The Ypres Times.
15
We were taken to a cage in a field, where knives, scizzors, razors, note books and
letters were taken away. Several Germans took good boots and socks from our fellows
and gave their used high boots in exchange. To such a pass had they come. It was
about 2 p.m. now, and the sun was sheltering. No food or water was offered to us.
The march was continued and did not end till midnight. We were footsore, weary,
hungry and thirsty, and the trek was terribly drawn out, sometimes going only a few
yards at a time. Those that could get into a hut did so, the remainder had the field
but this did not matter much, rest was the main thing.
With dawn came a ravenous appetite, but no food. About midday we were lined up
for soup, but it did not go round, and a third of us went short. The only means of allaying
the thirst was to chew grass.
The place was Marquette, 27 kilometres from the point of capture.
Saturday morning somehow arrived, and when some prisoners were called to go
farther on I went with them, and we set off on the march once more.
About noon we turned into the square at Denain; this brought the total distance up to
37 kilometres in two and a half days, without food. We were put into a large stone building,
not completed, and given our first meala quarter of a loaf of black bread and marma
lade," a sickly mixture, which, after seventy-two hours hunger, I could not completely
swallow.
Coffee was issued afterwards, made from burnt barley beansstill, it was
drinkable. For drinking utensils the tins from our gas masks made admirable cups,
others used steel helmets.
Fining up again, a streak of yellow paint was daubed on us to denote the day of our
arrival.
It was exceedingly cold in the stone building on the floor without covering, but rest
ing without interruptions was a blessing.
Denain seemed to be the clearing station for prisonersconsequently, a great number
accumulated and, through this, some of us were put into old houses the other side of the
square. In the daytime, when not lining up for food, our occupation was looking for
faces we knew.
Breakfast, which had to last the day, commenced to be issued at 8 a.m., but all were
not supplied until 2 p.m., owing to the poor system of giving it out. When nearing the
food depot, you passed through an aisle of barbed wire to prevent rushes being made.
A quarter of a loaf, a small piece of sausage and a litre of coffee, comprised the day's
rations. After that was over the thing to look forward to was the next day's allowance
We all wanted to get away, and each time there was a shout we all turned out into
the square in order not to miss a chance. Special trades were indicated by colours, in
addition to the arrival colour. One night a cry went up that 1,000 were required with
white on the left breast. At this, practically all turned out and knocked plaster off the
walls to chalk on their tunics. This did not work, only the originals being picked out.
The man that gave the signals for food compared very favourably with the Pied Piper.
Men would pour out of doorways, cellars, windows, and down the spoutings, tumbling
over each other to get an early place, and he would be surrounded almost before he com
pleted his call.
Soups were instituted now and may be divided into four kinds. Sauer-kraut, with
the accent on the first part and tasting very rank. Horse beans that were still hard when
cooked, and about the size of marbles. Barley, water, mainly the latter. Lastly, and
therefore reserved for more description, fish. Dog fish or porpoise was the nearest name
we could get for it. Germany prepared many years for war and I think that fish was bought
in the first expenditure. Now and again, when the ladle went into the lucky dip, a piece
of horse flesh about an inch square could be seen floating about in a sea of watery soup.
When the soup gave out, the remainder were presented with a mangold.
