BRITISH PRISONERS SHOT SN GOLD BLOOD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4580, 8 June 1917, Page 6

BRITISH PRISONERS SHOT SN GOLD BLOOD.

GERMAN DESERTER’S TALE OF

DARK DEEDS

A Story by a German deserter lifts a corner of the veil which hides happenings behind that front- against which the French and British soldiers are hammering away: I can vouch for it by reason of a strange coincidence, says the special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle at Amsterdam. The deserter, a man of high intelligence and education, was before the war a Berlin journalist. and in pre-war days I knew his brother, also a journalist in the German capital. The story was told to a Dutch friend of mine, with whom the deserter is well acquainted, and to whom he would naturallv open Ins mind more freely and readily than lie would to a strangei, The nian, a typical stalwart German in build, was * ‘ with the. foices which von Falkenhayn hurled in vain against the thin, desperatelv-held line of the Yser in October. 1914. He was in the fighting in the Grodno region, came unscathed through the niiditmare of Verdun, and knew all the horrors of tlie lighting on our Somme front, living in the very trenr dies which the Allied artillery lias mangled and British soldiei s have "it’is a curious thing that out of all the sustained horror and excitement of more than two and a-liall years ot warfare—for he has been . m the struggle since the very beginning—one tiling appears to stand out abo^e a &ERGEANT” S MURDER ORDER. In June. 1916, when with the toth Infantry Regiment, lie saw ten British soldiers taken nnsoner. In to--rear of the front German imes n heavy British barrage fire was falling and \Vachtmeister (sergeant-major «n cavalry) Niemetz was detailed to taiv~ the prisoners away. . The group of captors and captur had only gone a short distance when Niemctz shouted angrily. I don t want to he bothered with these fellows. Shoot them.” Tbtv \\eie then placed in a line and shot tneio and then. “Was the shooting ot the prisoners ordered by headquarters or by responsible officers?” . tt \ , “No,” was the German’s reply, as I a matter of fact it is forbidden, and J 1 know a case in which a lieutenant was | sent to prison—for five days, nund j you—foy giving the order, but_still ! the shooting of prisoners was often j ordered by sergeants commanding I prison guards. j “On another occasion within my ! knowledge 200 English prisoners takj en in the Loos fighting were sent unj Jer escort to Frankfort. Only 80 arrived, the others having been shot J ( , n route. I heard of many worse cases, hut only mention those within my own direct knowledge.”