POW Escape And Evasion (eBook)

A prisoner faces multiple possible challenges – isolation, torture (mental and physical), boredom, fear and life amongst other prisoners. Controlling what can be controlled is vital.

Few experiences in life can be as frightening as being taken prisoner or hostage. Once a captive, a person relinquishes much of the control over his life and future, which both now rest in the hands of his captors. For some, especially those who fall into the hands of professional military personnel with a respect for statutes such as the Geneva Convention, the experience may well be hard but perfectly endurable. For those held by insurgents or more ideologically fanatical enemies, the experience can be the ultimate horror.

While this book is primarily about the skills and tactics required for escape and evasion, we also need to address POW survival. In this uniquely dangerous and mentally exhausting situation, there are well-researched strategies that increase a prisoner’s chance of making it through the ordeal, and eventually being rescued.

In the Hands of the Enemy

In October 2002, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard B. Myers, published the Antiterrorism Personal Protection Guide: A Self-Help Guide to Terrorism. The booklet’s policy guidance notes explains why it is US prisoners in particular who represent a particular value to an enemy, whether conventional or irregular:

US military personnel captured by terrorists or detained by hostile foreign governments are often held for individual exploitation, to influence the US Government, or both. This exploitation can take many forms, but each form of exploitation is designed to assist the foreign government or the terrorist captors. In the past, terrorists or governments exploited detainees for information and propaganda efforts, including confessions to crimes never committed. This assisted or lent credibility to the detainer. Governments also have been exploited in such situation to make damaging statements about themselves or to force them to appear weak in relation to other governments. Governments have paid ransoms for captives of terrorists and such payments have improved terrorist finances, supplies, status and operations, often prolonging the terror carried on by such groups. The US Government’s policy is that it will not negotiate with terrorists.

From the US perspective, prisoners are primarily used for extracting information or providing leverage for financial or propaganda gain, which in turn can supply terrorists with the means to continue their fight. Looking more broadly throughout history and geography, we see POWs put to a range of uses. The millions of Soviet POWs captured during World War II were exploited by the Germans as an utterly expendable form of slave labour, and literally millions were worked to death or subject to casual execution. (The Soviets returned the bleak favour to some three million German POWs at the end of the war.) Prisoners have also been executed, sometimes en masse, as a kind of rite to prove the ideological ‘purity’ of the executioners. We have recently seen this most horribly demonstrated by fanatical Islamic groups in the Middle East and Central Asia, but the practice goes back to ancient times, particularly in the form of beheadings.

It would appear from this unnerving picture, and from the fact that many governments (like that of the US) ‘will not negotiate with terrorists’, that the POW is in a uniquely powerless situation. Yet while never downplaying the very real dangers, there are things a soldier can do to increase his chances of making it through, or at least prolonging his survival long enough for an escape or rescue attempt.

The First Moments

The first hours of being taken prisoner are the most dangerous of all for POWs. In the immediate aftermath of battle, trigger fingers are still itchy, hearts are still beating hard and the captors have no empathy with or understanding of their new charges. In fact, it might well be easier for them to kill any prisoners rather than go to the effort of protecting them and taking them back to a prisoner facility well behind the frontlines. Note that historically it is not just ideological fanatics who show reluctance to take prisoners on the battlefield. During World War II, the Surgeon General of the US First Army Group stated that ‘American troops are not showing any great disposition to take prisoners unless the enemy come over in batches of 20 or more’. During the 1982 Falklands War, British soldiers were known to shoot down unarmed men at the immediate point the enemy surrendered, simply because it is hard to stop the process of killing once it is started.

Compliance

For the prisoner, compliance is key during the first few moments of capture. Bravado or defiance will likely bring you death or at least a beating or similar mistreatment. The latter may in turn leave you with permanent injuries that will prevent your future escape, so however much you despise your captors, keep that attitude locked away inside your head. Be humble and calm, speaking in a low and unthreatening tone of voice and following any orders to the letter. Don’t make any sudden movements, and don’t make eye contact. Also, resist the temptation to beg or plead with your captors – this will likely attract more contempt than pity, and make them more not less willing to inflict harm on you. An additional danger is the threat from local civilians, as they may well have suffered under the effects of your own side’s artillery and air bombardments. Senator John McCain, as a young A-4 Skyhawk pilot flying combat missions over North Vietnam in 1967, experienced the full terror of being exposed to angry locals after he was shot down over Hanoi. Severely injured, he was pulled from a lake:

Some North Vietnamese swam out and pulled me to the side of the lake and immediately started stripping me, which is their standard procedure. Of course, this being in the centre of town, a huge crowd of people gathered, and they were all hollering and screaming and cursing and spitting and kicking at me.

When they had most of my clothes off, I felt a twinge in my right knee. I sat up and looked at it, and my right foot was resting next to my left knee, just in a 90-degree position. I said, ‘My God – my leg!’ That seemed to enrage them – I don’t know why. One of them slammed a rifle butt down on my shoulder, and smashed it pretty badly. Another stuck a bayonet in my foot. The mob was really getting up-tight.

There is obviously little that a person can do in such situations, apart from surrender to fate and rely on the questionable protection provided by the guards. They are likely to get in severe trouble if they allowed a potentially valuable prisoner to be murdered before reaching captivity.

Gathering information

During the first minutes and hours of captivity, you are not entirely helpless. Full knowledge of your situation and surroundings is critical, so without raising obvious suspicions, take in as much information as possible. Mentally ask questions such as:

•  Who seems to be the leader of the group? The second-in-command?

•  What is your location? Mentally take note of any prominent landmarks or street names around you – being able to identify this location might come in useful later on for a rescue or escape attempt.

•  From the conversation amongst the captors, can you pick up any details about where you are being taken? Even if you don’t speak the language, listen out for any familiar place names or regularly repeated words that sound significant.

•  Do any of your captors appear to have physical or mental weaknesses, such as leg injuries or bullying by other members of the group, that you might be able to exploit later on? Conversely, these characteristics might also pose a danger to you, so they are useful to note.

In short, take in as much as you...