GAULLE Charles de. Autograph manuscript signed, Mon rapport sur mes évasions, January 1927; 23 1/2 fol. pages, with autograph envelope "Mon Rapport sur mes évasions". Account of his five escape attempts during his captivity in Germany from 1916 to 1918. Draft, with erasures and corrections, of the note written by de Gaulle with a view to obtaining the medal for escapees. The official application, typed, certified by witnesses and apostilled by Marshal Pétain, was sent to the Minister of War on 30 January 1927 (BnF exhibition, 1990, no. 43; photocopy attached, with typed note). He was awarded the Médaille des Evadés in October 1927. "Captain de Gaulle, of Marshal Pétain's General Staff", reports to the Minister on "the five escapes I made during my captivity in Germany in 1916, 1917 and 1918". Captain, commanding the 10th company of the 33rd Infantry Regiment, he "fell, wounded, into enemy hands, on 2nd March 1916, at the village of Douaumont". Evacuated to the citadel at Mainz, he was "sent to the Osnabrück camp (Westphalia) at the end of March. Suspected of preparing an escape, I was then sent to the reprisal camp at Sczuczyn (Lithuania), where I spent five months". He was then sent to Fort IX in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. "This fort, which was reserved for officers who had tried to escape, was subject to reinforced surveillance. In September 1916, he made his first attempt by swallowing "a large dose of picric acid" to get admitted to the military hospital. With Captain Dupret, dressed as a nurse, he went to the German hospital; then, dressed as civilians, they both left "the hospital in front of the indifferent post and here we are in town, free, in the middle of a Sunday evening crowd". They headed for Switzerland, but were stopped in Pfaffenhofen and sent back to Ingolstadt. Transferred in July 1917 to Rosenberg Castle near Kronach. (Franconia), he made another attempt on the evening of 15 October, with four other officers, crossing ramparts and ditches in the pouring rain; they were recaptured "after a ten-night march". Brought back to Rosenberg, he tried to escape again on 30 October, but was arrested as he was about to catch the train at Lichtenfels station, and sent back to the fort at Ingolstadt, sentenced to rigorous arrest and three weeks' imprisonment. In May 1918, he was transferred "to the Wülzburg camp near Weissenburg (Bavaria). This camp was set up in an old fortified castle on a rocky outcrop. The enemy had made such arrangements for our guarding that we could hardly think of leaving other than through the gate". On 10 June, led by Lieutenant Meyer, who had put on a German officer's uniform, he was able to get through the gates of the fort; they were arrested the next day. He made a fifth attempt at the beginning of July, hiding in a basket of dirty laundry; having managed to catch the train to Nuremberg, he was arrested on the train. He adds: "After each of my escapes from the Wülzburg camp, I was given a 'punishment' of 60 days' rigorous imprisonment. But I didn't have to endure them, because the armistice was signed before the execution of these arrests had begun". An original sketch tracing the plan of Rosenberg's two escapes and two reproduced sketches. LNC, I, p. 673. Attached is a typed and signed copy (6 times), also signed by the witnesses with legalised signatures, dated 30 January 1927, with 2 original sketches showing the plan of the escapes. Plus a photocopy of an administrative form from the medal sub-commission concerning him; and a typed list of places of internment.