PRISONER IN GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17151, 3 May 1919, Page 9

PRISONER IN GERMANY.

NEW ZEALANDER'S STORY. CONTINUAL ILL-TREATMENT. NEGLECTED AND POORLY FED. [by telegraph.—own CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Friday. The story told by Lanco-Corporal J. Henderson, who returned to Wellington this week serves to throw further liiiht on the harsh treatment of Now Zealand and other soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans. Henderson, who was for many months a prisoner, mentioned that on the

breaking up of the Fourth Brigade h was attached to the Entrenching Bat talion, and was with the Otago battaliw when he came to be captured. " We had taken over a portion of th. front line of the Armentieres sector undt Captain Lees," he said, "and were t have been relieved, but it seems that tin runner conveying the message arrived to. late. Owing' tc the retirement or, onright the Germans outflanked us, am our being in the open and the enemy having too many machine-guns, our chance were practically nil. Resides those kille. and wounded, some 200 New Zeakwlei were captured on April 16, 1918. The; ' marched us to Armentieres. In one vi! laf?e we saw what we believed to be th dead bodies of English "Tommi.s' propped up at the salute against the doors On arrival at Armentieres wo were bil leted in a demolished building, but wer

afterwards transferred to a cellar, u which 176 British troops were crammed. I Men Packed in a Cellar. ' "We were engaged on ammunition worl > unloading trains and transferring ammnni 1 lion to motor lorries to be taken up to th< guns. Tremendous trainloads arrived, arc 1 no matter what time of day or night wt , : had to tackle the work. Finding at toigll ! that it was too heavy for us, the Get.nan: •! brought 200 Portuguese troops to help w : and these were also billited in our quarters ! making in all 376 men parked in this con i crete cellar. In order that everyone miahi , lie down, we had to pack closely togelhci ' and every inch of some shelves in the c*! ' lar was utilised. For pillows wo had U. ' use our boots, and for blankets our over

Mats. . "This went on for three week?, during which time our daily food consisted of out) ladle of soup-the meat, which was horseflesh, being always insufficient to ;"•' round ; one-third of a loaf of German bla< K bread, which was so sour that it had t<> be twisted whenever possible before eating, and one ladle of coffee. Shelled by British Guns. "During that time we were shelled every day by a long-range gun of our own'force's, tired from about 12 miles. »•' were very fortunate, however. Sometime: the shells landed within 10ft of the am munition, and on one occasion landed in a group of gunners who were repairing a line nearby and causing, as far as wecould ascertain, 14 casualties. Eventually our shells managed to hit the dump, out at the time our men were working at a siding some distance away. The ammunition bit included some thousands o! gas shells. We had no gas helmets, but tt>. wind was in our favour, and we went. home in a round-about way. The ammunition was exploding for at least 12 hours. " The Black Hole of Lille." "The next morning out troops were mustered and sent down to clear the wreckage. As a result over 100 prisoners were incapacitated and sent to hospital suffering from mustard gas and burns, and the effects of phosgene. Being reduced to such an extent we were marched to Fort Mac Donald, known as the " Black Hole of Lille." Here (there were Bri'.ish. French, and Portuguese trooos numbering over 3000, and here we had a very rough time. Part of the fortress consisted of rooms about 60ft by 20ft. In the room in ■which I was quartered there were 346 men. The sanitary conditions were beyond description, and the* weather being hot most of the men were practically naked. I was there for six weeks ( and during that time I was only allowed fresh water twice, with no eoap. Coffee for Shaving Water. " The men generally used a little coffee or tea to moisten their iaces, and as many as four used the same coffee for shaviiv purposes, some of the prisoners having been able to retain razors. Tea was made from nettles, and soup (Bauer kraut) was of such a nature that a well-fed New Zealand pig would pass it by. Occasionally potatoes were included, usually rotten, ami never washed. We bad no alternative but to take it, and, hungry as we were, it \v;la good man that would tackle a second , lot, which perhaps one of his comrades ' was unable to swallow. The men wen taken out for an airing for about half -an hour every three days. "Gradually we were sent away in different parties in the surrounding districts, and went with a number of other New Zealanders to a suburu of Lille, where we were engaged on such work as breaking up the finest of the machinery with hammers. This was subsequently loaded in barges and taken to Germany. We worked there steadily for about 5 month?. The food, though slightly better, caised boils and running sores to break out on the men. We had practically no treat ment as none of the prisoners were keen on visiting the German hospitals. When our sick parade reached a total of 24 the Germans thought it advisable to put a Prussian sergeant in charge. Moved Back to Brussels,

"On an occasion when 24 prisoners paraded sick only three were taken notice of, the remainder being sent back to the ranks. When some of the men were unable to walk they were generally bundled off to hospital in a cart. These conditions prevailed until our forces began the great counter-offensive and were threatening Lille. Then we were marched in stages to Brussels. For the great, r part of the journey, except for two short stages, we were made to pull waggons in place of horses. During this march our only food was bread and raw turnips and mangolds gathered from the fieldd. When food was offered by civilians to prisoners tlipy could not take it unless the Hermans helped themselves. The majority of the men were still wearing the clothes in which they were captured, and had practical!;, i>" boots left. The last stajre of the m;rrh. which took them thmuu'h Brussels. \»:>.« an all-night affair, about 55 kilomeUep 21 mi'es, being covered in 11 hum's over cobbled streets.

"The day before the armistice ™ *' b) signed, the prisoner* decided to v>j~ out, and make for Brussels, where they found the Germans still ill oa-uoati« :i with machine-guns placed in different thoroughfares. However, the men weir provisioned and cared for by the He':;.' authorities, and civilians remained then until the arrival of King Albert."