PART II

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[Illustration: "WITH HIS BUNDLE SAFELY ON HIS HEAD HE TOOK TO THE

WATER" (_page 205_).]

13 DAYS

THE CHRONICLE OF AN ESCAPE

FROM A GERMAN PRISON

BY

CAPTAIN J.A.L. CAUNTER

1ST BN. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

[Illustration]

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.

1918

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION vii

PART I

CHAPTER

I. CREFELD 1

II. THE MOVE TO SCHWARMSTEDT 45

III. SCHWARMSTEDT CAMP 65

PART II

IV. MY ESCAPE FROM THE CAMP 87

V. CROSSING THE FIRST TWO RIVERS 108

VI. I MEET FOX AND BLANK 125

VII. THE CROSSING OF THE WESER 134

VIII. THE RAILWAY TRACK 155

IX. CROSSING THE RIVER HUNTE, AND THE TOWN OF "DOGS" 164

X. EXIT BLANK. SHEDS 175

XI. TWO DAYS OF THE EMS 184

XII. THE CROSSING OF THE RIVER 198

XIII. ACROSS THE FRONTIER 209

XIV. CONCLUSION 222

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

"With his bundle safely on his head he took to

the water" _Title_

Fancy Portrait of "The Crab" 16

Section of a German Camp 96

"At last the two Women got up" 112

"Face to face with a Flapper on her way to bathe" 128

"Every dark corner seemed to contain a dog" 160

"Fox led them over the worst pieces of boggy

ground he could find" 192

"The German Relief passed within 200 yards of my

hiding place" 208

INTRODUCTION

On placing before the public this account of my escape from Germany

and some episodes from my life in two prison camps, I feel that I must

make clear that it was only due to the fact that I had two definite

supplementary objects to attain, that I succeeded in making myself

launch out in the following pages.

The first of these objects is to add my quota to the information

before the public relating to the treatment and existence of those

who, in prisons in Germany, have suffered and are suffering for their

country.

My second object is to try to throw a little light on the marvellous

spirit of the prisoners as a whole.

Think what it means to be shut up for years under such conditions.

Let me quote the prisoner poet, Lieut. Harvey, who, in

_Gloucestershire Friends_, vividly describes what prison means in the

following lines:

Laugh, oh laugh loud, all ye who long ago

Adventure found in gallant company!

Safe in stagnation; laugh, laugh bitterly,

While on this filthiest backwater of time's flow,

Drift we and rot till something set us free!

It is always a fight against this sort of thing that the prisoner of

war is waging. Some apparently find such a fight difficult, but the

majority do somehow keep a hold on themselves and retain their energy

and hopefulness.

"Barbed-wire" disease is now officially recognised, and internment in

neutral countries of those who have done the longest spells in prison

is the outcome of this.

It will readily be conceded that those who keep cheerful throughout

their cruel trials display wonderful moral courage. But what about

another class of prisoner? The prisoner who tries to escape--is

caught--does three months cells--is released--tries to escape

again--meets the same fate--and does another stretch of perhaps six

months this time--but only goes on trying.

There are some who have spent two and a half years out of three in

Germany in cells for attempts to escape. There are many who have made

six or seven attempts. I, who only had one determined attempt and

succeeded, am able to say it: "These men are of the salt of the

earth."

I have heard some chicken-hearted persons who say that nobody ought to

try to escape because it might make it worse for those left behind.

There is only one answer to that sort of person.

However, it is not a fact that others get punished for the escape of

individuals, although it was true on two occasions in 1914; so the

question hardly arises.

Very few people in this country seem to realise that the German, being

a bully, has the characteristics of a bully. If a strong attitude is

taken with him he immediately gives way. Collectively and individually

they cannot understand any argument but Force, whether it takes the

form of a reprisal or a great attack at the front.

GERMANY

Since my return to England I have often been asked what do the Germans

think of the war now and are they hard up for food, etc.

The Germans I talked to were thoroughly fed-up with the war and only

wanted peace. This does not mean that they will break out into

Revolution. That to my mind cannot come about until the military

defeat of Germany is a fact. The Kaiser, not too popular nowadays,

would immediately regain his former position in the minds of his

subjects could he but secure a peace even partially favourable to the

German people. The rulers of Germany know that defeat, or anything

like it, would be fatal for them; that is why they will stick at

nothing and spare no spilling of blood until they have either won or

lost irretrievably. What would a patched-up peace mean? It would mean

that Germany would begin building submarines by the hundred for use

against us within ten years' time. It would mean just an armistice for

a few years and then a renewal of the conflict without Russia and

probably many of our other exhausted allies.

The Germans with whom I spoke knew this and looked at the future with

open eyes.

I wonder if it is realised how much the British are hated by the

Germans? Their hate of us is "Kolossal," to use their own expressive

word. Somebody in Germany said that should the Germans ever get into

England they would make "Belgium appear like a Garden of Eden in

comparison with what England would look like after they had done with

her."

It is a German boast that the war has never touched the sacred soil of

the Fatherland. The few occasions on which our aeroplanes bombed

German towns during my stay there, gave me an excellent opportunity of

judging how sensitive they are to this particular form of punishment.

The bombing of Karlsruhe and Freiburg caused a scream throughout the

west of Germany. I heard the echo of it in the canteen at Crefeld.

When I suggested that London had also been bombed and innocent lives

lost, they simply said that that was different. Thus in their minds

there are two kinds of law, one for England, the other for Germany. I

was very pleased to notice how much less was the effect of air-raids

on our civilian population than on the Germans. There is no doubt

whatever that the fear of air bombardments is much stronger in Germany

than over here.

There is only one way of touching the German mind and that is by the

employment of FORCE, Brute Force. It is what he believes in as the

medicine for his enemies, simply because he judges others by himself,

and knows that he respects that and that only, and therefore applies it

whenever possible to others.

It is a pity that our public does not know more of the German

mentality. It is a knowledge of this factor that should assist one in

having a correct view of things and in understanding German

aspirations and methods.

A word about food and supplies generally.

The Germans are extremely hard-up for food. In the Spring of 1917,

meat was practically unobtainable. The bread was disgusting and

scarce.

Potatoes had to be procured by standing in queues for hours. (This as

a matter of fact has been the rule for the last year and a half.)

Mangel-wurzels, swedes, black peas, and turnips form the greater part

of the food.

The town of Crefeld in February, 1917, was like a place of the dead,

absolutely deserted except at the hour when the workers went home. The

shops have practically nothing to sell in their windows. To get a

shirt or a towel or any such article, a permit had to be got from the

town authorities. Boots were a difficult problem. All the children

wore wooden shoes. Leather could not be got for love or money nearly

two years ago.

It is extraordinary how the German people put up with their hardships.

People ignorant of the true state of affairs in Germany have sometimes

asked me if the Germans are shorter of food and other things than we

are. I always have to laugh as the question is so ridiculous to me.

There is absolutely no comparison between the two countries.

I often see articles in the papers on the conditions that obtain in

Germany, written by persons who know, and I hear people doubt the

veracity of them. I can truthfully say that I have not yet seen the

article or item of news from Germany which I, from my point of

vantage, did not absolutely believe. It is a pity that people will not

believe what men who have been in Germany have to say on the

subject.

PART I

CHAPTER I

CREFELD

I was taken prisoner at Gheluveld, 31st October, 1914, and arrived at

Crefeld prison-camp on the evening of 2nd November with ten other

officers brought in from various parts of the Ypres front.

It was the same old story every time that one heard, on asking what

had happened in any particular sector of the battlefield.

The impression we got from the sum total of these descriptions led us

to think that a German break-through to Ypres and beyond was a

certainty during the evening of the 31st.

We had been taken through the German reserves while being transported

to the rear, and had seen the thousands of fresh men they had got

massed behind their fighting armies. Menin, Wervicq, and other places

were packed with troops. Every farm and cottage held its full

complement of armed Boches. On the railway, trains passed westwards

every few minutes crammed with troops, destined for the Ypres battle.

It was not surprising that we prisoners, who knew the exact strength

of the British army, and also the fact that all units were having hard

fighting, and that nothing was left in reserve, should feel depressed

and wonder if it was possible that the Germans would fail to use their

great opportunity.

I have often been asked how our prisoners are treated in Germany. The

only correct answer to this is that the treatment varies according to

the time and place, and the type of German who comes into contact with

them.

In 1914 it was generally the same throughout Germany. In those days

the treatment was exceedingly bad. Every prisoner taken then has seen

or experienced some brutality or insulting behaviour on the part of

Germans.

For my part, I, on first becoming a prisoner, was spat at and called

all the choice names their musical language can provide. I saw a

British soldier, with a shrapnel wound in the back, made to carry a

heavy German pack which bumped up and down on the open wound. This

fact was remarked upon by a German private soldier, who, more humane

than the rest, protested against this treatment. But the

Unter-Offizier would not alter his order and the wounded man had to

carry his burden for seven miles or more.

When asked for water at Aix-la-Chappelle railway station, by prisoners

who had hardly had a drop to drink for two days, and scarcely a scrap

of food to eat, I heard the Red Cross "Ladies"! reply--"For an

"Englaender"? Nein!"

At Cologne station I saw the brute beasts of German officials haul

three or four of the most miserable British private soldiers they

could find, out of the cattle trucks and place them on the platform to

be baited by the populace, comprised largely of women. There were

German officers on the platform, so there was no excuse; it could have

been stopped instantly by them.

There were many other incidents too numerous to mention, but similar

and worse stories will be told by the thousand after the war. The

treatment of prisoners has steadily improved since those days. No

longer do the Germans openly insult and knock prisoners about to the

same extent, except in out of the way places and when they have a

particularly cowed and defenceless lot to deal with.

I have heard from officers taken prisoners in 1916, that they were

reasonably treated when captured. It is much changed now according to

general report.

While waiting at Cologne station for our train for Crefeld, we were

locked in a cell under the stairs of the station. Although expecting

to receive food here and being told that it was with that object that

we had been put in this place, nothing of this kind materialised.

However, we had the great honour of being visited by a German general

and a young female of high rank, who could speak a little English.

This she aired, and asked us several silly questions. She was much

taken with S----'s height, comparing him to some Karl or other. It was

a kind of private show of the wild beasts at the Zoo in which we acted

the parts of the animals.

On arrival at Crefeld station a hostile crowd was ready to receive us,

and we were hurried as quickly as possible into the trains waiting

there, in order to get us away from the attentions of the populace. As

it was, two of the eleven officers in my party were hit with sticks,

the wielders of which had pushed their way through the escort of

German soldiers accompanying us.

We were not sorry to reach the barracks and get away from these

demonstrations of the unpopularity of England in this town. Crefeld, a

great centre of the silk industry, had suffered heavily by the entry

of England into the war.

Once inside the camp we had time to spare for anything we wished to

do, which naturally meant food first, sleep next, and after some time

a wash and shave.

The barracks of the Crefeld Hussars, now wired in and used as a prison

camp, are large and strongly built. The prisoners occupied three large

buildings and a fourth smaller one provided mess rooms and canteen,

etc.

There was a gravel parade square in the middle of the ground between

the buildings; this we used as a place for exercise. This square was a

hundred and forty yards long by about eighty yards wide. It made an

excellent association football ground when cleared of big stones, and

in the summer, by dint of hard labour, we turned it into a number of

tennis courts.

Until he got command of Belgium, Von Bissing--the brute responsible

for the death of Nurse Cavell--was the general in charge of the

particular army command which included Crefeld in its jurisdiction.

On the walls of the prison camp an order signed by Bissing was posted,

which informed all the prisoners that they were the inferiors of all

Germans, whatever rank they might hold.

The order also warned us against trying to "evade our fate by

escaping." It continued, "The guards are earnest men, knowing their

duty." This caused the nickname "earnest men" to be given to them.

I wish Bissing could have known how we laughed at his special order.

The Boche has no sense of humour or he could never have put a thing

like that on the walls for Englishmen to laugh at and ridicule

generally.

For the first year or so, only seven officers were allotted to the

smaller rooms and fourteen to the larger ones. But these numbers were

eventually increased, first to eight and sixteen respectively, and

then to nine and eighteen.

At first we had a cupboard each, but later four had to do duty for

seven officers. The beds were iron with wooden planks supporting a

hard mattress, sometimes filled with straw or wood shavings, which was

changed on one or two occasions.

During the first few months we had only small oil lamps for lighting

purposes, at a scale of one per seven officers. It was impossible for

everyone to read at the same time. We used to sit over the fire for

warmth and the three nearest to the lamp could manage to see

sufficiently in the evenings to read the few Tauchnitz editions we had

been able to purchase through a tradesman, who was allowed into the

barracks twice a week.

As nearly all great-coats and waterproofs had been taken away from

prisoners at the time of their capture, we felt the effects of the

cold pretty considerably. Roll-calls took place at 8 a.m. and 9.30

p.m., generally out of doors. We often went on these roll-calls in the

early days with our blankets over our shoulders. A welcome supply of

soldiers' great-coats was sent through the American Embassy about

Christmas time. During the first winter there were about 250 Russians,

200 French, 120 English and a few Belgian officers in the camp.

That first winter was by far the worst of the three I spent there. We

had not got to understand the true nature of the German official

reports, and for some time they depressed us.

Parcels began coming in December, but the Germans made us pay duty on

them for a time, and as we had very little money in those days, they

were not so welcome as they became at a later date, when the duty was

removed.

As time went by, conditions in the camp improved, but until the summer

of 1915 we had great difficulty in getting permission to do anything

to make ourselves more comfortable. In the early summer of 1915,

thirty-five British officers were sent to Cologne to be imprisoned in

cells as a reprisal against the alleged maltreatment of German

submarine crews. The majority of this number went from Crefeld. After

two months or more, the reprisal having ended, they came back, looking

very white and ill.

Sometime in the month of June of this year a successful escape was

made by three Russians, and three others who got out of the camp the

following night were re-caught. Apparently they crossed the Dutch

frontier but got tied up in swampy ground and had to return across the

frontier into German territory again, in search of a way out of this

bad stretch of country. It was while attempting this that they were

seen by a German patrol and re-captured.

The whole affair was badly managed. The theory which many prisoners

held and worked upon, consisted of allowing each small party

twenty-four hours start, so that they might have a good chance of

getting across the frontier, some eighteen miles away, before the next

lot tried, who if caught at once would cause the Germans to discover

the departure of others at the nominal roll-call always held after an

attempt to escape. If anyone is missed at these roll-calls the

frontier guards are warned by wire.

The frontier is guarded just the same, whether an escaped prisoner is

reported "out" or not, so getting away unknown is not a necessity. Of

this I am absolutely certain from after knowledge of the conditions,

but of course nobody knew definitely what was the best course of

action at that time.

The mentality of the Boche, on the subject of escape, is curious. In

the early days, anyone who tried to escape and was caught was the

subject of particular dislike among the Germans, besides suffering his

usual term of punishment in cells.

I suppose becoming accustomed to these attempts altered their point of

view, as latterly indifference towards evil-doers of this nature was

displayed by them and the punishment term of cells was administered

and given with the same lack of interest or emotion as the matron of a

boys' preparatory school displays on dosing her charges all round with

medicine.

During the first winter in prison we built up a library, which

eventually became a large affair with a librarian and a room to

itself.

Some prisoners managed to continue playing cards from their first days

in prison until I left, and I suppose will continue to do so without

ceasing until the day of their release. Personally, after the first

year I spent in captivity I hated the sight of a card and played very

seldom.

The orchestra, from modest beginnings, grew into a really excellent

institution. Most of the instruments were hired from the town of

Crefeld.

By dint of asking repeatedly, we persuaded the Germans to allow us to

run a theatre, which also developed from an extremely crude state into

what was really quite a respectable affair.

The main difficulty with which our theatrical manager had to contend,

was the lack of material for "girls" in the caste. However, practise

and hard training turned out some passable ones in time. The French

were more fortunate in this respect than the English. They are all

born actors it seems, and they found two or three really excellent

male "actresses." The Russians also produced theatrical displays, but

were not so persevering in that respect as the French and British.

Periodically the camp used to be visited by German officers on leave

from the front. We used to stare at them and they at us, and beyond

the necessary salute, took no particular notice of each other.

One thing about the uniform of German officers drew our attention.

Although the top half of them appeared smart enough, they always

looked sloppy about the legs. Often one would see a German officer

with a reasonably well-cut coat, but his breeches would be perfectly

impossible. His leggings were worse than his breeches and looked as if

they must have been picked up at a second-hand clothes dealer's. They

never fitted, and besides giving their wearers legs the same shape all

the way down, generally ended off with their edges half an inch clear

of the boots all the way round.

The leather of these leggings looked as if it was made of

papier-mache. Being generally of a light yellowish-brown colour they

at any rate matched the boots, for the latter were nearly always of

that particularly aggressive tone of yellow often seen in the

shop-windows in England. The German officer seems to like this colour

and has it preserved by his servant, whereas we get rid of it at once.

I suppose these officers in their new uniforms criticised the

generally unkempt appearance of the English officers in prison

extremely unfavourably, not realising that anything is good enough for

a prison, and the less new stuff we got from "home" the less

unimportant work we gave to the hard-worked tailors endeavouring to

cope with the millions of uniforms required by our growing armies.

In the Spring of 1916 we were allowed by the British Government to

give our "paroles" for purposes of "walks" and other recreation.

This enabled us to go to the dentist in the town. This dentist,

although extremely short-sighted, did not do such bad work, provided

you found the hole for him. He did his best for us and his charges

were extraordinarily reasonable. These visits to the dentist were

naturally very popular, as they enabled us to see new sights and get

away from the horrible prison for a few hours. The dentist scored

heavily, as he always had a waiting-list and continuous work to do for

the prisoners.

As a man he was about as unfit for war as anyone could imagine, and

yet they called him up eventually. Being a weedy specimen, small and

pasty-faced, with such short-sight that he had the greatest difficulty

in seeing anything, he had been returned as totally exempt time after

time by the army doctors. But during the winter of 1916-1917, the

weeding-out committee of Germans arrived at Crefeld and once more he

was examined. To everyone's surprise, and to his most of all, they

passed him fit, and off he had to go. It cheered one up to see them

need such a man in their armies.

[Illustration: FANCY PORTRAIT OF "THE CRAB" (_page 28_).]

The commandant, who, together with the vast majority of Germans,

believed in a great German victory over the whole world in 1914, began

his career as our chief gaoler as an autocrat of the Prussian type.

Various objectionable things were done by his orders. Not the least

objectionable of these was the stopping of smoking, when Major

Vandeleur escaped in December 1914. After a fortnight we regained our

tobacco and were allowed to smoke until a similar episode occurred,

when the same penalty was imposed.

Sometime in the Spring of 1915, three French officers attempted to

escape, but at the last minute, having already gained the outside of

the camp, came back into the prison, and in so doing were fired upon

by a German sentry who saw them. As the names of these officers were

not known to the German authorities, they ordered a roll-call and

demanded their names from the senior French officer. Naturally the

request was not granted, so the commandant said that all smoking

would be stopped for all officers of the camp, unless the names were

forthcoming at once. Again he was disappointed, and the tobacco was

once more collected. This time most of the parcels of tobacco were

filled with lumps of coal and other unimportant trifles, while we

smoked, like schoolboys, on the sly. Up the chimney was the favourite

place for this.

During the summer of 1915 the commandant changed his tone a bit, and

steadily improved from that time forward. Eventually there arrived a

time when we could consider him a fair and just commandant, and

although no friend of England or the English, he managed to get on

very well with his English prisoners.

The French, however, were never able to satisfy their consciences on

the subject sufficiently to look upon him as anything but one of the

worst. This was too severe. The commandant complained that when he

passed them, they would turn their backs on him, in order to avoid

having to salute him.

Relations between the English and the allies were always of the best.

About half the English preferred the Russians, while the other half

preferred the French.

There were many amusing incidents constantly occurring, if one could

raise sufficient sense of humour to enjoy them.

One typical example of the way in which we got some amusement out of

our guards happened one morning when a German fatigue party was in the

barracks loading up a wagon. One of the men had taken off his uniform

cap and hung it up by the entrance to one of the buildings. Along came

a certain English officer, interested in anything which might assist

him to escape, saw the cap, snatched it up and hid it inside his coat,

while passing into the building.

Ten minutes or so later, the work being finished, the German soldier

looked round for his cap. Meanwhile, the story of the annexation of

the cap had gone the round of the prison, so, when the wretched Boche

passed along the front of the building with his bald pate shining in

the sunlight, he had to run the gauntlet of a crowd of heads peering

from all the windows and roaring with laughter at him.

For a long time, I, like the majority of Englishmen, was in a room

half-English, half-French. We really got on very well together, but

the usual rock upon which French and English split, cropped up in our

case. We English wanted a fair proportion of the windows open; the

French on the other hand wanted them shut, complaining of "les

courants d'air mortels" (draughts).

A compromise was the only possible solution of this universal trouble.

On one occasion our allied friends received a consignment of live

snails from France, which they proceeded to cook with garlic on a

small spirit stove in our room. The smell was appalling. I had to

bolt from the room, although I am not over particular. The odour of

snails hung about for days afterwards.

These same friends of ours took up fret-sawing as a hobby. Have you

ever tried to live in a room in which five or six fret-saws are

working for hours at a time? They used to commence work before

breakfast sometimes. However, we stuck it without complaining for

months.

We had a most extraordinary prison companion, in the person of a

Russian, who received the nick-name of "Cuckoo." This Russian was not

really an officer at all, but during the great Russian retreat from

Poland was a transport driver. Finding, or otherwise coming by, an

officer's great-coat, he was dressed in it, when taken prisoner with

many thousands of others. The Germans, who were not able to prove

whether all officers were genuine, naturally concluded that he was

one, and took him to an officers' internment camp in Germany. During

his wanderings from camp to camp, he one day came to Crefeld. The

Cuckoo grew his hair long, abnormally long, so that it fell in a

matted mass, reaching to his shoulders. It was said that he had vowed

never to cut his hair until the Germans had been kicked out of his

village. He was called the Cuckoo, because when one day he had climbed

a tree he was asked what he was doing by some officer, and replied

that he was a cuckoo. This extraordinary person was not allowed to

feed with the Russian officers, as they objected to having him with

them. So he had to have his meals between the two services, which were

normally within an hour of each other. The English officers belonging

to the first service were always late in leaving the table, and so

were frequently in the large dining-room when the Cuckoo was fed. It

was a sight never to be forgotten. His manner of eating was truly

marvellous.

On some occasions dried smoked fish were part of the meals, and the

Cuckoo would pounce on these like a vulture and gnaw one, holding it

by the head and tail with both hands. This was not his only stunt.

Another good one was the way in which he shovelled food down. His

hands worked absolutely feverishly to supply his insatiable appetite;

great gulps of tea were rapidly interspersed, for lubricating

purposes, I suppose. For all that, I can say that I saw him at the

bath, which is more than can be said for all the prisoners in the

camp.

A really plucky, but at the same time comic attempt to escape was made

one Spring by a certain officer, who went by the soubriquet of

"Peeping-Tom."

The refuse heaps and dust-bins were cleared out daily by an old German

man and a boy, who removed the rubbish in a heavy two-wheeled cart

drawn by an old ox. This rubbish-cart in these days used to leave the

camp without being carefully searched and was emptied some distance

from it. This fact was naturally well known to the prisoners, but the

question, which most people took to be unanswerable, was how to remain

hidden in the rubbish and yet be alive at the end of the unpleasant

journey. It remained for "Peeping-Tom" to think of a gas-mask in

connection with this scheme. Borrowing one from an officer, who had

been lately brought in from the front, and had retained possession of

this article of equipment, he dressed himself in it, and choosing a

moment when the German boy was looking the other way, and the old man

had departed on some other business, he rushed to the cart and got

inside. A well-trained batch of English soldier-servants then arrived,

each armed with a bucketful of rubbish which they threw over the top

of him, successfully hiding him from view. All would now have been

well, had not fate cruelly intervened, in the shape of an old German

who worked the bath-house furnace, and who occasionally came out for

a breath of fresh air.

Seeing this extraordinary looking object disappear into the cart, the

old Boche fetched his cap and went off to the commandant's office to

report the strange event. Remarking this, another officer who had been

assisting the attempt, walked past the cart and warned "Peeping-Tom"

that he had been seen and must get out. Suddenly a horrible looking

object rose from the middle of the cart sending a shower of empty tins

and other rubbish in all directions. For a moment his peaky masked

face peered round, and then leaping from the cart, he went like the

wind for the room of a friend in the nearest building. The German boy

nearly fell flat on his back from fright when he saw this apparition,

and could do nothing to hinder its escape from the cart. The Germans

arrived in force shortly afterwards, but their bird had flown. From

that day onwards, the rubbish was pierced with spikes every time it

passed through the main gate, so that this scheme never had another

chance.

During the earlier days of our captivity, impromptu sing-songs

sometimes used to take place. On one particular occasion this led to

trouble with our prison authorities. Empire-day was a day which could

be made something of by the English, as a set-off to the numerous

Saints-days and fetes of the French and Russians.

This particular Empire-day, which we had decided to celebrate as a

"jour-de-fete," happened to be the day of the declaration of war

between Italy and Austria.

The noise made by the Empire-day celebrators was quite appreciable,

and sufficiently loud to reach the ears of the many town-people

promenading up and down outside the camp. As these Germans had just

heard that their so-called ally and friend, Italy, had declared war on

Austria, thus upsetting German calculations, they were very angry and

depressed. On hearing these sounds of cheerful voices and other

manifestations of joy they naturally concluded that our Empire-day

celebrations had been especially arranged in order to celebrate the

entry of Italy into the war, which fact, combined with their feeling

of depression and indignation at what they termed Italian treachery,

made them wild with rage, and complaints were sent in to the

commandant, who believed also that the noise had been due to a

celebration in honour of Italy. It was only after most persistent

declarations on the part of the British senior officers, that it was

at last satisfactorily explained to the commandant.

On the whole we were exceedingly fortunate in our German officers at

Crefeld. One of them, however, was a most ludicrous person. He was

nick-named the Crab, on account of his gait. He wore cuffs, which

always asserted their independence from his shirt, when he raised his

hand to the salute.

This Crab was a fool in his dealings with the prisoners, and various

little incidents occurred between him and his charges. On one occasion

the order against smoking on parade was re-read to the prisoners, and

then the German officers kept their eyes open for smoke for a time

after this.

The Crab one day saw an English officer smoking and took his name,

with the result that the victim got three days cells. In the course of

his campaign against smoking, he next came up against the French.

One of these was observed to be smoking and accused of it. However, he

declared his absolute innocence and the Crab was non-plussed. On

looking round he found that the whole crowd of Frenchmen were smoking,

and roaring with laughter at him. This was too much for him to tackle

and he gave it up.

Occasionally our allies received him with a chorus of coughs or

suppressed cheers if he came on parade late.

A very fine attempt to escape was made by a naval officer, who used

the Crab as his model. One evening, knowing that the Crab was busy in

the camp and would not be passing out of the Commandantur gate for a

few minutes, the Naval officer, dressed _a la Crab_ to the last

button, presented himself at the first barrier and got easily through

without causing any suspicion. At the next gate, however, the sentry,

as a matter of form, asked him for his pass, but unfortunately, not

being conversant with the language, he was unable to understand what

was required of him, otherwise a word in answer and the production of

anything at all resembling the pass might easily have sufficed to

allay the man's suspicions. Instead of which the sentry had to repeat

his question several times, each time becoming more suspicious of this

strangely silent German officer.

It wasn't very long before they discovered the trick which was being

played on them and arrest quickly followed. The commandant, it was

said, was extremely amused over the whole affair, and made the naval

officer show him how he had copied the Crab walk.

He then sent for the Crab, who came to his office to find his double

staring at him. The commandant roared with laughter, but the Crab only

vouchsafed "very clever" in English as his remarks on the subject,

looking very fed-up the while.

All the German employees in the prison used to laugh at the Crab, so

this little masquerade caused a good deal of amusement among them.

We were always hearing rumours from someone who claimed to be in the

know, about the mobilisation of the Dutch army and a rapid attack on

Germany.

This interested us very much of course, as we had visions of being

released by Dutch cavalry. However--cheering as these rumours were at

first--they became decidedly unpopular when nothing ever happened

according to the programme of the rumour.

Sometimes we heard of misgivings in the town when our offensives were

stretching the German armies to cracking point. The people didn't

believe their official reports without applying a grain of salt to

them first, on many occasions. The _Times_ was largely read in the

town, and I have heard it actually said by a German that he read it so

as to get news of the war,--the German papers containing nothing but

stuff entirely favourable to the Fatherland.

There was an official report issued by the Great Headquarters every

afternoon and this appeared in the _Extra Blatt_, a yellow sheet of

paper specially printed. This _Extra Blatt_ used to be carried past

the prison by an old Boche, who always shouted the same thing--"heavy

losses of the English, French and Russians." At last, after hearing

him daily for two years or more, the prisoners began to assert

themselves, and he was received with cheers, which daily grew louder,

until the commandant ordered that the old man should not come past any

more and give opportunities for the prisoners to practise their

sarcasm at the expense of the communiques of the Great Headquarters.

The reports about the Jutland battle sent the Germans into a great

state of excitement. At first they were very happy, while we said very

little to those Boches we met about the camp. A day or two later their

joy was rather more assumed than real, until nearly a week afterwards,

the sudden marvellous discovery by the German authorities that they

had lost some more ships, and the consequent admission of this

unfortunate little fact, finally wiped out altogether the dreams of a

German domination of the seas, which many deluded people seemed to

consider a "fait accompli" after that battle. It was then our turn to

smile and drop insinuations and hints that probably their authorities

could tell them more if they liked.

Of course we were told what would happen to England when the submarine

campaign began. The Unter-Offizier in charge of the parcel room

informed us with great glee that the English would be unable to

receive any more parcels. Although pooh-poohing his suggestions many

prisoners had secret fears on the subject.

There was great excitement in Boche circles when the first batch of

parcels bearing postmarks of a later date to that of the first day of

the unlimited submarine campaign arrived in the camp. This did not

look a all like a complete blockade of England!

After careful thought a satisfactory explanation was forthcoming from

the "under officer." "Of course the English postal authorities must

have faked the postmarks in order to cause these very misgivings to

arise in the minds of true Germans"! Again he and his satellites were

able to look on the bright side of things. But not for long did their

joy last. The steady stream of incoming parcels continued and joy

gave way to sulkiness and then disillusionment in the minds of those

Germans who saw with their own eyes. Depend upon it these men told

others what they had seen and so it spread. All the same they still

imagined, in May, 1917, that we had far less food in England than was

really the case.

Talking about food reminds me of the behaviour of the Crefeld children

when we prisoners went out for walks on parole. Although undoubtedly

brought up upon ideas of hate against England, and presumably

thoroughly informed of the odious natures of all Englishmen, these

children very soon forgot their lessons and rapidly became great

friends with the prisoners--English, Russians, French, Belgians and

Arabs alike. Of course to a certain extent their behaviour was due to

their hopes of getting odd bits of chocolate or a biscuit or two from

their enemy friends. It was not unusual to see the "Walk," generally

consisting of about forty prisoners, returning with a crowd of kids of

all kinds and description hanging on to its edges. Their usual

practice was to get hold of a prisoner's hand and trot beside him,

asking sometimes for chocolate and occasionally for old tennis balls.

These children's disregard of the attitude, which the war lord has

decided must be displayed against the English, was not allowed to

continue unchecked. I expect the children were the subject of a

special army order, as they suddenly ceased to join us in our walks,

and the usual crowd of urchins who stood for hours in the road outside

the barracks in the hopes of having something thrown out to them, were

chased from their points of vantage and silence once more reigned in

the one time noisy road.

On special occasions the schools were given holidays by orders from

headquarters. A victory or the occupation of a town was always

commemorated in this way. On these occasions, the headmaster or

mistress would march the school past our prison and order the kids to

sing patriotic songs. We always laughed at them, and the girls would

sometimes forget to sing and would wave their handkerchiefs to us

instead, causing their bear-leaders to get wild with rage. Eventually

when the Germans got tired of victories and wanted food instead, their

holidays ceased and we no longer had to listen to shrill voices

shrieking "Die Wacht am Rhein" or "Deutschland ueber Alles," time after

time _ad nauseam_.

It was extraordinary how the feelings of the German people changed

towards us while at Crefeld. At first nothing was too bad to say or do

to the captives of the Kultur nation, but it is marvellous what a good

blood-letting and perpetual food shortage has done for them. So tame

did they get that our windows, at first only open at the very top and

all covered with white paint, were eventually made so that one could

sit and look out quite easily. No fist shaking or gestures of hate

were made by the time the windows were allowed open, so prisoners and

Boche civilians simply stared at each other quite peaceably.

There was one thing that specially worried us in the camp. By some

means or other all attempts to escape by digging tunnels were

discovered. Although the foundations of the prison buildings were

literally honey-combed with tunnels and attempts were made without

number, never once did one succeed.

Most ingenious efforts were made, but despite the most rigid secrecy

and the utmost caution, sooner or later in would come a search party

and go straight to the scene of the excavation and often catch the

diggers red-handed. It was believed that there were spies among the

prisoners; at any rate everything that went on was known in the

commandant's office sooner or later. The members of one party on being

caught were actually complimented on their fine work by the Boches,

who were full of joy naturally at having found the tunnel.

For many months before we left Crefeld the Germans used to search the

ground floor rooms and cellars daily. Not infrequently they would pay

two or three visits to the cellars in one night. Their searching

included tapping the walls, ceilings and floors for hollow places.

Periodically a search for the earth excavated from these holes and

hidden away, would lead to the Boches discovering many hundredweights

of sand and rubble stowed away safely.

Searches were sometimes made in our rooms for articles of contraband.

Civilian clothes, and maps, compasses and various tools were the chief

objects of interest to them. These searches on some occasions were

extended to the persons of the prisoners, especially after an order

forbidding the possession of real German money had been issued. Of

course none of us liked being searched and we showed our searchers

pretty clearly what we thought of the whole affair. I must say that

the commandant did not order many searches and probably those that did

occur were due to the orders of a superior.

These searches were usually carried out by the under-officers and men

of a different unit from that which guarded the camp, in order to

prevent those who were quite friendly to us among the prison guards

letting us off too lightly.

During 1915 we were all inoculated and vaccinated against a number of

diseases. In all we were each punctured seven times. Many prisoners

objected to these measures and did their utmost to avoid being done.

The German authorities caught the majority and treated them to these

unpleasant attentions however.

The inoculation was a comic sight. One after the other the prisoners

filed past the doctors, who worked automatically at their pricking

job. It often was a case of almost leather punching when the tough

skins of some of the rougher types of prisoners had to be pierced. The

needles were far from sharp, and I believe had to be constantly

changed.

Small parties of prisoners were constantly leaving and arriving at the

camp. This was done, so it was generally thought, to let the people

see prisoners being taken about and make them imagine that the German

armies were always taking new batches.

New arrivals from the front were sometimes brought in, and we would

generally worry the lives out of them for their first few days, asking

for news of all kinds. Hardly ever were they able to tell us anything

we did not know from the newspapers, but it often happened that all

sorts of wild rumours arose from the remarks of fellows who were

simply badgered into saying things they did not really mean or had not

thought over thoroughly.

Early in the Spring of 1917 the Germans brought a hundred odd

mercantile marine officers and men from Karlsruhe to our camp at

Crefeld, with what object nobody rightly knew. These men had been

through a very bad time and were very pleased to get to a camp where

there were English army officers. The majority of them had been

captured by the _Moewe_, and some of them had been in her for weeks

while she cruised about sinking other ships. They had been

half-starved and had very little clothing with them. In several cases

the Germans had sunk their ships so quickly that the wretched crews

had had no time to put on any of their clothing and had had to take to

the boats in whatever garments they were wearing at the moment.

When they arrived at Crefeld they were received by the military

officers and had a breakfast given them at once. They were

extraordinarily pleased to get some decent food, and we so arranged it

that they never lacked English food with which to augment their camp

rations while at Crefeld.

In connection with this, the Germans were very amusing. They expressed

their astonishment that officers of our army should take so much

interest in British mercantile marine common seamen as to provide them

with food and actually wait on them at the first decent meal they had

seen for months.

A collection of clothes of all descriptions was made, and most

extraordinary sights were to be seen as the result of this. Stokers

promenading in the uniforms of Guards officers, and ship's boys in

huge "British Warms."

I think the Germans had hoped to annoy us army officers by this

introduction of merchant seamen. If this was so they failed utterly to

achieve their object. The greatest good feeling existed between the

two lots in the camp, and after three or four weeks the merchant

sailors were removed to another camp where I am afraid they were less

comfortable. The Germans were not the only surprised people over this

affair. The French, although Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity is

their national motto, were very astonished at the way in which good

fellowship and camaraderie was fostered between army officers and

merchant seamen.

When the Russian revolution broke out, we all wondered how the

Russians in the prison camp would take it. The majority of them seemed

to have very little decided opinion on the subject, but were generally

inclined to think it a good thing for their country. It was then that

we were told that the Russians were all to be sent to another camp,

which made the whole camp think furiously as to the reason for this

move of the German authorities. Was it peace in sight and the

prisoners were to be concentrated in camps by nationalities near the

frontiers of neutrals bordering their own countries preparatory to the

general exodus at the end of the war? Did it mean a separate peace

with Russia?

These and other theories were discussed backwards and forwards.

Eventually the Russians went and many of us were very sorry to lose

them, as it meant a loss of all means of continuing to learn the

language from their Russian friends. Two hundred English arrived from

Guetersloh in their place, and then the departure of the French began.

The leave-taking between the French and English was very cordial and

annoyed the Germans very much, as while the former went from us we all

sang the "Marseillaise." The English continued to sing it until the

French were out of sight along the road to the station. Then we became

an all English prison-camp. There seemed to be no room to move, as

everyone was out of doors, and a great percentage of the Russians and

many of the French had kept to their rooms a great deal.

We were only about six weeks in this state, as in May once again the

Germans turned the camp upside down, this time ordering its complete

evacuation by all the English.

CHAPTER II

THE MOVE TO SCHWARMSTEDT

Many and varied were the aims ascribed to the Boches when the news of

the move from Crefeld, ordered in May, 1917, reached the ears of the

prisoners.

We were divided into parties of varying sizes. My party was the

strongest, consisting of four hundred officers and about seventy

soldier-servants.

The greatest secrecy was displayed as to our destination by the

Germans, and all sorts of places were mooted as possible by the

prisoners themselves.

Shortly before we had heard the news of our impending departure, a

strange thing happened. A battalion of young German soldiers marched

into the German half of the camp, and very soon after their arrival

we were astonished to see another line of sentries posted round the

camp outside the barbed-wire fence.

These sentries were only twenty yards apart and were dressed in active

service uniforms. In addition to these, machine guns were posted at

each corner of the camp so as to command the roads running past it.

These precautions were taken a day or so before May 1st, the day when

the Social Democrats were to have labour demonstrations throughout

Germany.

We were naturally extremely interested and wondered what was to

happen.

These German soldiers were far from being on the best of terms with

our old Landsturm men, who continued to carry out the usual guard

duties as they had done previously.

Nothing else happened beyond the arrest of five civilian Germans who

were hanging about the entrance to the prison. Why they were suddenly

seized and flung into cells no one rightly knew, but we concluded

that it had to do with these same May 1st demonstrations.

The preparations for the great exodus from the camp were full of comic

and sometimes almost tragic incidents.

Some prisoners, who had taken the trouble to try to make their rooms

comfortable when the camp became all English, were particularly savage

over the move, and took care that nothing which they were unable to

take away should be left to be sold again to another batch of

prisoners at a later date. There was a considerable quantity of live

stock of various kinds in the camp, and measures for the

transportation of these furred and feathered belongings had to be

undertaken. The rabbits had to have special boxes made for them so

that they could be carried by hand.

These rabbits had been in existence some six months at Crefeld and

were very prolific breeders. They provided many an excellent meal for

their owners and were objects of great interest, being watched by a

small crowd of the prison inhabitants every day.

Quite a number of canaries, a dog or two and a cat, were also in the

camp, and would have to be taken away by their owners.

We were told that our heavy baggage might in due course follow us to

the new prison camps and that we could take one box each, which was to

accompany us. Of course we all had accumulated much more stuff than

would go into one box, and much grousing and desperate thinking was

the result of this order.

The commandant promised to have our special boxes of tinned food sent

on to us as soon as possible after our departure. Although many of us

never expected to see the things again, he kept his promise, greatly

to the delight of everyone. These food boxes arrived some three weeks

after we had got to the new camp.

On the last evening at Crefeld, definite "move" orders were issued and

our names were called by parties. I was detailed for No. 2 camp, which

was to have over half the 750 officers at that time at Crefeld.

Another party consisted approximately of three hundred officers, and

the remaining fifty or so were distributed among two or three other

new camps.

Owing to finding out that five or six officers were missing at the

final roll-call, another nominal roll-call was ordered that evening in

order to ascertain the names of those who were missing. The Crab was

in charge of this roll-call, and he stood at the opening of a wire

netting fence dividing two tennis courts, while the English officers

answered their names and filed past him. Muddles very soon occurred,

and what with officers who had already answered their names wandering

back among the uncounted ones, so as to answer to the names of those

missing, and the mistakes which naturally occur in calling over the

names of 750 officers of another nationality, the Germans were

bamboozled, and had no idea what they were doing. This roll-call was a

fearfully slow one, and it became dark before two thirds of the

officers had passed through the opening.

Now, of course, no certainty of keeping those counted from those

uncounted could possibly be assured, unless a large number of soldiers

were employed to prevent persons slipping from the counted crowd to

the uncounted crowd. Accordingly a strong force of German soldiers was

sent for, and for some reason or other they made matters worse instead

of better.

This state of affairs continued for some time, until someone applied a

match to an old broom found on a tennis court. It made an excellent

torch and others quickly emulated his example. This was followed by a

wild throwing about of these flaming missiles, and it not infrequently

happened that one of them pitched extremely near a German soldier

forming one of the cordon round us. This sport gave place to bonfires.

In a moment some old benches were torn up and three or four fires

started. This roused the Boches and they cleared the bonfire stokers

away and proceeded to trample out the flames, amid the laughter of all

the prisoners. The alarm was sounded on a bugle, and yet another small

army of soldiers arrived on the scene, but they did not tackle the

largest bonfire which burnt merrily on undisturbed.

It was a weird sight. The red flames lit up a wide area, in which the

greater part of the prisoners were strolling about surrounded on all

sides by German soldiers in field gray uniforms and carrying rifles.

However, the whole affair was only due to over-boisterous spirits, and

there was no bad feeling displayed towards the Germans, who very

wisely did not interfere to any great extent. When the order to

disperse to our rooms was given the prisoners went off quietly enough

and the whole affair died out without any trouble occurring. However,

at times it had been touch and go, whether the Boches would fire at

us.

The hour for parade next morning was extremely early, and we had to

wait for hours before we eventually moved off. Prior to leaving the

camp our personal baggage, which we were to carry by hand, had to be

searched. A large number of young German officers and _Feldwebels_

were brought into the camp to carry out this task. They were quite

civil and polite and got through their job fairly quickly.

My party was the first to move out of the camp. We then found we had

to walk to the station, a mile or so away. It was now that many

discovered what a quantity of baggage they had got with them. Everyone

had been under the impression that we should go by trams to the

station, and consequently had much more to carry than they would have

had if a walk to the station had been expected.

It was an awful procession. Every fifty to a hundred yards the column

had to halt while bags were changed to the other hand or bundles

re-adjusted. We walked four abreast and on both sides of each four was

a German soldier.

It was an absolute nightmare. Some prisoners threw some of their

belongings away, and a few sat down unable to move a yard further

without a rest. At last, after an absolutely agonising time, we

reached the station. We were put in the carriages four at a time, with

three to four German soldiers in each carriage with us. In my carriage

there were four Germans, one of them an Unter-Offizier. The Germans

appropriated the corner seats, to prevent us being near the doors.

This of course allowed the four of us to play bridge in the middle of

the carriage.

Eventually the train moved out of the station and we saw our last of

Crefeld. Extraordinary as it may seem, we were positively annoyed at

leaving; far from being keen on seeing new places and settling down in

new environments, the majority would have preferred to remain in the

same old groove for the whole term of their imprisonment. Time seems

to go by much more quickly when nothing happens to mark its flight.

The two and a half years spent in that prison had slipped by without

milestones and it was extremely hard to realise what the two and a

half years really meant. One sometimes felt that life previous to the

war was really the invention of a dream. It often seemed to one that

"prison" was the natural state of existence and anything outside of it

unnatural. Perhaps the animals at the Zoo have the same impression of

the outside world.

On settling down for our journey to that unknown destination, we had

an opportunity of studying our guards. They were men of about thirty

years of age and had all been to the front for long spells. For

several hours they were very sulky and only answered our remarks and

questions in monosyllables.

When we reached Essen they expanded a little in order to point out to

us what a wonderful place it was. It certainly was wonderful. Miles of

workshops and factories, and in many of them one could see guns, new,

old, and damaged, lying about. The Germans in our carriage were

evidently proud of this place and talked quite a lot about it, using

many adjectives of the "kolossal," "wunderschoen" type. We, of course,

told them that we had hundreds of places in England of a similar

nature and that they would one day see their wonderful Essen burnt to

the ground. We thought naturally of air raids on Essen, and in view of

the bombing of this place early in the war, we carefully examined it,

and came to the conclusion that a bomb would be bound to hit

something of importance there, so close together are the various

workshops jammed.

At Guetersloh station we slowly passed a train conveying a German

battalion towards the West front. We were able to examine the men

well. This particular battalion consisted of very fine looking men,

but there was no "Joy in the War" expression, as the German papers

call it, on their faces, and they were not singing or shouting the

incessant repertoire of the front-going German soldier. In fact they

looked resigned to their fate, and took very little notice of us. Of

course we talked to each other about "Kanonen Futter" for the benefit

of the guards in our carriage.

On clearing out of Guetersloh we decided to have a meal. As we had

prepared for two or three days in the train if necessary, we had

plenty of food with us. It was with great curiosity that we covertly

watched our German guards when we produced white bread and tinned

beef sent from England. It was evidently a great surprise for them,

and they could not help showing their astonishment in their faces. It

did not look to them as if England was starving if white bread could

still be made, and as for the meat, they had not seen so much during a

whole week as we each proposed to eat at one meal.

They had had a meal themselves just before we began ours, so we had

been able to estimate what had been given them as their rations. It

was very scanty and the small quantity of bread was exceedingly poor

looking. In the hopes of getting them to talk a bit, we offered them

some beef and a little bread. They accepted with alacrity and became

friendly from that moment, telling us all sorts of things that

interested us exceedingly.

Apparently, they in common with the majority of Germans, had

mistrusted and even feared their English prisoners up till then. Very

probably they had all been warned to be suspicious of us, and given to

understand that we might overpower them at any moment and escape from

the train. There must have been some such fear in the minds of the

senior German officers, as there were machine guns on the train in

addition to four hundred armed soldiers.

The under-officer told me that he had been wounded twice and been on

the Russian front for a very long spell. He had also been on the West

front in 1914, and I discovered that he had been in an attack on the

very trenches occupied by my brigade near the Chemin des Dames on the

Aisne. He had no hesitation in saying which was the nastiest front. He

was absolutely fed up with the war, as were the others in the

carriage. They asked us when we thought the war would end, and out of

principle we said in a year to two years' time. I was often asked the

same question while at Crefeld and always answered--"a year or more."

This seemed to depress them and they used to blame England for being

the cause of the war going on so long. Nearly every day I went to the

canteen, and, according to my usual custom, talked to the German

soldiers doing duty as salesmen there.

The war was always the subject of conversation and I generally asked

them, laughingly, when the great promised defeat of England was going

to come off. One day, one of them became quite serious and leant

across the counter to me and said in a low tone so that only I could

hear--"Germany will never defeat England." As an afterthought he

added, "but England can never defeat Germany." I laughed and told him

to wait.

It was extremely interesting to observe the gradual taming of the

Boche.

In 1914 he was intoxicated with victories actual and prospective;

1915, confident but a little more calm; the big talk of capturing

London, etc., had died down by then; 1916, general depression, and

towards the end of the year actual and open fear for the future and

hate of the war was to be observed among the soldiers and civilians of

the lower orders.

By the Spring of 1917, real anxiety about the coming summer's fighting

began to be evident, which was partially relieved by the events in

Russia and the great promises and hopes held out to them by the

submarine warfare.

Their behaviour towards us followed the same gradual scale. At first,

bullying, truculent and brutal, they became more docile as time went

on, until when we left Crefeld in May 1917, their behaviour was not so

far removed from what one had a right to expect from prison guards and

officials towards their officer prisoners.

Although the guards in our railway carriage had become quite friendly

by now, they did not relax their vigilance, and it was quite evident

that they would not sleep all at the same time during the night which

was approaching.

I watched very carefully that night, but never once did I catch them

all unconscious at the same moment.

There can be no doubt whatever that they had had very stringent orders

on the subject, owing probably to the escape of nine British officers

from trains in the last three months.

The same watchfulness was displayed by the Germans throughout the

train, as we found out on comparing notes afterwards.

The journey continued throughout the next day and we passed through

Minden in the late afternoon.

We had now made up our minds that Stralsund, one of the rumoured

destinations, was to be our new "home." Great was our surprise when we

found that our train had stopped at a small town called Schwarmstedt,

in Hanover, and that our new camp was some eight miles from there. The

guards got out and formed a close cordon completely round the train

and we were told that we were not to be marched off till daybreak. The

German soldiers from our carriage not employed on this cordon duty

fetched us water at our request and we settled down to sleep for a few

hours until the time for moving came. We were turned out of the train

at 3 a.m. and after being formed up in fours we waited for an hour or

so.

We had a grand opportunity of studying the Prussian method of

enforcing obedience and smartness in the men during this wait. A

captain and a sergeant-major kind of man, fairly screamed at the

privates. On several occasions, livid with rage, one or other of them

rushed at some hapless wretch and roared at him in sentences

containing very choice German words--hardly of the endearment variety.

Our carriage guards had previously told us that the major, captain and

sergeant-major were "Schweine" of the worst type, but that the

lieutenant was liked well enough. We could now judge for ourselves.

At last we got the order to move off, our hand baggage being left

behind to be brought up by a miniature railway train especially

constructed for the purpose of supplying the prison camps.

The camp with several others, as we found out afterwards, was situated

on the Lueneburg Heide, some eight miles east-north-east of the town of

Schwarmstedt and five or six miles on the Berlin side of the river

Aller.

Crossing the river and leaving the valley through which it flowed, we

quickly entered a wild tract of country, through which the only road

was a rough cart track. The soil was peaty with a deep layer of sand

and black dust on the top of it. For the first two or three miles we

passed through several very fine pine forests interspersed with young

plantations and rough scrub.

This type of country gave way to a flat marshy-looking area covered

with rank vegetation and stunted fir-trees. Streams and ditches cut up

the land, and it struck one as being a very wet place even in the

summer, in winter it would probably be a swamp.

At last we reached the camp and found ourselves looking at a

collection of wooden huts with tarred felt roofs, surrounded by a

barbed wire fence, seemingly planted at random in the midst of the

wildness.

CHAPTER III

SCHWARMSTEDT CAMP

Our first sight of this camp hardly encouraged us to think that we

were going to a better place than Crefeld. An ominous silence fell

upon the incoming prisoners! And it was a particularly sulky lot who

faced the new commandant when he had them formed up in front of him.

He admitted the bad state of the camp in his very first speech, and

hoped that we would put up with it as he himself was powerless to

alter matters.

On being dismissed, we went off to our rooms and very soon found out

all about our new prison.

Imagine dirty sand, covering a layer of peat with water two feet

underneath it, enclosed with a barbed wire fence. In this area put

four long low wooden huts with tarred felt roofs, three much smaller

ones, three pumps, a long latrine, a hospital hut and some cells, and

you have the sum total of the buildings in the camp.

The three long low huts held 390 officers, each hut divided roughly

into eight to ten rooms. Many of the rooms held sixteen officers, and

so crowded were the beds in them that three pairs had to touch in many

instances, despite repeated and varied ways of re-arrangement being

tried.

The latrines were very close and handy, so much so in fact, that their

ends came to within ten paces of the living-rooms at the end of two of

the huts. As the latrines were never cleared out, the atmosphere in

these near huts was something too appalling for words, especially if a

west wind was blowing.

The drinking-water had been passed as fit for human beings by the

German sanitary authorities. For all that, the majority of us only

drank tea and coffee, etc., requiring boiling water. The water was

brownish and smelt abominably.

We became expert laundry hands, as we had to wash our own clothes, and

so learnt the art from experience.

Many of the prisoners were able to see the comic side of life in this

place fortunately, and so made the best of a bad job.

As the bath-house was outside of the wire fence, we could only get to

it by going on parole, or by being marched out in groups. This

naturally meant that the turn for baths did not come round too often.

If one refused to give parole for this purpose, a bath could be got

twice a week with luck.

The natural outcome of this was that everyone used to bath under the

pumps which were situated between the living-huts. It was a common

sight to see between twenty and thirty naked figures throwing water

over each other round the pumps.

It was absolutely impossible to play tennis or football in this camp,

as there was no space in which to do such things. The little ground

lying between the living huts had been planted with vegetables by the

Germans before our arrival. It was against all orders to walk across

this ground. A Belgian private soldier, acting as officer's servant in

the camp, did so once, and was banged into cells for his offence. No

officer was put in cells for this, but that was not due to the lack of

opportunity. I think the Germans did not want to cause trouble with

their English officer prisoners, so refrained from rash acts of this

nature.

As we had been allowed to take only one box with us from Crefeld, some

officers had purchased huge baskets in the canteen into which they had

crammed great quantities of luggage.

When these baskets were unpacked, the German authorities decided that

they were too big to remain in the rooms and so ordered that they

should be removed from the camp to a store shed outside the wire

fence.

Three officers availed themselves of this fact and hid themselves

inside the baskets, arranging that strong English soldiers should

carry them out, pretending that they were empty and put them with the

other large boxes in the shed. Thus the officers would get outside the

camp and eventually get away from the shed by night.

All went well at first. The baskets were outside the gate, and merrily

moving off towards the shed, when the Boche officer called upon the

soldiers to halt, and decided that as the soldiers were needed for

other work the baskets were not to be put in the store room till after

five o'clock. Down went the baskets on to the ground and were then

massed near the German sentry on gate duty. As it was only two o'clock

and fearfully hot, the wretched inhabitants of the baskets had a very

poor time of it waiting till five.

One of the three did not keep still and we could see the wicker-work

straining from his movements. Awful squeakings and scratchings came

from this basket, and although we tried to drown the noise by talking

and shouting near the gate, the German sentry must have heard

something and became suspicious, as he stood by them and looked

carefully at each in turn.

At last they were taken to the store. What really caused their

recapture I don't know, but it appeared to be due to one of them

showing himself at the window of the store-room some three hours

later. They had to be careful to arrange it so that one of the baskets

could be cut open from the inside, and the others could then be opened

with the keys that the occupant of this basket had on him.

At about eight o'clock the German officer arrived, followed by a

guard, went straight to the store-room and captured all three, who by

this time had been out of their baskets for hours. We next saw them

marched off to cells, where they were to do five months in solitary

confinement.

We had not been thirty-six hours in this camp before three officers

did get away. Crashing along a ditch, they cut the wire and got

through the hole which was in the fence opposite the nearest clump of

undergrowth to the camp.

How the Germans did not hear them crashing into these bushes I cannot

conceive, as I myself heard them seventy or eighty yards away. These

three were away about ten days before being caught. Not very long

after their exit the German sentry noticed the hole in the wire and so

that chance was spoilt for anyone else. The clump of bushes, which had

been so useful to the three escapers, was cut down by order of the

commandant, and after that a hundred yards of open clearing surrounded

the wire fence, making a good field of fire for the sentries.

Owing to the sandy nature of the soil, which had all the dirt-causing

propensities of coal dust and none of the advantages of clean sand, we

had to be constantly washing our feet if they were to be kept clean at

all. Many prisoners, realising what a lot of laundry work wearing

socks in this dusty place meant, discarded their use altogether and

simply wore football shorts and shoes, with an old shirt as top-wear.

Our rooms were perpetually in a filthy state. As soon as they were

brushed, in came more of this sandy dust. A wind made life unbearable.

These conditions are those of summer, winter will mean a different

tale. The open ditches, dry on account of the drought when I left, are

hardly there as ornaments, but in all probability are filled to

over-flowing with the surface water from the camp, when the rainy

months come along.

At the end of the camp was a space wired off from the rest of the

ground for the use of the soldier servants. There was a wooden hut

similar to those occupied by the officers, which did duty for the

housing of the men. In this wooden hut about 200 soldiers, of all

kinds and descriptions, were packed--Russians, French, Belgians, and

English, and not a few half-German half-Russian Jews.

These latter men were allowed great freedom by the Germans. There was

no fear of them escaping, so they walked in and out of the camp

whenever they wished to do so, as far as we could see. They were

hardly trusted by the rest of the prisoners, who had good reason to

know what useful sources of information these persons are to the

German camp authorities.

I went to these quarters of our soldiers several times, although

officers were not supposed to do so. But if no coat was worn, it was

impossible for a German sentry to tell who was an officer or a

private, so we used to adopt that plan if we wished to get into the

enclosure.

The crowded state of that soldiers' hut was beyond belief. The beds

were arranged as closely as possible, and then another layer fixed on

to the tops of the ground floor ones.

For the first three weeks of our life in this camp, we had to live

mainly on the rations provided by the German authorities, since many

of us had not been able to bring much in the way of tinned food along

with us when we left Crefeld. The parcels from England were also

delayed in their arrival, as the organization arranged for Crefeld had

to be altered for Schwarmstedt. The food provided by the Germans at a

daily cost to each officer of 1 mark 50 pfenning, comprised the

following: _Breakfast_, coffee, of the war variety, probably made with

acorns. _Dinner_, soup, always containing lumps of mangel-wurzel,

cabbage, black peas, and occasional pieces of potato. Twice or three

times a week, tiny shreds of real meat could be discovered in the

soup. There was often a liberal ration of grit in this soup, but no

extra charge was made on account of that. _The Evening Meal_, soup of

the sago or meal variety, generally exceedingly thin.

In addition to these daily rations, we were each allowed to purchase

two pounds of war bread per week at 60 pfs. This war bread was

exceedingly nasty and doughy. If pressed with the finger the

indentation remained, as it does in other putty-like substances.

Its color was a dark grey brown, and its smell and taste were sour. I

understood that it was mainly made of potato. It is amusing to hear

the talk about the English war bread in this country, to anyone who

has experienced the same commodity in Germany.

The German war bread most certainly has violent effects on the

interior economies of those who eat it for the first time, without

becoming gradually trained to stand the strain of such an ordeal by

eating the different grades of bread which have been given to the

Fatherland during the last two years.

Personally I cannot justly complain, as I was one of the few who did

not suffer from eating it.

It was a great day when the first consignment of re-directed parcels

arrived. By standing in a queue for two hours the parcel could be

obtained from the German censors. One of the first prisoners to draw

his parcel came back with it under his arm, and a disgusted expression

on his face. Nobody dared ask what he had got in his parcel, he looked

too savage for the risk to be taken. However, it soon got about that

he had got a dozen tennis balls! It was not surprising that he had

looked like murder, when one realised that no tennis was possible in

this camp, and that food was what he most wanted.

Fortunately our trials in this latter respect soon ended, as the

parcels began to come in as regularly as they did at Crefeld. In

addition the Crefeld commandant's promise, that the food boxes would

be sent on, was fulfilled, and once more we had plenty of provisions.

The soldiers also received their parcels now, and from what some of

them said, they generally do wherever they are, thanks to the untiring

energy of those who see to this for them in England.

One day we caught a specimen of the beasts which attacked us at night,

and took it to the German officer pinned on a board. He made excuses

and blamed the wooden huts, saying how impossible it was to deal with

vermin. However, our room was to be fumigated. We were ordered to

clear everything out of our room, and then the Germans arrived with a

blow-flame with which to run over the bedsteads and clear out the

cracks in the walls. Another German splashed creosote on to the floor,

and places too high up to be reached by the blow flame.

We realized that this was all "eyewash," as the gaps between the

partition walls separating the rooms were in some cases wide enough

to allow the passage of one's hand. Therefore the many footed beasts

of prey lurking in such places would easily avoid the strafing by

going a few inches next door via these cracks. Of course the other

rooms were not fumigated at the same time, so their preserves must

have been entered by the game driven out of ours. We all wrote home

for Keating's, but the letters never fetched up.

The censoring of our letters was done at a headquarter censor's office

at Osnabrueck, after our removal from Crefeld. This meant endless delay

and often non-arrival of incoming letters, and practically a complete

suspension of the outgoing mail.

The reason for this latter fact is not difficult to explain. Of course

the prisoners described the new camp in these letters, and as the

place was bad from every point of view, the contents of these epistles

were not liked by the censors at Osnabrueck. Consequently the letters

were either burnt or kept. Of course the non-arrival of letters in

England would do more to cause inquiries to be made at this end than

anything else, but the Germans don't see things in that light.

This camp, Schwarmstedt, was known as No. 2, but why a number should

be assigned and no name given to it, only a Boche could say; possibly

it was because the Germans did not want it visited by any interfering

inquisitive neutral country representative, since it was such a bad

camp. I was pleased to hear that it was visited shortly after, and a

full report made. I believe some of the grievances were attended to.

When we were at Crefeld some of us had taken up fencing as a form of

exercise and amusement. The sabres and epees were sent out from

England, but the Germans were very careful to take charge of them on

their arrival, and used to let us have them at specific times, locking

them up carefully at six o'clock every evening.

This care was continued for over a year, and then I suppose realising

at last that as weapons with which to attack the camp-guards they were

absolutely useless and that bed legs would be much more likely weapons

if anyone wished to do such an absurd thing, they suddenly ignored the

old fencing weapon and we were able each to have his own. When we

moved from Crefeld, I took mine with me, tied quite openly on to a kit

bag.

I hung it up in my room without thinking anything about it, until one

day we were told that we were to be visited by a Boche General, and

that everything had to be extremely tidy and in its correct place. As

the authorities here were much more fussy persons than those at

Crefeld, and the arriving general was rumoured a particularly

aggressive England-hater, I thought that I had better hide my sabre,

which I did almost entirely, only about three inches of it showing.

Naturally I was a trifle worried about this compromising thing, as I

had never realised before that it might get me into trouble in this

new camp.

Whenever there was a search I had to hide it; in fact I got to dislike

that sabre. I never got rid of it finally because I got rid of myself

instead and left it behind as a legacy to my room companions. I hope

they haven't claimed it and taken over its troublesome propensities.

At one end of the camp were three small huts known as machine-gun

houses, constructed originally so as to command the three streets of

the enclosure. In two of these the senior British officers lived, nine

in a room.

The other one was the orderly room. In addition to these three houses,

there were several machine-gun towers dotted at intervals outside but

close up to the main wire fence of the camp.

These also must have been designed originally as points from which

turbulent prisoners could be overawed. After a week or so of English

occupation of this camp, one of them was cunningly used to give cover

to an escaping party.

The exit from the camp was successful, but the actors in this drama

were caught and brought back after several days away. The offending

tower was promptly pulled down by the Germans and an extra sentry

posted in its place.

Near the soldiers' quarters was the building assigned to "cells." I

never saw the inside of them, but they were extremely small and hot in

the summer. Officers in cells were marched out to the "bath" twice a

week, and we could see them quite close, and sometimes even speak with

them, while this was going on. They looked very white after a

fortnight in these places, but that was due probably to the lack of

sunlight. Each cell had a barred window about eight feet from the

ground and occasionally we could see the faces of the occupants

staring through the bars.

Another wooden hut did service as a hospital. This building was the

best in the camp, being painted white on the inside and having quite a

clean appearance. There were not many officer prisoners sick in this

hospital when I left. Three or four bed cases was the total, on the

average day.

Owing to the great heat, the rough grass and bog myrtle became

extremely dry, and when a fire did break out it burnt merrily for a

long time in the surrounding country.

On several occasions the flames swept down on the camp, and the German

guards not on duty were turned out to prevent their too close approach

to the wooden buildings.

Once a fire was only stopped ten yards short of the nearest hut.

The smoke was very thick and drove across the camp, obliterating it.

Needless to say, some of us were watching the sentries very closely

during this, but nobody got an opportunity of attacking the barbed

wire perimeter by which we were enclosed. Rumour had it that a German

village a few miles away had been wiped out by one of these fires. The

German civilians of course blamed the prisoners, saying that they had

caused these fires when smoking on parole-walks. The commandant then

ordered no smoking except on roads, while we were out walking.

The German commandant of this camp full well realised what an

extremely unpleasant place it was and how unsuited for the

accommodation of officers or for private soldiers for that matter.

Evidently ordered to make the best of a bad job, and told to try and

smooth over the bad particulars of the camp by the skillful giving of

small privileges, he attempted to get the prisoners interested in the

building of a theatre and the making of playing-fields outside the

camp.

A strong section of the prisoners fortunately hung together and

declared themselves solidly against taking advantage of these

privileges until such time as the really important questions, which

had already been the subject of numerous complaints by the prisoners,

should be attended to, and action for the general welfare of the camp

population taken by the German authorities.

This camp was a miserable one if judged only from the details of

existence there, but fortunately, as so often happens, there was a

brighter side to it.

The uncomfortable and trying conditions made for unity and

co-operation among the prisoners themselves. The humorous side of life

seemed to come to the fore more easily than at the comparatively

comfortable camp of Crefeld.

Cliques and factions existing during the previous two years at Crefeld

were inclined to disappear, and a more general feeling of a common

cause in the face of an unpleasant period steadily grew, closing the

gaps in the ranks of the prisoners and tending to bring together

people who would hardly bear to see each other under previous

conditions.

It is surprising what a difference the effect of a long term of

imprisonment has on various people. To anyone gifted with the smallest

powers of observation, the constant changes and rapid transformation

of ideas and standpoints in the small world of prison necessarily came

with interest. It is a strange fact, but nevertheless true, that some

prisoners, forgetting that a prison-existence is only temporary and

entirely unnatural, seem to think that things matter in such a place,

and that the happenings and views of the outside world do not directly

concern them.

A long spell of such an existence changes a man more in character than

the same period spent in the ordinary course of life. Some are

tempered in the fires of such a test, while there are others....

PART II