BY CATTLE-TRUCK TO MUNDEN
On arrival at the fortress we were separated from the men, the officers
undergoing another interrogation. On asking for immediate medical
attention, we were assured that it would be forthcoming directly. When
we entered the room allotted to us, we found three other British
officers, who had been taken prisoners some days previously, and who at
once set about preparing a meal for us out of their own scanty
provisions. There was only one proper bed in the place, which was given
up to me at once; the rest were dirty palliasses thrown on the ground. A
Belgian orderly was provided to look after us and bring us the daily
ration. He also had the privilege of going into the town of Lille and
buying little extras, though at a very costly price, as we soon found
out.
Later we learnt that the ground-floor quarters of the fortress were
occupied by a number of native troops, and on the following day one of
my brother officers paid them a visit, and found them living in very
unhealthy conditions, suffering greatly from the cold, owing to the fact
that the Germans had relieved them of their great-coats. These poor
fellows were clad, therefore, as for their own climate, and were
suffering acutely. However, they had been treated fairly well in other
respects, and had plenty to eat. In the afternoon of the same day there
was a great hubbub amongst them, owing to the fact that a Baboo (a
professional agitator) was haranguing them in the fortress close. One of
their subahdar majors expressed to us his extreme disgust at the German
attempt to tamper with their loyalty. The gist of the agitation was to
induce the native troops to throw off their allegiance to the British
Crown and fight against the Russians on the Eastern Front.
Throughout the day I continually asked for medical attention, but was
always put off by the reply that the doctor was expected every minute.
This farce of medical attention continued during the whole period of our
stay in Lille, but no doctor ever arrived. A Red Cross dresser did visit
me, but on examination declared that he was not competent to deal with
the case and must leave it to the doctor.
On the night of the 25th of December we were removed with a lot of men,
consisting of British, French, Belgian, and a few native troops, from
the fortress to the main station at Lille. When we arrived there, the
whole place was found to be brilliantly illuminated with decorated
Christmas trees, exactly as one sees at a children’s party, the whole
German populace being in holiday attire. On this occasion we were
fortunately kept well away both from the civilians and others, so that
the chances of being insulted were greatly reduced.
Almost immediately we were marshalled down a long platform and halted
opposite a line of filthy-looking cattle-trucks, with the usual
sliding-doors in the centre and two small trap-doors high up on the
side. I mention the latter, because it was through these that we were
stoned later on in the journey by some of the chivalrous enemy.
Into these trucks we were bundled. In our truck there were fifty-one of
us, including officers, British Tommies, some French, and a few Zouaves.
The interior of the truck was disgustingly dirty, and not even provided
with straw.
Of course it was not possible for all to lie or sit. The wounded did,
but the others mostly stood. Personally I do not remember very much of
that terrible journey. My wounds were giving me so much pain that, with
the jolting of the truck, the extreme cold, and the want of food, I
became mostly and mercifully oblivious to my general surroundings. A few
of the incidents remain in my memory, however. For instance, on several
occasions, when the train was pulled up at small stations, the big
sliding-doors of the truck were opened, and German soldiers entered and
robbed both officers and men of any sort of warm outer clothing that
they might have saved from the clutches of the Hun on the field itself,
Burberrys being their particular aim. It can well be imagined how
exasperating it was not to be able to do anything to defend oneself
against such inroads. Also we suffered very much from hunger and the
cold. Personally I did not suffer so much from the former, probably
owing to the condition of my wounds; but I know that my companions were
ravenous, as we had had very little whilst in Lille, nothing in the
trucks all the first night, and nothing all the next day. Also during
this period no sanitary arrangements of any kind were made for us.
Early in the morning of the second day two German guards were put in
with us, also a small bench for them to sit upon. These two fellows
turned out to be extremely kind, insisting on standing, and letting some
of the wounded sit on the bench provided for themselves, also dividing
some of their rations with a few of us.
Unfortunately these men were only with us for a few hours. Soon after
they left us we were provided with a lot of jam or fish tins, containing
yellowish warm water to drink. It was eagerly scrambled for, but on
sampling the same it was evident that it had been polluted. At the same
time, through one of the small trap-doors before mentioned, a ration of
sour black bread was thrown in on top of us, just as one might throw
scraps to a caged jackal.
That same evening, I think it was, we arrived at Cologne, where we spent
the night in a siding. On the main platform of Cologne we saw some
members of the German Red Cross, from whom we demanded food, and who
immediately went away to fetch it. On their return the German sentries
placed at the truck door would not allow any of it to be passed to the
Schweinhund Englanders. A little was, however, distributed to the
French, who very liberally shared it with us. My particular portion
consisted of about two inches of a small raw sausage.
I forgot to mention that on this last day on two occasions, when the men
were bustled out to a latrine, such was the diabolical cruelty of our
guards that they allowed no time for the men to complete these
necessities, and in one case exposed a man in view of a crowd of jeering
civilians whilst in an undressed condition; also that several times on
the way we were stoned by the populace through the small trap-doors of
the truck, one or two of the men being severely hurt.
Towards the afternoon of the third day we reached Munden, Hanover, where
we were detrained, taken to a waiting-room, and supplied by the Red
Cross with a much-needed ration of hot soup and bread. After this we
were paraded, divided from the men, and marched to the camp of Munden,
which is situated on the banks of the river Weser, at a distance of
about a mile and a half from the station. Here I again pointed out my
condition to the officer in charge of our party, but gained nothing, not
even a conveyance to the camp. The officer said that a conveyance was
coming for the wounded. I replied, “So is Christmas,” but evidently he
did not see it. Anyhow, the outcome of it was we had to walk. We arrived
at the camp some time during the evening, and were immediately
segregated in a room by ourselves, where we found some palliasses thrown
on the ground, filled with straw. Some coarse sheets and blankets were
also provided, also a washing-stand and a bootjack. I mention the
latter because the German orderly told off to look after us kept on
picking up this beastly bootjack, gesticulating that everything was
provided, even a bootjack. The following day we were again interrogated,
and personal effects, such as letters, notebooks, and money, some of
which my brother officers still had in their possession, were
temporarily confiscated. The equivalent of the money, however, was
returned in German coinage. After this we were allotted rooms, and
found, to our disgust, that we were to be separated. The Germans, having
found out that the British were very much happier when by themselves,
arranged that one British officer always occupied a room filled with
officers of any other nationality but his own. It was in little ways
such as this that the Boche showed a marked hostility to British
officers in comparison with that shown to the Russian or French. In the
room to which I was personally sent there were already fifteen
Russians.
Shortly after being allotted rooms I was conducted to hospital, where on
the ground floor of the building the wound in my ankle was
satisfactorily dressed; but they did not seem to know what to do with
the body wound. Finding that three of the ribs were broken on the right
side, they made some sort of an attempt to set and bind them. The doctor
in attendance was a bumptious little beast of about nineteen or twenty
years of age, and did not seem to know very much about his job. After
this I returned to my room full of Russians and took to my bed.
The camp at Munden was an old oil factory, and had been hastily turned
into a camp for prisoners of war. There were about eight hundred
prisoners there at the time of our arrival, but more came after we had
been there a month or two. The sleeping-room had practically no
furniture of any kind. A shelf, on which tin basins were placed, served
as a wash-stand, and there were a couple of pails for water. Two small
tables and about a dozen chairs, with a small shelf about five inches
wide passing over the head of each bed, completed the furnishing of the
rooms. Besides the sleeping-rooms, part of the ground floor of the
factory was utilised as an eating-hall. The accommodation here consisted
of a few dirty tables and chairs. To add to the discomfort the oily
ceilings and walls had been whitewashed, to create the appearance of
cleanliness. Naturally it cracked off in drying, with the result that
one’s hair, eyes, and clothes became covered with fine powdered lime,
mixed with the dust which filtered through the boards of the floor of
the sleeping-rooms above. Canteen, hospital, and bath-room were also
portioned off the ground floor. The canteen cooked and supplied the
daily rations. Here we could buy bread, cheese, jam, and coffee, and
occasionally tinned fruit, also sundry toilet articles.
The daily ration was not appetising nor particularly varied. Black bread
and coffee every day for breakfast. The midday meal consisted, almost
without exception, of either fish and potatoes or pork and potatoes. The
fish was very seldom eatable, but the pork often quite fresh. Even on
the day when it was not, so long as one had not too keen an eye for
colour, it tasted quite good. I refer to the rainbow hues that could
often be seen reflected from its surface.
Certainly this method of serving the rations did not help to make them
appetising. The orderlies had to wait in long queues in front of the
canteen for four or five hours before the mid-day meal till their turn
came to be served. They would then order and pay for the ration allowed
to the number of officers they happened to be appointed to. Their
rations were then thrown into ordinary slop-pails, and in these served
to the officers. Potatoes were the principal mainstay, though the cheese
and butter were quite good. The black bread was horrible, and caused
violent indigestion, owing to its damp and doughy condition.
The best part of the camp were the baths, which were quite good, hot and
cold water being obtainable up to midday, Sunday excepted. The space set
apart for an exercise-ground was a muddy stretch of about ninety yards
square, surrounded by two lines of wire. Into this yard, protruding from
the ground floor of the factory, ran a long wooden latrine, which was
the most dreadful place imaginable, merely a series of holes cut in the
ground, with no form of drainage. The only attempt at draining them was
made by our own orderlies, who pumped them out, and disposed of the
contents in another large hole just outside the wire. On a warmish day,
with the wind blowing towards the camp, it became impossible to take
exercise outside at all; and towards February 1915, in order to visit
these same latrines, it became absolutely necessary to cover over one’s
mouth and nose. In this same yard the general rubbish-heap of the camp
was piled with every kind of rotting refuse, on which flies swarmed.
Indoors the camp was infested with lice, especially the hospital-room.
The Russian officers had been suffering from this pestilence for a long
time before the arrival of the British, and no attempt had been made on
the part of the Germans to rid the camp of this vermin, either by
fumigating or in any other manner.
Towards the end of March, when I had been removed from my room to a bed
in the hospital situated on the ground floor, I asked one of our
officers, who, owing to a great family name, seemed to have more
influence with the Boches, to complain to the commandant of the
appalling state of filth reigning in the hospital, some of the beds
being literally alive with many thousands of lice. The outcome of this
complaint resulted in the importation of incinerators to the camp, after
which things became distinctly better.