THE REIGN OF TERROR--CONTINUED
While for the most part we had been compelled to labour upon sundry
duties, we were not hard pushed, being somewhat in the position of the
workmen toiling by the hour, except that our efforts went unrewarded in
a financial sense. But this system did not coincide with the ideas of
Major Bach.
He paraded us one morning and assuming his favourite attitude before us
treated us to a little homily. It was a characteristic tirade delivered
in the conventional Teuton gramophone manner. But it affected us
materially.
_Now we were to become slaves in very truth!_
The Commandant informed us point-blank that he was extremely
dissatisfied with our manner of working. We were too slow: we nursed our
tasks. Did we think we were being kept at Sennelager for the benefit of
our health or to make holiday? If so that was a fond delusion.
Henceforth he was going to estimate a certain time for each task which
would have to be completed within the period allowed, even if we had to
work every hour God gave us and, if need be, on Sundays as well.
Major Bach never minced matters: he meant every word he said. So upon
being dismissed we returned to our barracks looking decidedly glum.
Pressure was being applied at every turn now, and it was becoming a
pressure which could be felt.
We were soon notified as to the first task which we were to rush through
on "contract" time. A big fence was required to enclose a certain area
of the camp, and this was to be erected, together with the necessary
gates and other details within fourteen days. If we could complete it
within a shorter time no complaint would be raised. But he would not
allow another day beyond his limit. Major Bach must have been a
masterpiece in this particular phase of human endeavour, inasmuch as his
anticipated period, as we learned, could not have been reduced by a
single day.
The prisoners were divided into gangs, each of which was allotted to a
definite operation. Although the erection of this fence constituted the
hardest enterprise which we had ever taken in hand we did not flinch.
Somehow or other we considered that Major Bach had given expression to
an unwarrantable reflection upon our abilities. He practically
considered us to be no more nor less than slackers. Well! We would show
him what we could do, although prisoners, denied every possible comfort,
and half-starved into the bargain. Every man undertook to exert himself
to the utmost and to do his level best.
No facilities whatever were extended to us beyond the most primitive of
tools. One party was sent into the adjacent woods to fell suitable trees
to serve as posts, to trim them of branches, and to the required length
of 10 feet. Then they had to be carried by manual effort into the camp
where the butt was chamfered and charred in a wood fire as a protection
against too rapid decay.
While the posts were being prepared a second party was busily engaged in
digging the holes for them. Each hole had to be of a prescribed
diameter, by one metre--about 3 feet--in depth, and they were set a
certain distance apart. Tree-felling might have been, and undoubtedly
was, hard work to inexperienced hands, but hole digging! That was set
down as the unassailable limit. Driving the pick and shovel in the
rebellious ground was back-breaking in the hot sun and it had to be
maintained without pause or slackening.
When the post had been planted the wire-pulling gang came along. The
wire used for the purpose was galvanised netting such as is used to
enclose chicken runs, game preserves, and tennis grounds, reinforced by
one or two equidistantly spaced lines of ordinary wire. It had to be
stretched taut by hand and moving the heavy roll by manual effort and
uncoiling it as we advanced, demanded not only strength but dexterity.
At each post the wire was attached by the aid of a few staples.
Although we laboured zealously the task proved far more formidable than
we had anticipated. The fence was 7 feet in height, while I should think
that from 600 to 800 yards had to be run. The netting only enclosed
three sides of the desired space, the fourth side being fenced in by a
belt of trees. In order to get the work done on time and to avoid being
compelled to toil on Sundays, we had to labour long and hard. We started
shortly after six in the morning, but it was often about half-past six
in the evening before we knocked off for the day. We took a strange and
inexplicable pride in the enterprise. The fence was not built upon the
typical shoddy German lines, but strictly in accordance with substantial
British ideas. I may mention that we had good reason to regret this
display of zeal and excellent workmanship at a later date.
Seeing that the evening was well advanced before we ceased work we had
little time for relaxation. When we stowed our tools for the day we were
dog-tired and were hustled into barracks. It was work and sleep in
deadly earnest, but we were mighty glad we succeeded in avoiding the
threatened Sunday labour, because this was the only day we could devote
to our own duties such as mending and washing clothes.
While we were pushing ahead with this task we discussed its coming
purposes very animatedly. But none of the guards appeared to have the
slightest inkling of its projected application. However, this was
immaterial to us. A loud cheer of triumph went up when we had hung the
gates, which we had also fashioned at great effort, and the duty was
completed. We were beside ourselves with self-satisfaction and delight
because we had shown the implacable Major Bach what we Britishers could
do when we made up our minds to tackle anything. I very much doubt
whether even an equal number of skilled workmen would have completed the
fence within the stipulated time, and we for the most part were quite
foreign to the trades involved.
When we first entered the camp we were provided with a tolerably
satisfactory area of adjacent space in which to exercise ourselves. But
as additional prisoners came in this limb-stretching promenade became
gradually reduced until at last it was no more than a suburban chicken
run in area, being just as long as our barrack by one-half the space
between the two rows of buildings. These cramped quarters rather
exasperated us because we were denied the pleasure of a little stroll.
The exercise yard was also invariably obstructed by clothes hanging on
the lines to dry or to air, the result being that within a very short
time the British section of Sennelager Camp became vividly reminiscent
of a slum in the densely populated districts off the Mile End Road.
The speedy completion of the "big fence" unfortunately set a bad
precedent. Major Bach, flushed with the success of his first speeding-up
tactics, grew more and more inexorable in this connection. For every job
a rigid time-limit was now set, and he did not hesitate to reduce the
period to an almost impossible point. The cause was perfectly obvious.
He concluded that by setting us an absolutely impossible, though
apparently reasonable, enterprise, he would secure the opportunity for
which he was so sedulously waiting--to mete us out some new punishment.
But somehow or other we always contrived to cheat him in his nefarious
designs.
During this period our guard was changed frequently. Men would be
withdrawn to make up the losses incurred upon the battlefield. Thus we
were brought into contact with the various types of Germans which
constitute the Teutonic Empire. Some were certainly not ill-disposed
towards us. They mounted guard over us according to their own
interpretation of this essential duty. But others slavishly followed the
rigid instructions which were laid down, notably the Prussian guards,
who were about the most brutal and despicable blackguards it is possible
for the whole of Germany to have produced to mount watch and ward over
us. One set of guards was withdrawn to bring a Westphalian regiment to
fighting strength and proceeded to the front. Afterwards we learned that
every man had been lost--killed, wounded or missing.
The severe mauling which the German armies were receiving--we knew
nothing about it at the time--undoubtedly was partly responsible for the
harsh treatment extended to us. Unable to smash the "contemptible little
army," which was certainly proving capable of looking after itself,
vengeance was visited upon our defenceless heads.
One day a huge crowd of prisoners was brought in. Whether the Commandant
had been advised of their coming or not I am unable to say. But one
incontrovertible fact remains--he failed utterly to make any food
arrangements to meet the increase in the camp's population. The
prisoners reached the camp in the usual famishing condition and were
given a small ration. But they were satisfied partially at our expense.
The remaining food was only adequate to give us one-half of our usual
small dole, and we had to rest content therewith. The canteen being
closed we could not make up the deficiency even at our own expense.
My health was now giving way, as a result of my privations in Wesel
prison, accentuated by the indifferent and insufficient food and hard
work at Sennelager. I was assigned to various light duties. One of
these brought me into the cook-house, where I was ordered to cut up the
black bread--one brick loaf into five equal pieces, each of which had to
last a man through six meals. I was either unfitted for kitchen work or
else my presence was resented. At all events I soon realised that my
first day in the cook-house would undoubtedly be my last. I had to serve
out the bread, and ostensibly, either from lack of experience or
nervousness, I bungled my task. The men had to go by the boiler in
single file, passing on to the table to receive the bread, where serving
was carried out so dexterously that the moving line never paused--until
it got to my table. But there was method in my bungling. I was zealously
striving to double the bread ration to the British prisoners.
Consequently the pieces of bread persisted in tumbling to the ground,
thereby hindering and upsetting the steady progress and rhythm of
serving. But each man as he stooped to recover a fallen piece received a
second hunk surreptitiously, as was my direct intention. However,
unfortunately for me, the bread did not go far enough, the outcome being
an outburst of further trouble. As I had expected, my room was preferred
to my company in that kitchen and I was deposed.
While in Sennelager I had been sedulously keeping an elaborate diary in
which I entered details of every incident that befell the camp. I had
also recovered my original diary which had played such a prominent part
at my trial in Wesel prison.
[*gap]
Now diaries were the one thing in Sennelager which were rigorously
debarred. To have been caught with such a record of the doings and my
opinions of the German authorities would have brought me an exemplary
sentence of solitary confinement or penal servitude in a German prison,
if not something worse. Consequently I was compelled to post my diary in
secrecy. I discovered a hiding-place which would never have occurred to
the guards, even if they had gained an inkling that such a document was
in existence.
One of our party fell a victim to chronic asthma, and was isolated,
being given a room under the officer's quarters. Someone was required to
accompany him to extend assistance and constant surveillance, and
selection fell upon me. Locking myself in this room at night, with my
sick companion, I used to while away the time preparing some rough notes
which I was keeping for a specific purpose in addition to the diary
proper, which, however, I left in its original hiding-place.
By some means or other the guard suspected my engagement in some such
task. They made several surprise entrances but failed to catch me in the
act of writing. The heavy tread of their coming feet always gave me
ample warning so that I could get my notes into safe hiding. But one
night they burst open the door suddenly and I was caught red-handed. On
my knees was my pad at which I was writing feverishly. But the pad was
inscribed with notes which I regarded as of an emergency character.
Realising the object of their unexpected entry I clapped the pad on the
table, thus covering up the prepared and detailed notes which I desired
to keep. The guard sprang forward delirious with joy at having made a
capture, snatched the loose sheets from the pad, and went off in high
glee to report my heinous offence. But the man in his haste left the
proper notes on the table. He was too thick-brained to think for a
moment that I should ever trouble to prepare two diaries, one for myself
and one for capture if detected, so I still held the treasured original,
which I instantly hid away safely.
As luck would have it not a word was included in the captured notes to
offer written evidence of my private and candid opinion of my captors,
their methods and our life. The fact that I had written nothing
detrimental to the authorities apparently appeased the Commandant,
notwithstanding the enormity of my delinquency. At all events I received
nothing worse than a stern admonition and threats of severe punishment
if I were caught infringing the regulations again, to all of which I
listened humbly, but with my tongue in my cheek.
My diary was posted up fully in due course, and what is more to the
point I got the voluminous and incriminating evidence away from
Sennelager. At a later date I became somewhat apprehensive as to its
safety, and was anxious to get it to England. For some time I was
baffled in my efforts, but at last a friendly neutral offered to take it
and to see that it was delivered to my friend who has chronicled this
story, to whom I had addressed it. This diary wandered about Germany
considerably, the person in question preferring to make haste slowly to
disarm all suspicion. At last the neutral, after having been searched
several times without yielding anything incriminating, got as far as the
frontier. About to pass into the adjacent friendly country the carrier
was detained, and by some mischance the diary happened to be unearthed.
The neutral was arrested upon some trumped-up charge to afford the
authorities time to peruse the incriminating document. Cross-examined
the go-between protested ignorance of the contents: the parcel was found
just as it had been received from the consignor, the seals were all
intact, and it was under delivery to the person whose address was
written upon the outside. There was nothing attached to associate myself
with the document, although my friend at home would have known instantly
whence it had come. The upshot was that the diary was confiscated. I was
bitterly mortified to learn its fate when within a stone's throw of
safety, because it contained incidents of all descriptions set out in
regular sequence, and in a plain unvarnished manner. Its perusal must
have stung the Germans pretty severely since it was decidedly
unpalatable to Teuton pride. It was a comprehensive indictment of the
German treatment of the British prisoners, relative more particularly to
Sennelager, which the authorities were firmly determined should never
become known to the world at large, and to conceal which they used
unceasing efforts. Had that diary got home it would have created a
tremendous sensation. My vexation was completed by the thought that the
diary contained many episodes and incidents which I can now only recall
hazily, but I thanked my lucky stars that I had taken the precaution to
keep a précis of the contents which I myself brought away with me, and
which has proved of valuable assistance in setting forth this narrative.
A few days after having completed the famous "big fence" we were
paraded. Major Bach strode up, obviously in a terrible temper--it was
the six o'clock parade--and facing us, roared:
"You English dogs! Barracks are too comfortable for you! You should be
made to feed from the swine-tub! Bring all your luggage out--everything
you've got, and your sacks of straw! I'll give you ten minutes to do it.
Then you'll parade again! Hurry up!"
We were thunderstruck at this order. What was in the wind? Major Bach
was adept in springing surprises upon us, but this excelled anything to
which we had been treated hitherto.
Speculation was idle. We had only ten minutes to do as we were bidden,
and we bustled around to be on parade as demanded. The excitement was
intense. We collected every stick to which we could lay a claim, and
with all our worldly belongings, as well as our sack of straw, on our
shoulders, we trotted out and formed up.
As we paraded, the guards made a diligent search of the barracks to see
that we had left nothing behind. Also to make sure that no prisoner was
lurking in hiding.
We received the order to march. We tramped along under our bulky and
ungainly loads, and found we were being escorted to the enclosure which
we had fenced in. We swung through the gate, which was closed behind the
last man, and a soldier mounted guard over it. In a flash the truth
burst upon us.
_We were clapped into the barbed wire prison which we had built with so
much energy and in which we had taken such pride!_
The look of dismay which settled upon the faces of the more lugubrious
members of our party at this typical Teutonic illustration of adding
insult to injury was perfectly justifiable. Here were we turned into an
open field surrounded by netting, as if we were so many cattle, and in
which there were no tents or other buildings except a single small shed.
Some of us scurried to this little tumbledown shanty to stow our
belongings. We had to parade and were curtly commanded to empty the
straw from our sacks. We did so though our spirits dropped to zero at
this summary deprivation of our beds. We were told to keep the empty
sacks and to secure them against loss or theft, which injunction we did
not fail to take to heart.
Then we were left. No one appeared to know what to do with us. We were
informed that instructions would be given later. We kicked our heels
about in the broiling sun, sprawling here, and lolling there. The hours
passed but there was no further development. When noon came and we
received no summons for the mid-day meal we commenced to grow
apprehensive in spite of ourselves. Fortunately the weather was
glorious, although the hot sun, which we could not escape, proved
distressing.
As the time wore on we spurred our interpreters to exert themselves on
our behalf. They constituted our only means of mediating with our
superiors, and we urged them to go to the Commandant to enquire about
our rations.
The interpreters went off and succeeded in gaining an audience with
Major Bach, who was found in his office conferring with his juniors.
Directly he espied our interpreters he yelled testily:
"Dolmetscher! Dolmetscher! I cannot attend to any Dolmetscher now!"
"But," persisted one of the interpreters, "how about the food for--"
"Don't come worrying me now," was the savage interruption. "Get out!"
Our intermediaries came back and their doleful faces told us more
eloquently than words that their interview had proved barren.
Some of the prisoners were giving way. A basin of acorn coffee and a
small piece of black bread was all we had eaten for breakfast, and we
were commencing to feel the pangs of hunger disconcertingly.
In an adjacent field were some British Tommies from Mons. Some of us,
tiring of sprawling about on the grass, and with a queer pain gnawing at
our stomach, strolled off towards them to secure some distraction and
smother the call of "little Mary." The soldiers were hugely delighted to
see us and we were soon engrossed in a spirited conversation.
Suddenly our fraternising was observed by some officers who came
hurrying up in high dudgeon.
"Here! None of that," they bawled. "Military and civilians must not talk
together!" saying which they bundled the soldiers away and evidently
reported our offence. At least our guards came up shortly afterwards,
marshalled us, and led us through a small wood into a low-lying field.
It was apparently another fiendish inspiration of Major Bach to confine
us here, because the field was nothing but a swamp. It was not so
soddened as to allow the feet to sink ankle deep into the mire, but was
like a wet sponge. It was impossible to sit down or one would have got
wet through.
We were left standing in this uninviting quagmire for four solid hours.
The interpreters were pestered unmercifully to secure us something to
eat and to drink, but they were as helpless as ourselves. They were
well-nigh distracted at the ugly turn which things were taking. Matters
were certainly becoming alarming among the weaker prisoners, who were
now in a pitiable condition.
It was not until five o'clock in the afternoon that the authorities
suddenly remembered us. Then we were lined up to secure some food. But
we passed three hours in that queue only to receive a small dole of
filthy looking thin cabbage soup. This was all that had passed our lips
since the wretched black coffee served fifteen hours before!
Yet we were thankful for such a meagre mouthful. We were all so famished
that we took no heed of the noisomeness of the ration. Now we began to
grow anxious as to the arrangements for enabling us to pass the night.
Our interpreters had been questioning one or two of the younger officers
who were mounting guard over us in this field.
"Oh! That'll be all right," was the retort. "We're going to put you into
tents!"
"But where are the tents?" persisted the interpreters, looking around
wonderingly.
"Oh," was the evasive reply, "they have commenced to put them up. But we
find we shall not get all the tents for a few days. They haven't come in
yet! You'll be a bit crowded at first but it'll soon be straightened
out."
Again our faces fell. We had been turned out of our barracks before our
tents had been procured. This was a dismal look-out, but we hoped that,
as the officers said they were putting up tents, we should be able to
squeeze under cover, if in discomfort.
We were lined up again in the twilight to receive marching orders. We
were escorted into the field, which is set upon the side of a hill, and
as we swung into this space we could not suppress an exclamation. The
field was alive with men. All the other prisoners had been evicted from
their barracks, and had been turned into this open enclosure. The
hill-side was black, with a sullen, heaving, listless mass of humanity,
numbering over 1,500 all told, and of every conceivable enemy (to
Germany) nationality. We scanned the field for a glimpse of the tents,
but the only signs of canvas we could see was one large marquee which
was lying on the ground ready for erection upon the brow of the hill.
We stood wondering how we were going to spend the night when orders were
bawled out that we were to sleep in the open! This intimation was
received with a wailing and groaning which sounded ominous to me. But
the guard, which had been strongly reinforced, was in overwhelming array
so that all discontent and protest counted for naught. A bewildering
string of orders was yelled, the substance of which was that we were to
shake ourselves down upon the grass in long regular rows, with a narrow
passage between each two. I think this was the first occasion upon which
I had ever seen so many prisoners give way, since in the majority of
cases the men were devoid of any means of making themselves comfortable
for the night in the open air. Some of us, including myself, had taken
the precaution to bring our blankets with us: indeed, we considered the
blanket such an inestimable boon and companion that we never parted with
it even for a moment. We rolled ourselves in these, and although the
grumblings and growlings which rose and fell over the field recalled the
angry murmuring of the sea and were disturbing, I was so exhausted that
I soon fell sound asleep.
So far as I was personally concerned I was not particularly sorry that
Major Bach, in his devilish intention to exasperate us, had conceived
the idea of compelling us to sleep in the open. The weather was
intensely hot and the night became insufferably sultry. It must have
been about midnight when I awoke for the first time. For the moment I
could not collect my thoughts and sat up somewhat surprised at the
unusual brilliancy of the light playing upon my face, which was in
striking contrast to the dismal blackness of the barracks. Then I
realised that we were in the open and that a glorious full moon was
shining upon us from a cloudless sky.
I got on my feet and looked around. It was a strange, albeit
extraordinarily impressive sight. Guards were patrolling the lines,
their bayonets flashing sharply as they caught the glittering silvery
light of the moon. My guard came along and ordered me to lie down, but I
refused, and, in fact, walked along between the rows of prostrate forms.
The air was uncannily still, broken only by the twitterings of night
birds, the hooting of the owls, the subdued clanging of rifles, the
footsteps of the guards, and the groans of many of the sleepers who were
twisting and turning upon the ground. The hill-side was crowded with the
restless forms; they seemed so thick and densely packed as to cover
every inch of space.
As I surveyed the scene the loneliness and helplessness of our position
did not strike me. All was so quiet and apparently peaceful. Now and
again a sleeper would stir, mutter something in his sleep about his poor
wife and children at home, and would sit up to ascertain what light was
playing upon his face, would turn to the moon and then completely
satisfied would lie down and relapse into slumber. As I observed the
heavy dew which had dressed the grass and sleeping forms with beads
which sparkled like diamonds I could not repress a feeling of thanks
that the weather was kind to us. Supposing it had rained! I shuddered at
the thought.
At 4.30 we were all roused, lined up, and ordered to prepare to receive
our breakfast. We formed queues as instructed but we had to wait
patiently until eight o'clock before we received our rations--the acorn
coffee looking more sickly and watery than ever. Only a few basins were
available so we had to drink successively out of the self-same vessel,
as rapidly as we could swallow the liquid upon the spot. We closed our
eyes to the fact that a hundred or more people of all nationalities,
from Frenchmen to Poles, German recruits to Slavs, had drunk a few
moments previously from these basins which were not even rinsed after
use. The thought was revolting, but it was either drink with a blind
trust in the Fates or go without.
During that day the erection of the single marquee was hastened. It was
the only tent available, and there were sufficient of us on the field to
have packed it to suffocation ten times over! We were compelled to go
without our mid-day meal, but this did not disconcert us very
pronouncedly. Our peace of mind was being racked by another impending
aggravation of our predicament. Dark heavy clouds were gathering in the
sky. Was the weather which had been merciful to us during the previous
night now going to break?
When the marquee was completed a few trusses of straw were thrown in and
distributed thinly over the ground. Then ensued a wild stampede to
secure a place beneath the canvas, a rabble of several hundreds fighting
frantically among themselves to seek a couch in the absurdly inadequate
temporary canvas dwelling. The men stowed themselves in so tightly in
close serried rows that when lying down they were unable to turn over.
Once a position had been seized the tenant never dared to leave it for
an instant for fear it would be seized by some one else. The guards
demanded and succeeded in maintaining for a time a narrow gangway
between the rows, but the crush became so terrible that even this space
was soon occupied and the soldiers were prevented from moving within the
tent.
The marquee was packed to suffocation, and the fact that the greater
part of the seething mass of humanity was filthy dirty and thickly
infested with lice and other vermin from causes over which they had no
control caused the atmosphere within to become so hot and foetid as to
make one's stomach jump into one's throat.
One glance at the packed marquee sufficed to make up my mind for me.
Come what might it would never see me within its walls. Were a light
carelessly dropped among the loose straw a fearful holocaust must ensue.
Few if any could have got out alive. This thought haunted me so
persistently that I moved as far away from the tent as I could.
We received no further rations that day until the evening, when another
small dole of watery greasy coffee was handed round as in the morning.
But we never glanced at this noisome liquid. The terror which we had
been dreading so fearfully had burst upon us. It was raining hard! At
first only a gentle refreshing shower, it developed into a torrential
downpour, and gave every indication of lasting for an indefinite period.
Consider the situation--approximately two thousand human beings stranded
upon a bleak exposed field, absolutely devoid of any shelter, except the
solitary paltry marquee. Little wonder that our faces blanched at the
prospect before us. How should we be able to sleep? What horrors would
the dawn reveal? God only knew.