THE YPRES TIMES
105
That evening, outside the building, I had the best feast since capture, eating
the accumulated food of three days right through the night, only stopping when
something else wanted cooking. We stayed inside this place for some days, until
the building was declared to be unsafe; this was because we had used any wood
possible to cook our food. When the extra food ran out we fell back on bad
rations, and, having tasted extra food, our hunger became worse. Some pig meal
was issued, and we ate it. A cooking-pot was upset in one scuffle, and I actually
saw one prisoner scrape some meal off another's back with his finger, and eat it.
October 30th saw us on the road again, through Soignes, where the Mayor
and officials turned out to see us go by, until we reached Ecaussines, to be put in
a farm-yard of a chateau. Going along roads, we kept in fours as near as possible,
but, coming to a village, a musical chairs practice was adopted. The fours
thinned out to twos, one each side of the street, passing doorways very slowly in
the hope of seeing food issue from one of them, then dashing past gaps and
dropping to- a crawl at the next door. And so on to the end of the village, to
compare our luck at the other end. At Ecaussines we slept with the cows, which
were milked unmercifully. Civilians brought huge quantities of soup to us during
the night, and handed it in through holes at the back of the shed.
Going through Nivelles a boy was seen coming out of a butcher's shop with
meat on a plateWhat a rushThe boy disappeared, the plate flew in the air,
someone grabbed the meat, and the march continued. Farther on a little girl
approached with a cake in slices, to be distributed as far as it would go. Alas
for the good intentionsthe poor child was almost divided with the cake in the
massed grab. We finished that day at Gemappe, three miles south of Nivelles,
and countless fires were soon burning to cook the day's spoils. Going along the
NivellesNamur road, straight, tree-lined, with a view in front that never changed
with the miles, we passed the monument at Quatre Bras, and halted about eight
miles from Namur. We had now lost touch with the division from which we drew
rations, and, while the Germans considered what to do, we rested for two days,
during which time the only food supplied was a cartload of carrots. These were
rushed for, so that some had several and others none. It was decided we should
try to regain the lost column, so steps were retraced to Arquennes, near Nivelles,
the ration for the day being one carrot. We passed Austrian artillerymen
retreating, and although most of the troops were young they had four or five
medals apiece. At Arquennes we were billeted in a new factory, but minus
machinery, as this had been looted.
We were told to dig trenches here, but refused. The Kommandant said he
would stop our food parcels. As we had had none yet, this was 110 hardship.
Imprisonment in a fortress, and finally machine guns, compelled the refugees to
dig them in the end. Some newly-captured Americans cheered us with the news
that the war would be over in a few days, and the state of the roads confirmed
this. Transport was chaos, some overturned through racial spite between
Prussian Guards and Saxons, Würtembergers and Jaegers all wanting to be first
in the retreat and pushing others aside. In fact, the retreat had become a rout
as far as the non-fighting troops were concerned.
On November 9th we had orders to move, and returned to Gemappe. Here
we drew our last rations, a sticky black loaf hurriedly withdrawn from the oven.
News of an armistice trickled through, and it was with great hopes that we set off
on the nth. The retreating regiments were coming back so fast, and in such
disorder, that we were pushed to the side of the road. We sat there for several
hours watching the unending stream of troops pressing back, undisciplined,
unchecked, and in revolt.
Towards noon a despatch rider came through, shouting that the war was over,
