however necessitated the officers undergoing extreme deprivations, cruelty at the hands of the Turks, and indeed hanging themselves at one point. Extraordinary.

There are quite a few books about the experience of British POWs in Turkey. They include escapers tales such as Sir Thomas White's Guests of the unspeakable , E.O.Mousley's The secrets of a Kuttite , Johnson and Yearsley's 450 miles to freedom and H.C.W.Bishop's A Kut Prisoner, in addition to The road to En-Dor. These, plus other accounts, paint a ghastly picture. The Turks inflicted appalling cruelty on their captives at Kut-al-Amara, for instance - for me, a still-unpunished war crime of some magnitude. The conditions in which prisoners were held were crude and squalid. Food was not provided, but "wages" were...and the POWs were allowed into the villages to buy what little food there was to be had. Thus it was not prison fences that bound the British, but the hundreds of miles of unfriendly, often mountainous terrain between the camps and freedom. The successful escapees were incredibly resourceful.

Lieutenants E.H.Jones and C.W.Hill perhaps more than most, for their escape took them well over a year of continuous and most complex deception. On face value, to obtain freedom by persuading your captors that you have been possessed and are mad (with your close enemy confidants being entirely satisfied that this is the work of a Spook who will eventually guide them to the buried treasure of a rich Armenian murdered by the Turks), sounds difficult enough. Doing this in the face of detailed examination by highly-qualified authorities, 24-hour observation and so on, for months on end..when you are starving, with dysentery, and mis-treated...is just beyond comprehension. The temptation is say 'to hell with this, I need some water' must have been there constantly.

Jones and Hill finally got away by being placed onto an exchange ship in October 1918. Ironically this was only weeks before their brother officers who had remained content to undertake not to escape, joined them in freedom.

I found The road to En-Dor quite fascinating. Hard reading at times, as the 'plot' was so complex, but unforgettable.

[Gunner Bailey]

Thanks Chris, Centurion

I'll read the book now. I was a bit put off by the diagram of the OUIJA board but Chris' briefing puts it all in place. Must have been great characters.

Gunner Bailey

[truthergw]

Strangely I have known about this book for many years. From the time as a teenager, I was reading WW2 books with many about POW experiences. I rejected it then, wrong war! I must have a go at it soon.

[centurion]

I have a vague idea (as usual) that the story was dramatised in some form - possibly as a radio play.