THE YPRES TIMES
73
A German general visited the camp, and asked if there were any complaints.
He couldn't hear himself speak tor minutes, and went away without listening to any.
The next time he came we appointed a spokesman, who complained of the in
sufficient food. The general assured us that the people of London were living on
less than us. The next question was the non-appearance of letters and parcels.
The reply was, They are somewhere in the country." With an attitude like that,
what could we obtain The spokesman was put into the arrest for reporting
such trivial items.
Some captured Russian clothing was issued to the very worst clad prisoners.
Shirts, the thickness of a blanket, in hideous colours. One, I remember, had black
and white stripes with pink and yellow spotted sleeves. A well known football
team was shouted at the recipient. After a shower of rain the pattern was faith
fully reproduced on the skin. Thin black trousers, small vivid blue jackets, top
boots in bad condition, and pork pie caps completed the ensemble.
The boot shortage was very acute, so one day a huge pile of wooden sabots was
deposited in the camp. We filed by and took two at random, irrespective of size.
Some were so huge that waves were drawn on them and marked H.M.S. Queen
Elizabeth, by one humorist. A piece of leather across the instep somehow held
them on.
The shortage of materials with the Germans was very noticeable. Cycles,
motors and lorries had no rubber tyres, but, instead, a flat steel tyre with strong
steel springs every few inches round the rim. The sentries used brickdust to
clean their rifles instead of oil; soap powder that felt like zinc filing, and did not
cleanse, and paper towels. Anyone reporting sick had pay and food stopped
this certainly was a kill or cure method. The only medical supplies were
aspirin tablets (whatever the ill) and paper bandages. Boils were removed with a
dexterous twist of the knife. The krankenstube (sick bay) was next to the cook
house, and we had to file past the diseased and wasted men to obtain our food.
About every three weeks we marched to St. Amand for baths. This walk
consisted of darts and dashes from the column to pick up cigar and cigarette ends.
The Kommandant tried to stop this by getting our sergeant-majors to drill us.
Only one half-hour's drill was attempted. Commands like Achtung, Augen left,
and eyes recht turned it into a fiasco.
Day and night air raids occurred often over Raismes, being a busy centre.
Pandemonium seemed let loose on night raids. The French prisoners all turned
out into the compound, and to hear 2,000 wooden sabots clattering on the concrete
floor in darkness, and excitable tongues going, seemed like nightmares come true.
A calamity now overtook us. Bread got scarce, and we were given a daily
ration of 40-50 biscuits, iin. x l|in. x £in., three days' rations at a time. In our
condition it was next to impossible to ration ourselves and, if we did, we risked
them being stolen by fellow prisoners. On several occasions the next issue of
biscuits was not forthcoming on the fourth day, but held up till the seventh, when
we had a double share; but for six days we existed on a litre of watery soup daily.
At this time the soup was sauer-kraut, spinach and carraway seeds mixed, a most
horrible smelling mess which made it difficult to force down. Anything was eaten.
I have seen prisoners smash horse bones for the marrow, and plum stones, when
found, opened for the kernel. The guards, for amusement, threw pieces of meat
in the dust to watch the men fight and scramble for it.
On the last day of August the air was electrified. A letter arrived at the
camp. It was examined closer than any-specimen in a museum. It represented
home. A few others trickled through, but a parcel, not one.
I was working on the railway sidings now, and the continual transport of
different variety was interesting to watch. Heavy Austrian artillery, with the
gunners in light grey uniforms seated round their guns, rolled by, and, at varying
