THE TRAITOR AT VEHNMOOR
The Swamp at Cellelaager--Seven Hundred Men and Two Small
Stoves--Taking the Stripes Down--The Recreant Sergeant Major--"Go
Ahead an' Shoot--!"
Giessen is in Hesse. Shortly after this we were all sent to
Cellelaager in Hanover. This was the head camp of a series reserved
for the punishment or the working of prisoners. Each unit retained the
name of Cellelaager and received in addition a number, as Cellelaager
1, Cellelaager 2 and so on. There were grounds here providing a lot
for football, and a theatre run by the prisoners, for which there was
an entrance fee, and other like amusements. These, however, were only
for those prisoners who were on good behaviour and who were employed
there. As such they were denied such desperadoes as ourselves.
We remained there for two weeks and were then sent to the punishment
camp known as Vehnmoor or Cellelaager 6. This was a good day's ride
away and also in Hanover, fifteen kilometres from the big military
town of Oldenburg. Here we were turned out to work on the moors with
four hundred Russians, one hundred French and Belgians and two hundred
British and Canadians. We were housed in one large hut built on a
swamp and were continually wet. There were only two small stoves for
the seven hundred men and we had only a few two pound syrup tins in
which to cook. A poor quality of peat was our only fuel. As only five
men could crowd round a stove at a time, one's chances were rather
slim in the dense mob, every man-jack of whom was waiting to slip into
the first vacant place that offered.
We slept in a row along the wall, with our heads to it. Overhead a
broad shelf supported a similar row of men. Above them were the
windows. At our feet and in the centre of the room, there was a two
foot passage way and then another row of men, with two shelves housing
two more layers of sleepers above them. Then another two foot
passageway, the row of men on the floor against the other wall and the
usual shelf full above them. The vermin were bad and presented a
problem until we arranged with the Russians to take one end to
themselves, the French and Belgians the middle and we the other end.
By this means we British were able to institute precautionary measures
amongst ourselves so that after feasting on the Russians and finishing
up upon the French, our annoying friends usually turned about and went
home again.
The swamp water was filthy, full of peat and only to be drunk in
minute quantities at the bidding of an intolerable thirst. There was
no other water to be had and we simply could not drink this. The
Russians did, which meant another fatigue party to bury them. The only
doctor was an old German, called so by courtesy; but he knew nothing
of medicine. As a corporal, I was held responsible for twenty men.
That implied mostly keeping track of the sick and I have seen nineteen
of my twenty thus. But that made no difference. It was "Raus!" and out
they came, sick or well.
Every morning an officer stood at the gate as we marched out to the
moor, to take "Eyes right" and a salute, for no useful purpose that we
could see except to belittle a British soldier's pride. As corporal I
was supposed to give that command to my squad but rather than do so I
took my stripes down, although that ended my immunity as a "non-com"
from the labour of cutting peat. Others, I am sorry to say, were glad
to put the stripes up and at times went beyond the necessities of the
situation in enforcing their rule on their comrades. It was one of
these who was found to be trading in and selling his packages to his
less fortunate comrades and who was ostracized in consequence.
There were here at Vehnmoor, as there had been at Giessen, a certain
few of our own men who traded on the misfortunes of their own
comrades. This man was the worst of them all. He was a sergeant-major
in a certain famous regiment of the line in the British Army. He was a
fair sample of that worst type which the army system so often
delegates authority to--and complains because that authority does not
meet with the respect it should on the part of its victims.
He excelled in all the arts of the sycophant: The pleasure of the
guards was his delight, their displeasure, his poignant grief. He
assumed the authority of his rank with us, he reported the slightest
of misdemeanours amongst us to the guards and was instrumental in
having many punished. These and other things gave him and others of
his kidney the run of the main grounds so that they could stretch
their legs and have some variety in their lives. Such liberty was
there for any man who would do as they did.
None of us were safe from these traitors. The sergeant major in
particular, spied on us, reporting all criticisms of our guards and
other things German. We raged. He had for his virtue a small room to
himself in a corner of the hut. When parcels came from England,
addressed to the senior non-commissioned officer of his regiment, for
him to distribute; he called the guards in. Shortly they went out with
their coats bulging suspiciously. We were then called to receive ours
whilst he stood over, bullying us with all the abusive "chatter" which
the British service so well teaches. And afterward we watched
covertly, with all the cunning of the oppressed, and saw him receive
other stealthy favours from the guards that were not within his
arrangement with the Commandant.
So one of his own men who had a certain legal learning took down all
these facts as I have recited them and calling us together, bade us
sign our names in evidence of so foul a treachery. Which we gladly
did. And it was and is the prayer of all that when the gates of the
prison camps roll back this document will get to the War Office and
there receive the attention it deserves.
My comrades in misfortune here told me of another such a man who had
gone away just before my arrival at this camp. He, too, was a
sergeant-major of a line regiment in the old army. I had known him in
the old days in India. In his own regiment he was never known by his
own name, but instead by this one: "The dirty bad man." No one ever
called him anything else when referring to him. That was his former
record and this is what he did here to keep the memory of it green.
He was instrumental in having fixed on us one of the most terrible of
army punishments. It appears that some time before one of our men had
broken some petty rule of discipline and the Germans had asked the
sergeant-major what the punishment was in our army for such a "crime,"
as all offences are termed in the army.
"Number One Field Punishment or Crucifixion," had been his lying
reply. That meant being spread-eagled on the wheel of a gun limber,
tied to the spokes at wrist and ankle, with the toes off the ground
and the entire weight of the body on the outraged nerves and muscles
of those members.
Lacking a gun limber, the Germans used a post with a cross-bar for
this man's case. After that, this was a recognized mode of punishment
for many petty offences in this camp.
It is true that this form of punishment is a part of the so-called
discipline of our army. But it was not meted out for offences of the
nature of this man's and if it had been, the obvious thing for the
sergeant-major to have done would have been to have lied like a man;
instead of which he piled horror on horror for his own countrymen. I
have the facts and names of these cases.
There will be many strange tales to come from these camps in the
fulness of time. No doubt some will go against us, but the truth must
be told at all costs, else the evil goes on and on.
We were sent out one day to dig potato trenches on the moors in a
terrible rain. We stuck our spades in the ground and refused. The
guards had French rifles of the vintage of 1870 which carried
cartridges with bullets that were really slugs of lead. They began to
load. A little _unteroffizier_ tugged excitedly at his holster for the
revolver.
A big Canadian stepped up: "Wait a minute, mate." He reached down to
the little man's waist and drew the gun.
He offered it to its owner, butt forward, "Now go ahead and shoot, and
we'll chop your damned heads off."
The rest of us confirmed our leader's statement by gathering around
threateningly and making gruesome and suggestive motions with our
spades. There were two hundred of us and only forty guards. We meant
business and they knew it. They took us back to the laager and locked
us up.
The following night, that of January 22nd, our guards were reinforced
by thirty more.