Читать книгу My German Prisons - Horace Gray Gilliland - Страница 5

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On arrival at the fortress we were separated from the men, the officers undergoing another interrogation. On asking for immediate medical attention, we were assured that it would be forthcoming directly. When we entered the room allotted to us, we found three other British officers, who had been taken prisoners some days previously, and who at once set about preparing a meal for us out of their own scanty provisions. There was only one proper bed in the place, which was given up to me at once; the rest were dirty palliasses thrown on the ground. A Belgian orderly was provided to look after us and bring us the daily ration. He also had the privilege of going into the town of Lille and buying little extras, though at a very costly price, as we soon found out.

Later we learnt that the ground-floor quarters of the fortress were occupied by a number of native troops, and on the following day one of my brother officers paid them a visit, and found them living in very unhealthy conditions, suffering greatly from the cold, owing to the fact that the Germans had relieved them of their great-coats. These poor fellows were clad, therefore, as for their own climate, and were suffering acutely. However, they had been treated fairly well in other respects, and had plenty to eat. In the afternoon of the same day there was a great hubbub amongst them, owing to the fact that a Baboo (a professional agitator) was haranguing them in the fortress close. One of their subahdar majors expressed to us his extreme disgust at the German attempt to tamper with their loyalty. The gist of the agitation was to induce the native troops to throw off their allegiance to the British Crown and fight against the Russians on the Eastern Front.

Throughout the day I continually asked for medical attention, but was always put off by the reply that the doctor was expected every minute. This farce of medical attention continued during the whole period of our stay in Lille, but no doctor ever arrived. A Red Cross dresser did visit me, but on examination declared that he was not competent to deal with the case and must leave it to the doctor.

On the night of the 25th of December we were removed with a lot of men, consisting of British, French, Belgian, and a few native troops, from the fortress to the main station at Lille. When we arrived there, the whole place was found to be brilliantly illuminated with decorated Christmas trees, exactly as one sees at a children’s party, the whole German populace being in holiday attire. On this occasion we were fortunately kept well away both from the civilians and others, so that the chances of being insulted were greatly reduced.

Almost immediately we were marshalled down a long platform and halted opposite a line of filthy-looking cattle-trucks, with the usual sliding-doors in the centre and two small trap-doors high up on the side. I mention the latter, because it was through these that we were stoned later on in the journey by some of the chivalrous enemy.

Into these trucks we were bundled. In our truck there were fifty-one of us, including officers, British Tommies, some French, and a few Zouaves. The interior of the truck was disgustingly dirty, and not even provided with straw.

Of course it was not possible for all to lie or sit. The wounded did, but the others mostly stood. Personally I do not remember very much of that terrible journey. My wounds were giving me so much pain that, with the jolting of the truck, the extreme cold, and the want of food, I became mostly and mercifully oblivious to my general surroundings. A few of the incidents remain in my memory, however. For instance, on several occasions, when the train was pulled up at small stations, the big sliding-doors of the truck were opened, and German soldiers entered and robbed both officers and men of any sort of warm outer clothing that they might have saved from the clutches of the Hun on the field itself, Burberrys being their particular aim. It can well be imagined how exasperating it was not to be able to do anything to defend oneself against such inroads. Also we suffered very much from hunger and the cold. Personally I did not suffer so much from the former, probably owing to the condition of my wounds; but I know that my companions were ravenous, as we had had very little whilst in Lille, nothing in the trucks all the first night, and nothing all the next day. Also during this period no sanitary arrangements of any kind were made for us.

Early in the morning of the second day two German guards were put in with us, also a small bench for them to sit upon. These two fellows turned out to be extremely kind, insisting on standing, and letting some of the wounded sit on the bench provided for themselves, also dividing some of their rations with a few of us.

Unfortunately these men were only with us for a few hours. Soon after they left us we were provided with a lot of jam or fish tins, containing yellowish warm water to drink. It was eagerly scrambled for, but on sampling the same it was evident that it had been polluted. At the same time, through one of the small trap-doors before mentioned, a ration of sour black bread was thrown in on top of us, just as one might throw scraps to a caged jackal.

That same evening, I think it was, we arrived at Cologne, where we spent the night in a siding. On the main platform of Cologne we saw some members of the German Red Cross, from whom we demanded food, and who immediately went away to fetch it. On their return the German sentries placed at the truck door would not allow any of it to be passed to the Schweinhund Englanders. A little was, however, distributed to the French, who very liberally shared it with us. My particular portion consisted of about two inches of a small raw sausage.

I forgot to mention that on this last day on two occasions, when the men were bustled out to a latrine, such was the diabolical cruelty of our guards that they allowed no time for the men to complete these necessities, and in one case exposed a man in view of a crowd of jeering civilians whilst in an undressed condition; also that several times on the way we were stoned by the populace through the small trap-doors of the truck, one or two of the men being severely hurt.

Towards the afternoon of the third day we reached Munden, Hanover, where we were detrained, taken to a waiting-room, and supplied by the Red Cross with a much-needed ration of hot soup and bread. After this we were paraded, divided from the men, and marched to the camp of Munden, which is situated on the banks of the river Weser, at a distance of about a mile and a half from the station. Here I again pointed out my condition to the officer in charge of our party, but gained nothing, not even a conveyance to the camp. The officer said that a conveyance was coming for the wounded. I replied, “So is Christmas,” but evidently he did not see it. Anyhow, the outcome of it was we had to walk. We arrived at the camp some time during the evening, and were immediately segregated in a room by ourselves, where we found some palliasses thrown on the ground, filled with straw. Some coarse sheets and blankets were also provided, also a washing-stand and a bootjack. I mention the latter because the German orderly told off to look after us kept on picking up this beastly bootjack, gesticulating that everything was provided, even a bootjack. The following day we were again interrogated, and personal effects, such as letters, notebooks, and money, some of which my brother officers still had in their possession, were temporarily confiscated. The equivalent of the money, however, was returned in German coinage. After this we were allotted rooms, and found, to our disgust, that we were to be separated. The Germans, having found out that the British were very much happier when by themselves, arranged that one British officer always occupied a room filled with officers of any other nationality but his own. It was in little ways such as this that the Boche showed a marked hostility to British officers in comparison with that shown to the Russian or French. In the room to which I was personally sent there were already fifteen Russians.

Shortly after being allotted rooms I was conducted to hospital, where on the ground floor of the building the wound in my ankle was satisfactorily dressed; but they did not seem to know what to do with the body wound. Finding that three of the ribs were broken on the right side, they made some sort of an attempt to set and bind them. The doctor in attendance was a bumptious little beast of about nineteen or twenty years of age, and did not seem to know very much about his job. After this I returned to my room full of Russians and took to my bed.

The camp at Munden was an old oil factory, and had been hastily turned into a camp for prisoners of war. There were about eight hundred prisoners there at the time of our arrival, but more came after we had been there a month or two. The sleeping-room had practically no furniture of any kind. A shelf, on which tin basins were placed, served as a wash-stand, and there were a couple of pails for water. Two small tables and about a dozen chairs, with a small shelf about five inches wide passing over the head of each bed, completed the furnishing of the rooms. Besides the sleeping-rooms, part of the ground floor of the factory was utilised as an eating-hall. The accommodation here consisted of a few dirty tables and chairs. To add to the discomfort the oily ceilings and walls had been whitewashed, to create the appearance of cleanliness. Naturally it cracked off in drying, with the result that one’s hair, eyes, and clothes became covered with fine powdered lime, mixed with the dust which filtered through the boards of the floor of the sleeping-rooms above. Canteen, hospital, and bath-room were also portioned off the ground floor. The canteen cooked and supplied the daily rations. Here we could buy bread, cheese, jam, and coffee, and occasionally tinned fruit, also sundry toilet articles.

The daily ration was not appetising nor particularly varied. Black bread and coffee every day for breakfast. The midday meal consisted, almost without exception, of either fish and potatoes or pork and potatoes. The fish was very seldom eatable, but the pork often quite fresh. Even on the day when it was not, so long as one had not too keen an eye for colour, it tasted quite good. I refer to the rainbow hues that could often be seen reflected from its surface.

Certainly this method of serving the rations did not help to make them appetising. The orderlies had to wait in long queues in front of the canteen for four or five hours before the mid-day meal till their turn came to be served. They would then order and pay for the ration allowed to the number of officers they happened to be appointed to. Their rations were then thrown into ordinary slop-pails, and in these served to the officers. Potatoes were the principal mainstay, though the cheese and butter were quite good. The black bread was horrible, and caused violent indigestion, owing to its damp and doughy condition.

The best part of the camp were the baths, which were quite good, hot and cold water being obtainable up to midday, Sunday excepted. The space set apart for an exercise-ground was a muddy stretch of about ninety yards square, surrounded by two lines of wire. Into this yard, protruding from the ground floor of the factory, ran a long wooden latrine, which was the most dreadful place imaginable, merely a series of holes cut in the ground, with no form of drainage. The only attempt at draining them was made by our own orderlies, who pumped them out, and disposed of the contents in another large hole just outside the wire. On a warmish day, with the wind blowing towards the camp, it became impossible to take exercise outside at all; and towards February 1915, in order to visit these same latrines, it became absolutely necessary to cover over one’s mouth and nose. In this same yard the general rubbish-heap of the camp was piled with every kind of rotting refuse, on which flies swarmed. Indoors the camp was infested with lice, especially the hospital-room. The Russian officers had been suffering from this pestilence for a long time before the arrival of the British, and no attempt had been made on the part of the Germans to rid the camp of this vermin, either by fumigating or in any other manner.

Towards the end of March, when I had been removed from my room to a bed in the hospital situated on the ground floor, I asked one of our officers, who, owing to a great family name, seemed to have more influence with the Boches, to complain to the commandant of the appalling state of filth reigning in the hospital, some of the beds being literally alive with many thousands of lice. The outcome of this complaint resulted in the importation of incinerators to the camp, after which things became distinctly better.