MY EXPERIENCES AS A 
 GERMAN PRISONER 
 
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i 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 AS A GERMAN 
 
 PRISONER 
 
 By 
 L. J. AUSTIN, F.R.C.S. 
 
 Member of the British Red Cross Society 
 
 > a 
 
 
 
 LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE, LTD. 
 3 YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 AT the outbreak of war I took the 
 opportunity to offer my services 
 to the British Red Cross Society. At 
 that time I wished to see something 
 of surgery in war and to assist as far as 
 possible in dealing with wounded and 
 sick. I had no idea that the sanctity of 
 the Red Cross would be found to be an ideal 
 of the past, and that a surgeon might be 
 subjected to hitherto unknown insults. I 
 had no intention of rushing into print, but 
 after an interview which appeared in the 
 Daily Telegraphy the inevitable publisher, 
 in the shape of Mr. Melrose, appeared 
 on the scene, and the short work which 
 follows is the result. 
 
 The illustrations originally appeared in 
 the Illustrated London News, and naturally 
 are concerned with the later months of my 
 imprisonment. This accounts for them all 
 appearing in the later chapters. 
 
 334068 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE ARREST ... 
 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 JOURNEY TO COLOGNE . . 35 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 PRISON .... -47 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 TORGAU ..... -77 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 BURG . ..... 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 MAGDEBURG ....... 125 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 RELEASE ....... 147 
 

 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Our Horrible Weekly Bath. . . . 61 
 
 The Russians keep up their spirits by singing 
 Hymns, and drinking Tea and Caramel 
 Beer ....... 83 
 
 The British Morning Exercise is the Wonder- 
 ment of the Guard .... 87 
 
 In the Canteen we are looked after by a Rus- 
 sian, a German, and Gladys ! . . in 
 
 A Red-Letter Day. Occasionally Parcels for 
 
 Prisoners filter through to them . . 118 
 
 A Breeze between the Allies : Fresh Air v. 
 
 Atmosphere. ..... 120 
 
 The Chef de Chambre portions out our Allow- 
 ances . . . . . . -^33 
 
 The Orderly makes his Morning Call to the 
 Wards, inquiring for ' Sick ' and distri- 
 buting German War Newspapers . 136-137 
 
 An Orderly with War Bread is a Fearsome 
 
 Spectacle . . . . . .140 
 
 Although it was strictly " verboten " to speak 
 to the Sentries, we always tried to get 
 friendly with the Watch-dogs . .143 
 
 Christmas in the Guard-room . . .152 
 

 THE ARREST 
 

 CHAPTER I 
 THE ARREST 
 
 THE first Belgian unit of the British 
 Red Cross Society was organized 
 on August 13, and left for the Continent 
 on Sunday, August 16. It consisted of 
 ten surgeons, ten dressers, and twenty 
 nurses, with medical and surgical panniers 
 and large crates of dressings and chloro- 
 form. The medical units were dressed in 
 khaki, the surgeons wearing small black 
 tabs on the neck, while the dressers had 
 no tabs. The nurses were in the Red Cross 
 uniform. 
 
 Early on Sunday, the i6th, we left 
 Charing Cross for Folkestone, and after 
 a rather rough passage landed safely at 
 Ostend, and went that same evening to 
 Brussels. We were received with great 
 enthusiasm by the population at Brussels, 
 and were put in the Astorias Hotel. Nearly 
 
 13 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 the whole of Brussels was covered with 
 Belgian flags ; very large numbers of the 
 Municipal Guard were under arms in the 
 street, and on the eastern border one 
 noticed that barricades of tramcars and 
 entrenchments were made ready for an 
 attack. We were informed by the Belgian 
 Red Cross upon our arrival that there 
 was nothing for us to do ; that they had 
 some 30,000 beds and only two or three 
 thousand wounded men to look after. Con- 
 sequently we had an opportunity of wander- 
 ing round Brussels, seeing the cathedral 
 and other interesting buildings, and had 
 no immediate prospect of any medical or 
 surgical work. 
 
 On Monday, the I7th, again we found 
 nothing to do ; but about four or five in 
 the afternoon an urgent message was sent 
 round to our party from the headquarters 
 of the Belgian Red Cross for two surgeons 
 to accompany agents of the Belgian Red 
 Cross to assist in establishing a hospital 
 close to Namur. Dr. Elliott, a colleague 
 of mine, and I were detached from the rest 
 of our party and handed over to the 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 Belgian Red Cross. We hurriedly packed 
 our sacks, took a share of the surgical 
 instruments and departed in a motor-car 
 with a Belgian Count and a chauffeur. 
 
 The Count had papers to show that he 
 was commissioner of the Red Cross for the 
 south-eastern district of Belgium. The 
 chauffeur was a Luxemburger. In addition 
 to the Count and the chauffeur there was 
 a second chauffeur, named Basil, who also 
 carried his necessary papers of identifica- 
 tion. We English doctors were provided 
 with a passport for France and a passport 
 for Belgium, and an identification paper 
 containing details of height, colour of eyes, 
 etc., and our contract note from the 
 British Red Cross Society. 
 
 We drove out of Brussels on the Wavre 
 Road, and after passing through large 
 tracts of forest we saw the monuments of 
 Waterloo far on our right. We met several 
 regiments of Belgian infantry and some 
 batteries of artillery passing northwards. 
 About half-way to Namur we came across 
 the first signs of war at a village named 
 Gembloux, where we found the telegraph 
 
 15 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 wires cut and the railway lines uprooted ; 
 and were shown two dead Uhlans, who had 
 been killed that morning in an affair of 
 outposts with the Belgian cavalry. We 
 also went and saw a large hospital which 
 had been put up in a big school, and found 
 a Belgian officer and several of his men 
 severely wounded. Realizing that we were 
 now practically between two armies, we 
 hoisted a large Red Cross flag on the front 
 of the motor and proceeded on the way 
 to Namur. 
 
 When we were within ten miles of Namur 
 we found a picket of French dragoons, 
 who had blocked the road with wagons and 
 cross wires. They inquired of us what 
 we had seen, and especially asked about 
 the position of the British Army. We 
 were of course unable to inform them, 
 because at that time no one in England 
 had any information of the position of 
 the British forces. We then came to 
 Namur, and found the town in a state 
 of great excitement. It was crowded with 
 Belgian troops, and great enthusiasm was 
 roused by the marching past of the Congo 
 
 16 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 Volunteers. We were also shown a large 
 hole in the roof of the railway station where 
 an aeroplane had dropped a bomb that 
 day. During our short stay in Namur 
 we saw no French troops. 
 
 After a very short night's sleep the 
 party started at five o'clock on Tuesday, 
 the 1 8th, and travelled through Namur 
 out to the south-east ; but owing to dense 
 fog the progress was slow, and it was 
 impossible to see any of the forts. We 
 were continually being held up on the 
 road by barbed wire entanglements, 
 trenches, and trees dropped across the 
 road. We saw only a few Belgian troops 
 occupying these trenches, and they seemed 
 to have very vague ideas as to how far 
 away the German Army was. There had, 
 of course, been no attempt on the part 
 of the Belgian Army to hold any of the 
 territory east of Namur. As we were 
 proceeding, and when we were about ten 
 miles from Namur, we suddenly ran into 
 the outposts of the German Army, con- 
 sisting of a picket of about twenty Uhlans, 
 who examined our papers, obligingly re- 
 
 17 B 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 moved the tree from across the road and 
 allowed us to proceed. Shortly after- 
 wards we were again held up, this time 
 by an officer, who re-examined us all, 
 and again we were allowed to proceed. 
 
 At about 9.30 we reached Havelange 
 and halted at Chateau St. Fontaine, the 
 residence of the grandfather of our Bel- 
 gian Count. This building was to be 
 the main hospital. After an excellent 
 breakfast, we settled the arrangements 
 and found that the outbuildings had 
 already been fixed up very efficiently as 
 a temporary hospital, but that there were 
 no arrangements made for any operating. 
 I must confess that we were rather dis- 
 appointed to find that the only occupant 
 of this hospital was a German Uhlan who 
 had fallen off his horse and broken his leg. 
 
 After breakfast and after placing our 
 luggage in the chateau, we drove out 
 again to see several other chateaux in 
 the immediate neighbourhood which were 
 to form subsidiary hospitals round the 
 main one. We called upon several Bel- 
 gian doctors, and discussed with them 
 
 18 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 the question of further supply of instru- 
 ments, chloroform, etc., and found them 
 willing to co-operate with us in every 
 respect. All the time we were moving 
 about German cavalry and German motor- 
 cars were on all the roads, but they never 
 stopped us or asked us a single question. 
 
 Near midday we came to a small village 
 called Maffe, and here we had the mis- 
 fortune to run straight into the head of 
 the main German Army marching upon 
 Namur. Before we had started on this 
 tour the man Basil had been left at 
 the chateau. The car was immediately 
 surrounded ; we were compelled to dis- 
 mount, and the inside of the car was 
 thoroughly searched for arms ; natur- 
 ally none were discovered. We were 
 placed in a room of a little house, which 
 in peace time served the double purpose 
 of grocery shop and post office, but which 
 was unoccupied at that time. 
 
 After waiting a few minutes a German 
 officer arrived and demanded our papers. 
 These were given to him ; he examined 
 them thoroughly, asked us whether we 
 
 19 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 had any weapons, and went away. Officer 
 after officer came and looked at us, and 
 one in high command said, Well, gentle- 
 men, I don't know what I am going to 
 do with you, but as you are doctors you had 
 better march with my sanitary staff, and 
 do any work that is necessary/ Nothing 
 happened, however, and we remained for 
 several hours in the hut. 
 
 By and by an officer who spoke excellent 
 English, and who introduced himself as 
 official interpreter, examined us thoroughly 
 as to how we had got there, and why we 
 had come anywhere near the German Army. 
 All four of us were then taken in German 
 Staff motor-cars for about a mile up one 
 of the roads, and after dismounting we 
 were led into a field where the Staff of the 
 first Army were examining maps. We 
 were placed in a row and waited a few 
 minutes. Suddenly the senior officer, who 
 I was afterwards told was in command 
 of the first German Army Corps, turned 
 on us and looked at us for some consider- 
 able time. He selected me and said in 
 English, " Obviously a spy/' and cast 
 
 20 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 his eyes round the field for a suitable tree. 
 However, after a short conversation with 
 several of the other officers and after 
 examination of our brassards we were 
 carried back again in the motor-cars to 
 the little house. 
 
 We were then all four placed in separate 
 rooms and each man guarded by two 
 soldiers. My friend Dr. Elliott was first 
 examined, and afterwards I was taken be- 
 fore the Court. The Court consisted of the 
 Commander-in-Chief , the official interpreter, 
 and another officer who was introduced to 
 me as the military judge. The three 
 officers sat round a small table, and I was 
 placed opposite the Commander-in-Chief, 
 and guarded by two soldiers with loaded 
 rifles and fixed bayonets. Immediately on 
 entering the room the interpreter said to 
 me : "I wish you to understand clearly 
 that you are on trial suspected of espionage, 
 the penalty for which you doubtless know." 
 
 I was then stripped naked, and my 
 clothes were thoroughly examined for any 
 secret pockets, plans, maps, or weapons. 
 At the close of the search they were 
 
 21 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 returned to me and I was allowed to dress. 
 I was examined altogether for about an 
 hour. During the first part I was ques- 
 tioned about how I had managed to 
 reach Maffe, and all about what I had 
 seen on the road, the dispositions of troops, 
 and more especially about the question 
 of French troops in Namur. I was able 
 truthfully to reply that I had seen no 
 French troops in Namur. 
 
 During the second part of the examina- 
 tion I was closely cross-questioned about 
 the position of the British Fleet, the sailing 
 of the Expeditionary Force, its destination 
 and strength. As I knew nothing about the 
 Expeditionary Force, and as the only 
 ship I had seen was a cruiser in the Channel 
 on the way across, I was unable to supply 
 them with any information. Their manner 
 towards me, however, clearly indicated that 
 they thought I was refusing to tell them 
 all I knew. All my papers were arranged 
 in front of the Court, and were again 
 thoroughly examined. 
 
 After the examination I was put back in 
 my little room and had to sit and wait for 
 
 22 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 another two hours while the Belgians also 
 were examined. This was a period of 
 very great anxiety, and it is not now diffi- 
 cult for me to understand the sensations 
 of a man waiting for a sentence of death. 
 My only clear recollection of this period, 
 however, is that I tried to make up my 
 mind what I should say to them before 
 they shot me, and hoped that I should 
 be able to die like a man. The German 
 guards, who were drawn from the 66th 
 Regiment, were quite kind and friendly, 
 and supplied me with a little hot soup. 
 
 When the Court had finished its examina- 
 tion, and had deliberated on its findings, 
 a German officer whom I had not seen 
 before, entered and spoke to me in very 
 fast and fluent French. As I was not able 
 to understand exactly what he meant, the 
 interpreter came in. The interpreter said, 
 
 You know you've been incredibly fool- 
 ish to come anywhere near our forces ; 
 you will not be able to return after seeing 
 our army, but will have to be sent back 
 into Germany. I do not know what will 
 become of you, but you will be treated 
 
 23 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 as gentlemen/ ; All the time after we 
 had been caught, and all the time during 
 the trial the German Army had been march- 
 ing unceasingly past the house, mainly 
 infantry and artillery, but I noticed every 
 now and again large pontoon sections or 
 a series of Red Cross wagons and motor- 
 cars. A very large number of motor-cars 
 containing officers were continually pass- 
 ing and re-passing. 
 
 I noticed that the infantry were march- 
 ing very rapidly, and that practically 
 no man ever fell out. The few soldiers 
 who were placed upon the wagons were 
 generally easing their horses. The horses 
 were large and thick ; mostly of a light 
 brown colour, and of Flemish type. The 
 guns passed by in batteries of eighteen 
 or thirty-six, and there were many light, 
 two-wheeled machine guns, drawn by one 
 or two horses. Most of the stores in the 
 army that I saw were in horse-drawn 
 wagons, but a large number of the ambu- 
 lances were motors. Altogether I stayed 
 two and a half days in the little house, 
 and during that time the army never 
 
 24 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 ceased passing by by day and by night. 
 Occasionally at night one would hear some 
 enormous motor-wagons passing at great 
 speed, and our guards informed us that 
 these were the big siege guns being hurried 
 up to attack the forts at Namur. 
 
 After the first trial we were allowed to 
 sit together again, but unfortunately the 
 officers who conducted the trial had taken 
 our papers away with them, and this fact 
 caused us very great trouble afterwards. 
 Everywhere we went we were always asked 
 for our papers and had to explain that they 
 had gone on with the army. Our personal 
 effects watches, money, pipes, etc. were 
 all returned to us. We were not permitted 
 to leave the house, and were always under 
 guard ; but we were allowed to purchase 
 food and wine from a little inn that stood 
 opposite. Such food as we purchased was 
 cooked by our guards, and we sat down 
 and ate with them. A large quantity of 
 straw was brought into the house, and this 
 formed the bed for the four of us and three 
 guards. Lights were kept burning all night 
 to prevent any chance of escape. Imme- 
 
 25 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 diately opposite the house was a very large 
 barn, and in that were quartered officers 
 and their horses. In the yard of the 
 barn the animals that were requisitioned 
 by the Germans were slain and cut up 
 for the troops. We saw many of the 
 villagers driving up their pigs, and heard 
 the last protests of the victims. 
 
 During the afternoon of the first day 
 an officer of tfce Motor Cycle Corps who 
 spoke excellent English came in and had 
 a friendly talk with us, and seemed to be 
 inclined to laugh at the position he 
 found us in. We were struck with the 
 familiarity between the privates and some 
 of the officers. For instance, in this par- 
 ticular case some of the soldiers had practice 
 rides on their officers' motor-bicycles. This 
 officer treated us with great respect, and 
 among other things informed us that the 
 English Expeditionary Force was making 
 for Antwerp. As an unpleasant contrast, 
 every now and again an officer would come 
 in, look at us, and become almost in- 
 articulate with rage, as he described the 
 horrid end that was ready for us. 
 
 26 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 Nobody, however, touched us, and these 
 incidents became so commonplace that 
 after a time we took no further notice of 
 them at all. 
 
 Alter a somewhat unpleasant night we 
 awoke to another day in the hut. We 
 were permitted to wash, but were not 
 allowed out of the building. And time 
 dragged heavily all the morning. Suddenly 
 however, a tall, good-looking Prussian 
 officer, aged about twenty-six, who we 
 afterwards found out was Prince Hem- 
 rich the 33rd of Reuss, came into our room 
 and started to re-examine us all over 
 again. After questioning the Belgians he 
 examined me for a long time, and seemed 
 to be exceedingly suspicious. In fact he 
 told me that he thought that Elliott and 
 myself were not doctors at all, but British 
 officers in disguise, attempting to dis- 
 cover the secrets of the German Army under 
 cover of the Red Cross. 
 
 Of course we had no papers to show him, 
 and he could not understand why it was 
 that as doctors we had not got our State 
 papers showing that we had qualified in 
 
 27 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 medicine and surgery. It was with great 
 difficulty that we got him to understand 
 that there is no State examination for 
 medicine and surgery in England ; and 
 then he wanted to know how it was possible 
 for anyone to get qualified. 
 
 He examined me at length about the 
 Navy and Army of England. He wished 
 to know the strength of the Army in 
 England, India, and South Africa; and 
 the percentage of black troops among 
 the various forces. He then wanted to 
 know where the Expeditionary Force was, 
 and indeed seemed to cast some doubt as 
 to whether there was an English Army 
 at all, and if there was an army whether 
 it would dare to come to the Continent. 
 I informed him that no one outside the 
 official circles knew anything about the 
 Expeditionary Force, and that no infor- 
 mation could be obtained from the papers 
 in London as to its existence or its des- 
 tination, but that I had heard several 
 rumours. He asked, " What are the ru- 
 mours ? " I said : " The most circumstantial 
 rumour I had heard was, that the British 
 
 28 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 Expeditionary Force is going to Antwerp/' 
 I did not tell him that I had only heard 
 that the day before from a German officer. 
 His Royal Highness said that he had many 
 associations with England and had lived 
 there part of his life, and that he was in- 
 tensely surprised and disgusted at England 
 coming into the war against Germany, 
 and that after all the English and German 
 races were cousins and should not fight one 
 another. I explained to him that for a long 
 time England had been suspicious about 
 the growth of the German Navy, and that 
 there was a feeling in England that if 
 Germany was allowed to overwhelm France 
 it would be England's turn next. He 
 said he had never heard such remarkable 
 nonsense in his life. And he also said 
 that the whole of the war was the fault 
 of the Englishmen, and that Germany 
 was fighting on the defensive a conviction 
 that I have seen expressed many times 
 in the German newspapers since. 
 
 His Royal Highness finally said, " You 
 say that you are doctors ? It will be neces- 
 sary for you to prove yourself, sir ; and 
 
 29 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 as I have some injured men coming along 
 presently you will have to examine them 
 under the eye of my medical staff/ This, 
 however, was never carried out, and finally 
 His Royal Highness shook hands with us 
 and said, "I do not know what will 
 become of you, gentlemen, but probably 
 you'll be sent back to Germany to assist 
 in looking after wounded soldiers of France 
 and Belgium, and possibly English, if they 
 are foolish enough to cross the Channel/ 
 
 During our interview with the Prince 
 there was a disturbance in the street out- 
 side, and the Cure was arrested for some 
 derogatory remark concerning the German 
 Army. He was brought in in a state of 
 great excitement, and after saying a few 
 words it was perfectly obvious that the 
 poor man was not quite sane and not 
 responsible for his actions. A German 
 officer instructed the soldiers to take him 
 back to his house, put him to bed and see 
 that he stopped there. 
 
 Again we spent the night on the straw 
 in the hut, but by this time we had be- 
 come quite friendly with the guards who 
 
 30 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 were posted over us, and they did all 
 they could to prevent the soldiers out- 
 side from staring and mocking at us. 
 Every now and again a soldier who 
 spoke English would come in to air his 
 knowledge ; but during the remainder 
 of that second day we saw little more of 
 the officers, except of course the army 
 which was passing by all the time as 
 before. We were informed that the last 
 forts of Liege had fallen and that the 
 attack on Namur was proceeding so suc- 
 cessfully that the surrender of the position 
 was hourly expected. This information 
 was naturally very depressing, because 
 every one expected that Namur would 
 put up a good resistance. 
 
JOURNEY TO COLOGNE 
 
CHAPTER II 
 JOURNEY TO COLOGNE 
 
 VERY early next morning, Thursday, 
 August 20, we were wakened up and 
 thrust, literally at the point of the bayonet, 
 into a motor-lorry, in which we proceeded 
 against the stream of the German Army 
 to the Belgian border. This was alto- 
 gether about a distance of 40 kilometres, 
 and the dust of the army and of the 
 numerous motor-cars made the journey 
 very unpleasant. In the motor there were 
 a large number of very old guns which had 
 been seized from the peasants, and to add 
 to this discomfort we were not allowed to 
 smoke because of the presence of tins 
 of petrol. The wagon was covered and 
 the guards occupied the entrance at the 
 back ; consequently we were able to see 
 
 35 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 very little of our surroundings. And every 
 now and again the guards would point 
 out a house from which shots had been 
 fired by the peasants, and which had as a 
 result been burned to the ground. This 
 method of retribution was invariably taken, 
 and the perpetrators immediately shot if 
 caught without uniform. 
 
 Apart from these evidences of war every- 
 thing seemed very quiet, and the harvest 
 was standing cut but not gathered in the 
 fields. In some places it looked as if the 
 corn were rotting on the ground. Eventu- 
 ally we reached a small place called 
 Malmedy and were placed in a train, 
 which took us to Bouvigny, the frontier 
 station. Here we passed three or four 
 very unpleasant hours in a waiting-room. 
 We had had nothing to eat that day, and 
 our request for food was answered by a 
 very stale loaf of bread and some water 
 in a jug being served to us. 
 
 At this place we first met with the 
 attentions of the Red Cross ladies. At 
 every station in Germany we found Red 
 Cross establishments for feeding the sol- 
 
 36 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 diers and the wounded, but their attitude 
 towards the English was always extremely 
 unpleasant. At this particular station 
 quite little girls of sixteen and seventeen 
 wearing the Red Cross would come and 
 mock us through the window, and with 
 unmistakable gestures indicate that we 
 should be hanged. 
 
 A somewhat offensive non-commissioned 
 officer suddenly arrived and proceeded to 
 search us. He removed all knives that we 
 had, and was greatly excited at the presence 
 of the large jack-knife which had been issued 
 to us before we left. These knives car- 
 ried a long spike for punching leather 
 and opening tins ; and the story has been 
 circulated in Germany that these knives 
 were issued to the troops for the express 
 purpose of gouging out the eyes of the 
 German wounded. Dr. Elliott had his 
 morphia and syringe with him, and this 
 was also confiscated, apparently under the 
 impression that he might use the morphia 
 to overcome the guard or possibly as a 
 method of suicide. 
 
 Our other personal effects, including our 
 
 37 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 money, were returned to us. We were then 
 placed in a horse-box which had been only 
 recently vacated by the horses, and in which 
 were four more unfortunates who had been 
 arrested at some time or another by the 
 Germans. They were mostly Belgian 
 peasants, and we never discovered exactly 
 why they had been taken ; but we under- 
 stood it had something to do with interfer- 
 ence with the telegraph lines. Four guards 
 were placed in the horse-box over these 
 eight prisoners, and we bumped slowly 
 and painfully to a small town called 
 Ulflingen. Here we were detrained, and 
 some of the Belgians were permitted to 
 go under escort to get some food which 
 they purchased and shared among the 
 prisoners. 
 
 We were then marched four or five 
 miles along country roads and were ex- 
 hibited to a large number of German 
 troops which appeared to be in reserve. 
 At first they were inclined to crowd upon 
 us, but were soon driven back by their 
 officers, and practically they took very 
 little notice of us. A young officer stopped 
 
 38 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 us and said to Dr. Elliott and me, " What 
 are you doing here ? We said that 
 we were English doctors and explained 
 shortly how it was we had arrived. He 
 said, " Oh, that will be all right as soon 
 as your papers are returned from the 
 army ; after a period of a week or two 
 you will be sent over the border into 
 Holland and be able to return home/ He 
 went on to say that we should have to 
 stay some time because we had seen so 
 much of the position of the German 
 Army. This gentleman was the last who 
 ever suggested to us the possibility of 
 release. 
 
 After another march we joined the 
 railway line again and travelled for about 
 four hours in another horse-box to Gerol- 
 stein. This journey was comparatively 
 comfortable ; we were permitted to lie 
 down on the floor of the box, and we had 
 the food and wine purchased before. The 
 guards, who stood up the whole time, were 
 apparently suspicious of our attempts at 
 friendliness, and refused to take any re- 
 freshments from us. At Gerolstein we were 
 
 39 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 marched into a large waiting-room at the 
 station to see the officer in charge, and here 
 for the first time we heard the phrase, 
 " Wot you want ? J We were to hear it many 
 and many a time again, it being apparently 
 a curious idea in the German mind that 
 the prisoners have come to a particular 
 place to find out something all of their 
 own freewill. 
 
 We spent the night at Gerolstein in a 
 watch-house, a recently constructed shanty 
 of wood, and slept on a straw-covered 
 shelf of wood very similar to the arrange- 
 ments in an Alpine club hut. There was 
 just room for the eight of us to fit on 
 the slope by squeezing tight together, and 
 the night was a very unpleasant one, be- 
 cause the light was kept on brightly the 
 whole time and some eight or nine guards 
 talked loudly and played cards all the 
 time. 
 
 The next morning, Friday, the 2ist, we 
 rose very early, were given some hot soldier 
 coffee and some rather stale brown bread, 
 and were transported in a fourth-class 
 carriage by an exceedingly slow train to 
 
 40 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 the city of Cologne. Our guards were 
 rather unpleasant, and told the Belgians 
 that there was no doubt as to what would 
 happen to us when we got to Cologne, and 
 they seemed to take a delight in allowing 
 the populace to climb up on to the end of 
 the carriage to mock and jeer the prisoners. 
 At first the guards occupied the few avail- 
 able seats and the prisoners stood up, but 
 afterwards they took turns at sitting down 
 on the seats or on the floor. It was a small 
 compartment and very crowded. On the 
 outskirts of Cologne the troops were very 
 active, getting up vast barbed wire entangle- 
 ments and digging large trenches, evidently 
 with a view to a possible attack : trees also 
 were being cut down for miles around. 
 During the whole of the journey in the 
 train we had suffered intensely with the 
 heat, and it was not always easy to get 
 even water. 
 
 On arrival at Cologne station we were 
 placed for about an hour in an under- 
 ground waiting-room . Eventually an officer 
 arrived who counted us carefully and 
 seemed very excited at the presence of a 
 
 41 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 Uhlan who had in fact been one of our 
 guards, but whom the officer suspected of 
 being a Belgian spy who had been arrested 
 with the others of the party. The Uhlan, 
 however, did not take long to explain 
 his position. 
 
 We were then formed up again and pro- 
 ceeded to march through Cologne for a 
 distance of 2j to 3 miles to the prison in 
 which we were destined to be confined. 
 We had not gone more than a few yards 
 from the station, and were passing through 
 the great open space that faces the main 
 entrance to Cologne Cathedral, when a 
 large and threatening crowd began to 
 collect round us. At first we had one 
 soldier a-piece on our flanks and several 
 in front and behind, but very shortly it 
 was necessary to put a ring of police out- 
 side that and finally a squadron of mounted 
 police. Every insulting and abusive epi- 
 thet in the German language was hurled 
 at us, and the crowd had to be kept back 
 by the police with swords used on the 
 flat. 
 
 No stones, bottles, or other implements 
 
 42 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 were thrown at us, but once or twice we 
 had to take refuge down a side street while 
 the mounted police cut the crowd off 
 from entering there. About half-way 
 along we spent a few minutes in one of 
 the police stations, but I think this inter- 
 val was for official purposes and not for 
 protection. As we marched out from the 
 police station the crowd grew larger and 
 larger, and expressions of hatred and con- 
 tempt for Englishmen and England grew 
 more and more virulent, but by this time 
 we were adequately guarded. The weather 
 was intensely hot, a thunderstorm was 
 just coming up, and I was thankful that I 
 had lost all my luggage and had nothing 
 to carry beyond an overcoat. 
 
 At the end of our march we turned 
 abruptly through a great iron gate and 
 heard the last yell of derision from the 
 crowd, as we entered the prison in which 
 we were to be held for the next seventeen 
 days. I look upon the march across 
 Cologne as one of the most depressing 
 incidents that ever occurred to me, and I 
 suffered from a great desire to stop and tell 
 
 43 
 
EXPERIENCES AS GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 the crowd exactly what I felt about it 
 I wondered whether those people who 
 went to execution in the French Revolu- 
 tion felt the same way. 
 
 44 
 
PRISON 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 PRISON 
 
 THE prison in which we spent nearly 
 three weeks is situated near the 
 fortifications in the extreme south of 
 Cologne. Immediately on entering the 
 main gate we came to the large central 
 parade ground, and were confronted by a 
 curious round tower with a large moat 
 about it, in which the convicts worked. 
 On the right there is a four-storeyed rect- 
 angular building of old dirty brickwork 
 containing the cells. I was taken upstairs 
 on to the first floor and shut up in cell 
 No. 73, my friend Dr. Elliott being in cell 
 No. 69. The other prisoners were dis- 
 tributed above us. 
 
 The prison is a military one, and is 
 mainly occupied by deserters from the 
 
 47 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 German Army and Navy. Most of them 
 had sentences of about eight or nine 
 months, but a few of better education were 
 in there for eighteen months. Most of the 
 prisoners were pardoned at the outbreak 
 of the war and were drafted off to their 
 ships or regiments, but a large number still 
 remained. 
 
 The cell in which I was destined to spend 
 fifteen days' solitary confinement was 6J 
 feet across, 12 feet long, and about 10 feet 
 high. The window was placed about 
 7 feet from the ground, but it was 
 possible to obtain a view of the parade 
 ground by climbing on hot-water pipes that 
 ran across under the window. As the 
 window had a north aspect, no sun pene- 
 trated the cell until five o'clock in the 
 afternoon ; but this was little disadvantage 
 as the weather was very hot. 
 
 The floor of the cell was made of small 
 blocks of wood, a very large number of which 
 were broken and loose, which made the 
 cleaning a difficult business. The bed con- 
 sisted of an iron and wooden structure 
 which was looped up to a catch on the wall, 
 
 48 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 and it was forbidden to lower this except 
 at night. There was a thin mattress of 
 straw, two blankets and a bag in which 
 the blankets were supposed to be kept, 
 but which I personally found more con- 
 venient when used as a sleeping bag with 
 the blankets on top. The pillow was of 
 great antiquity, very thin, and very 
 hard. 
 
 The furniture in the cell consisted of a 
 table and a stool, with several buckets and 
 other utensils in the corners of the cell. 
 Near the window was a corner cupboard, 
 on the top shelf of which was a tin basin 
 and a large stone ewer of water ; on the 
 lower shelf a tin mug and a bowl of bright 
 metal in which the prisoner took all his food. 
 In another small cupboard passing near the 
 bed there were boot brushes and cleaning 
 material for the cell. On the side of this 
 there were suspended a small salt cellar 
 and a little soap dish. The walls of the 
 cell were covered with whitewash, but there 
 were many crevices and cracks in it, and 
 the whole appearance showed considerable 
 neglect, 
 
 49 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 The door, which was of stout wood, re- 
 inforced with iron, contained a window 
 with a flap which was let down by the 
 jailer when food was given to the prisoner, 
 and immediately above this flap a little 
 spy-hole, which commanded the whole 
 of the cell. Close to the door there is a 
 little push-knob, which in the daytime 
 dropped a pointer into the passage and 
 at night-time rang an electric bell, so 
 that the prisoners could communicate with 
 the jailer in circumstances of urgency. As 
 I spent fifteen days' solitary confinement in 
 my cell I got to know every detail perfectly ; 
 and it is impossible to forget its shape, 
 size, and the nature of the contents. 
 
 Very soon after we were admitted I was 
 instructed by the jailer to wash myself; 
 after which I was taken out to the Com- 
 mandant's office, and examined by an 
 officer attached to the staff of the Com- 
 mandant of Cologne. He spoke good Eng- 
 lish and seemed to find himself very 
 amused at the position of the Englishmen. 
 He told us that he had been sent down 
 in great urgency from Headquarters to 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 investigate the important question of the 
 capture of spies, who had been taken in 
 some unknown uniform, and was surprised 
 to find only two English doctors. He 
 seemed also to think that it was our fault 
 that we had no papers, and could not 
 understand why we had permitted the 
 officers who first captured us to take away 
 our papers. We wrote out a full state- 
 ment once more about how we fell into 
 the hands of the German Army ; after which 
 we were put back to the cell again. About 
 seven o'clock that night a quarter of a loaf 
 of black bread was introduced through the 
 hole in the door ; and shortly afterwards 
 our feeding pot was filled up with some 
 sort of starch paste of a glutinous con- 
 sistency and a peculiarly unpleasant taste. 
 This mixture we used to have practically 
 every night, but I never got really used 
 to it, and generally had to leave more 
 than half. On the other hand the black 
 bread was excellent, especially on those 
 occasions when we managed to get it 
 reasonably fresh. 
 
 On the first evening we were instructed 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 to go to bed at eight o'clock, and in spite 
 of the hardness of the planks I was soon 
 asleep. I woke up very shortly afterwards 
 to find myself thoroughly bitten by swarms 
 of bugs, which came out of the bed and 
 of the plaster cracks in the wall. The 
 illumination provided was from a lamp in 
 the passage which shone through a small 
 hole over the top of the door, but this 
 was so dim that I was not able to deal 
 effectively with my enemies. My friend 
 Dr. Elliott told me afterwards that on 
 the first night he had killed no less than 
 sixty of the creatures as they advanced 
 up the wall to attack. The Commandant 
 of the prison informed me later that the 
 building was a very ancient one, and conse- 
 quently nothing effective could be done to 
 keep down the pest. He did not seem to 
 look upon it as anything very bad, and the 
 prisoners had apparently got quite used 
 to it as indeed we did ourselves after 
 four or five nights. 
 
 Next day, Saturday, August 22, I was 
 violently awakened by the jailer at five 
 o'clock and instructed by signs to get up 
 
 52 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 and make my bed. At half-past five 
 breakfast arrived ; my dish was passed out 
 through the hole and filled up with about 
 a pint and a half of coffee, or I should say 
 coffee substitute, without milk or sugar. 
 The only solid food that I had for break- 
 fast was the bread that I had left over 
 from the day before. I was then compelled 
 to clean up the cell, empty the various 
 utensils, place everything in its own little 
 situation, and again was shut in by my- 
 self. 
 
 The business of the day was completed 
 by six o'clock, and for the rest there was 
 absolutely nothing to do ; in fact, the next 
 incident on that first morning was the 
 arrival of the bread through the hole in the 
 door at eleven o'clock. All our personal 
 effects watches, pipes, keys, money, 
 in fact everything except our pocket- 
 handkerchiefs had been removed within 
 the first hour of our arrival, and we had 
 been stripped and searched once more. 
 Looking back on it, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to remember how one did pass these 
 hours, but, as can be imagined, it was 
 
 53 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 productive of very considerable depression, 
 especially in the earlier days before one 
 had got more or less used to it. 
 
 On the afternoon of the second day I 
 was again summoned to the office, and 
 was introduced to an officer who said 
 that he was the Chief Medical Officer of 
 the Army Corps stationed at Cologne, and 
 that it would be necessary for me to 
 prove myself a doctor. With the aid of 
 an interpreter he examined me first of 
 all upon the signs, symptoms, pathology, 
 and bacteriology of acute pneumonia, and 
 secondly he placed his hand on a particular 
 part of my body and said, " If a bayonet 
 was struck straight through there, what 
 anatomical structure would be in- 
 volved ? " 
 
 My friend Dr. Elliott was asked about 
 the signs and symptoms of typhoid fever, 
 and more especially about the culture 
 reactions of the typhoid bacillus ; and in 
 addition to this the anatomical details 
 of a special operation on the thigh. The 
 questions as put to us would have been 
 entirely impossible for anyone to answer 
 
 54 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 who had not had a medical training, and 
 we were graciously informed that we had 
 passed our examination. Unfortunately it 
 made no difference to the treatment im- 
 posed upon us during the next fortnight. 
 
 That afternoon we were first permitted 
 to take fresh air and exercise. The Belgians 
 and the English were taken under guard 
 into a small courtyard at the back of the 
 rectangular building with very high walls 
 and a few mangy trees in the centre : 
 the only structure that could be seen was 
 a church tower in the distance. We were 
 strongly guarded, and not allowed to speak 
 to one another, and had to remain fifteen 
 paces apart, while we walked slowly round 
 and round the trees in the middle. We 
 were also told that to turn our heads from 
 side to side was forbidden under a penalty 
 of being put in the punishment cells a 
 situation which I am glad to say I 
 avoided, as they were entirely dark. 
 
 The duration of our exercise was exactly 
 half an hour by the clock, and as some 
 of the Belgians were very old, the pace 
 set was very slow and every one had to 
 
 55 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 walk at the pace set by the slowest. The 
 consequence of this was, that although 
 one did get some fresh air the exercise 
 itself was not exactly strenuous. Most 
 days we were permitted two recreation 
 periods of one half-hour each, one in the 
 morning and one in the late afternoon, 
 but it seemed to be somewhat arbitrary 
 and depended upon the goodwill of one of 
 the senior jailers. I can remember every 
 detail of that courtyard, and I shall never 
 be able to forget that the exact distance 
 round the walk was 157 paces. I used 
 to welcome the half-hour's exercise as a 
 break in the monotony of sitting alone in 
 the cell, but the exercise itself was nearly 
 as monotonous as the solitude of the 
 cell. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, and a pecu- 
 liarly depressing one. We felt sure that 
 the German authorities would take no 
 further steps to deal with us on Sunday, 
 and it was one of the troubles of Sunday 
 that we were only allowed out once. In 
 the middle of the morning I heard a sound 
 of singing, and on looking out of my window 
 
 56 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 which commanded a partial view of the 
 parade ground I saw the prisoners drawn 
 up for a field service, which was conducted 
 by a parson with a curious black-topped 
 hat, not unlike that worn by a Uhlan. 
 A few minutes after this service was over, 
 my cell door opened and the parson and 
 a few of his friends had a look at me, 
 rather in the way that one looks at some 
 strange wild beast at the Zoo. After 
 about half a minute the parson said " Eng- 
 lander ! and the door was shut, and I 
 am thankful to say that I never saw him 
 again. Services were conducted on Sunday 
 in various parts of the prison, but in spite 
 of our request we were not allowed to 
 attend them, and requests to see an English- 
 speaking clergyman were refused. 
 
 On Monday the morning passed in the 
 same hopeless way. But in the afternoon 
 I was again examined by an entirely fresh 
 group of officers, none of whom spoke 
 English well. They introduced themselves 
 as part of the Court which had to deal 
 with our case, the Chief of the Court being 
 the Commandant of Cologne, whom we 
 
 57 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 never actually saw. This examination, 
 which was the last I had to undergo, was 
 comparatively short, and I only made a 
 few additional statements at the end of 
 the previous report and signed the whole 
 of the document. I asked one of the 
 officers when we might expect the result 
 of the findings of the Court, and he said : 
 " Perhaps to-morrow, but you never can 
 be sure"; as a matter of absolute fact 
 we heard nothing more of the findings of 
 this Court for twelve days. During the 
 whole of that time the solitary confinement 
 continued, and I spoke to no one except 
 the jailers and one or two of the prisoners 
 who in the course of a seafaring life had 
 picked up a little English. 
 
 During the whole of my stay I continually 
 asked to be allowed to have English books, 
 but apart from one small, rather sloppy 
 novel I was only permitted a German- 
 English 'grammar. As I did not know 
 even the shape of the German letters this 
 book was of very little use to me, but the 
 small dictionary at the end was useful in 
 making up conversation with the jailers. 
 
 58 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 After about three or four days I began to 
 know the actual Commandant of the prison, 
 
 Freiherr von B , who knew a few 
 
 words of English and liked to come and 
 practise it. He was in every way exceed- 
 ingly kind to me, but had no power of his 
 own to alter the regime of the prison, or 
 to provide books or extra food. 
 
 On the fifth day he allowed me to pur- 
 chase cigarettes. The money was deducted 
 from what had been taken out of my 
 pockets and the cigarettes were purchased 
 by the jailer from the prison canteen. 
 Having been nearly a week without to- 
 bacco, the arrival of the cigarettes was a 
 luxury of which only smokers can under- 
 stand *the value. The sailormen pri- 
 soners would go to any length and risk 
 the punishment cells to get a stray 
 cigarette from us. The boys who man- 
 aged the lamps and who nailed the boots 
 were the only ones that we came into 
 close contact with, and consequently the 
 only ones who managed to get a cigarette 
 or two. I suppose that both they and 
 we risked severe punishment for dealing 
 
 59 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 in cigarettes ; but it was one of the relaxa- 
 tions of the prison life to watch these lads 
 manoeuvring round the jailers to get into 
 a favourable position near our doors and 
 at a time when the hole in the door was 
 open for food. 
 
 One day I protested violently to the 
 Commandant about the swarms of bugs. 
 He said that he was sorry ; that they had 
 tried everything ; that owing to the anti- 
 quity of the building it was impossible to get 
 rid of them. Next day, however, a funny 
 little old bearded man arrived with many 
 bottles of benzine and a squirting machine, 
 and proceeded to soak the bed and all the 
 cracks in the walls with benzine spray. 
 The effect was marvellous, the bugs came 
 out of their holes in scores, and I stood 
 by and killed them with a small piece of 
 wood. Owing to the reek of the benzine 
 it was impossible to stay in the cell, and I 
 spent most of my time that day sitting 
 in the passage and watching the prisoners 
 at work, stitching and marking mail bags. 
 Altogether it was the most interesting day 
 
 that I spent in the prison. 
 
 60 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 After we had been about one week in 
 the prison we were allowed to have a large 
 
 hot bath, and as up to now it had been 
 impossible to get anything but a small 
 
 61 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 basin of cold water, this was an immense 
 boon. After the bath I was shaved by 
 the prison barber, one of the sailormen 
 who was serving his time. As every one 
 knows, to be clean-shaved again really 
 gives one a much more hopeful outlook on 
 life. 
 
 The whole of this period was extremely 
 depressing, chiefly because it was impossible 
 to know from one day to the next whether 
 one might not be taken out and shot at 
 any moment. But as time went on, and 
 as the Commandant became more and 
 more friendly, I began to feel pretty 
 certain that our adventure would not have 
 a fatal termination. But still, one could 
 never be sure. 
 
 At the end of the first week, our Belgian 
 companions, who had been undergoing 
 exactly the same treatment in neighbouring 
 cells, disappeared ; and I was informed 
 that they had been tried and had been 
 sentenced to be kept as officers and prisoners 
 of war for the rest of the war. This was 
 a great relief to my mind, because I felt 
 sure that if the Belgians were not going 
 
 62 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 to be shot, it was highly improbable that 
 I should be less fortunate ; but still we sat 
 and waited. I asked the Commandant 
 one day whether it was not true that the 
 Belgians had had their case decided. He 
 admitted that they had, but said that the 
 papers relating to Dr. Elliott and myself had 
 unfortunately been mislaid at Headquarters 
 owing to a change of personnel in the 
 Headquarters Staff, and that we should 
 have to stay in prison until they were 
 discovered. Meantime, he promised that 
 he would do all that he could to try and 
 push the matter through. 
 
 Nothing, however, happened, and we 
 spent day after day and night after night 
 in precisely the same manner, with no 
 apparent prospects of any alteration at all, 
 till both of us became thoroughly gloomy 
 and very jumpy. At this stage it is im- 
 possible to recollect the exact attitude 
 one took, but I can remember that periods 
 of great depression were followed by 
 others of quiet and complete confidence. 
 But whatever was my state of mind I 
 flatter myself that I never allowed the 
 
 63 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 jailers or the Commandant to see that I 
 was depressed. 
 
 The routine of every day was precisely the 
 same, but I learnt one or two little things to 
 assist me through the long hours. We were 
 wakened at five, and the coffee for break- 
 fast was provided at half -past. At first I 
 used to get up and dress before breakfast, 
 but I soon learnt it was much easier to 
 have my little bowl ready the night before 
 to take in my coffee hurriedly, and then go 
 back again to bed to drink it. After dress- 
 ing, and performing the menial duties of 
 the day, there came the most trying part, 
 waiting for the long hours of the morning 
 to pass by. I used to attempt to learn 
 German words out of a dictionary, and to 
 draw anatomical diagrams from memory, for 
 after a few days we were permitted some 
 paper and pencil. Generally in the morning 
 we had half an hour's exercise and then 
 returned for lunch, which consisted of a 
 vegetable soup, in which on special days 
 a square inch or two of fat pork might be 
 discovered. After lunch in flat disobedi- 
 ence to the orders of the prison I let down 
 
 64 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 my bed and slept for one or two hours. 
 Every now and again the jailer used to 
 come and turn me out and address strong 
 language to me in German. It did not 
 move me, for I entirely failed to understand 
 it. He used to get absolutely wild with 
 rage if I stayed in bed after two o'clock, 
 because about this time a visiting officer 
 was generally expected. 
 
 In the afternoon I generally had my 
 " tea/ This consisted of a slice of dry 
 brown bread and a cup of water, but it 
 seemed to recall civilization to have some- 
 thing to eat in the middle of the afternoon. 
 Then came our second half-hour's exercise, 
 and after that I used to sit down again 
 and watch the sun peep slowly into my 
 cell. Like the prisoner in the novels, I 
 kept a record on the wall of the extreme 
 position reached by the sunbeams on 
 every afternoon, and watched the days close 
 in slowly by the diminution in distance and 
 in time. My friend Dr. Elliott attempted 
 to adopt a mouse, but his efforts were 
 early cut short by the mouse inadvert- 
 ently dropping into a bowl of water and 
 
 65 E 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 being drowned in the middle of the 
 night. 
 
 The great attack on the bugs was parti- 
 ally successful for about three or four days, 
 but after that they returned and started to 
 worry us again. But by this time I had 
 become so completely used to their atten- 
 tions that I did not even take the 
 trouble to kill them. Every now and 
 again I was permitted to wash my clothes, 
 and for this purpose a large bucket of hot 
 water and soft soap were provided. During 
 the process of drying, for which there were 
 no adequate arrangements, I lived in Ger- 
 man prison clothes. Whenever we had 
 hot water for boiling our clothes we were 
 also compelled to scrub and clean the 
 cell thoroughly with small hand brushes 
 and rags which were served out for the 
 purpose. 
 
 The very first opportunity that I had 
 of saying a few words to my friend Dr. 
 Elliott occurred during one of our walks 
 when the attention of the guard was 
 distracted by the passage of one of Ger- 
 many's largest Zeppelins close over the 
 
 66 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 fort. We got a very good view of the 
 airship, which passed with a crab-like 
 motion over the prison, and during the 
 excitement the prisoners who were march- 
 ing round the courtyard were able to 
 break their formation for a few minutes. 
 
 By the fifteenth day all the Belgian 
 prisoners had disappeared. I do not know 
 what became of them, but on the afternoon 
 of the same day the first real relaxation 
 of discipline occurred and I was permitted 
 to walk round the courtyard with and to 
 talk to Dr. Elliott. We were not, however, 
 permitted to sit together. 
 
 Next day, Sunday, September 6, we were 
 allowed to sit together and talk everything 
 over, and were informed that we were 
 shortly going to leave the prison. 
 
 On Monday, the 7th, the Commandant 
 told us that we were leaving next day to 
 join the British officers at Torgau, where 
 we would be treated as officers and as 
 prisoners of war. He informed us that 
 we were still more or less suspected of 
 espionage, and could not expect to be re- 
 leased until the end of the war. Our money 
 
 67 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 and goods were returned to us, and we were 
 permitted to walk up and down in the 
 passages of the prison instead of being 
 confined to our cells. We were also per- 
 mitted to write home, and I wrote a short 
 note to my relations and to the British 
 Red Cross Society. Neither of these letters 
 was ever delivered. 
 
 On that last day we met two Belgians, 
 also prisoners. They had come from a 
 part of Belgium which had not seen actual 
 fighting, and had in their own motor-car 
 conveyed a German officer to Cologne on 
 urgent business. On arriving there the 
 car had been seized and they had been 
 thrown into prison with us. They 
 were naturally particularly disgusted at 
 this treatment, but understood that in a 
 few days' time their car was going to be 
 restored to them and that they were to 
 be permitted to return to their home. 
 This we heard they eventually did, and 
 were able to communicate with the remains 
 of our party in Brussels. 
 
 The members of our party in Brussels 
 had in the meanwhile been captured by 
 
 68 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 the Germans, and had done a certain 
 amount of Red Cross work and were later 
 returned home through Copenhagen. One 
 morning a tiny slip of paper was passed 
 into the hand of one of our doctors by a 
 woman as she walked by, and on it was 
 written " Austin and Elliott quite well, 
 imprisoned at Torgau/ I am inclined to 
 think that this communication was made 
 through these two Belgian gentlemen, and 
 not, as was supposed by our party, by the 
 man Basil who had avoided capture in the 
 early stages. This man had in fact found 
 his way back to Brussels, having walked 
 many miles north and passed into Holland ; 
 but I cannot see that he could have possibly 
 known that we were going to Torgau, and 
 believe that the communication was almost 
 certainly made by our fellow-prisoners. 
 
 While in prison we obtained some news 
 of the victorious advance of the German 
 Army on Paris, and were informed that 
 forty-five British guns had been captured, 
 that the British Army was in twos and 
 threes, completely disorganized, and the 
 remnants were in full flight. About the 
 
 69 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 same time an official notice was published 
 concerning the capture of nearly 100,000 
 Russians, and the jailers were inclined 
 to gloat over us with this information. 
 They also told of a desperate state of 
 affairs in England ; of the entire ces- 
 sation of business ; the huge rising in 
 Ireland ; and a great Zeppelin raid which 
 had practically destroyed London. They 
 also appeared to show a childish ignorance 
 about the relative position of London and 
 Calais ; they knew that England was separ- 
 ated by a narrow band of water from the 
 coast of France, but seemed perfectly 
 confident that invasion would be easy 
 and that their large guns, if once planted 
 on the coast, would be able to carry to 
 London. 
 
 The Commandant assured me that the 
 fall of Paris was imminent, and that when 
 Paris had fallen France would ask for 
 peace ; that the first term of peace would 
 be immediate surrender of the whole 
 of the French Fleet, which would then be 
 manned by the Germans in order that they 
 might have a large enough Navy to over- 
 
 70 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 whelm the English easily. A sailor prisoner 
 also told me something about the action 
 in the Bay of Heligoland, and said that 
 we had had a naval victory there ; but 
 although three German vessels had been 
 sunk, the damage to the English Fleet 
 was so great that they dared not pub- 
 lish the figures at home. Every one that 
 I spoke to on the subject of the war seemed 
 to be perfectly confident that the German 
 Army would entirely overwhelm France 
 in not more than two months, and would 
 then be able to return and throw their 
 whole weight against the Russians. They 
 all appeared confident of an entirely suc- 
 cessful ending on both flanks within a 
 comparatively short period of three or 
 four months. 
 
 Looking back on this period of my 
 captivity, I can only say that the solitary 
 confinement and the uncertainty of one's 
 fate were exceedingly trying. The dis- 
 cipline was very severe and the food 
 distinctly unpleasant, but yet with the 
 aid of a certain amount of philosophy it 
 was not impossible even at that time to 
 
 7 1 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 get a certain amount of humour out of 
 it. The jailers were never actually brutal, 
 but they had, of course, to obey their 
 orders and preserve the strict regime of 
 the prison. Certain of them were much 
 more easy to deal with than others ; and 
 whereas my chief jailer was very particular 
 about my not holding conversation with 
 the other prisoners, the second jailer, a 
 sailorman himself, would sometimes per- 
 mit me as much as ten or fifteen minutes' 
 conversation with the English-speaking 
 prisoners of German nationality. Except 
 for that slight incident /referred to above, 
 when the Zeppelin passed over, I had 
 never exchanged more than a salutation 
 with Dr. Elliott or the Belgian prisoners. 
 The rigour of treatment seems to have 
 been entirely unnecessary, because, if the 
 first group of officers who had captured 
 us and examined us, had decided that 
 we were not liable to the death penalty, it 
 was impossible for any others, without 
 our papers and without the other evi- 
 dence, to be able to come to a proper 
 decision. To this day I cannot imagine 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 what purpose was served by our imprison- 
 ment and our repeated examinations. 
 However, everything has an end, and on 
 Tuesday, September 8, we started from 
 Cologne to join the captured British and 
 French officers interned at Torgau. 
 
TORGAU 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 TORGAU 
 
 ON Tuesday, September 8, Dr. Elliott 
 and I were roused early and 
 marched again to the main station in 
 Cologne. Our passage through the streets 
 was in marked contrast to our previous 
 experience. We had only one non-com- 
 missioned officer and one private as an 
 escort, and nobody seemed to take any 
 notice, except a few little children. 
 
 On arrival at the station we were per- 
 mitted to purchase what food we liked and 
 obtained a few English books. Here I 
 met a German- American Boy Scout, who 
 told me of all the interesting events of 
 the past fortnight, and asked whether I 
 knew anything about the great revolution 
 in India, the risings in Egypt and the 
 progress of the war in Ireland. 
 
 77 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 We then travelled in comparative com- 
 fort and in a fast train to Magdeburg, 
 where we met a party of seven officers of 
 the R.A.M.C., who had been captured at 
 Mons and had been employed in the Field 
 Hospitals round about tending the British 
 and the German wounded. They had had 
 an exceedingly unpleasant journey, which 
 had lasted already for about seventy hours, 
 and during the whole time they had had only 
 one respectable meal. They told me that 
 they had all been packed close together 
 in a third-class carriage, and had taken 
 turns about, sleeping on the floor and 
 even in the racks, and that they had 
 continually been refused even water by 
 the German Red Cross. At one station 
 an excited man had threatened them 
 with a loaded revolver, but did not actually 
 pull it off. After a very good meal in the 
 restaurant at Magdeburg, the British offi- 
 cers, together with a few French, journeyed 
 in a captured Belgian carriage to Halle 
 and there were given a meal of soup. 
 Here we met a German officer who treated 
 us with the most profound contempt. 
 
 78 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 When asked by one of our party whether he 
 spoke English, he turned to a companion 
 and said: "Nothing so common/ 
 
 Eventually we arrived at Torgau at 
 about four in the morning, and were 
 marched to the prison. As the medical 
 officers had managed to preserve most 
 of their personal outfit, including several 
 field panniers, and as there were no facilities 
 for transport, we were compelled to carry 
 all the luggage. The total distance was 
 about a mile, and the weight was so great 
 that we could not advance more than about 
 one hundred yards at a time without a rest. 
 Many of us became so exhausted with the 
 strain of carrying these panniers that we 
 do not remember arriving at the fort at 
 all. This arrival, occurring as it did 
 in the early hours of the morning, had 
 one great advantage : it saved us from 
 the attentions of the mob, which at that 
 time was very hostile to the captured 
 British officers. After entering the gates 
 of the fort, we were conducted to some 
 rooms, and there found straw palliasses 
 and blankets waiting for us. It was not 
 
 79 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 the utmost luxury, but it was very welcome 
 to many of the party who had not lain 
 down in comfort for four or five days. 
 
 The particular fort in which we were 
 interned is that known as the Briicken- 
 kopf. It was originally constructed by 
 Napoleon the Great to protect the bridge- 
 head over the Elbe, for his great expedi- 
 tion into Russia, and on some of the 
 masonry the date 1812 can still be seen. 
 The fort consists of a large square bounded 
 by a high earthwork with circular bas- 
 tions at each of the angles. Outside the 
 earthwork is a large moat which can be 
 flooded from the Elbe ; during our stay 
 it was dry and protected by barbed 
 wire entanglements. Immediately inside 
 the great earthwork are placed a large 
 number of mobilization and wagon sheds, 
 in which eventually the French officers 
 were quartered. Opposite the entrance 
 is a semicircular two-storeyed building of 
 stone, which was designed to be a sort of 
 keep and last resort for the garrison. 
 Internally this semicircular building was 
 cut up into about forty or fifty rooms ; 
 
 80 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 and for a time all the British officers 
 were in this part of the building living in 
 these rooms each of which contained from 
 twelve to twenty men. On the external 
 surface of the circular fort were passages 
 in which rude tables of wood and trestles 
 were put up. Here the officers messed, 
 generally in parties of about twenty. 
 
 During the first week of our stay only 
 a small courtyard enclosed by this semi- 
 circular fort could be used for exercise, 
 but shortly some 800 French officers were 
 drafted in who had all of them been cap- 
 tured at Maubeuge, and it was necessary 
 to use the wagon sheds at the back, and a 
 large internal parade ground was thrown 
 open. All the large wagon sheds were 
 employed for housing officers and orderlies, 
 except a very large one on the north 
 aspect, which was used by the authorities 
 as a shell factory. Every day about 
 two or three hundred women were con- 
 ducted under escort to this shed and 
 employed in packing the shells, which 
 were continually being carried out in 
 agricultural wagons and sent away. 
 
 81 F 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 The longer we stayed the more active 
 the shell factory became, and before we 
 left it was working in shifts both night 
 and day. Evidently only the packing was 
 done here, for we could see the empty 
 cases being brought into the place. 
 
 Shortly after the arrival of the French it 
 was found that the housing accommodation 
 was not large enough, and several wooden 
 and asbestos sheds were put up with amaz- 
 ing rapidity. In these some eighty of 
 the junior British officers were housed ; 
 but being of recent construction they 
 were exceedingly cold, and for a long time 
 only one small stove was employed in 
 each. Later, several other stoves were 
 inserted, but always the supply of coal 
 was somewhat inadequate to keep all the 
 stoves alight. Others of these wooden 
 sheds were made into large dining-rooms 
 for the French officers ; and this arrange- 
 ment greatly relieved the pressure on the 
 mess tables in the circular fort, which were 
 now given over entirely to the use of the 
 British officers. 
 
 After the main part of the fort was thrown 
 
 83 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 open, it was possible to obtain much more 
 exercise. Instead of being in a very hot 
 and dusty courtyard about one hundred 
 yards long, we had a field which was at 
 
 S"plf^iTS 6V 
 
 least half a mile in circumference. The 
 centre of this field was covered with patchy 
 grass, and very soon a football ground 
 was put up and every afternoon there 
 
 83 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 was a football match of sorts. The Inter- 
 national matches between the French and 
 English always drew good gates, and 
 generally resulted in a win for the Eng- 
 lish. As the ground was very hard and 
 rough, no attempt was made to play Rugby 
 football, but only Association. One day 
 an attempt was made to play the Eton 
 Field game, but as there were not quite 
 enough Etonians to make two complete 
 sides, others, who had never even seen 
 the game played, indulged for the first 
 time in it. The French were highly de- 
 lighted at the formation and manoeuvres 
 of the " ram." 
 
 While at Torgau the British officers 
 were under the direct command of the 
 senior officer present, and this duty de- 
 volved first upon Colonel Gordon, of the 
 Gordon Highlanders, and later upon Colonel 
 Jackson, of the Hampshires. At eleven 
 o'clock every day the officers were paraded 
 in the small courtyard and counted, and 
 the orders for the day were read out by 
 the senior officer of each section. The 
 medical men, of whom there were about 
 
 84 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 thirty-five, formed a special little group 
 by themselves at the extreme left of the 
 line. There were about twenty-five 
 orderlies who had been fetched from the 
 men's camps ; these were distributed as 
 servants to the various messes. 
 
 When we first arrived, the sanitary 
 arrangements were feeling the strain of 
 the large number pretty severely, but 
 very shortly afterwards they were handed 
 over to the mixed control of the British 
 and French medical officers. A sanitary 
 squad was formed which dealt exceed- 
 ingly efficiently with the latrines, and 
 with the heaps of refuse that were the 
 breeding grounds of thousands of flies. 
 The uniform good health of the camp was 
 a striking testimony to the admirable 
 way in which these duties were carried 
 out, especially as the sanitary systems 
 provided precluded the possibility of the 
 immediate removal of water. 
 
 As another sanitary precaution, every 
 officer, both French and English, was 
 vaccinated against smallpox by the Ger- 
 man authorities, because they had had 
 
 85 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 such a terrible lesson in Torgau itself 
 during the war of '70, when many thou- 
 sands of prisoners died in the camp there, 
 owing to an outbreak of that disease. Lists 
 were also prepared of officers who had 
 not been inoculated against typhoid, and 
 steps were being taken to carry out the 
 necessary inoculation, but these had not 
 become effective before we left Torgau. 
 The hospital at Torgau consisted of 
 one of the larger rooms in the circular 
 fort, and there only the more severe cases 
 of illness and the more severely wounded 
 men were placed. There were very few 
 British officers whom it was necessary 
 to place in the hospital itself, but as there 
 were a large number of wounds that had 
 not yet healed, there was a sick parade 
 every morning between nine and ten, 
 when the wounds were dressed and drugs 
 issued. The charge of the wounded offi- 
 cers was undertaken by the British medi- 
 cal officers and the French medical officers 
 respectively ; the German doctors only 
 paid spasmodic and rather hurried visits 
 of inspection. Such cases as required ela- 
 
 86 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 borate apparatus or special instruments 
 for particular operations were transferred 
 to Halle, where they were placed under 
 the control of the University Hospital. 
 Such small operations as it was possible 
 to do at Torgau were performed on the 
 table in the middle of the room, in full 
 
 sight of all the other patients, and of the 
 guard, who used to assemble before the 
 window and take a genuine delight in 
 the proceedings. 
 
 The instruments, apparatus, and chloro- 
 form came out of the British medical pan- 
 niers, an arrangement which saved a great 
 deal of trouble to the medical officers in 
 
 87 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 charge and was of course readily accepted by 
 the German authorities. Many of the drugs 
 required by the officers also came out of the 
 panniers. It was possible to have medicine 
 made up in the town, but they were 
 exceedingly cautious about permitting 
 mixtures containing poisonous alkaloids 
 such as strychnine entering the camp in 
 any quantity. We never found out whether 
 they thought that these might be used 
 for suicidal purposes, or for poisoning the 
 food of the guard. 
 
 One day orders came from the Germans 
 to prepare a list of those officers who were 
 so severely wounded that they would be 
 unable to serve in the campaign again, 
 with a view to exchange of such cases. 
 The necessary list was prepared and sent 
 in to the Germans, but up to the time we 
 were released no steps had been taken to 
 send any of the officers back. 
 
 In the circular fort an excellent bath- 
 room was provided. The water was parti- 
 ally heated, and then distributed by a 
 large number of shower-bath jets in the 
 ceiling. Although it was sometimes densely 
 
 88 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 crowded, it was possible to get an adequate 
 bath every day by timing one's arrival, a 
 privilege of which ' the British officers 
 availed themselves with great thankfulness. 
 Indeed, the old bath attendant, who was 
 always known by the name of " Mossy- 
 face/' was heard to remark one day that 
 if the British officers went on in this 
 reckless fashion none of them would sur- 
 vive the winter. The daily bath was one 
 of the things that made us regret our 
 subsequent removal from Torgau. 
 
 In the circular fort there was also 
 placed the main canteen, where for some 
 time it was possible to purchase white bread 
 and cakes, chocolate, jam, apples, sausages, 
 and even beer. But gradually various 
 articles were cut off, until eventually it 
 was impossible to get true beer, chocolates, 
 white bread and cakes. Up to the end, 
 however, it was always possible to supple- 
 ment the mess with such articles as jam, 
 sardines, sausages and ham. In this can- 
 teen, and in another smaller one, which 
 was situated in the field, one could buy 
 all articles required for toilet purposes, 
 
 89 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 and whatever underclothing was neces- 
 sary. 
 
 On certain stated days in the week, trades- 
 men from the town attended in the Com- 
 mandant's office and took orders for such 
 things as clothes, boots, watches, etc. It 
 was not permitted for any officer to obtain 
 mufti clothing ; if trousers were required 
 they were made of a rather rough khaki- 
 coloured corduroy, with a narrow red 
 band placed down the outer seam. These 
 precautions were of course taken to pre- 
 vent any chance of escape. 
 
 It would have been a matter of extreme 
 difficulty to effect an escape from the fort, 
 and one gentleman who made the attempt 
 paid for it with his life. We were not al- 
 lowed on the battlements of the earthwork, 
 and if one was incautious enough to peep 
 over the top, the sentry in charge of that 
 particular section would bring his rifle 
 to his shoulder with the obvious intention 
 of preventing any further attempt. The 
 moat, as I have said, was occupied by 
 barbed wire entanglements, and we were 
 told that among these there was a high- 
 go 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 power live wire. In various prominent 
 places inside and outside the fort, large 
 arc lamps were employed to prevent escape 
 under cover of darkness. 
 
 Considering the very large number of 
 officers present, the guard employed was 
 comparatively small ; but only a few men 
 were really necessary, because of these other 
 precautions. They were of course always 
 armed with loaded rifles, but it was not 
 considered necessary at Torgau to carry 
 fixed bayonets. The guard-house was 
 placed next the entrance, exactly facing 
 the centre of the semicircular fort. For 
 a short time we were guarded by some 
 boys, aged about fifteen or sixteen ; and it 
 was always wise to keep well away from 
 these youngsters, because you never knew 
 which way they were going to point the 
 rifle next. 
 
 For the first three or four weeks the 
 officers were not permitted to communicate 
 with their friends and relations in England 
 in any way whatsoever ; and this naturally 
 gave rise to a good deal of ill-feeling, 
 because it was felt that the restriction 
 
 91 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 was unnecessary, and could only give 
 rise to grave anxiety at home. The first 
 method by which we were enabled to com- 
 municate home was a little peculiar. 
 The Commandant suggested one day that 
 it would be a tactful act on the part of 
 the British officers to subscribe to the 
 German Red Cross Society, but the sugges- 
 tion was at first received distinctly coldly, 
 owing to the experience that many of 
 them had received at the hands of the 
 Red Cross workers on the railway. 
 
 However, some one suggested that if 
 we gave cheques for sums ranging about 
 i the Germans might take the trouble, in 
 order to get the money, to send these 
 cheques to England, and it would thereby 
 be possible to let our relations know that 
 we were alive. This manoeuvre was car- 
 ried out by practically every officer ; and 
 as it was illegal to pay money to the 
 Germans directly, the cheques were drawn 
 on an Amsterdam bank, with requests to 
 notify our families written across the 
 cheques. 
 
 The method was entirely successful, and 
 
 92 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 in many cases these cheques were not only 
 the first intimation that certain officers were 
 alive, but also of a few cases in which they 
 had actually been reported as officially 
 dead. The address which we wrote on the 
 top of the cheque was cut out. The German 
 Red Cross Society benefited to the extent 
 of nearly 100 by this scheme, but it was 
 well worth the money. Two or three weeks 
 after this we were permitted to write on 
 post cards which we purchased for a half- 
 penny apiece, the proceeds of the sale being 
 employed for the benefit of the Red Cross 
 Society in Torgau. A little later again 
 we were allowed to write letters, but never 
 more than one letter or two post cards 
 each week. 
 
 During our stay at Torgau, all officers 
 of the rank of captain and upwards were 
 paid one hundred marks by the German 
 Government, while the junior officers 
 received sixty. All the medical officers, 
 irrespective of their rank, were paid one 
 hundred. Of this one hundred marks, 
 between forty-five and fifty was at once 
 absorbed in paying for the messing, while 
 
 93 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 the junior officers had to contribute about 
 thirty-five. The money that was left over 
 came in useful for purchasing extra food, 
 tobacco, clothes, etc., but was never quite 
 sufficient for everything one required ; 
 consequently most officers took steps to 
 obtain money from home, through their 
 bank by money orders, or by International 
 arrangement with the American Consul, or 
 Embassy. 
 
 A considerable proportion of the money 
 that left England never reached its desti- 
 nation, but such money as arrived at 
 Torgau was credited to the officers in 
 the books of the Commandant's office, 
 and they were permitted to draw certain 
 limited sums every week, or to indent 
 upon their account for more important 
 purchases such as boots. Some of the 
 junior officers, having only twenty-five 
 marks pocket-money for a whole month, 
 soon got seriously embarrassed, and for a 
 time the senior officers instituted a sort 
 of loan office to assist them. In contrast 
 to the English officers, the French officers 
 had a considerable quantity of private 
 
 94 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 money, which they had brought with 
 them from Maubeuge. 
 
 When we first arrived at Torgau the 
 messing arrangements were in the hands 
 of the Germans, but very shortly after- 
 wards the French took entire charge of 
 the kitchen and supplied all the messes, 
 the British officers merely paying for their 
 share. The goods were obtained by con- 
 tract from outside, and often in very 
 large quantities. Breakfast was served 
 at eight o'clock, consisting of coffee, bread, 
 and a ration of butter, which we always 
 supplemented with such delicacies as Ger- 
 man sausage, sardines, jam, etc. 
 
 The main meal of the day, at half- 
 past twelve, consisted generally of a piece 
 of boiled pork, and occasionally mutton, 
 floating in a vegetable soup ; potatoes 
 were plentiful, and officers had to take 
 turns in the early morning at peeling 
 the potatoes necessary for the day. After 
 a time this was found to work very un- 
 satisfactorily, and the orderlies were made 
 to peel the potatoes or else the potatoes 
 were boiled in their skins, a method that 
 
 95 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 everybody seemed to prefer. The evening 
 meal, served about seven, consisted of a 
 vegetable soup and a ration of herb beer. 
 This particular form of drink was peculiarly 
 nasty, and a large number of us used to 
 make our own tea or purchase a cup of 
 coffee in the canteen. After a time we 
 became almost luxurious in the number 
 of extras that we purchased, and with 
 the help of frying-pans and spirit stoves 
 were enabled to put up excellent little 
 suppers of broiled ham or fried sardines. 
 The amount of exercise that one was 
 able to take was never sufficient to keep 
 the men quite fit, in spite of football, 
 gymnastic classes and some tennis courts 
 that were erected by the French upon a 
 dry patch. There was a general tendency 
 to grow distinctly stouter, but this was 
 partially counteracted by an order for- 
 bidding the consumption of chocolate. 
 Taking the food as a whole it was very 
 monotonous and rather greasy, but there 
 was generally plenty of it. The meat 
 ration sometimes ran short, and it was 
 well not to be late for luncheon. With a 
 
 96 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 certain knowledge of German, and if one 
 happened to be blessed with the necessary 
 money it was possible to get chops and 
 steaks and other delicacies brought in 
 by the workers in the canteen. Alcohol 
 was strictly forbidden, but every now and 
 again a few bottles of rum would find 
 their way into the camp, never however in 
 sufficient quantity to constitute a danger. 
 
 The British officers formed a circulating 
 library, and it was always possible to get 
 any number of the Tauchnitz books in 
 English and in French. There was no 
 lack of reading material, but there was a 
 tendency for other people to borrow 
 your book before you had finished with it, 
 and if anyone lost a volume that he had 
 brought out, he had nothing to exchange 
 for another. But in spite of certain irre- 
 gularities the system worked well ; many 
 books also were sent to officers from home, 
 and generally arrived safely. 
 
 We were always allowed to take in the 
 German newspapers, and for a short time 
 by the courtesy of a highly placed gentle- 
 man, a few copies of The Times and some 
 
 97 G 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 illustrated English papers drifted into the 
 camp. Thus we were enabled to read 
 Sir John French's dispatches up to the 
 end of the first battle of the Aisne, but 
 at the other camps where we have been 
 to it has always been impossible to obtain 
 English newspapers. The German news- 
 papers on the whole contained very little 
 information, and whenever there was any- 
 thing approaching a German reverse it 
 was published two or three days later as 
 an unconfirmed report from London, Rome, 
 or elsewhere. Most of the papers con- 
 sisted of articles aimed at England, and 
 were in many of their facts and in their 
 expressions of hate somewhat grotesque 
 and amusing reading. There was never, 
 however, any attempt to disguise the loss 
 of German ships, and we obtained fairly 
 good accounts of the Heligoland fight 
 and of the Battle of the Falkland 
 Islands. 
 
 The medical officers, both French and 
 English, united to protest against their cap- 
 tivity. It was pointed out that it was 
 illegal according to the laws of war to 
 
 98 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 retain medical officers unless they were 
 put to do some special work ; in spite of 
 which there were a large number in the 
 camps who were being treated precisely as 
 combatants. 
 
 These protests were accepted by the 
 Commandant, but we were never able to 
 ascertain whether they ever went any 
 further. The only answer that was ever 
 given was that the medical officers were 
 not prisoners of war, but that it was 
 necessary to keep them in the fort because 
 the authorities could not guarantee ade- 
 quate guards if the medical men wished to 
 walk outside. In the early stages, at all 
 events, the attitude of the populace at 
 Torgau was so distinctly unpleasant that 
 I never met anyone who wished to go 
 for a stroll in the town. 
 
 While at Torgau we had a series of Com- 
 mandants ; some were gentlemen, others 
 were not, and every now and again the 
 British officers were compelled to listen to 
 communications from the authorities that 
 could only be described as grossly offensive. 
 There was, however, one particular German 
 
 99 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 officer who had been Colonel of the Torgau 
 Regiment No. 72, and had himself been 
 wounded at the Battle of Le Cateau, 
 who used to come in during his convales- 
 cence and discuss the tactical movements 
 and the results of their action in a perfectly 
 friendly way with officers who had been 
 captured there. He afterwards went with 
 the remains of his regiment to Poland and 
 there disappeared. We never heard whether 
 he was killed or taken prisoner, but his 
 loss was genuinely felt among his friends 
 in the camp. 
 
 We were enabled to obtain playing 
 cards, chessmen, or any other recognized 
 game, and a positively vast amount of 
 bridge was played, especially in the evening. 
 It was generally impossible to play for 
 ready money, and in most cases rather 
 complicated books of loss and gain were 
 kept, to be settled after the war. The 
 French put up an extremely elaborate 
 race-course, and every day there was a 
 meeting, and it was possible to back your 
 favourite on the pari-mutuel system. The 
 horses were given handicaps according to 
 
 100 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 their previous record, and the race was 
 worked by dice throwing. This became 
 an extremely popular method of passing 
 the afternoon, but unless one happened 
 to be early it was difficult to get a view 
 of the race. 
 
 It was always necessary to be in one's 
 room at nine o'clock at night, when the 
 lights were put out. For the first six 
 weeks we slept on palliasses of straw on 
 the floor ; but after the new sheds had 
 been erected, and there was more accom- 
 modation, every officer was provided with 
 a small iron bedstead. Some of these 
 were mere frameworks, and some had a 
 plank base, on which we placed our straw 
 mattresses. Two blankets and the old 
 familiar sack, one sheet, and an exceedingly 
 hard, small and uncomfortable straw-stuffed 
 pillow, completed the outfit. The sheets, 
 the bag, and the pillow-case were changed 
 once a month, together with a towel which 
 was also provided. We had to be particu- 
 larly careful to have the exact number 
 of these articles ready for the non-com- 
 missioned officers on the day of the change, 
 
 101 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 otherwise we were liable to pay for any 
 deficiency. 
 
 Looking back on Torgau, I consider it 
 much the most comfortable of the camps 
 that I lived in. I myself had a small 
 room which I shared with three other 
 officers only, and it was possible to obtain 
 periods of peace and quiet boons that 
 we never enjoyed after leaving Torgau. 
 We had an orderly attached to us who 
 lived in a little crack outside the door of 
 our room, and was consequently always 
 handy for anything that was required ; 
 in fact he used to get up and make us tea 
 before breakfast in bed as long as we were 
 able to obtain tea at the canteen. I spent 
 my time partly in the hospital, partly 
 in walking round and round for exercise, 
 and largely in playing bridge. There was 
 of course a perpetual sense of restriction, 
 and we often used to wish that we could 
 go for a walk along the banks of the Elbe 
 when the weather was fine ; but after a 
 time most of us became perfectly indifferent 
 and just led the trivial life from day to 
 day. It is extraordinary how busy it is 
 
 102 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 possible to be day after day when you have 
 absolutely nothing to do. 
 
 There was always at Torgau a per- 
 sistent optimism among the British officers 
 as to the successful termination of the 
 war, and for a long time a general im- 
 pression that the war would be over soon. 
 The impression is still persistent among 
 the prisoners, although I am afraid they 
 have but little to base their idea upon. 
 When the order at length came on Novem- 
 ber 24 that the British officers were to be 
 shifted, I left Torgau with a genuine regret, 
 largely a selfish one, because I felt sure 
 that I could never again, while a prisoner, 
 be so comfortable as I was in the small 
 room at Torgau. Unfortunately my fore- 
 boding turned out to be correct. 
 
 At Torgau in the top rooms of one of 
 the wagon-sheds which were not occupied 
 by officers, the French had constructed a 
 very large and fine church, with the most 
 elaborate altar. Next door to this, by 
 the unremitting energy of Padre O'Rorke, 
 an Army Chaplain, who had also been 
 captured, an English church was erected. 
 
 103 
 
EXPERIENCES AS GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 The altar was draped with dark hangings 
 and lighted with two candles, and made a 
 simple but very effective picture. We 
 used to have services twice a day on Sunday 
 and choir practices nearly every day. 
 
 
 104 
 
BURG 
 
CHAPTER V 
 BURG 
 
 TOWARDS the end of November we 
 were suddenly informed that it had 
 been decided to remove all the British 
 prisoners to another camp situated at 
 Burg, a few miles north of Magdeburg. 
 We never clearly understood why this 
 change took place, but were under the 
 impression that it was part of a scheme 
 to mix up the officers of the various nation- 
 alities, in order that no one country could 
 claim that their officers were in any way 
 worse treated than the others. 
 
 We departed for Burg in two parties, 
 the first on November 25 and the second 
 the day after. By the time we had packed, 
 we discovered that we had collected a 
 gigantic amount of luggage, mainly con- 
 
 107 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 sisting of the necessary outfits of plates, 
 cups, etc., belonging to each of the messes, 
 and this luggage was a perpetual source 
 of trouble during our various transits. 
 We formed up on the parade ground at 
 Torgau, said good-bye to our many French 
 friends, and marched to the station, carry- 
 ing a considerable quantity of the lug- 
 gage, while the rest came on in a large 
 wagon. 
 
 Only a very short time was permitted 
 for us to arrange ourselves in the train 
 which we found waiting at the station, 
 and a large quantity of the heavier luggage 
 had therefore to be abandoned. This 
 eventually came through to Burg ten or 
 twelve days later ; but as we had no mess 
 system, and all utensils, etc., were pro- 
 vided by the German authorities, most of 
 the material was quite useless. 
 
 After a very slow journey we reached 
 Burg about eleven o'clock at night, and 
 were marched rather hurriedly along a 
 half -frozen road, followed by a gently 
 mocking crowd, who had in fact been 
 informed that we were a fresh lot of 
 
 1 08 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 prisoners, just taken in the fighting on the 
 Ypres Canal. Some of the rear ranks 
 had rather a rough time, and any officer 
 who happened to fall out was liable to 
 be assisted along the road by a not 
 too gentle push with the butt end of a 
 rifle. 
 
 Eventually we turned into a narrow 
 courtyard between two rows of wagon - 
 houses and were drawn up in fours awaiting 
 distribution to the various rooms. The 
 first order from the Germans that came 
 down the line was " Irish Roman Catholics 
 fall out/ and such officers as answered to 
 this description left the ranks and dis- 
 appeared. The rest of us were then broken 
 up into groups of about ten or more and 
 distributed to the various rooms on the 
 ground floor and on the first floor of the 
 wagon-houses. There we found that we 
 were to share the rooms with Russian 
 officers who had already been there for 
 several months. Most of the Russian 
 officers were in bed by the time we arrived 
 and showed some apprehension at the 
 arrival of the English. They had been 
 
 109 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 told by the Germans that the English 
 officers were savage and dirty, and would 
 beat them, and break the windows to get 
 fresh air. 
 
 The prison at Burg consists of about 
 five large wagon- and ammunition-sheds 
 arranged in pairs facing one another across 
 a rather narrow and very damp parade 
 ground. The total length of this parade 
 ground is about 160 yards and the breadth 
 about thirty. In the middle of the parade 
 ground is a small brick and wooden shanty 
 with accommodation for about thirty men 
 at its extreme limit. This was made into 
 a canteen and run by several ladies from 
 the town, and it was possible to obtain here 
 really nice food by ordering it the day 
 before and booking a place at the table. 
 It was quite impossible for everybody to 
 have a meal here every day ; but when 
 one was fortunate enough to get a place, 
 an excellently cooked beefsteak, fried pota- 
 toes, and genuine coffee were obtainable 
 at a quite cheap rate. 
 
 In addition to this canteen there was 
 another and larger one placed next the 
 
 no 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 guard-house, which was situated between 
 two of the wagon-sheds on the right-hand 
 side of the parade ground. There was much 
 
 more room in this canteen, but the supplies 
 were not of such good quality as in the 
 small one ; but still it was generally possible 
 
 in 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 to get a cup of coffee or chocolate at any 
 time of the day. The waiter who looked 
 after this canteen was a lad of about 
 sixteen, who spoke English. Just before 
 the outbreak of the war he had been a 
 messenger boy in the Savoy Hotel, London, 
 and was firmly determined to apply there 
 again for his situation after the war was 
 over, although he was informed by the 
 Englishmen that his chances of employ- 
 ment were somewhat slight. 
 
 The outside wall round the wagon-sheds 
 consisted mostly of wooden barricades 
 with barbed wire protections, and of such 
 a height that it was impossible to see over 
 them ; but from the second-storey windows 
 of the sheds one could get a comprehensive 
 view of an exceedingly dreary stretch of 
 country, and of the outskirts of the city 
 of Burg. Over the palisade at the entrance 
 to the prison, the inhabitants used to mount 
 on carts and trees to stare at the prisoners, 
 but if they made any noise they were 
 hustled away by the sentries in charge of 
 the gate. 
 
 Most of the rooms in which we slept 
 
 112 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 were large and contained about twelve 
 British officers and eight or nine Russians. 
 At first the two nationalities slept on the 
 opposite sides of the room ; but later 
 an order was given out that they were 
 to arrange the beds so as to mix up the 
 nationalities alternately, Russian, English 
 Russian, English. This was in the main 
 carried out, and led to a little grumbling, 
 but more laughter. The Irishmen who 
 had been selected from the ranks were 
 placed in a larger and more airy room 
 than the others, and were not mixed with 
 the Allied officers. On the day after their 
 arrival they were each of them examined 
 by German officers and were asked whether 
 they would care to serve with the Ger- 
 man Army against England ! 
 
 In spite of the indignant refusals of the 
 " rebel ' ' officers they were still given certain 
 minor privileges and were not required to 
 be mixed with the Russians. We under- 
 stood that the same trick had been at- 
 tempted upon the Russians, when certain 
 officers from the Caucasus who happened 
 to be Mohammedans were asked whether 
 
 113 H 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 they would take their liberty and act as 
 emissaries for the Holy War. These Rus- 
 sian gentlemen were particularly indignant 
 at the idea that they would be willing 
 to act against the Tsar. The German 
 officers told us that in one of the battles a 
 certain Irish regiment had turned upon the 
 Scottish Borderers and had shot down the 
 " notorious Major Haig/" who was respon- 
 sible for the order to fire on the innocent 
 citizens of Dublin in the riots before the 
 war. The humour of this statement was 
 immediately perceived by all the officers, 
 because as a matter of fact the gallant 
 major was one of the prisoners of Burg. 
 The attempt to undermine the loyalty of 
 the Irish officers was immediately aban- 
 doned by the Germans, but they still kept 
 them separate and unmixed in their special 
 room. 
 
 The feeding arrangements at Burg were 
 entirely in the hands of the Germans, 
 and we ate in the rooms in which we lived. 
 For breakfast there was the usual German 
 coffee, two little white rolls, and a ration 
 of butter. For luncheon we had a plate 
 
 114 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 of soup, and then after an interval, often 
 of an hour, we had pork and potatoes 
 in some form or another ; very often the 
 pork consisted of roast chops, which were 
 among the best articles of diet that I 
 met in the various places that I visited 
 in Germany. For supper we used to 
 have cheese, a slice of sausage, or an 
 underdone fish, and it was not infrequently 
 necessary to supplement this evening 
 meal. 
 
 We slept on the same sort of little iron 
 bedsteads as were provided at Torgau and 
 were served out with the same quantity of 
 bedclothes ; but the bag was white instead 
 of blue, and consequently much more 
 difficult to keep clean. There was a very 
 strenuous command forbidding us to sit 
 or lie down upon the beds during the day, 
 or even to put any articles of clothing 
 on the bed. 
 
 The courtyard, as I have said, was 
 unpleasantly narrow, and very wet in the 
 middle, so that it was only possible to 
 get the necessary exercise by wandering 
 up and down the edges, where aths of 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 cinder and gravel were on a slightly higher 
 level than the general swamp. 
 
 Gymnastic classes still continued for those 
 of the officers who felt inclined to use them, 
 and were a source of considerable interest, 
 not only to the Russians, but to the various 
 German officers and officials who visited 
 the camp. 
 
 As a contrast to Torgau, the British 
 senior officers no longer held parades or 
 issued the orders for the British, but every 
 day, on the ringing of a large cracked 
 bell, it was necessary for the officers to 
 sort themselves out and take up their 
 position in their own room, to await the 
 rounds of the Commandant or his substitute 
 for the purpose of counting. We used to 
 find that this process was rather a nuisance, 
 because it often meant staying in one's 
 room for an hour or more before the 
 official arrived, and one never knew at 
 what time of day the summons would 
 come. 
 
 The hospital at first was in the charge 
 of a German surgeon who came up from 
 the town, but after a day or two he appar- 
 
 116 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 ently got tired of seeing the same cases, 
 and it was again handed over to the British 
 medical officers, who were able to do such 
 dressings and minor operations as were 
 required without any interference on the 
 part of the German medical authorities. 
 
 The bathing arrangements were inade- 
 quate for the large number of officers 
 present, consisting as they did of four 
 lie-down baths supplied with hot water 
 from two geysers. One had to limit one- 
 self to one bath a week, and it was not 
 always easy to get even that much, but 
 by choosing one's time carefully it was 
 possible to get a very hot bath. 
 
 An officers' library was re-formed ; an 
 attempt to reconstruct a church was also 
 made, and the ordinary incidents of prison 
 life, the walk, the meals, and the bridge, 
 continued day by day in the same old 
 monotonous round. 
 
 The change from Torgau to Burg im- 
 mediately upset all our correspondence, 
 and many of us did not get our letters 
 till nearly a month after ; but on a certain 
 day at Burg there was a gigantic distribu- 
 
 117 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 tion of parcels, which must have been the 
 accumulation of many weeks at Torgau. 
 These parcels were opened by their owners 
 in the presence of German non-com- 
 
 /A RED LETTER DAY OCCASIONALLY 
 PARCELS FOR PRISONERS FILTER THROUGH TO 
 
 missioned officers ; and chocolate and other 
 things that they felt that they would 
 like had to be surrendered. 
 
 118 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 One day we were called upon to deliver 
 up our money, and this when surrendered 
 was entered in a large account book, kept 
 in the special office. It was possible 
 to draw on this to the extent of ten 
 shillings a day. During our stay the same 
 rate of pay as we had received at Torgau 
 was continued. 
 
 We were much more heavily guarded 
 at Burg than at Torgau. The guards 
 always carried fixed bayonets, and would 
 interfere with any officers who walked or 
 talked in groups after dark. Eventu- 
 ally a definite order was made that if 
 officers wished to pass from room to 
 room after dark they must go rapidly 
 and singly. We were generally shut into 
 our rooms about nine o'clock at night, and 
 it was necessary to have the lights out 
 by ten o'clock ; but by a little judicious 
 arrangement with the Russians, most of 
 us were able to manage to get one window 
 open during the night for the purposes 
 of ventilation. We had always heard that 
 the Russians liked to have the interior 
 of the rooms very hot, especially at night. 
 
 119 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 But although at first there was some 
 slight opposition to the fresh air, we soon 
 found that they were willing to meet us 
 with a compromise of one open window. 
 
 Every now and again at Burg we were 
 visited by the General, who used to come 
 and inspect the canteens and the living- 
 room. He required all officers to stand 
 
 120 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 to attention on his arrival, and was always 
 most indignant if he found any disorder 
 in the rooms, and especially if the beds 
 were not scrupulously tidy and entirely 
 free from clothes, papers, etc., which we 
 were apt to throw upon them. 
 
 As in all the prisons we were confined 
 in, the actual Commandant was always 
 frightened of the officers above him, and 
 treated them with almost servile respect. 
 Occasionally also we noticed that after the 
 departure of the General, the Commandant 
 would himself do a tour and find fault 
 with something, apparently just to show 
 that he really had some authority. 
 
 On December 5 we were suddenly in- 
 formed that we were again on the move, and 
 the officers were divided into five roughly 
 equal parties, of which one was to stay 
 at Burg, one was to go to Halle, and the 
 other three to different camps at Magde- 
 burg. We were paraded early on December 
 6 and marched in pouring rain to the 
 Burg station, where we stood in the open 
 for well over an hour. When, thoroughly 
 soaked, we were at last admitted into the 
 
 121 
 
EXPERIENCES AS GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 shelter of the station, we took train to 
 our various destinations. 
 
 Some of the officers seemed to prefer 
 Burg to the original situation at Torgau, 
 but the general opinion was that we had 
 changed for the worse, except that the food 
 supplied was rather more tasty. The bath 
 especially was badly missed, and the exer- 
 cise ground was inadequate to the number 
 of officers. 
 
 122 
 
MAGDEBURG 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 MAGDEBURG 
 
 WE reached Magdeburg at about mid- 
 day on December 6, and were 
 paraded in the large station, and divided 
 up into four groups. 
 
 The first remained in the station, and 
 eventually reached Halle ; the second were 
 marched off to the citadel ; while the rest, 
 together with about one hundred Russians, 
 marched for several miles along the forti- 
 fications on the south side of the city, and 
 eventually reached two camps known as 
 the Cavalier Scharnhorst and the Wagon- 
 haus 9 respectively. 
 
 The Cavalier Scharnhorst is an almost 
 circular barracks with earthworks and 
 positions for guns on the roof of the build- 
 ing, and forms part of the outer defences 
 of Magdeburg. Wagonhaus 9 is a large 
 
 125 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 rectangular building of three storeys and 
 built to hold mobilization wagons and har- 
 ness. These two buildings face one another 
 somewhat obliquely across a large parade 
 ground, but the prisoners could not com- 
 municate with each other, because only 
 comparatively small portions of the parade 
 ground were cut off by barbed wire en- 
 tanglements, so as to limit the exercise 
 ground for each group of the prisoners. 
 However, the prisoners were able to com- 
 municate in several ways, because the sick 
 from the Scharnhorst had to attend the 
 hospital which was situated in the Wagon- 
 haus, and once a week the inhabitants 
 of the Wagonhaus were taken across the 
 parade ground in little groups by a non- 
 commissioned officer to indulge in the 
 luxury of a bath which was placed in one 
 of the outworks in the moat of the Scharn- 
 horst. And although one was not supposed 
 to stay long in the other barrack, it was 
 not impossible to meet one's friends and 
 talk to them for an hour or so and wait 
 for the next batch that returned under 
 the usual escort. 
 
 136 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 In the Wagonhaus 9, in which I found 
 myself, there were some 360 officers, of 
 whom, roughly, half were Belgian, and the 
 rest equal numbers of Russian, French and 
 English. They were all mixed up and 
 uniformly distributed in the rooms, the 
 senior officers having comparatively small 
 rooms, containing only eight or nine occu- 
 pants, while the main number of officers 
 were in large rooms with twenty to forty 
 occupants. 
 
 The parade ground available for this 
 large number of officers was only 100 
 yards by 40, with a small rectangular 
 offshoot in which the necessary sanitary 
 arrangements had been erected. The 
 ground floor of the building, which at one 
 time had obviously been used for stables 
 and was roughly paved with large cobbles, 
 was entirely empty and unused, but the 
 whole of the rest of the building was 
 tightly packed. 
 
 The rooms were constructed by dividing 
 up the wagon-shed with thin plank par- 
 titions, leaving a long passage at the back, 
 with doors communicating to each room, 
 
 127 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 V 
 
 a method which made the obtaining of 
 anything like decent ventilation through 
 the rooms exceedingly difficult, because 
 when the door was shut the back of the 
 room was absolutely closed, and contained 
 no windows. In the particular room in 
 which I lived there were some twenty-five 
 officers ; the beds were arranged down 
 each side of the room and were placed in 
 couples, close against one another, with 
 narrow intervals between each pair, to 
 enable the owners to get into them. The 
 centre of the room was occupied by two 
 stoves, one at each end, and the necessary 
 wash-basin, etc., in between. Four tables 
 were placed across the front of the room 
 near the windows, and the different nation- 
 alities were allotted a particular table each 
 for their meals. Every officer was pro- 
 vided with one chair, and in addition there 
 was a four-legged stool between two. 
 
 The beds were precisely the same as we 
 had been familiar with before, and in 
 addition to the usual bedclothes a rough 
 towel and a hand basin were served out to 
 each officer. 
 
 128 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 The heavy work and the necessary clean- 
 ing up of the room were done by captive 
 orderlies. The usual arrangement was to 
 have one French, one Russian, and one 
 English soldier attached to each of the 
 large rooms. Their duties began about 
 six o'clock in the morning, when they 
 arrived to make up the stoves, after 
 which they brought up the breakfast about 
 eight o'clock, and immediately began the 
 somewhat arduous business of cleaning 
 up. The beds were all drawn out into 
 the middle of the room, and the floor 
 thoroughly swept behind the beds every 
 day, except on one particular day in the 
 week, on which, by the aid of a certain 
 number of captured civilian Russian Poles, 
 the whole place was thoroughly washed. 
 
 After the room had been tidied up and 
 the beds made, we settled down to the 
 ordinary routine, with which we were now 
 so familiar. The walk round the parade 
 ground, the game of chess, the struggle 
 to learn the languages, and almost inces- 
 sant bridge, made up the usual routine. 
 
 Immediately after our arrival at Magde- 
 
 129 i 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 burg we were told that it was necessary 
 for us to give up all our money, and on 
 the next day we were drawn up and gave 
 in such German money as we happened 
 to have left, for which we received a 
 receipt. We were informed at the same 
 time that it was not possible for prisoners 
 to have any money, but that we would 
 be paid in tokens, representing a penny, 
 instead of actual cash. The rate of wages 
 was calculated on the old basis of 100 
 marks a month for senior officers. By 
 the time the messing was paid for, the 
 senior officers received eighteen tokens 
 for each day, and the junior officers five 
 tokens. 
 
 The medical officers, who up till now 
 had been on the higher rate of pay, sud- 
 denly found themselves reduced to the 
 lower, entirely irrespective of rank or 
 position ; and in spite of protests no ex- 
 planation of this sudden fall in our fortunes 
 was given to us. Personally, I found that 
 the fivepence a day was not sufficient to 
 buy such extras as I required, and it was 
 necessary to borrow numbers of these 
 
 130 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 tokens from senior officers, who always 
 had a sufficiency of them. In addition 
 we used occasionally to play poker with 
 these tokens, and many a day I would lose 
 the whole of the issue for the next five or 
 six days ; on the other hand, I occasion- 
 ally would win enough to make me quite 
 solvent. 
 
 Shortly after we had delivered up our 
 money, an officer was rash enough to 
 change a high value note in the canteen, 
 and this was the origin of a proceeding 
 which was greatly resented by the officers. 
 
 One evening we were informed that the 
 whole of the officers were going to leave 
 Magdeburg next day for a destination un- 
 known, and many wild rumours ran through 
 the camp to try and discover a reason for 
 this sudden shift. We packed up our 
 goods and took down the little shelves 
 and nails which had been erected by each 
 of the officers above their respective beds, 
 and after a hurried cup of coffee about 
 five o'clock in the morning were paraded 
 by nationalities in the courtyard. The 
 heavy luggage had all been packed up, and 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 was placed on a wagon and wheeled out 
 into the middle of the courtyard by a 
 group of the Russian Poles. No horses 
 were supplied, and the wagon was almost 
 immediately unpacked again and the lug- 
 gage distributed according to which group 
 of officers it happened to belong. 
 
 After this there was a full roll call, and 
 then we were marched off into various 
 sheds in the immediate neighbourhood, 
 where we sat down and patiently waited 
 for a considerable time for developments. 
 Suddenly a large number of tables were 
 placed across the sheds and German officers 
 and German guards arrived in consider- 
 able number. We were then informed that 
 it was necessary for all the officers to yield 
 up their private valuables, such as rings, 
 watches, cigarette cases, field-glasses, and 
 English gold, if they happened to have 
 any. The senior officers were investigated 
 first, and made to declare upon their word 
 of honour that they had no further valu- 
 ables upon them. All the articles yielded 
 up were sealed by the officers themselves 
 in envelopes, and the word of honour of 
 
 132 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 a German officer was given that those 
 envelopes would remain sealed and be 
 returned to the officer at the termination 
 of the war. In spite of this "word of 
 honour ' we know that the packets were 
 opened quite shortly afterwards, the Eng- 
 
 ^ 
 
 lish sovereigns extracted and German paper 
 put in instead. Such officers who refused 
 their word of honour with regard to the 
 valuables were searched personally, and 
 their baggage was ransacked. 
 
 The medical officers, of whom there 
 were ten among this group of English 
 
 133 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 officers, protested against the whole pro- 
 ceeding, declaring that they were not 
 prisoners of war, and that the Germans 
 had no right to personal belongings, how- 
 ever valuable. The medical officers were 
 then searched, but the investigation was 
 by no means thorough, and the German 
 non-commissioned officer who examined 
 us t ; apologized for his action, and excused 
 himself by saying that he was only obeying 
 orders. After this somewhat undignified 
 proceeding, which had altogether occupied 
 about five hours, we marched back again 
 to our old rooms and proceeded somewhat 
 savagely to unpack, and to reconstruct 
 the shelves and put up the hooks which 
 we had taken down that morning. 
 
 A few days after this, owing to vigorous 
 protest by the senior officers of the various 
 nations, wedding rings were restored to 
 the officers, but it was not possible for them 
 to get their watches back. They were, 
 however, permitted to purchase cheap 
 watches from the merchants who came in, 
 if they felt inclined to. 
 
 About a week later some officer, appar- 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 ently a Russian, again betrayed the fact 
 that he still had some money, and so the 
 whole process was repeated, but this time 
 in an even more undignified manner. 
 The doors of our rooms were suddenly 
 locked about eight o'clock in the morning ; 
 sentries were posted, and every officer 
 was searched personally and had his bag- 
 gage thoroughly examined by experts pro- 
 vided by the police. A few more valu- 
 ables were obtained by this means, but 
 the Germans seemed to be distinctly dis- 
 appointed at the comparatively small haul 
 made. After that there were continual 
 rumours that we were going to be searched 
 again, and preparations were being made 
 to avoid the discovery of what little was 
 left to us, but when I left, the process 
 had not been repeated. 
 
 No reasonable explanation was ever 
 given to us for the removal of our 
 private property. The Germans stated 
 that it was necessary for them to take 
 charge of it in case we lost it, but we 
 always had a suspicion that they at- 
 tempted to remove all the valuables to 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 prevent the possible bribing of sentries 
 or other agents who might for a sufficient 
 consideration organize an escape. It was 
 
 suggested that the Government wished to 
 get hold of every piece of gold in the 
 country to strengthen their war fund, and 
 
 136 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 that there was a chance of the watches 
 and rings, etc., being melted down into 
 coinage. Just before I left, however, de- 
 
 tailed receipts of the articles yielded 
 were given to each of the officers, and 
 they were informed again that the 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 packets would be kept until the end of 
 the war. Whatever the motive may 
 have been, the whole proceeding gave rise 
 to very great indignation, because it is 
 recognized by The Hague Convention that 
 the private property of a captured officer 
 is .his own, and that the captors have no 
 right to remove such property. From 
 the beginning of the war, both in this 
 sort of way and in the treatment of the 
 medical officers, we did not always find 
 that the Germans closely adhered to the 
 rules to which they themselves were of 
 the contracting parties. 
 
 The food supplied at Magdeburg was very 
 similar to that which we had at Burg, 
 and largely consisted of pork and potatoes 
 for luncheon, and herrings or slices of 
 sausage and ham for the evening meal. 
 The bread was that which is known as the 
 " war bread/' which is made half of potato 
 flour, and is of a light brown colour and 
 a rather stodgy consistency. It is not 
 exactly unpleasant, but it is dull, especi- 
 ally as we had nothing to put on it except 
 some rather tasteless margarine and some 
 
 138 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 coarse jam, whenever the canteen people 
 took sufficient trouble to get in supplies 
 of the same. 
 
 For a time here again we were allowed to 
 have white rolls for breakfast, but owing 
 to an indiscreet and unsuccessful attempt 
 by three Belgian officers to escape from 
 the camps, the privilege of white bread 
 was officially cut off from all the other 
 prisoners. 
 
 The canteen was small and rather dirty, 
 and the supply of eatables capable of being 
 used to supplement our diet was very small, 
 and rather expensive. 
 
 It was possible to purchase tea and 
 coffee at various times during the day, 
 but the quality of these was not very 
 high. The only form of food that we 
 found in greater profusion at Magdeburg 
 than at the other camps was eggs, and 
 generally we managed to get a, not always 
 quite fresh, egg for breakfast. Here, as 
 in other camps, there was always enough 
 food, and apparently an unlimited supply 
 of pork and potatoes. Every now and 
 again we had some tough-looking meat 
 
 139 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 which we were pretty certain was horse, 
 but even this came as a pleasant change 
 from the almost constant pork. 
 
 The exercise ground at the Wagon- 
 haus 9 was about 100 yards by 40, with 
 an additional small square about 20 yards 
 
 each way, in which the somewhat inade- 
 quate sanitary arrangements were placed. 
 The officers of all the nationalities used to 
 walk round and round and round this 
 small yard, and on fine days it was almost 
 impossible to avoid falling over one another. 
 We were paraded twice a day and drawn 
 
 140 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 up in this courtyard according to the 
 number of the room which we happened 
 to occupy, and counted by a non- 
 commissioned officer ; any special in- 
 structions from the German authorities 
 were given out by a senior French officer 
 in French. Occasionally the Command- 
 ant would attend on these parades and 
 issue separate orders to the various nation- 
 alities who were grouped together for the 
 purpose of receiving them. 
 
 For a long time previous to our arrival 
 at Magdeburg, we had been informed that 
 large and savage dogs were to be provided 
 to aid the sentries. When at last they ar- 
 rived, they turned out to be of that type of 
 dog that the police of Paris use for hunting 
 down criminals. They were certainly sav- 
 age enough, but were always led by a 
 sentry, or chained in their den, and were 
 never let loose on us. We were told that 
 they were highly trained, and although if 
 let loose they would knock down a man 
 with ease and pin him to the ground, they 
 would not bite. But we mistrusted this 
 assurance, as they often appeared very 
 
 141 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 keen to get at something. The employ- 
 ment of these dogs was said by the 
 Germans to be for the protection of their 
 sentries, but it is much more probable 
 that by the use of them they were enabled 
 to cut down still further the already small 
 guard. 
 
 When the prisoners originally arrived 
 at this place, they were permitted to walk 
 over the whole of the courtyard between 
 the Scharnhorst and the Wagonhaus, and 
 the narrow barbed wire enclosures were 
 only put up later because they had not 
 enough men to guard the larger one. We 
 noticed also that the sentries were dis- 
 tinctly short of rifles, and when the guard 
 was relieved, the rifle was passed on to 
 the next man, and in some few cases cap- 
 tured French rifles were in use instead of 
 German. 
 
 A system of punishments for petty 
 offences was instituted here, and as far 
 as we could hear was mainly aimed at the 
 English. One officer who did not salute 
 the German General because he, the British 
 officer, had not got his hat on, was called 
 
 142 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 out at parade next day, and in spite of 
 explanations that it was not the custom in 
 England to salute without the hat, he was 
 given two days' solitary confinement in the 
 
 town gaol. Later a large number of officers 
 were given eight days' cell because they 
 had had a game of Rugby football with a 
 
EXPERIENCES AS GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 loaf of bread. Of the various prisons that 
 I was confined in, I think the Wagonhaus 
 9 was the most uncomfortable ; the thing 
 that particularly struck me was the entire 
 impossibility of getting away from one's 
 fellow creatures for even a minute, and the 
 perpetual noise in the rooms. 
 
 144 
 
RELEASE 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 RELEASE 
 
 ON Friday, January 8, the ten British 
 medical officers in the Wagonhaus 
 were suddenly summoned to the Com- 
 mandant's office, lined up in a row, and 
 informed by the Commandant that five 
 of them were to be returned to Eng- 
 land. A large document was produced, 
 and from it Dr. Elliott's name and my 
 own were read out, and we were placed 
 on the other side of the room. Looking 
 at the rest, the Commandant said, " Are 
 any of you gentlemen married ? Capt. 
 Hamilton, a Special Reserve officer, hav- 
 ing answered in the affirmative, was 
 told he might return, and it remained 
 for two more to be selected from the 
 remaining seven. A suggestion that 
 
 seniority should count was immediately 
 
 147 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 vetoed by the Commandant, who insisted 
 that the selection should be made by 
 lot, which was done by drawing matches 
 from between the Commandant's fingers, 
 two of which matches were short. The 
 lucky recipients of these short matches 
 were Captain Edmunds, R.A.M.C., and 
 Mr. Banks, Civil Servant attached. 
 
 Next day we fortunate five were again 
 summoned to the office, and all the money 
 that we had deposited or that had been 
 sent out to us was paid over to us in 
 German paper, and a certain sum granted 
 to us for expenses. Finally we were 
 made to sign a paper written in Ger- 
 man, somewhat in the following terms : 
 " The German Government advises the 
 English Government that unless all Red 
 Cross Units at present in England are 
 immediately returned no further exchange 
 of British medical officers can be con- 
 templated/' An unsigned and unofficial 
 copy of this document was the only piece 
 of paper with which we were furnished 
 for the journey. We spent the rest of the 
 day in taking down messages and addresses 
 
 148 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 for wives and relations of the officers 
 whom we were leaving, and in saying 
 good-bye to the very many friends of all 
 nations we had made. 
 
 On Sunday, the loth, the five of us 
 departed in two taxi-cabs with a sergeant 
 and four guards, and were driven to Magde- 
 burg station. We travelled that day to a 
 place called Rheine, where we passed a 
 somewhat uncomfortable night on a heap 
 of blankets in the station watch-house. 
 
 Very early next day we went to the 
 actual frontier station between Germany 
 and Holland called Bentheim, and there 
 stayed for several hours to await the 
 arrival of the officer in charge of this im- 
 portant post. Our luggage was searched 
 by the Customs House, but the whole 
 investigation was by no means thorough ; 
 the only things that caused any excitement 
 were some fragments of German shells, 
 which one of the officers was taking back 
 with him as paper-weights. 
 
 After the examination we were replaced 
 in the restaurant, and informed that the 
 officer would come in time to see us off by 
 
 149 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 the train that left for Holland at 10.30. The 
 gentleman in question suddenly appeared 
 a few minutes before the train was due 
 to leave, and seemed to be exceedingly 
 astonished at our arrival. He informed us 
 that he had received no instructions what- 
 soever, and the only piece of paper that 
 the sergeant had with him relating to the 
 matter was a telephone message taken 
 down by himself on the back of an envelope 
 the day before in Magdeburg. The officer 
 explained that it would be necessary for 
 us to wait for the next train, which 
 departed at 2.30, while he himself must 
 make the necessary investigations to estab- 
 lish our identity, and afterwards return 
 to see us off by that train. 
 
 We sat down, played cards, and had a 
 good luncheon to fill up the time, after 
 which we said good-bye to the sergeant 
 and the guards, who were returning 
 again to the interior of Germany. A 
 few old Landsturm soldiers and another 
 sergeant were placed in charge of us. 
 When the Holland train drew in, the 
 officer had not returned, but one of our 
 
 150 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 party, who spoke German well, informed 
 the sergeant that the officer had told us 
 that we were to go by this train, and he 
 very obligingly placed us in it after we had 
 taken tickets to the nearest Dutch station, 
 Ozendaal. 
 
 We do not know to this day whether 
 we were really intended to depart by that 
 train, or whether it was the intention of 
 the Germans to hand us over to the Dutch 
 without passports or papers of any sort, 
 but we did not mind at the time, and were 
 only too pleased to be in a carriage without 
 a guard and to pass across to freedom. 
 We celebrated our arrival at Ozendaal 
 by having a glass of beer, the first for 
 many months, and by buying an English 
 paper on the bookstall. We then took 
 tickets to Flushing, and with many changes 
 and not a few considerable waits, we 
 eventually arrived at Flushing about eleven 
 o'clock that night. As we passed through 
 we were received in a most friendly man- 
 ner by the Dutch people, and the officers 
 in charge of the various stations were 
 exceedingly courteous and helped us to 
 
 151 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 find a carriage to ourselves, and make sure 
 we were in the right train. We found 
 the whole of the Dutch railways in charge 
 of the mobilized Army. On making 
 
 inquiries as to whether they thought 
 that they would fight, all the officers 
 seemed to think that they would avoid 
 that, but if they were forced into it they 
 would be more likely to be found on the 
 
 152 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 side of the Allies than with the Germans. 
 If the contingency occurred, however, they 
 intended to retire behind their great flood 
 area and not to attempt any offensive 
 movement. 
 
 On arriving at Flushing we were not 
 permitted to pass the barrier to the boat, 
 and because we had no papers we were 
 arrested and put in the watch-house belong- 
 ing to the officer on night duty. Presently 
 a Dutch officer arrived, who seemed very 
 suspicious of us, and as good as accused 
 us of having come from the interned camps 
 at Groningen where the English garrison 
 of Antwerp are being kept. He said that 
 certain English officers had broken their 
 parole, but we discovered on questioning 
 him that they had not broken their parole, 
 but that they had given it back, and imme- 
 diately afterwards a considerable number 
 had successfully escaped. This officer ex- 
 pressed considerable surprise that none of 
 us had any visiting cards, for, as he assured 
 us, every gentleman has a card. He was 
 eventually satisfied by the production 
 from our luggage of a large number of 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 letters that we had brought back with 
 us which we had received during our 
 stay in Germany. We told him that he 
 had no right to stop us, and demanded 
 to see the British Consul at once. He 
 replied to this by casting doubts upon 
 the authenticity of the brassards we were 
 wearing, and finally left, saying that it was 
 a matter for the General to decide, and 
 that we should not be able to see him 
 until ten o'clock in the morning. 
 
 We were left in charge that night of a 
 very young but very nice Dutch officer, 
 who did everything in his power to make 
 us comfortable, and tried to get us on to 
 the ship, the authorities of which abso- 
 lutely refused to take us without the 
 necessary papers. We tried to get into a 
 hotel, but it was quite full ; finally we 
 slept on the benches and the floor of the 
 officers' quarters. 
 
 Very early next morning the young 
 Dutch officer got into communication with 
 Ozendaal, the frontier station, and having 
 received a telegram which stated that 
 five British medical officers had crossed 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 the border and given up tickets from Ben- 
 theim, and had been treated as ordinary 
 travellers, he said to us, " On the strength 
 of this I will put you on the boat and 
 interview the General myself at ten o'clock.' 3 
 This time we were permitted to take tickets 
 on the boat. We left at seven o'clock 
 the next morning, and had an exceedingly 
 rough passage to Folkestone, where we 
 fell into the hands of the English police 
 because we had no passports, and were 
 handed over to the kind care of the Em- 
 barkation Officer, who gave us passes to 
 London and instructed us to report at the 
 
 War Office. 
 
 ***** 
 
 During my stay in Germany I never 
 saw any of the camps at which the private 
 soldiers are interned, but I was informed 
 by a soldier who was brought to Magde- 
 burg to act as orderly, that they had had 
 a very rough time at a camp called Alten 
 Grabow. He told me that he never had 
 a proper bath from the time he had been 
 captured in September, and that no 
 fresh underclothes had been issued. As 
 
MY EXPERIENCES 
 
 a consequence all the men were ver- 
 minous and dirty. I am certain that 
 he was correct as far as he himself was 
 concerned, for he had to be isolated 
 several days at Magdeburg before he was 
 allowed to take up his servant's duty. 
 He told me also that most of the camps 
 contained large numbers of Russian and 
 French captive soldiers, and that the 
 English were distributed up in small parties 
 throughout these camps and made to 
 perform the heaviest and the dirtiest 
 duties. He had not seen any of the alleged 
 tying up of prisoners to posts and other 
 barbarities, reports of which appeared 
 from time to time in the English papers. 
 He said that at first the amount of food 
 provided was exceedingly small, but that 
 later there had been quite enough, although 
 the quality was distinctly indifferent. The 
 few soldiers that came were exceedingly 
 pleased to escape from the camps and to 
 undertake orderly duties, although their 
 quarters were very tight in these camps 
 at Magdeburg. 
 
 Taken generally, the health of all the 
 
 156 
 
AS A GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 camps I was in was excellent, and I can 
 only recall one case of scarlet fever. And 
 apart from sore throats and infectious 
 colds everybody seemed very well, but of 
 course it must be remembered that we 
 had the advantage of only being in prison 
 during the colder months of the year. 
 It is possible that there may be trouble 
 in the health line if the prisoners have to 
 remain all through the hot weather. 
 
 Since my return I have been continually 
 asked about the feeling in Germany and 
 the condition of the country, but it is 
 exceedingly difficult for any one who has 
 been shut up in these camps to get any 
 clear idea on this subject. That the Ger- 
 mans are mainly driven onwards by a hate 
 of England and by a continual hope of 
 damaging England, is perfectly obvious, 
 both from their newspapers and from the 
 attitude of the people in railway stations 
 and towns when they happen to see any 
 English officer. 
 
 About the internal state of Germany 
 it was impossible to find out anything. 
 Most of the towns we passed through 
 
EXPERIENCES AS GERMAN PRISONER 
 
 seemed rather short of men, and few, if 
 any, of the tall chimneys were active ; and 
 practically every person whom one saw in 
 the street was dressed in mourning. The 
 officers and sentries with whom we came 
 in contact would, naturally, not discuss the 
 war, but if ever the matter was referred 
 to, they always said, "It is only just 
 begun/' 
 
 Butter & Tanner Frome and London 
 
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