THE CROSSING OF THE WESER
We had decided to begin the night's march at 10 o'clock should it be
possible to do so. When we started it was not far off that hour, and
in consequence was still fairly light.
As there was an old well in the field at the side of which we had been
hidden all day, we went to it in hopes of finding water. This we were
fortunate enough to get. It was the kind of water that would only be
drunk by cattle and escaped prisoners.
After filling our water bottles we commenced our march westwards. Very
soon we struck a rather wild stretch of country and were startled by
the sight of fireworks not far from us. After various rockets and
Roman candles had fizzled themselves out, we came to the conclusion
that this display constituted no additional risk to us, and pushed
ahead. This stretch of rough country began to take a slope, and not
long after we began the ascent of this incline we debouched on to an
open plain. The weather had begun to look threatening about half an
hour previously. Now it was clear to us that we were in for a wetting.
Striking westwards across this plateau we soon got into difficulties.
Parts of it were decidedly boggy even after the great drought. Several
streams and dykes intersected the country and barbed-wire fences were
common and difficult to climb.
We had covered about four miles since our start, when suddenly the
rain began to descend. Mutterings of thunder and odd flickers of
lightning in the west boded ill for the coming hours. Soon the rain,
which had begun falling fairly gently, increased its unwelcome
efforts.
The thunderstorm very quickly established itself right over our heads
and lightning flashed every second or so. It had got exceedingly
dark, and in addition the rain, now descending in torrents, had made
the hitherto dry ground into a morass. We were absolutely unable to
make headway in the inky blackness which now reigned, so we got under
some thick trees and sat down. These trees did not shelter us much,
and it was not long before we were all soaked to the skin and
shivering from head to foot. It was an ideal moment for discussing our
future and its chances, and we did it, in a thoroughly depressed and
miserable way. We quite envied our late companions their warm if hard
apologies for beds at Schwarmstedt. However, all things have an end,
and the rain eventually ceased and the darkness lifted somewhat.
Owing to the sodden state of the ground now the swampy bits had become
really things of awe-inspiring proportions, which made us return
eastwards for a mile or so in search of a road or track along which
we could travel in the right direction. This we found and took, doing
some three miles or so before the storm returned once more and we were
again handicapped by the darkness. So dark was it in fact that we
never noticed a bend in the road, and we continued in the same
direction only to walk slap into a ditch bristling with barbed-wire.
This decided us to halt again for a time. The same misery repeated
itself, but this time tired nature asserted itself in the case of
Blank, who slept like a log in the soaking ditch. We waited in this
pretty state till the grey light of dawn gave us sufficient
seeing-power to enable us to continue without risk of falling into
ditches.
_Friday, 22nd June._ We naturally put on the pace after all this
delay, and we soon got warm from hard walking.
Passing through a village and striking across country afterwards for
lack of a track to follow, we hit a small river. This we waded through
and got to rough heath country on the other side.
It was drizzling at intervals now, and we very much wished to find a
dry and sheltered spot in which to lie up during the day.
We thought we had found something suitable in this line and called a
halt at a dense clump of bushes and undergrowth of all kinds. We were
disappointed in our place very soon, as the rain came through freely.
After boiling some water and drinking the coffee we made with it, we
decided to continue our trek, reasoning that an atrocious day like
this would effectually keep early risers in-doors until a later hour
at any rate. We were right in our conjecture, as, although we walked
along the roads which are not safe places at 6 o'clock in the morning,
we neither saw anyone nor any tracks in the mud which abounded
everywhere.
Striking more north-west after an hour or so, we again hit a wild
trackless moor. This we began to cross and soon came upon
peat-cuttings.
Shortly after this we spied three huts. These at first interested and
then fascinated us. At last, plucking up courage, we examined them.
Their dry interiors and the lack of all traces of recent visits from
human beings, decided us to do rather a risky thing, namely, to use
them. Having begun risking we went the whole way and made a wood fire
in the huts, from splinters torn from the benches, etc. Drying our
clothes and cooking hot food of the oxo variety occupied considerable
time. We took it in turns to sleep on the floor. This involved
practically lying in the fire, but it had the advantage of allowing
one to become thoroughly warm. There was a pond of excellent water by
the hut we had chosen, so we had quite a number of drinks of coffee
and beef tea, etc.
In the afternoon the sun came out to cheer us up a bit, but the
scudding clouds did not give us much hope of a dry night. We intended
to start at 10 o'clock, all being well. At about six I was suddenly
taken ill, and for half an hour or so felt extremely miserable. I
suppose it was a chill I had got, but fortunately it passed off fairly
soon and I was able to eat and have some oxo two hours later. At ten
o'clock we actually did start, but we were unfortunate in having
pitch-darkness again in which to negotiate extremely difficult ground,
as it had set in to rain once more in a thoroughly steady, lasting
manner.
We had a bad fright over my compass--the best one. When I was ill the
compass must have fallen out of my pocket, and although we searched
diligently everywhere, it was only by the merest chance that I saw a
piece of it showing up in the heather in which it was lost. Truly, a
marvellous stroke of luck.
We had done about an hour's hard work ploughing through the rough
boggy land, when we decided that we had better return to our hut once
more, and tackle the bog next morning.
This delay meant that we should lose the night's march, a serious
affair when food reserves are limited and long distances remain to be
covered. However, the night's rest we got as the result of this delay
was extremely valuable as a matter of fact, as we woke up in a much
fresher state after sleeping till 7 a.m.
_Saturday, 23rd June._ Comfortably smoking our pipes in the dry warmth
of our hut, after a breakfast of tinned beef, biscuit, and hot oxo, we
were able to look on the bright side of things, and our fears on the
subject of the crossing of the river Weser, to be undertaken within
the next twenty-four hours, dwindled in strength until we were able to
imagine it a trifling obstacle. We intended to make a raft and swim it
over, should no boat be forthcoming during a short search.
While we were discussing these and sundry other matters, Fox suddenly
saw two men in dark clothes running across the heath some thousand
yards away from us. Who could they be? On they ran, one about thirty
yards behind the other, until they both disappeared into a clump of
stunted pine trees.
After a minute or two's discussion we agreed that probably they were
also escaped prisoners.
If so, from what were they running? This question was answered shortly
afterwards. A cart driven by two men suddenly came into sight not very
far from the place where we had first seen the two running men.
This cart was coming towards our hut, and soon began to fill us with
something stronger than mere interest in its movements.
It came to within 150 yards of us and then stopped. The men got out
and began filling the cart with peat from the piles of this commodity
lying about.
We by this time were lying on the bottom of the hut, or squashed up
against the back of the door, not daring to move. We prayed that it
would not come on to rain heavily, as the men would be certain then to
take shelter in one of the huts, and ours was the nearest to them.
This suspense continued for about half an hour, and then, with the
cart filled, the two men departed the way they had come.
At about noon we made up our minds that we could safely attempt the
crossing of the moor by day. Accordingly, after clearing the hut of
all traces of our occupation we packed up our kit, shouldered our
packs and set off. We had torn up the benches and taken planks off the
back of one of the other huts, intending to carry them with us to
serve as material for our raft for the crossing of the Weser, but now
that we actually began our march we found that the weight of all this
wood was very considerable and so at the last moment left the whole
lot behind. We were fortunate in so doing, as the distance was much
greater than we had realised, and, as it turned out, it would have
been a case of carrying coals to Newcastle.
We proceeded to negotiate the same ground as that which we had
attempted to cross and failed over the night before, and now realised
how impossible a task it would have been in the inky blackness of the
night, proving as it did a sufficiently difficult task even by
daylight.
Two or three miles of boggy rough ground had to be covered, and during
the last few hundred yards of this, before we reached the lowest
slopes of a range of hills, we were continually going through the
spongy soil up to our knees.
Fox, who was brought up amidst Irish bogs, chose the line, and we
followed as nearly in his tracks as we possibly could. We were not
sorry to get off this bit of difficult country, and we wondered what
would have happened if we had continued our attempt the night before.
The range of hills we had now reached ran in a westerly direction for
a few miles before sloping down to the valley of the Weser. They were
covered with fine pine and fir woods, cut up every now and then into
squares by drives made through them.
We saw several deer, and the additional presence of things that looked
like shooting butts made us think that this area was probably some
special deer-forest. None of us felt very safe, as deer-forests mean
forest-guards. The lack of food in Germany has probably increased the
numbers of the poaching fraternity, and the German authorities are
sure not to have reduced the establishment of forest-guards. These
ideas caused us usually to feel very nervous in woods, fine cover
though they afford.
By 3 o'clock we had reached the western end of these hills and were
able to look out over the Weser valley. Our enjoyment of the scenery
was cut short by our hearing children's voices not far behind us. We
bolted into cover like scared rabbits. The place we chose was a very
thick plantation of young fir-trees. The shelter given us by this was
excellent and we afterwards endeavoured to find similar places for our
daily rests.
It had become pleasantly warm by now so we all got a little sleep and
were very comfortable till about 8 o'clock, when it got cold and we
naturally became anxious to move on again. I entered up my rough
diary, and we found that we had little reason to be pleased at the
pace at which we had travelled up to then.
Fox's right heel and my left ankle had got rubbed a day or so before,
and by now had begun to get really troublesome. Providentially we had
with us a small tin of boracic ointment with which we plastered these
sore places every daily halt. At this halting-place we had a thorough
overhaul of our possessions, and I mended my pack with string, as the
great weight of its contents had begun to tell on its seams.
The children's voices continued to make themselves heard all round us,
and one was forced to wonder what they found to scream and shout at
for such hours on end. Of course Germany is the land of children, they
are much more important in that country it appears than elsewhere. The
grown-ups seem to understand them better, and certainly the kids
themselves always seem to be extremely happy. This particular batch of
brats was just playing in the woods I suppose, but their laughter and
shouts caused us some alarm at first, until we got accustomed to the
noise.
At about 9 p.m. we decided to commence our march, as we were
particularly desirous of striking the Weser bank as soon as possible
after complete darkness set in.
Pushing forward through thick undergrowth we had travelled some
distance westwards, when we were forced to halt while several military
wagons passed along a road a short distance in front of us. After
they had left our immediate neighbourhood I went forward to
reconnoitre the main-road which we were bound to cross in the next
hundred yards or so. My costume lent itself better to this kind of
work than did the garb of either of my companions, being as it was of
a light brown colour whereas theirs was dark blue or black.
The road was all clear and we got across safely, and continued our
march until we reached another road which we crossed safely also, but
this time only just in time to avoid a woman on a bicycle.
Blank then went along the edge of the road to look at the sign-post
near by, and we two lay fifty yards from the side of the road, bitten
all over by the mosquitos which swarmed here.
He returned with his information, and off we went.
From this place we made our way so as to pass to the north of a
village and strike the Weser bank immediately north of a small town,
from which we hoped to steal a boat. We were now among cornfields and
got held up until it became quite dark by the presence of various
Germans in the fields. We had our evening meal while we waited and
felt that the local Germans were very inconsiderate in being in their
fields at this hour. However, it was a Saturday night, so it was not
so surprising after all that they kept such late hours.
When all was quiet we continued our advance, cutting across
corn-fields and getting nice and wet from the dew in so doing.
Striking a village, we walked through it and then took the wrong road
for a mile or so before finding out our mistake. On getting on to our
correct line again we crossed a level-crossing and began to pass
through the outskirts of a small town. Turning north to avoid this we
arrived at another level-crossing, where we halted to discuss our
route. Suddenly the door of the cottage by the level-crossing opened
and a man came out. He stood and stared at us, ten paces away.
We quietly moved off and got to the edge of a dense copse, where we
doubled on our tracks as quickly as possible, crossing the railway
some two hundred yards from the cottage. In crossing a railway one has
to be particularly careful not to trip over the signal wires in the
darkness. We made some noise on this occasion, as we did not know of
the wire's existence and naturally crashed right into it. We did not
wait to see if our noise had drawn anyone or not, but pushed ahead
rapidly. A few hundred yards and we were on the bank of the river
which flowed swiftly by, looking a pretty formidable obstacle in the
light of the moon.
We had agreed to have a rapid search for a boat, and then, if we had
no luck, to swim the river as soon as possible. Fortune favoured us,
however, and we found a large ferry-boat moored to a post within one
hundred yards of the place where we had first debouched on the river's
bank. It did not take us long to get aboard and push off into the
middle of the stream. Fox, an expert punter, took on the task of
getting the boat across, although his bad hands suffered somewhat in
the process. Enjoying our ride in the boat we let her drift
down-stream for a mile or so. We felt extremely happy at this piece of
good fortune and discussed quite seriously what we should have for
dinner the first night in town, when we got back. The banks fairly
flew past and it was not very long before we had left the farm, near
to which we had discovered our boat, a long way behind us. Our free
ride over, we chose a landing-place.
Fox brought the boat in towards the western side, and I agreed to go
up the bank first in order to make sure that there were no Boche
sentries patrolling the top of it. When the boat struck the bank where
it was covered with bushes, I jumped out and forced my way up to the
top, to find it all clear of Germans.
Now occurred what nearly proved to be a tragic episode, but it
fortunately ended more comically than otherwise.
Coming down the slope again I put my foot on a rotten piece of bank
which gave way, with the result that I went crashing into the bushes.
Fox, thinking that the Germans had seized me, and that the noise he
heard was made by my fighting with them, pushed the boat off into the
river again, he and Blank lying flat on the bottom of it. When I got
up I saw the boat swirling away down-stream, apparently empty and
absolutely out of control.
For an awful moment I imagined that Blank had fallen overboard and had
clutched Fox in doing so, and that now the two of them were drowning
each other in the mud at the bottom of the river. I shouted, softly at
first, and then louder and louder, but got no answer. The boat still
drifted down-stream until it was lost to sight round a bend.
Here was a pretty state of affairs; all the water bottles were in the
boat I knew, and my companions were Heaven knows where. Thinking it
over, I decided that they might still be in the boat and that they had
seen Germans or heard their voices. This decided me to remain still
and quiet for an hour in the hopes of something turning up.
After half-an-hour or so, I saw two figures coming along the bank
towards me and found on shouting to them, that it was indeed Fox and
Blank. They had heard me shout before, but had thought it was meant
for a warning to tell them to clear out. We were very relieved to have
this episode over. They had brought all the water-bottles on with them
and then turned the boat adrift, and watched it float down-stream. We
could afford now to laugh at the whole thing, but for all that it was
a far from pleasant experience.
However, the main thing which ran through our minds was the fact that
the difficult crossing of the Weser was a thing of the past, and we
could now reasonably hope to reach the frontier and have a chance to
compete with its special difficulties, whereas prior to crossing the
Weser it had been a presumption to do so.