My German Prisons. World War One

CHAPTER I


CAPTURED BY THE BOCHES

A rough sketch of the circumstances which led up to my being taken a prisoner of war are more or less indispensable. We were called up at a moment’s notice from another part of the line, where our division was in reserve, to a position in front of a line of our trenches lost to the enemy a few hours previously in their attempted advance on Calais. These trenches had been held by Indian regiments, and small blame to them for losing them. Judging from what we saw, they must have had a pretty rough time.

It was in retaking these three lines of trenches that I became a prisoner. I think the position was known as La Bassée Canal position. Our brigade formed up


 in the dusk about 4.30 p.m. opposite the trenches we were about to attack. Here we were under desultory shell fire, but casualties from this were very few. As far as we could make out and from information received, we were within about eighty yards of the Boches. Whilst we were waiting the order to advance, the rain, which had begun to fall, developed into a downpour, accompanied by terrific bursts of thunder. Before the storm abated the expected order arrived. Immediately I rushed up to inform my company commander, but what with the darkness, the crashing thunder, and the roar of both our own artillery and that of the Boche, accompanied by the villainous tat-tat of the enemy machine guns, I failed to find him.

Recognising the immediate necessity for action, and the danger of leaving the flank of the unit on our left exposed, I was compelled to act on my own initiative, being the only other officer in the company.


 The difficulties of commanding a full company in action, without any other officers in the company, are great; but when that action takes place in the dark, over unknown ground, it becomes mere luck if things go well.

When we had taken the first line of trenches with the bayonet and consolidated the position, not hearing from the scouts sent out to reconnoitre, I went over to have a look at the Boches’ second line. On my way back I was hit with a bullet in the ankle joint, which felt exactly like a blow from a hammer. Strange to say, I felt no pain, and found I could manage to get along by using the foot as a sort of stump. The sensation was very similar to what is experienced when one’s foot goes to sleep. Shortly after this my orderly informed me that the company on my right was preparing to advance, and immediately a cheer informed me that they had done so, and we swept onward again.


How I was able to lead the men I do not know, but somehow my ankle seemed to do the work all right. It was about a hundred yards to the Boche line, and rather too far to attack in one rush. Consequently we got down to establish superiority of fire, when to my alarm I found we were being fired at in flank. A reconnaissance discovered this to be a half-company of men without an officer, belonging to another regiment on my left. Immediately I organised them as my supports, and shortly afterwards took the second Boche line by assault. I use the term “assault” for want of a better, since the Boches had vacated their trenches, leaving only the wounded. We hardly had a minute’s breathing-space in this trench when information again came from the right that our men there were advancing, and so on again. Here, however, the Boche really fought it out; but our men, having been properly worked up, would stop at nothing. We gave a good


 account of ourselves in this last trench, but the men were over and on again; fortunately a deep ditch checked their further advance, and we stopped again to consolidate.

About eight o’clock in the evening the officer in charge of our headquarters company came up to the front line and did most excellent work, helping to send back a good many of the men, since we were too crowded. Here it was that, after the excitement was over, I knew all about my wound, which was paining me exceedingly. However, there was too much to be done for me to lie up with it. All night long we waited for a counter-attack, but nothing happened except desultory shelling and sniping. Towards four o’clock the next morning the enemy’s artillery began to get busy, and when the dawn broke we discovered that the enemy had snapped up to us during the night to within easy grenade-throwing distance. Their artillery grew more and more intense. I noted


 a few 15-inch shells, one of which scored a direct hit, but did not explode. We made two or three raids on the sap-heads, but our success was only of a temporary nature.

Towards 8 a.m. the officer commanding the front line paid me a visit, and informed me that he found it impossible to deal with the bombs, having nothing to reply with, and also that the ammunition was running short. He thought the position would very shortly become untenable, in which case he would retire, and if he thought fit would send me orders to do likewise. I never got those orders; and although I had taken every possible precaution to keep in touch with the units on my right and left, the company of my own battalion on my right managed to carry out their retirement before I was aware of it. Owing to the formation of the ground, it was impossible for us to see anything that was going on on our flanks; we were therefore entirely dependent on our scouts for all information.


About 9.30 a.m. the unit on my left unexpectedly retired, without sending me any explanation as to their reasons.

Then suddenly there was the devil’s own artillery fire, and a big shell landed close to me, and I felt a concussion in my right side, as if hit with a battering-ram. I felt myself lifted, and the next moment was gasping for breath under a heap of debris. My lungs were almost bursting when I was pulled out by some of my men. For a few minutes everything was blank, and then the first thing I knew was that the Boches were in our trench, both right and left. Immediately I tried to get the men out and retire, only to discover that the Boches had retaken the second line of trenches behind us, which had hitherto acted as our support trenches. We had no communication trenches between the first and second lines, owing to the fact that we had no tools with which to construct them. Thus we had the enemy on four sides of us. The only thing to do was to make


 them pay heavily for it. Every moment I expected to hear a British cheer, telling us that our reserves were again attacking, but, alas! none came.

I am not certain what time the Boches surrounded us—I think about 10.30 a.m. Our strength was then roughly about two hundred men; but we held the trench for five and a half hours, after which there were not thirty of us left. Then suddenly the Boches showered us with bombs. The result was final. Personally, I lay at the bottom of the trench, quite incapable of doing or understanding anything.

It never dawned on me that I might actually be taken prisoner alive, for I had accepted it as a certainty that I should be finished where I lay. Unconsciously I wondered what it would be like to have one’s brains bashed out with the butt end of a rifle. Would it be very painful? Anyhow, it would be quicker. And then I remember some one jerking


 me to my feet, where I remained propped up against the side of the trench, whilst the hands of some Hun with the most stinking breath searched my pockets and ripped off my buttons. I don’t remember what he looked like, only the revolting odour of his breath. Gradually I began to recover my normal senses, enough to look about me, and found that three of my men had been gathered up, all of whom looked pretty well done for, and then came a brutal order to move off (Auf stehen), of which none of us took the slightest notice, until the order was enforced with the aid of the bayonet; and then we were driven with bayonets into the enemy’s communication trenches, which were at that time up to the waist in mud.

In crossing over No Man’s Land, as it were, I was horrified to see Germans finishing off our wounded with their bayonets. As we were hurried on through the muddy German trenches, regardless of our wounds, we could hear squeals and


 cries, showing that the Boches were still carrying on with the shameful murdering of our helpless wounded. About three hundred yards back we were handed over to a German officer, who inspected our personal effects, in order to gather any possible information as to our positions. This officer was insulting, but not brutal. In the course of a few minutes we were handed over by him to the charge of a Bavarian non-commissioned officer, to be transported to the divisional base, which was at that time at La Bassée. This N.C.O. first herded us to the dug-out of some friends of his, where all our personal effects were wrested from us. Regimental buttons and badges were torn off. Only the fact that I had been wounded in the ankle through my boot, so that the top of the boot was destroyed, saved me from going into Germany barefoot. As it was, they had wrenched my left boot off before they discovered the condition of the right one. My cigarette-case, field-glasses,


 prismatic compass, money, signet-ring, in fact all my personal effects, were filched.

Of the three men with me, one was hit through the jaw, losing strength rapidly from loss of blood, another was shot through the eyes and totally blind, and the last through the abdomen. It would be quite impossible to imagine their agonies in being forced to walk in their badly wounded condition through the trenches, sometimes up to the waist in mud. Such callousness is very difficult to understand, but it is evidently part and parcel of the Boche composition.

One piece of trench through which we had to make our way showed the effects of our magnificent artillery work, as it was literally choked with German dead, over whose bodies we were forced to walk. One of our guards, who was leading, deliberately tramped his way on the bodies of his comrades, numbers of whom were not dead, pushing them into the slimy mud, and when I showed my disgust


 I was merrily laughed at. A little farther on we came to a trench on which our artillery was ranging. This seemed a good opportunity for our guards to take a little rest, and in order that things might not be too dull we were ordered out of the trench, to stand on the parapet. I cannot explain why none of us were hit, but fate evidently denied the Boches the amusement they craved.

Moving on again, we encountered small parties of reinforcements going up to the front line. In each case we were shoved out of the trench, although there was plenty of room for these men to pass. As far as I can remember, when we had covered about a mile, one of my men, mentioned before as having been shot through the jaw, collapsed from loss of blood. The guard allowed him two or three minutes’ grace, then pricked him up again with the point of his bayonet. This happened three times. The last time one of the guards, exasperated by our slow progress, passed his bayonet through the man’s chest. Soon after this we left the trenches and found ourselves on the main road leading to La Bassée. After this the two men and myself continued that awful journey arm in arm along the road to La Bassée, the blind man supporting my right side, but taking directions from me, my left arm supporting the man hit in the abdomen, who was by this time practically delirious.

At last, after what appeared to be an interminable journey, we stumbled into La Bassée, where our guard handed us over to another N.C.O. at the outskirts of the town, who conducted us to brigade headquarters. This man seemed more or less kindly, even offering me a cigarette. Almost immediately I was ushered before an interrogating officer, with whom I refused to speak before my two men were taken to hospital; to this he immediately agreed, apparently surprised at our not having received attention at the front


 line. When I had personally seen my men enter the Red Cross dressing station, I was again conducted to brigade headquarters. I reported to the interrogating officer the deliberate murder of one of my men and the entire absence of Red Cross aid. This officer smiled incredulously, and remarked that he thought I must be exaggerating, but would make inquiries. Whether he ever did so or not, of course I cannot say. Up to the time of writing I have not been able to trace what happened to the two men I left at La Bassée.

With regard to the interrogation, needless to say very little information was gathered from me. On asking for medical attention for myself, I was informed that I should receive everything I required at the station, where I was escorted by another guard. This man turned out to be quite kindly, as on arrival at the station, not finding any evidence of the Red Cross, he helped me to take off my puttees and breeches, whilst I cleansed


 my ankle and abdominal wounds under a pump. The guard washed from my puttees and trousers the thick slimy mud with which they were caked, and helped me to dress again in the clean though wet clothes. Shortly after this I was taken to a waiting-room in the station, where I found three other officers, one of whom was from my own regiment, who had been taken prisoner early on the same day.

By this time it was practically dark, probably about five o’clock in the morning. An hour afterwards two or three German officers came in and made themselves as unpleasant and insulting as possible, producing several Dum-Dum bullets, which they accused us of using, discussing amongst themselves the advisability of taking us out and shooting us immediately for breaking the rules of civilised warfare, a decidedly humorous remark from the lips of a Hun. One of the British officers who spoke German argued the foolishness of such an accusation, but to no effect.


About eight o’clock the same evening we were removed with a few men in fourth-class carriages under a strong guard to a station on the way to Lille, where we spent the night in an outhouse which had a small stove in it and a little straw. Here we endeavoured to dry some of our clothes, one of our own officers dressing my ankle with his field dressing. Here also some hot soup was brought to us by a German N.C.O., with black bread. During the night, when the stove had gone out, one of our guards noticing some of the sleepers shivering with cold, tried to cover them with some straw. This was a small act of kindness which I shall always remember. We noticed that any little act of kindness such as this was never done by a German soldier when one of his officers or N.C.O.s was present or near at hand.

Towards early morning we were ordered to dress again in our half-dry clothes, and about six or seven o’clock we entrained in fourth-class carriages and were taken to


 Lille station. From here we were marched to the old fortress of Lille. On the way we received many signs of deep sympathy from the Belgian populace; most of the women seemed to be crying, and I noticed that the men bared their heads in token of respect. On two or three occasions some women tried to press chocolate into the men’s hands. In one case, where one of the German guards saw a woman doing this, he beat her down with the butt end of his rifle. Many Germans yelled insults at us, but the guard next to me remarked that we must take no notice of such people, as they were only soldiers employed on lines of communication, and had therefore never been in the front line, so did not know what fighting was. I mention this because it is so rare to find a spirit of chivalry amongst the Boches, and in an account of this kind it is only fair to write of both the good and the bad sides of their characters.