STORY OF A PRISONER OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2770, 13 May 1916, Page 8

STORY OF A PRISONER OF WAR

TOLD BY A PRIVATE SOLDIER \ [Continued.] 111. BRUTALITY AT WITTENBERG. (December 3, 1914, to November 211, 1913.) The morning of the 3rd we arrived in the cninp. The fil'rt Ihinjf I spotted was Russia ns. 1 could not see many English —only, one here and thdre, and- ihoy were not allowed to come near us. We were lined up, with about 100 or more Germans looking on, coining over with a knife, cutting off your buttons, and tak- . ing a cap here and there. Then there was a \wheelbarrow brought; then they searched' us, taking every bit of tobacco, fags, pipes, letters—anything yoiii had was flung in the. barrow. They felt us all over, and here was tbese Germans helping theirselves to it. Some of the men had'brought as much as two pounds of tobac with them from France, One chap, a : pivie, had a pipe in a case, a now one. They found it. on him. He told them it was a souveneer,'and ; they flung it in the barrow and gave him such a hammering. Well, I managed to keep my book. It .was only chancing my rait; but I done it, as I had a photo in there that I did not want, to lose. We were then told if we were foumd with all tobac on us, we should know it. They also helped themselves with some of the men's money. We were then marched away under orders of a officer. He -was a pig. He got his cabbage cooked in the end; but it took nine months to do it. I was posted with 19 more, to a room, with lofl Russians. Well, they give us some bread and some soup. It went down good; and that was the best feed I ever had, because' they sent to the cookhouse for it in a bucket, so I suppose it was a bit of special stuff. It was a room. Picture a room 35 Yards 10iig,.15 yards wide, old dirty boar<fs for floor, H feet high, only match wood, with some tarred felting outside, damp floor, drafty, broken windows, water dropping ail day (later on pieces ■ of plaster were nailed up; that made it better), two small stoves, one each end of room, with a great iron case round tlietn, with about 30 brickets allowed per day -foj both .stoves. When the .. brush, was worn out, youi did not. know when you would get the next. Heaps of dirt left in the room for hours. Disgusting duarters, Well, they dished us'.out with a big tin bowl that would hold a gallon. This was to wash in, and also to have our soup and coffee in, as we found out. At night we got two blankets, as thin as a common piece of flannel, about 5 feet square, and a bed it was supposed to be. It was a bag ma da of stuft like coarse aprons are made of, with a. little bit of fine wood shaving in it. ■ It would just cover the bottom of the cloth if well shook. My bones! I can feel it now. We had a smoke, y old lamp with a".glimmer in it. You could see for about three yards; the rest of the room was in darkness; and .of course the English was by the door. The English tlint were there before us was a disgrace to look at —-bits of hats made out of blanket, old French jackets some had on; in fact, clothes made out of any old cloth thev could catch hold'of. Tlie. Gonnuns used to faille in the room about every few minMes. Some one had to 'shout "Octoon," lor us to stand to attention. We were not there many days before we were lousey. I felt ashamed of myself; but there! I con,ld not help it. There was a canteen at this time. Tim men had to get on line for this. 'Then up would .come a German, spot a Englishman, cut with his whip, and chase hini. Oh! they did. get a time. If you should be in another room and a< German catch you, well war wit. We had lu rise at a Unit (j, and we u=e to got to bed when it was. dark, and only too glad lu. It was only a couple oi weeiis before they had nothing fo sell m tne canteen; but it made very little difference to 'the English. The German . under ollieers would cojiie. into. the room, and if any tiling was wrong they'd stout and draw tut-ir sworus and rush at the .Russians, wiio would scoot out of. windows and'doors;--1 to laugh, .1 could, not help it, -to see them go. A\'ell, we hail a job lor lo get a sinoKc. The liussians u.->3 lo buy tags oil :tue sentries and sell tliem an-a buy bread and cut it up and sell it. it was not safe to keep aiiy bread about or ona would steal it. If a Jiussian was caught stealing, ho'd get about JO to 20 ; cuts with a rtmber about 18 inches long and two inches round. We use lo get our bread and put it in the cuplmrd— tho proper one, to make sure ot .it—and then lung: for next day fo comu tor next issue. We had the itiissians. against us, as 'they, would give us the smallest loaves, and say. "Eughsh nix t'nis, nix that." Well, on December 20 they dished out four cards, for writing'. Of course, they had to bo paid for. 1 wrote one to my Mother, Brother, Sister, and. Cousin, asicing for loud, fans, and money, expecting answers about the first week in-February,' but'tlicy never came. A Dismal Christmas Day. Just before Christmas we were feeling hunger, and we never wasted a crumb. We'd try and save a bit of bread for supper; ljut no, you could not. Our souw was nothing but cabbago water and a bit of rotten cabbage every dinner time, and one hour after, "you was starved''again; and at night' l it was only dour water. Soii)C were lor chancing getting . away. They did say. a bullet .'was botier than starvation. No one who has never tasicd :starvation does not know tho feeling. Our water soup was; boiling, perhaps, but it, .was bolted down. There were 20 of us. We all managed to slick it together until Christmas. We had a rumour that wo were getting a spread on tuat day. "We did. I'll teli you. how 20 of us spint tlio j most miserable day in our life. -

We were .roused out of our mattress about (i\a.m., wetted our. face ill water— of course soau was.a tiling of the pasthad our ration of bread, JO to 1207.., at 9 o'clock, played a couple of games of crib (cards. made out oi' backs of cigarette < packets), three-quarters a pint of psa-water, black as soot, with about 12 peas in it; then off with our-shirts, having a good hunt for lice. [ was out of the running, only catching about Ifl. Their a read of the Testament for an hour, another game of donkey, then a talk of home and the old times, wo '.had had, and what we should have eaten and' drank if we were there, wishing everyone luck, especially tho toys.in the trenches. Then 5 o'clock, 1 pt. of flour water.' Then we kept up Christmas by singing a-few carol:! and songs; but the. tiling we missed most was a smoke. We never had a. smoke all day. Then we made our beds dawn and was in it, and I suppose most all was asleep by (>.30. And thc-ro was no fat heads next day or l>_ad insides. That was the most terrible Xnms you could have. The :!7 December I had liague. My temperature was up. so I had. to go into the camp hospital. I was shoved in a corner on a old dirty mattress. There were about SO Russians, all bunched up together. I was the only Britisher in there. . The place was filthy, tho lice wero in millions; you could see them climb u]) tho wall. On (he flOth there was a Russian carried out. like a bag of bones. His blanket, what was over him, lekcd like frost on it; but I could see it was lice in millions. The. men that shifted him were afraid to go ,near him. I expect he scon died, or they done him in.

Tynhus Breaks Out, That was tho first of the 'typhus. A chap of the Hifle Brigade went out to hospital the week before with hag ue. AYe heard _from a chap that came in. Tho first tiling he had to do was to have a eoUl lmth, with men scrubbing him. AVell he died the next day. His imme was Darkey Date. Twelve men went out to bury him, and got hooted by the. people when they were carrying the coffin. I remained in this place for about six days. If I had to stop long 1 should have went daft. I never had a swill the whole time I was in there. A few days after. Tiistol was taken to hospital wii.ii seariitiim. That was the first case. After, i' month he died. A. week alter Corp. 7V<tchnr went. Re had scarlet fever ami typhus, but he pulled through in the end, but went to an isolation camp. That left us 18 men. We nse to work in their two bowls for extra dinner, then

take it in turns at having it. We done it for two months before we were found out.

_ On January '$ they camo round for disabled men's names. On January 2? we passed the officer of the camp, tiiink-/ ing we should get away the next month,' but it was washed out. On January 6 tho Germans left the camp owing to typhus breaking out, so all the prisoners were 011 their own. No one would come near the camp. The Germans would stand about !) feet jrom tho wires and speak to the prisoners.

Our camp was composed of 15,1)00 Russians, over 2000 French, 850 English, and about 40 Belgium civics. If anything camo in the. camp it was shot down a shoot, and nothing whatever would go out when once in, so they left us in misery and disease. .At the time there were about 10 French doctors, 10 Russian doctors. They had to live in the disease with nothing to beat down the fever. You see nothing but Russians laying down with fever. They were going into hospital about 50 a day, and a hit getting treated in. barrack. At this time tlio lice had got a proper hold of the camp. You could catch about CO before dinner on your shirt, in the afternoon you would have just as many, at" night you could not sleep; you cbnld feel' them crawling over you. Just before the Germans left the camp they told us we wero shifting; so we had to pack up. We went outside, and then they began searching us for fags; but the men managed to hide them if they had any; then we came back to the room. 111 February permission was give for. to smoke for two hours. It lasted two days. Then everyone had to parade by the wires, while some Russians, who were' nothing but German Jews, searched you, taking away tobacco and other things. So the Germans had another good go. (To be continued.)