World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Turkish
We started off once more about 6.30, and after some rough going reached
the wide part of the valley where fields came down to the river. Here we
were soon brought to a stop by seeing people still at work. Retracing
our steps, we crossed the stream and started to ascend the northern side
of the valley, keeping roughly to our easterly direction. After a steep
ascent, we reached a fair track, along which we made good progress. Once
or twice we had to wait and hide owing to farm people being about; but
after it had got quite dark we got on again without interruption. On one
occasion we passed close to a farm. There was a resin-wood torch
burning in the yard, and just as we appeared a woman opened a window and
looked out; we expected her to see us, but possibly the glare from the
torch was too strong, for she took no notice. By midnight, we had
reached some high downland, where there seemed to be a large number of
farms. After lying down for a couple of hours, we started off again; but
soon lost all sign of our track. Continuing in our direction with the
help of the stars or compass, we suddenly found ourselves within range
of some village dogs. These brutes devoted their attention to us long
and loudly, and there was nothing for it but to get away across the
fields as fast as we could. After a little time, we found a track which
presently led into a pine wood. We trudged on through the trees for two
hours, the track keeping on the crest of the hill and bending round
gradually towards the north. This wood promised good cover for the next
day, and as we seemed to have reached its edge we decided to stop here
all day. We lay down until it grew light and then moved to the best spot
we could find. This day was Sunday, August 12th, and we can only have
achieved about 30 miles as the crow flies, although at the time we put
it at 40.
Having picked no corn the night before, we had to be content with our
small biscuit and meat ration which we carried, helped out with a
fragment of Horlick and chocolate. Tip had not been feeling well all
night and was now in considerable pain. He said porridge always laid him
out, and our brew, which was not very well boiled, had proved no
exception. As far as we could tell, it seemed to be appendicitis or
something very like it. We discussed gloomy possibilities of giving
ourselves up in the event of his not getting better; but he remained
determined to push on if he possibly could.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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