Unwilling Guests Of Hie Germans During The War

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18632, 16 February 1935, Page 13

Unwilling Guests Of Hie Germans During The War

jIEITTENA XT-Colonol R. C. Bond, .D. 5.0., has waited Jong before adding to the literature of imprisonment in enemy territory during the war, and incidentally, of escapes; in doing- so he has matured his thought over an unenviable experience, and brought the material into artistic form. The crudity of many war books is lacking from “Prisoners, Grave and Gav,’’ an impartiality of judgment must make it, in the end, one of the most, reliable and permanent records of conditions among captives in Germany for tlu> duration of hostilities. The author was taken in the retreat from Mens after the disastrous battle, being one of I he .heroic rearguard that delayed the pursuit of the Germans for a lime, and Was almost obliterated. The survivors—lo their shame as soldiers, they fell—were without on d'ue violence captured and sent behind the enemy lines to Magdeburg, whence they proceeded for permanent housing to Gin list ha I. The case of these unfortunates was understood by their countrymen after the war, and they received due honor, but first military ethics had to be observed, a court of inquiry held, and each hero formally exonerated.

Prison Life. ,So “it. is not because there is any need to write a defence of I heir conduct . . . but rather in order to satisfy to some extent, a reasonable curiosity,” that the story of the surrender. which has been fully told elsewhere, is retold by a participant. This, however, forms only a prologue to the details of prison life in Magdeburg, Glausthal, and. later iu Strohcnmor, whither the writer was sent alone as a result of a quarrel with the commandant.

After the ordeal of marching into camp through ranks of the hostile populace, and being treated with some inhumanity through war hate, officers and men suffered' uo actual brutalities, though the methods employed by the authorities for on - forieng discipline and breaking the spirit of captives were, to say the least, peculiar. Reliance was placed on racial antagonisms which did not actually exist, French, Belgians, English and Russians amicably sharing the huts into which they were herded, although, arguments did arise about the opening of windows, and other curious national habits. Nor was the German belief that every Englishman is a natural snob and refuses to associate with inferiors of any greater avail. A Study in Contrasts.

The attitudes of the various nationalities towards their gaolers offered a study in contrasts, the Belgians being

submissivr itncl orderly, the British coOjit;rill ivc* tu a degree, t lit* French trn-(.-ulout lv disobedient, regarding any confession as ho.lpfui to the enemy ami lending to r< “Icm sc more men for l.lio front. In spite of olHeial vigilance, tiltenipts at escape were ceaseless, anil some of them successful. Through a system of secret organisation. almost any object, from crowbars to wireless earphones, could lie smuggled in and concealed. A clever Ihigiisliman known ns the thief Burglar was able 1o pass anywhere within file prison, steal anything from anywhere, and carry cfl'eefive aid to any prisoner in solitary confinement. On one occasion a daring fellow stole the, commandant.’s clothes, and was actually outside the walls and on his way to the frontier when ttu infuriated and lmlf-naked olHeial brought the soldiers on his t rail.

A Canadian wlio escaped in broad day lie'll I managed |o roach I In* Dutch border, :i 11 i*r a journey of L’L’O mill's, and, lo maki* .sure, ran a maple of miles furl her, only to pass onee mom into (lerman lerritorv tuid bo retaken. At length till prisoners captured at; the beginning of the war were sent to Holland, so that; exchanges might, be effected. Lieutenant-Colonel Bond briefly mentions that he had changed visibly and suffered from imperfect memory tit the time, but ho emerged' cheerful from the dreary years of confinement and gradual starvation. Also he had brought out secretly enough notes and diaries to form the nucleus of this book, which cuds in a whimsical manner, with the Dutch dogs petted by the Tommies, and forcibly left behind, pursuing the train until they could run no longer, and' remaining to champion their runaway masters, perhaps, among the dogs belonging to men of till nations. Such are loyalties!