THE BOJAH CASE
Soon after the failure of our tunnel scheme several Englishmen, among
whom were Gilliland, Unett, and Batty Smith, who had not been convicted
by the Germans of any evil deeds during the last four or five months,
were warned that they were going to be removed to Crefeld. Great
preparations were made for escaping on the way, and Gaskell and de Goys
seized the opportunity to try on the basket trick. Officers who have
been prisoners for two or three years accumulate quite a considerable
amount of luggage, and it was thought to be more than possible that the
Germans would not trouble to search all of it as it left the fort, as it
was quite certain to be searched carefully before it entered any new
camp. Two large clothes-baskets were procured, of which the fastenings
were so altered that they could be opened from the inside. Gaskell and
de Goys packed themselves into these, and were carried by the orderlies
into the parcel office in the fort with the rest of the heavy luggage.
Unfortunately a week or two before this someone had been caught entering
this room by means of a false key, and since then a sentry had been
posted permanently outside the door. When Gaskell and de Goys, who had
already spent nearly four hours in an extremely cramped position,
attempted to get out of their baskets to stretch their legs, the
wickerwork creaked so much that the suspicion of the sentry outside the
door was roused. He called an N.C.O., and the culprits were discovered
and led, rather ignominiously, back to their rooms.
From Fort 9, where the Germans were so very suspicious, this method of
escaping would need, I think, more than an average amount of luck to be
successful, though from a normal prison camp it was to my knowledge
successfully employed on several occasions.
The party under orders for another camp left the next day and without
further incident, and some weeks later we heard that six or eight of
them got out of the train in the neighborhood of Crefeld, and four of
them--Gilliland, Briggs, and two others--crossed the Dutch frontier
after three or four nights' march and after overcoming considerable
difficulties and hardships. Gaskell and I applied personally to the
General to be transferred to another camp, and I think most of the
remaining Englishmen did the same, but our request was received with
derision.
The two officers who escaped gave, I think, rather an unnecessarily
harrowing description of the life at Fort 9; for if in what I have
written I have given a true picture, I think it will be realized that
the feeling of bitterness was, under the circumstances, except in
particular instances and with certain individuals, remarkably small.
Attempts to escape, although thoroughly earnest and whole-hearted, were
undertaken with a sort of childish exuberance, in which the comic
element was seldom absent for long. However, the feeling between the
prisoners and their guard gradually grew worse, and several incidents
intensified this bitterness to such an extent that towards the end of my
time at Fort 9 it seemed scarcely possible that we could continue for
much longer without bloodshed, which up to that time, by pure good
fortune, had been avoided.
The Germans had been very irritated when we tore down and burnt in our
stoves nearly all the woodwork of the fort, and the repeated attempts to
escape got on their nerves. In addition to this, a store of blankets and
bedding caught fire--or perhaps was set on fire by the prisoners, as the
Germans believed. The place burnt for three days, and numerous
fire-engines had to be sent out from Ingolstadt. Also a large pile of
paper and boxes from our parcels, of considerable commercial value at
that time in Germany, was deliberately set on fire by a squib
manufactured for that purpose, although the pile was guarded by a
sentry. These and other pinpricks undoubtedly led the Germans, as we
learnt from one of the sentries, to issue most stringent orders to the
guard to use their rifles against us whenever possible.
I have already recorded some of the occasions, mostly justifiable, when
shots were fired at prisoners in the fort, but now there occurred an
incident which roused the most bitter feelings amongst the prisoners.
We were allowed to walk on the broad path along the ramparts, but we
were not allowed on the grass on the far side. Two Russian officers,
newly arrived at the camp I believe and ignorant of this rule (for there
were no boundary marks of any sort), lay on the grass one hot afternoon
in the forbidden area. Without a moment's hesitation a sentry about 100
yards from them fired two deliberately aimed shots without giving them
any warning whatever. Fortunately he missed them, though they presented
an enormous target. But the fact that he was an exceedingly bad shot did
not in any way detract from the damnableness of this wholly
unjustifiable attempt at murder--for that is the way we looked at it.
About a month before this last event, Buckley, Medlicott, and Batty
Smith finished their spell of "two months' solitary" and were welcomed
back to the society and comparative freedom of Fort 9. The Germans said
that they had only been under arrest (_Stubenarrest_) pending
investigations, and indeed ever since the row which I have called the
"Bojah" case the most searching inquiries had been carried out by the
Germans.
Every one who had been in any way concerned or had been a spectator of
the scene was summoned to Ingolstadt to be cross-questioned and his
evidence taken down in writing. The Germans took the matter very
seriously and did their utmost to establish a charge of organized mutiny
against us. We, on the other hand, took the whole business as a joke and
laid the blame for the affair on the fact that the Commandant lost his
temper; and we brought, or could have brought, if the trial had been a
fair one, unlimited evidence to prove that this was not only possible
but an everyday occurrence at Fort 9.
At last the case was brought before a court-martial at Ingolstadt. As a
first-hand account by one of the accused of a German court-martial on
prisoners-of-war may be of real interest, I have asked Buckley, who took
a leading part, to give an account of it in his own words.
THE BOJAH CASE COURT-MARTIAL
By Lieut. S. E. Buckley
On the day fixed for the court-martial a large party of Allied officers,
consisting of witnesses and accused, were paraded and left the fort
under a strong escort. The French contingent consisted of about eight
officers, and the British, of Medlicott, Batty Smith, and myself.
We left the fort at about 8 a.m. and arrived at the Kommandantur, to
which was also attached the military prison, at about 9.15. Here we were
all shown into a room to await proceedings, and were shortly joined by
poor old Bojah, the chief accused, and Kicq, both of whom had been kept
in solitary confinement since the day of the row. They both looked
awfully "low" and ill, especially Kicq, who had been short of food for
some time owing to the confiscation of his parcels.
The trial started at 10 a.m., and consisted in the examination of Du
Celie and Batty Smith. Unfortunately, only the officers whose cases were
being examined at the time were allowed to be present, so that we were
only able to judge of the temper of the court by the sentences imposed.
Du Celie, a Frenchman, who had been charged with complicity and who
conducted his own defense, was acquitted. As a matter of fact all he had
done was to translate a letter written by Batty Smith to the Commandant,
at the former's request, in which Batty Smith was alleged to have
slandered the Commandant. Batty Smith was awarded one and a half year's
imprisonment, and appealed against his sentence.
Bojah himself and Kicq were next examined, and as far as I can remember
they were still before the court when the luncheon interval arrived.
We had brought lunch with us, and we had made it as sumptuous as
possible in order to impress the Germans with the lack of success of
their submarine campaign. After lunch Medlicott and I had a little quiet
amusement to ourselves. We had both made fairly elaborate preparations
for an escape, should an opportunity arise during the proceedings. We
had a large quantity of food in our pockets, and portions of civilian
clothing, including mufti hats, concealed on our persons. During lunch
the sentries had been withdrawn from the waiting-room and only one
remained standing in the doorway.
The room was on the ground floor and looked out on to the courtyard of
the military prison; it seemed but a simple matter to jump out of the
window into the courtyard, whence, by turning a corner round the
building, a clear exit could be made on to the main road. We got some
French officers to start an animated conversation in the doorway in
order to hide us from the sentry, and we had previously arranged with
Kicq (who had returned to his cell during lunch and whose window
overlooked the room in which we were collected) to give us the signal
when all was clear.
At the given signal from Kicq, Medlicott jumped on to the window-sill,
and was just about to drop into the courtyard below, when to my
amazement I saw him scramble back into the room again and burst into
fits of laughter. On looking out of the window I discovered the cause.
There, leaning up against the wall, immediately below, was "Fritz," the
canteen man from the fort--"Fritz," fat and forty, with an ugly leer on
his face and brandishing a fearsome looking revolver in his hand. He had
apparently been stationed round the corner, where Kicq could not see
him, and had only just arrived below the window as Medlicott was about
to jump out.
I might remark that this was the only occasion during my whole stay in
Germany that I ever came across a really intelligently posted guard.
The examination of Bojah, Kicq, and later De Robiere, continued till
late in the afternoon. Kicq received a sentence of two years, De Robiere
one year, and Bojah nine months. As an instance of the gross injustice
of the whole affair, during De Robiere's trial the public prosecutor
stated that Kicq's action did not receive the support of his brother
officers, either British or French. This, of course, was quite untrue,
and De Robiere, who tried to protest, was immediately "sat upon" by the
president of the court. De Robiere made frantic efforts to get a
hearing, and failing in his attempt endeavored to waylay the public
prosecutor on his way out of court. This brave functionary was
unfortunately able to elude De Robiere's wrath by escaping from a side
door.
Medlicott and I entered the court-room and stood side by side facing the
officers who composed the court and who were seated on a raised platform
at the far end of the room. The court consisted of about eight officers
presided over by an old colonel covered with a multitude of
parti-colored ribbons. Our two cases were taken together. We were
accused of insulting the Commandant, escaping from arrest, disobedience
to orders, and a few other minor offenses; Medlicott, in addition, was
accused of having broken the ventilator over the door of his cell.
The proceedings opened in a lively manner by Medlicott, who was in his
usual truculent mood, refusing to answer any questions. This immediately
brought down the wrath of the president upon him, and he was told that
if he persisted in his attitude he would be put in solitary confinement
for contempt of court. As this didn't suit Medlicott's book at all (he
was at the time planning a fresh escape), I took it upon myself to
accuse the interpreter of having falsely interpreted what Medlicott had
said. I explained that Medlicott wished to ask if he had the right to
refuse to answer questions. This luckily satisfied everybody (except the
interpreter, who didn't count).
After the Commandant and _Feldwebel_ had given their evidence, the
former with some anger and more excitement, I got up and read a long
speech in German in Medlicott's and my own defense. It is my greatest
regret to-day that I have no copy of this classic document, which had
been carefully prepared for me by an Alsatian officer. In it I "let
myself go" and accused both the Commandant and the _Feldwebel_ of
cowardice and of shirking going to the front. In fact, I thoroughly
enjoyed myself at their expense; so also, I think, did Medlicott, who
turned round during my speech and grinned openly in the faces of the
Commandant and the _Feldwebel_, who were sitting directly behind us.
After I had read our defense, the public prosecutor summed up the case
against us, and, if I remember rightly, asked that we might be sentenced
to two years' solitary confinement each. I think he was rather annoyed
at the time because we had been able to get hold of a German military
law book in the fort in which I found that we had been accused under the
wrong paragraph, and this mistake I had enlarged upon in our defense.
We were then marched out of court, and returned a few minutes later to
hear the verdict of six weeks' solitary confinement for Medlicott and
six and a half months for myself. Against these findings we both
naturally appealed.
The whole affair had been unjust in the extreme. In the first place, the
proceedings had been conducted in German, of which Medlicott understood
next to nothing. We were allowed no defending lawyer; and, finally, our
request to call witnesses in our defense was disallowed.