" PAGE TWELVE ---- A CAPTURED OFFICER TELLS OF HIS ADVENTURES IN GERMANY i Continually Bullied By German Guards-- Germans Along Road] Struck Him With Sticks and Spat | In His Face. { The following account of his ad- ventures in Germany, has been re- ceived from an officer of. the Royal Army Medical Corps who had 4he migfortune to be taken prisoner last] &pr n | "l was captured by the Germans | on April 26th in the early morning near Paschendale, at Ypres. : "The Battalion to which I was at- tached was ordered up to the trench- es on Saturday evening, April 24th, which we reached early on Sunday morning. While trying 'to get a suitable place to dress the wounded, I came across a group of bulldings, part of which had been used by the 8th Canadian as their Headquarters. The Headquarters and surrounding buildings were filled with wounded Canadians, who had evidently crawl- ed there after their own Medical Of- ficer had been either killed or wound- ed, and they were therefore In great need of attention. 1 at once com- menced dressing their wounds and got some hot tea prepared for them I very soon realized, however, Jghat the place was quite unsuitable for a dressing station, as the Gegmans had all along been vigorously shelling | the place and had wrecked most of | it; in addition, theré was a sniper who picked off,' everyone who ap- proached near the place, or tried to get from one building to another. I therefore sent word to the Command- ing Officer asking him not to send any of our wounded there, but toan- other dressing station farther back. It happened, therefore, that nearly all the wounded. I had were Cana- dians; many of these died, some from their wounds and others from gas poisoning. The fumes from some of the shells also hung about the buildings and one or two died from the effects of this. Others were killed by rifle bullets, shells, and parts of the buildings falling on them. I hoped that at might I might be able to get the wounded away as at the time it was impossible to do anything. "On"Sunday evening, our men had to evacuate the front line trenches, but as the others remained firm, I still expected to get some help upat night. This, however, was not pos- sible, The Germans apparently managed to get up to the buildings near where I was and at daybreak they rushed. up, firing into us all the time, although the only two persons standing' were my orderly and .my- self, both of us having Red' Cross armlets on. I held up my arms and explained as well as I could that I was a doctor and had only wounded in the buildings, They, however, | did not stop firing and at close range | fired point blank at me, and when | my orderly came forward to lift me | up, they fired at him also and wound- | ed him seriously in the head. 1 was| then seized by two Germans and taken away, but I could see some Germans striking some wounded with their rifles and the cries from our men showed that they were being very roughly handled. p-- Taken By The Germans. "I was then marched through ad- vancing lines of Germans, who seem- ed to be in great force. 1 did not see any dressed in khaki, but most of them wore the small round ser- vice cap; there were some dressed as sailors. 'While'l was going through their lines, I saw a great many dead, and several were dropping down from the rifle fire from our trenches, also shrapnel. 1 passed a large héap of our equipment, which I was told was taken from some Highland- ers (probably Canadians), Their own trenches contained many dead, | | i h- | /. Beaten And Spat Upon. + THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, SOME ONE HIS WIFE Jr NOTE XK MARKS P SQUEAKY : AXLE. . \ "WHEN A SENSITIVE MAN GETS CAUGHT IN A SQUALL." and from the particularly foul odor, | I think they must have been there for a day or two. The Germans who acted .as my guard were Saxons, and were not offensive, but after tramping for about twenty minutes, some others came up and accused me of having had a machine gun conceal- ed in the bulltingy and of using it against them. naturally denied this' but they said I should be shot, and as they were so furious and threatening, I quite expected they would carry Jt out. While waiting for this, I lit a cigarette, and al- though the guard permitted it, the other Gemman objected and one knocked it out of my mouth. Shortly afterwards some others came up, and in addition to accusing me of having a machine gun, said I bad been using dum-dum bullets. - For evidence of dhis they handed me a Mauser cart- ridge with about 1-4 cut off the nose of the bullet. I pointed this out to them, but presently they handed me a clip of five of our. cartridges, the bullets of which were grooved about 1-4 from the nose, and taking up a Lee-Enfield rifle, they inserted the sharp end of the bullet into the hole in the thumb piece of the cut-off, to represent how the dum-dum bullet was made, and what the hole in the cut-off was for, They sald I had spent my time cutting the grooves in the bullets, , They did not, however, actually brgak off the nose of the bul- e ",. The Saxon guard, although oppos- ed by others, marched me off again. I asked to be taken to a doctor in or- | der to get my head dressed, they said there was no doctor near, but there would be one in the village we were coming to. "There I was tak- en to 'what I think was the Police Station and searched, everything be- ng taken from me, My equipment and greatcoat I was not allowed to take with me when I was first cap- turéd. There was a doctor here who dressed my wound and return- ed to me the things'which had been taken from me shortly before. § asked him for a cigarette, which he gave me, and he also said he woyld bring me a cup of coffee. - When he went, presumably to get the coffee, the guard came in and ordered me out. In the street, two German of: ficers, a Captain and a Major, canté up and stripped off my collar bade- and that for es by. means of wire cutters. After OUGHT TO TELL ' ee ---- ---- ot ---- ~---- that I was marched on again, and ant along the road the Germans called | out "Schweinhund Englander" "Gott | Straffe England" and spat in ny face | saying "Swine". Some of them at-| tacked me with long sticks, striking | me over the back and legs, until the guard drove them off. On reaching the next small village, I was shut up in a hail, where I slept for some time until wakened by two German Staff Officers, who asked me certain ques- tions which, however, I said I could not answer. I asked for some water, but this was refused, although one officer offered me a cigar, which I de- clined, having had no food for such a long time. y 1 was then taken out of the hall and moved to Rowers, where I was locked up until Thursday. While here a German officer gent for me and asked me several questions. par- ticularly about our losses auring the fight. = I hesitated about saying any- thing, but he admitted that their los- ses, which he said were entirely due to our rifle fire, had been enormous, but said also that we must have found their 'artillery very terrible, territorials we fought very well. Another officer who look- ed in and found I was a doctor, said I was taken in error, but that there was some suspicion about my having had a machine gun where the wound- ed were; and in any case haviiig been through their lines, I could not be sent back now, but that they did not keep the doctors long and that I should soop be réturned. : . . - - Cruelly Treated. During this time we got black bread and water, and once a day some soup. On Thursday about midday, I was put into a railway car- riage with some Turco, Who had been badly gassed. Before we star- ted, two Canadian officers were crushed in, & German officer telling us that he was sure we and they should like $6 travel with our dark friends. The day was very hot, but the guard, whe had bayonets like saws, kept the windows and ventila- tors shut and the blinds drawn. We got nothing but water on the journey, and that rarely, although there were #o-called Red Cross people on the platforms. Re : W reached Cologne on Saturday evening. There 1 was removed from the carriage gnd put into' a train go- ing to Maine. We reached the cita- dal about midnight. Next day we got --~ our first meal since being captured. We were locked up for four days, during which time we got a hot bath, change of underclothing, . and our clothes sterilized. The food Here was fair, but not nearly sufficient, and the other officers there depended on what they got from home. There were about 50 English, and the remainder, amounting to-about 300, were French Russian and Belgian. The four na- tionalities were always put together in the same room, so that, as the of- ficials said, we could not complain that our treatment was different from that of the others. » "We got uf at 8 a.m., attended a parade at 9 a.m., and cooked our own breakfasts on spirit stoves. After par- ade, I had to depend on the other of- ficers, as 1 had no food of my own. At one o'clock we got lunch, and at seven o'clock dinner. We were allow- ed to buy one bottle of beer per day. For recreation, wer had a tennis-court and the remainder of the barrack square to walk in. There was an- other parade at five o'clock. We had to be in our rooms at 8:30 p.m., and lights 'out at 10 p.m. The arrange- ment of mixing the nationalities was very disagreeabld, as Russians never bathed, slept in their clothes, which were usually of leather, and insisted on having all windows tightly shut. In addition to this, it was a grave of- fence to omit to salute a German of- ficer, no matter what his . rank as they were always about this small square, it was impossible to always carry this out, although failure to do sb-entailed being confined to your own roof for three days and having tobacco and all letters and parcels stopped. Further, one was being econ- thnually bullied by the German guards. Mainz, I was told things were so bad that the Berlin people had to remove all German officer officials and send others in their places. "On arrival at Mainz, F was ques- tioned as to when I arrived in Flan- ders; what regiments came over at the same time; the number of troops, etc, about Ypres; how we got our ammunition, how the troops were fed and clothed; and sickness among- st the troops. 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