In May 2023, Graham Coult will be cycling the length of his maternal Grandfather’s escape route.
POW 7666 J.R. Jones (Taid) was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers who was caught in the invasion of Greece, when the advance of the Nazi army caused the invasion force to retreat without enough Naval transport. He was held at Stalag 18a in Wolfsberg, south Austria until Easter Sunday 1944 when he escaped. His escape route was marked on a ragged map he took with him.
This map (below) came to light as his mother showed him Taid’s artefacts that had been kept hidden away. The route is nearly 2000kms long and crosses 5 countries ending in Odessa. Like many soldiers after the war, they carried mental trauma, which was not widely treated. The understanding of PTSD was still in its infancy, and so the great proportion of veteran’s carried this burden. His Grandfather died when he was 6 years old.
Graham decided to cycle this route, to understand the magnitude of the journey and to raise awareness and funds for mental health. Taid escaped with another POW from the camp, David Toller who he has not been able to trace to date. Graham coerced a school friend, Charles Henderson to join him on this adventure of discovery. Charles is an accomplished endurance athlete having completed the latest Cape Wrath Ultra and Marathon eds Sables, he is also a paramedic working for the London Ambulance Service.
They are starting this journey on May 8th 2023 from the Stalag 18A museum in Wolfsberg. Over 2 weeks they will cycle the route and hopefully making it to Odessa. They will be pausing on the way as there was a name and address on the back of the map (below) to find out if there is any information on what help may have been provided there.
It is sad for many significant reasons that the invasion by Russia puts reaching the destination into doubt. To make it to Odessa and follow in his footsteps would be a personal achievement and help bring awareness and funds to many.
For more information and to sponsor Graham, please visit www.rideformentalhealth.co.uk.
