STORY OF A PRISONER OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2772, 16 May 1916, Page 6

STORY OF A PRISONER OF WAR

TOLD: BY A PRIVATE SOLDIER -!»■'•-.■(- ..,. (Continued.)' . ' ■ ■ '' ''''" v'THE HOUR.3EFORE THE DAWN. ;.",•"';..:At. last,-';one morning, 'my chum was :''told.to parade at four o'clock 7 for'a par- '■•; eel; Our ears, went back; we' were so excited, we could not keep quiet, thinking and waiting for four o'clock, won■"'.dering what was in it, wondering, perhaps, if it Ihad.been robbed.what we were going to do. when it came. Well, four ■•'-.. o'clock came.. Down goes Darkey Burgess ~.-y ; ivrith.._the other 7. or, 8 men with him, 1 "teihained. in barrack,, as I was a cripple, .;'■■ to"look after mess, as it was not safe to go all at the same time. Well, back they came, shouting and laughing, with ■:■ ta_ Hudson's soap-box. Nearly every Rus-*-.-f6ian-in the room came round to see what .-■■-. had come out. Off comes the lid, and .;-. ~ then we sighed: with relief as wa seen the -contents. Darkey had his shoes, so that ' •' proved his card was sent home, and in the box was a big Christmas pudding, a ,-i. good home-made cake, 21b. sugar spread :;.'all'over, the shop, and loz. of tobacco— ! ;-What Ho!— English! the first seen for : , ..nine months! • And a packet of fag pap;'"~ers. 'We wanted to have a smoke first, but Darkey would not have it. He cut ..-'..the pudding in. half, and the cake, gave : the other eight a half between them, and then, him and me'sat down and got stuck •'■; into the other-half. Well, we ate the '■cake, and then the pudding. Then he said we'ed better. ;'see off the sugar; but I said: "Never mindj leave me out." • 'So he gave the.sugar away to the others, -. forgetting we had'a }lb. of tea come as Well, after I'd ate I knew I'd ... : done wrong. I'said': "Darkey, we should ..-.:hot : have done it. '■- -It's too much and .-."'. ..rich after nothing substantial for. nine -.'..vaonths." It made me bad for threo or .v. four days. , Then-that night we had the •'-2;'. pleasure of srapking ourselves dry. Darkey . ij'vis-.a. great fag smoker. He was out of his ~, mattress every half-hour lighting up. .'../-.But, there!, that was the' first feed I'd time. :'I shall never forii get. the 18th of May, 1915, when we had' .i.;. theiDuff. •■■->.'u - Shooting Prisoners, '-'. .--'lt-was. during May, that something hap- . >-. .pened to ihe Germans; they chased us :•'-■■■'about. all;Ovei\ the' place. .We use'to say .-■;■■ our people are giving them .socks. .Well, :,"': on tie 20th of May all the Guard seera"'•L ed to be drunk. Tliey started firing, over "*.',''. Nothing at all. '.They killed 3 prisoners ;- : and wounded 4. Some of 7 the shots went '■'■' through the bungalows, and we could not ; : go out. for. hour's; '■ There was a'Prenoh- >,■/. ".man, .who was off his head;, he was out 7 .'of "hospital in the 7 Coy; he was talking ,-;. towards the wires wihen the shots were' ,';'; fired; A sentry hit. him.. After lie ir/'-went to get up, 1 the sentry fired again, \•killing him.. There was a Russian boy,' -;y'f he was wounded across'the stomack not , .The Germans iook'&im down to .-—'the Cook house, and gave him some extra v bread and soup to forget it. Well, next \ day- there was ructions 'about this. The people of the town reared- up about it. It j .'• .viiil ; shew.what t'hey will do—firing on' ; ;'. men with no arms, at,lsoyds. range. Who ; . could miss ? One Russian was shot just ; :: . .outside the door, of my hut, and no one j;-hiwould bring- him in. So Pte. Willis, of 'i.,v.-. 7 ..jny-;mess. rushed out an the open' and ";';' dragged ihim. in: He died 7 about an ;,.. hour after. Willis was luckey;.as socio .' : -one fired when he was out, but did not ~-'.'■,•".'..Wt-hiin.:.Captain —.praised him on ',-' ibis bravery. V J ■;."':'.' -.Ingenious Russians. ; This Russian was not in the open, he 7 ■:jw-as_about tour yards from the door, V' 7 !- Belling cigarettes at a'place where they ~'-.."always use, to get.; Itwas like a bazaar-. !,''.everything that could be.got the Russians 7. T>.'Tis6.'to. "'sell. ••■ They use ..to make ..knives, .".'""'out of screws, cigarette -holders out ot .'•''.. bones, lovely brooches, 7 dice, "and; othei V : ;',; ; ,articles',, lovely necklaces out of horse. '.'.'.■' hair, tobacco boxes out of sardine tins, ;'..".".'suits Vof clothes. out of their overcoats, ;V; J .-.lovely caps out of-. blankets, shoes oi - ~.'. rope, and canv'assj good travelling bags oi -,'.''the'canvas bed:tick, and paintings. Ono -v. .;;RuSsian made a grinding,machine. He

t.w'v-wbre'.'a 9-inch brick' down till it was j.;'..':,-': round; then 6ome wooden- wheels he cut; ;■' £).,:.: then. put. some traps' on to a treddle; ',■; . then he'd go about grinding knives. You (•'-!.■;.'''.;■■ could, buy -anything.■'.; The- Eussians are ,v;i V ;'.very clever. .-.They'..-made a lot of small £.;.-." '■; windmills in 'the shapes of motor-cyclists, j,w'. ■ oirplains, ships," out of.the. boxes the '-■v.. goods came out in; The: Germans use to f':-:, ;-buyvrthem..- Anything' to raise money I:/::,they-would'do. .They, would buy a pound f;'.';• ■?.,, of .lump,sugar for. ii., and sell 8 lumps ':, ''"rffor 'id. ..so as to make about Id. profit. Cigarettes they would put up in four. jj;;,■ •. pieces, getting a farthing a peice.. Tor :>-:-iba€Co they would buy off the Germans. : ',-. They'd take out the tobacco and put '..*': . shaVings in again 'with a bit of tobacco end.. They would light'fires'all-over i,;'.. .the place to boil.water. Give a Eussian j.H-.; /.a bason : of hot water,.a couple of lumps fjiv of 6ugar,'.and a spoonful, of salt for his ;:<;- bread, and;-he's ; as happy as 3. sandboy. I'-;; A Eussian-will eat: more salt in a day !,.-.;; than' a•Englishman'"would eat in a week. J. ..'■;.. -i-They. would,,make cards out of cigarette ,K« l paokets and play all day and all'' ni»ht of sugar," and if a chap waa )'(■•■■, ..to cheat they wouldn't half kick.up a row v-,.'i-'6ver-alump : 'of'6ugar. you could hear j/r'--,-;on : the market, as we call it, was Ens. I'":'., sians selling':their wares: "Cameo Claf':-.;: hour" (thats bread), "Camoo papie ross" j ;. .(cirgarettes). In. under our barrack was f posts ty keep' the floor up.- The f:"";: Sussiansvusoto-orawl; in: "under and cut f-,"; • them;down./LTherflobr;use to ge'up, andi jr.- 'downHjike a switchback.'. There were rucf tiohsvwhen the Germans came back! The r ."■' ground which the barrack was built on ["- Tse-'to be a potatoe ground. The Eus-sians-would get-• under the huts and ;-"; ", ,w.rape. away until they got enough for a ...::feed::; I made up:a bit of a dittv which : ,we,uset6 sing in mytmess. The Russians 1,, ' werer'always pleased when we were 6ing-, 1... ■- ,ing;.*they use to cbmo round and say, .Come on!" They learnt a ['',/■.-.; tfew,w'ords.: \ '-r•'■,': '-Well,' I made, up a. verse. Darkey was i... quite' pleased "with it, ; but when I wrote (:,. - th6'.'second"'Darkey-.had. his feathers up. p. ■-.•"' Thiffds too achnneof Sanky'and Moody:

[:':-..' Bollon when,the.War is over, ;'• •■ Eoll on when we're home again: " f- .'. There'll bo' be no "more dirty dinner*, I '.-.-.-j There'll be no more grief and pain; ' Ko'.more shouting CamooClabour,' i Papie Boss. Jabac as well; ; When we're bound for Dear Old England, j. When we leave this. God Damned Hell. !.-.- ■ We', have heard so many rumours, About when wo are'going away: , We get-them sent down from 1 the Doctor, ~".-. vGet them down every- 1 day; - ■- j: Some eTO of the land we've cantured, ' ! Some aire"of tho deeds we've done; ■ '." We,listen to thom all enraptured, '.., . Wo would not'miss thom for a sum. ' , ~':' Letters Home. i'.': •;■ It;.,was.in May. we were told we were \ . ':. foingoto be allowed to write home—two [•'.■ jards'a month—but we did not believe it; {-,•'■ because, they told us in this camp we f.. would not be allowed to'writo until the f. •■; .war was-finished; and for every time Eng- !,. land done- cruel things to their prisoners r ;. : 7-the- Germans were going to shoot one r.>.-Englishman-in every- ten. Well, we did •.-.;- ! not know what to make of it, because we ,v-'.had seen some of their work; and after I -~'■! seen a,few things when , I was first I"*':' 1 prisoner,.-:I believed they would do any-h-V thing: Well, on the 12th of May we had |f:"'cards como round on payment of two i;'/" pfengics each; so I would not be done

!'■'';'' out of the chance; so I sold half my ■"v" bread to buy one. I shan't forget my first card. There was things we were not v!.'■,*' allowed to \ijcite. We were supposed to j);?Bay we were well fed and clothed and treated well. If yon were to put anything ,r ';v against the Germans your card would not

i': : ':;go.) You never caught mo saying I was this, that, and tho other. I said to my ; J-'chum,. "If my card never goes, I'll never f'..'?teU them that"; so we made 11 up bei.ii i-twoen us not to say a word, only of our}iV.;-*. selves. I was waiting anxiously for a line ':.,;'; from home, and on the 19th of Juno I got N:';,'iily first card from My Mother. I nearly 0-1 went daft. I happened to lie the first to jrV.yleet a answer from our cards. I had all ■>,;„!the chaps after me to look at it and to ■ UvJualte sure it was' a answer. Everyone U.;.';:Tead my card in the mess, and from that we all seemed to buck up. I forgot ;.;.,,to say, but on my first card I wrote 210 \:~- -words. I was luckey it went, because :'fi-after we were only allowed to write six Kv-'Jines in a good handwriting. j,A..,,.-Ivwas told there were a parcel of food i l -- coining out for me, and I was down by

the gate all day waiting. At last, on the 28th June, 1 had my first parcel from home, ami when I opened it I was never so pleased in ray life to see what I'd not seen for 10 -months, such as bacon, cheese, butter, cake. My word, that cake!! i would not have parted with the parcel at the time for X2O. The first thing I looked for was tobacco, and by luck it was there. The only thing that had been stolen was my toothbrush and powder. Well, I was luckey. Of course, it lasted ns two days; then back on starvation muck again. I did not get another untill the 18th July. I had a letter from my mother telling me Colonel —'s wife, oj the regiment, was sending me n packet weekly, out 1 did not get a look in at one before the end of July. I received 10s. from England at once. I. could not have moucy; so 1 had 'to have groceries; so ou the 20th of Juno I drew 19 pound of lump sugar aud 3 pound of margarine. I sold n couple of pound to buy a bit of extra bread, and we had a nice spread. Me and my chum ato a ■Half pound in ono meal. It was supposed to bo nut margcrine. That was my first change from dry; broad or salt since I left old England, for when in franco in hospital we only got dry bread. Just ; after, things began to brighten, Wo had a lot of fugs come out. It ran eleven packets each, and lou. of tobacco. That put us on our feet. After that I never'went short again. Wo also had biscuits, chocolate, butter; jam, oome out from EDgland to be shared amongst the men.

I was very unlucky in parens at first. It was not before the end of September that my luck started, and it -w«9 hard to see men getting good stuff from home, and perhaps you would not got a packet for tlreo weeks. Then perhaps the Germans had taken the best; they wero very fend of English tobacco. It did nearly mate a chap cry to wait for a packet; get 60 excited when your name was called out; then open it and find hardly anything in it. It was very often the case a man would get a brown paper wrapper only. Where had his stuff gone? All you could get for satisfaction was: "contents moldy." I remember getting a box come one day about 2 feet square. When I opened it all it contained was four dajning needles, reel thread, ono small rock cake, and about, four sweets. Well, ■I didn't half rear. . .

We did not have much summer. It was bright for about two months, and that was all. .We use to stay outside untill twelve, at night talking, until) tho Germans use to turn us in. When the packets started coming, it was- a- proper transformation. You would; see the English with new , shirts, washed . and smartened up, get a few coppers and buy shoes er trousers. For 2s. you could buy a proper rig out, nnd good stuff at that. This is what you could get: ; Shirt, Id.; socks, id.; drawers, Id.; trousers, 4d." (Russian-turned); coat, 2d.; cap. Id.: and shoes 2d. to id. (cloth tops, old leather for bottoms). F' r e wen ;a'proper good-overcoat sold for Bd. (To bo Continued.) .