2nd war escaped prisoner at Castleton
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Escaped Prisoner of War at Castleton 1945
Nazi Storm Trooper in escape bid. Foiled by Castleton Woman Porter.
Rochdale Observer 10th February 1945.
Mainly as a result of the alertness of Miss Mary Emery, 81 St Martin’s Street, Castleton, a porter at Castleton
railway station, an eighteen years old Nazi storm trooper, Erich Breuss, was recaptured at Castleton on Wednesday morning, the day following his escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in the North-West.
About 6.50 on Wednesday morning Miss Emery went to open the waiting room at the station and there saw a man asleep on a seat. Her suspicions were aroused by the drenched clothing the man was wearing, and his manner, and in consequence a telephone call was put through to the Rochdale Borough Police to the effect that it was
believed the man was an escaped prisoner of war. Whilst the message was being put through the man left the station.
Following the receipt of the warning telephone message at the police Office, the patrol car was sent immediately to the Castleton area. Inspector E.L. James and P. C. Whittaker were in the car and as they approached Gypsy Lane, Sudden, they saw the man walking along the road in the direction of Rochdale. When the police officers questioned Breuss they found that he could speak a little English, but he did not understand them when they asked for his name. He was wearing blue overalls over his prisoner-of-war uniform. Apparently Breuss realised that the game was up, and without any resistance on his part he was conveyed to the Central Police Office and later handed over to the camp authorities.
Police officers who interviewed the escaped prisoner said that he was a young man of magnificent physique, but during his detention he did not display any trace of arrogance. The story he told police officers was that on Tuesday he was a member of a working party at a North-Western prisoner-of-war camp, and was engaged in mmoving palliasses to a compound. When the work was completed Breuss hid himself under a pile of about fifty palliasses and waited for an opportunity to make his escape from the camp
grounds. This came later in the evening, when, he declared, he scrambled under a barbed wire fence. He made his way to the Castleton area and stated that to get there he swam a “river,” presumably meaning the Rochdale Canal. He took shelter in the waiting room at Castleton station until he was discovered. Breuss also mentioned that he joined the German army when he was sixteen and a half years of age.