HOW THE GERMAN RED CROSS TENDED THE CANADIAN WOUNDED
"Come Out Canadians!"--The Crucifixion--"Nix! Nix!"--Civilian
Hate--"Englaender Schwein!"
We remained in the fouled church all of that day and night and until
the following morning. No more food appeared. We were marched down to
the railroad under heavy escort, crowded into freight cars and locked
in. The guards were distributed in cars of their own, alternating with
ours. Our wounds remained unattended to.
At every station they thundered: "Come out, Canadians!" They lined us
up in a row while a staff officer put the same questions to us in
nearly every case. They were particularly interested in the quality of
our rations and asked if it was not true that we were starving and if
our pay had not been stopped. The guards invariably explained to the
civilians that these were the Canadians who had cut the throats of the
German wounded.
We did not know how to explain the prevalence of this impression. On
the contrary, we were aware of the story of the crucifixion of three
of the Canadian Division during Ypres. The tale had come smoking hot
to our men in the Polygon Wood trenches during the great battle. It
gave in great detail all the salient facts which were that after
recapturing certain lost positions, the men of a certain regiment had
discovered the body of one of their sergeants, together with those of
two privates, crucified on the doors of a cowshed and a barn. German
bayonets had been driven through their hands and feet and their
contorted faces gave every appearance of their having died in great
agony. This story was and is generally believed throughout all ranks
of the Canadian Army. For its truth I cannot vouch.
We knew that our own men had never mistreated any prisoners and had in
fact usually done quite the reverse. How far other regiments may have
gone in retaliation for what was known as "The Crucifixion," it is
impossible to say. That prisoners may have been killed is possible,
for such things become an integral part of war once the enemy has so
offended. But we could not believe that there had been any cutting of
throats as that would imply a sheer cold-bloodedness that we could not
stomach.
The mob surged around and reviled us, while the guards, in high good
humour, translated their remarks, unless, as was frequently the case,
they were made to the officials in English for our benefit. The other
British soldiers were left in their cars.
Our wounded were getting very badly off by this time. It was
impossible to avoid trampling on one another as the car was very dark
at best and the one small window in the roof was closed as soon as we
drew into a station. When taken out we were under heavy escort and
were allowed no opportunity to clean up the accumulated filth of the
car. We suffered terribly for food and water, and some of the wounds
began to turn, so that what with exhaustion and all, we grew very
weak.
At one station the guards took us out and made us line up to watch
them eat of a hearty repast which the Red Cross women had just brought
them. And we were very hungry. When, we too, asked for food they said:
"Nix! Nix!" The crowds met us at every station and included women of
all classes, who called us _Englaender Schwein_ and who at no time gave
us the slightest assistance, but, instead, devoted themselves to the
guard.
Other men told us later that Red Cross women had spat in their
drinking water and in their food. There was no opportunity for this in
our case as we did not receive any of either.
We did not receive any food during this trip, which lasted from the
morning of one day until the night of the next. We had gone since the
day of our capture on the coffee received at headquarters in Polygon
Wood and the single issue of bread, water and bacon received in the
church, the latter of which we could not eat; a total of three days
and nights on that one issue of rations.
We pulled into Giessen at eleven, the night of May tenth. The citizens
made a Roman holiday of the occasion and the entire population turned
out to see the _Englaender Schwein_. There was a guard for every
prisoner, and two lines of fixed bayonets. The mob surged around,
heaping on us insults and blows; particularly the women. With hate in
their eyes, they spat on us. We had to take that or the bayonet.
These were the acts not only of the rabble, but also of the people of
good appearance and address.
One very well-dressed woman rushed up. Under other circumstances I
should have judged her to have been a gentlewoman. She shrieked
invectives at us as she forced her way through the crowd. "Schwein!"
she screamed, and struck at the man next me. He snapped his shoulders
back as a soldier does at attention. Then, drawing deep from the very
bottom of her lungs, she spat the mass full in his face. The muscles
of his face twitched painfully but he held his eyes to the front and
stared past his tormentor, seeing other things.