BEING THE EXPERIENCES OF AN OFFICER DURING TWO AND A HALF YEARS AS A PRISONER OF WAR BY CAPTAIN H. G. GILLILAND LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON   NEW YORK   TORONTO MCMXVIII Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Finey, Ld., London and Aylesbury. DEDICATED TO MR. JAMES W. GERARD Late U.S.A. Ambassador to the Imperial Court at Berlin TO WHOM EVERY BRITISH PRISONER OWES A DEBT OF GRATITUDE WHICH CAN NEVER BE REPAID H. G. G.    ...

The writer has been so constantly and earnestly appealed to to write his experiences, and so weary recounting them, that he has at last decided to put into print a short account of things as they really happened within his own personal knowledge during his two and a half years’ imprisonment in Germany. He is also encouraged to do so for other and more important reasons. There are so many people throughout our Empire who are unfortunate enough to have intimate friends and relations in captivity i

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

On arrival at the fortress we were separated from the men, the officers undergoing another interrogation. On asking for immediate medical attention, we were assured that it would be forthcoming directly. When we entered the room allotted to us, we found three other British officers, who had been taken prisoners some days previously, and who at once set about preparing a meal for us out of their own scanty provisions. There was only one proper bed in the place, which was given up to me at once; t

During the period of our captivity at Munden the time passed more heavily, I think, than at any later period, owing to the fact that we had practically no reading matter. Parcels and letters from home were very scarce. No daily papers nor periodicals of any sort were allowed, not even German, only a rag called The Continental Times: A Journal for Americans in Germany —probably the most scandalous paper ever produced, copies of which should certainly be printed after the declaration of peace, and

About three weeks after the happenings just described all the British officers were removed from Munden. How this befell and the manner of its bringing about might interest the reader. We were enabled to bring our condition under the notice of the American Ambassador, Mr. Gerard, to whom all British prisoners will always owe a debt of gratitude. I wrote home, representing the true state of the camp, and asking the authorities to procure a visit of inspection from the American Ambassador. It took

In order to show up the general attitude of treatment of British prisoners, I must, however reluctantly, become more personal and relate the manner in which my wounds were treated. After all, one judges people by one’s personal experience of them, and no one can be responsible for the opinions of others. On my arrival from Munden my ankle was practically well, but the pain in my chest was growing worse daily. To add to this, I began to break out in abscesses, having eight at one time, when I was

I have now reached a point in my narrative which dates us back to a few days before Christmas 1915, when we learned that the German canteen was to be done away with, from which hitherto we had been able to get so much food, in order to augment both our parcels from home and the greatly diminished Boche rations, and that hereafter we should be more or less dependent on our parcels. Some of my readers may find this quite an interesting point, as it indicates the period when the Boches really began

In March a Canadian doctor recently taken prisoner joined us at Bischofswerda, and although the Hague Convention does not allow doctors to be detained prisoners for any length of time, this Canadian was still there when I left in October, some seven months later. However, as far as we were concerned he was a great comfort, since we got some first-hand news as to recent events, and also some valuable medical attention and advice. His diagnosis of my case turned out to be absolutely correct, viz .

I will now refer, if I may, to one or two little notes which I made on the journey down from Saxony. In the first place, I never saw a single male porter at any station. The guards on trains were all women; and when the train ran slowly through any sort of farmed land, we saw groups of old men and little children doing some sort of work in the fields, although it was November, and one would think there was not very much to be done. I never saw a single male between the ages of fourteen and fifty

To further illustrate the general scheme of treatment, I will recount the form of medical attention meted out to us. A doctor from the town of Ingolstadt visited us on Mondays and Fridays. He was quite a good fellow, though I never saw him sober, and I went to him dozens of times. Consequently, from a medical point of view, he was quite useless. As a permanent assistant he had a French Alsatian Tommy, whose duty it was to administer the doses and attend cases generally, such as massage for rheum

At the end of February we were surprised by a visit from two representatives of the American Embassy, to whom we poured forth our woes, and who declared their views pretty strongly as to the conditions in which they found us. The assault by the commandant on a defenceless French officer was fully narrated to them, also the fact that officers had been fired on inside the fortress whilst lying out in the earthworks. The American representatives made every effort with the commandant to procure more

To return to our own affairs. When the train started off again, we made up our minds that we must find out everything there was to know about the carriages we were now in. To do this it would be necessary to visit the other compartments, without of course arousing the suspicions of any of the guards. Accordingly I again entered into conversation with one of them, and asked him how many prisoners there were in the train, if they were all going to the same camp, had they just been taken prisoners

Unfortunately , not being of a literary turn of mind, I am unable to write a thrilling account of our adventurous journey across Germany. At the same time, where in my description I make such a statement as “We now made our way across country without interruption for four hours,” the reader must not imagine that we just rushed along without encountering difficulties, for the way was always beset with some sort of obstacle or other. Needless to say, we gave ourselves a great many unnecessary scar

It must have been a good hour before we eventually got clear of the thickets, and our passage through them had been a pretty noisy one. No sign of the other pair could be seen, so that after scouting round for about twenty minutes we moved off again. My companion was Captain Stewart of the R.F.A., and a more staunch fellow in a hazard of this kind could not possibly be desired. From this time on we made excellent progress through the night, and nothing of note happened until just before the brea

It was with the very greatest difficulty that we got out of that ghastly drain, owing to having lost the use of our lower limbs. Eventually my companion was the first to get clear, but it took a good quarter of an hour’s work to accomplish this, and it was brought about by my placing my right arm (my left was pinned underneath me) round his neck and endeavouring to draw him over on the top of me, he at the same time pressing with both his hands against the opposite wall of the drain, and the two

As we walked towards V—— over heavily ploughed fields, we found that we were very gradually ascending. On the way we passed a line of posts running in a straight line north and south. Was this the boundary? They were certainly boundary-posts of some kind. But then this could not be the frontier, as we had seen no sentries at all, and we knew there were at least two lines of them. Still pressing forward, only with added precaution, dropping on our faces every time we heard a sound or saw anything

And so the two of us lay and wondered at it all, until we heard the bells of some church far up the river strike the hour of seven. “Look here, old man, we’re getting stiff again; we must push on to some place or other.” Accordingly we walked northwards, hugging the river-bank, and after about an hour’s tramp we came to the outskirts of V——. Passing through that part of the town which lies on the east bank, we arrived at the great bridge. Over this we started to make our way, feeling that we sho