World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
he rolled from one side of the trench to the other like a drunken
man--instead of carrying him as our men would do, or, at least, putting
an arm round him to steady his steps, that brute walked behind, and
when the wounded man would stop, wanting to sit down and rest, I saw
the brute take that poor man by the collar, jerk him up, and land him a
couple of kicks. This of course sent the man running and sprawling
down the trench, and this is the way they made their way out.
[Illustration: General Ketchen]
Well, we went on till we came to a German strong point, and here we
found fifteen of our boys that had been captured earlier in the day;
when we came on the scene they were being photographed by the Germans.
The Germans allow their soldiers to carry cameras and almost every
soldier has one; we had at least a dozen levelled at us that day--they
were evidently taking pictures to send back to Germany--"Prisoners _we_
have captured" would no doubt be the title.
They kept us hanging around here for half an hour, still under our own
shell fire, and then we were marched back about three miles. Our first
stop was beside an old Belgian church, and here we were taken over by
an escort of Prussian Lancers, and for the first time I realized that I
was really a German prisoner. We were herded together like a flock of
sheep and driven ahead of our captors; we were made to go ten miles
before they allowed us to stop, but to add variety to our otherwise
tedious march, when our escort wanted a little fun they would put spurs
to their horses and ride pellmell through our little bunch. It was
great sport to see us dash in all directions tumbling over one another
in our efforts to escape being trodden down by the horses; no wonder
they laughed and shouted in their glee! And it was on a par with other
things they did on that trip. We passed through several small Belgian
villages, and when the Belgian women saw us coming, they ran out with
jugs of water, chocolate, and cigarettes, but our escort met them and
refused to allow them to give us anything. They were very plucky, and
some of them dashed in past the guards, and these inhuman beasts known
as Prussian Guards levelled their lances and made at the girls.
Sometimes they missed; a water jug carried by one of the girls saved
her, but I saw three women run through the body by these devils, and
all because they wished to do an act of kindness to men who were
wounded. The first thing we do with our prisoners is to feed them and
dress their wounds, but these are the last things a German thinks of
doing. Well, the same thing happened in all the villages, only we
warned the girls away when we saw how they would be treated. I also
noticed that the Belgians were not allowed on the sidewalk when a
German was passing; if they did not get off, they were knocked off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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