DID NOT KNOW OF ARMISTICE FOR 30 DAYS
—
Prisoner Fleeing From German Guards Gets Word of Peace Pact While in Hospital
Springfield, Ill., Nov. 7.—(AP)—Armistice day, for millions of ex-service men, is a day of rejoicing; but for former Lieut.
Howard C. Knotts, D. S. O., it's just the memory of a pain in the leg.
Knotts, now a Springfield attorney, doesn't know just where he was on November 11, 1918—time passed uncertainly in German prison camps—but he remembers clearly the exclamation of an astounded general, more than a month later, December 14:
"Don't you know the war is over?"
Knotts didn't know. When the armistice was signed, he was escaping from a prison camp. When final negotiations were being made, he was hiding in the pantry of a Belgian farmhouse, nursing a very sore leg, constantly apprehensive of discovery by his erstwhile captors.
Flying low over the enemy lines October 14, Knotts was shot and captured. He escaped early in November with a fellow casualty, John Little. Their escape hinged on the yearning of starved prisoners for imitation apple butter.
Knotts and Little were riding on a wagon drawn by fellow prisoners on a rearward trek of prisoners. The "human horses," brooding over hunger, decided they would have some of the sergeant's imitation apple butter or refuse to draw the wagons. The two casualties crawled down and sat by a hedged road to watch the dispute. Little nudged Knotts. "Let's back through the hedge," he whispered. "They'll never miss us."
Half a mile away—the men could not have walked further—was a farmhouse, annexed to a chateau in which were quartered German troops and officers. Miraculously escaping discovery, they were hidden in a pantry by the farmhouse mother, where four other fugitives joined them.
Meanwhile, various rumors floated through to the men—the most persistent being that a 30-day armistice had been signed for burial of the dead. Then one day came the report that American troops were quartered at Spa, about 10 miles away.
Taking what he considered a "long chance," Knotts "smuggled" a letter to the commandant at Spa, and shortly thereafter a General Rhodes took him to American headquarters.
After a few days' rest Knotts asked to be sent to his outfit, declaring he didn't want to "go back into this mess with a strange outfit" when released from the hospital. Disbelieving his ears, General Rhodes asked Knotts to repeat his statement, which he did. There followed the general's exclamation.
Looking back, Knotts still contends that his ignorance was understandable. The possibility that the war had ended was furthest from the thoughts of the fugitives, and as Knotts says, although they might have guessed it, "you don't like to kid yourself about a thing so important when you are in a place such as we were."
Knott's credited with destruction of eight enemy airplanes, and besides winning the Distinguished Service Cross, he was cited by General Pershing and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (British).
The Billings Gazette - Thursday, November 8, 1928
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