“I was too late.”

Lieutenant Eduoard Izac made a great escape from his German captors, but was too late!

As Izak eats breakfast one June, 1918, morning aboard the transport ship U.S.S. President Lincoln, torpedoes slam its hull, and before long, survivors sit shivering in lifeboats. Then, German Captain Remy of the U-90 surfaces, grabs Izak, the only officer he can find, and takes him prisoner.

While on board the U-90, Izak learns how the hated U-boat wolf packs operate, intelligence he considers vital to the Americans. So he tries to escape. He even dives out of a fast-moving train, but gets caught and beaten brutally.

His successful attempt begins October 6, 1918. Once out of a prison camp near the Swiss border, he and an accomplice spent a week traversing 120 miles. They elude soldiers and dogs (with pepper) before swimming down the freezing Rhine River toward freedom. Within thirty yards of the Swiss border an exhausted Izac loses all strength. As he writes in a book a number of years later: “So turning over on my back I commended my soul to my God and closed my eyes. Instantly my feet touched the rocks.”

Upon reaching London he is eager to share intelligence with Admiral Sims, America’s commander of naval forces in Europe. But Sims shows little interest because the war is about over.

Franklin Roosevelt awards him his medal on the second anniversary of Armistice Day, November 11, 1920. His friendship with the then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who later became president, helped Izak launch a career in politics. He served his country as a California congressman from 1936 to 1946, an advocate for veterans rights and benefits.

Citation
When the U.S.S. President Lincoln was attacked and sunk by the German submarine U-90, on 21 May 1918, Lt. Izac was captured and held as a prisoner on board the U-90 until the return of the submarine to Germany, when he was confined in the prison camp. During his stay on the U-90 he obtained information of the movements of German submarines which was so important that he determined to escape, with a view to making this information available to the U.S. and Allied Naval authorities. In attempting to carry out this plan, he jumped through the window of a rapidly moving train at the imminent risk of death, not only from the nature of the act itself but from the fire of the armed German soldiers who were guarding him. Having been recaptured and reconfined, Lt. Izac made a second and successful attempt to escape, breaking his way through barbed-wire fences and deliberately drawing the fire of the armed guards in the hope of permitting others to escape during the confusion. He made his way through the mountains of southwestern Germany, having only raw vegetables for food, and at the end, swam the River Rhine during the night in the immediate vicinity of German sentries.