GERMAN SOLDIERS' IGNORANCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 9 April 1915, Page 1

GERMAN SOLDIERS' IGNORANCE.

. CERTAIN THEY TOOK CALAIS. I lave just had a short talk a ' Dailj- Chronicle' correspondent) with a group of German prisoners. They ■ were men of an infantry regiment taken prisoner a day or so ago to the south-east of Ypres. There were 28 altogether. The railway journey seemed to have put them in good humor. . They preferred the third class wooden benches of the Northern Railway of Stance to the roud and misery of the trenches, and no doubt found it more agreeable to receive a good ration of food from the enemy than bullets and shells. Looking at them one could not help feeling that to these fellows capture was a relief. Meanwhile they have been taken, to the south of France, where they will find themselves' fairly comfortable. The railway carriages that conveyed them were steam-heated—a luxury which! is rarely provided for the unhappy Belgian and French refugees. Their ignorance was incredible. They did not even know the name of the town near which, they were made prisoners; they had no idea, where they were. As for the battle itself, it was in the main an enigma to them. All that they could say -was that the order to advance was given, and that they had been assured two days before that the Allies ■had been violently attacked .to the south and had been obliged to weaken the front opposed to them, and that victory would be easy. ' ' . —Surrounded.— They started by invading one of our trenches, Isut towards evening' they perceived that the Allies had completely turned them. Surrounded on every side . they gave themselves up, quite glad to have , come out of the matter so cheaply. Their . appearance could not have been more neg- ] lected or wretched. Not merely did they J bear marks of life in the trenches, masses ] of mud and stains of dirt, but their uniforms hardly hung together. The young- 1 est prisoner was about 17. , He learned ( that he was going into the fighting liiip , only three days before he was put into tl>V trenches. The oldest of them professed to be 56. He was a typical peasant, dull and

stupid. His ignorance was colossal, and his opinions of things very curious. He insisted that he had taken part in-the capture of Calais. I tried to persuade him that the port he had entered was not Calais, but Ostend. For an instant, his faith was shaken, but he soon recovered his tranquillity of mind. " You are mistaken," he said to me. "It was Calais .1 went into. My officer told me so." He asked me for tobacco, but I had none. With a disappointed look he climbed up into the compartment, and the train steamed ofi for the sunny skies of -Southern France.