Adventures in German Prison Camps with some Adventures of Birds who flew out of their Cages. Vol. 5, No. 2 Published Quarterly April, 1930 By Sig. W. H. Sanders, M.M., 47TH Division. THE great German attack of March, 1918, had lasted three days, and, on Saturday night, March 23rd, I found myself one of a small party, consisting of about a dozen or so of our regimental headquarters staff, halted amongst the ruined houses of Lechelle, a village on the old Somme battlefield, where we intended to spend the night. Throughout the day we had been engaged in rearguard actions and hectic retreats from one point to anotherover ridges and valleys and through woods and villages, but now the firing had quietened down, and although the enemy were close at hand, and a few heavy shrapnel shells burst over the village, the senior officer believed we were safe from further attack until the next day, at any rate. Another signaller and myself went out to reconnoitre the outskirts of the village, and found things very unsatisfactory; at one point we fancied we heard voices; also we saw the German Very lights going up not 200 yards away, and then, through the gloom, saw two men coming along the road, whom we challenged in a businesslike manner, but found that they were our own men who had strayed from the main body. We returned to the cellar where the officers were staying, and related the unsatisfactory state of affairs, but the opinion was that there would be no more enemy attacks till the following day. My friend and myself got down into another cellar where most of the rank and file were billeted for the night, and were about to share out rations when a man came down the cellar stairs shouting that the Germans were in the village. We grabbed our rifles and made our way quickly to the open, where we heard the Germans firing and shouting amongst the ruins in the darkness. We returned the fire and dodged about from house to house, several being wounded and captured. Two fellows and myself made our way across a field to join a small group of survivors we saw in the distance, when over we went right into a pit full of barbed wire that entangled us. A group of Germans came from around a corner, saw us, and started firing at us at almost point-blank range. The bullets zipped over us, and miraculously no one was hit. I had a hurried consultation with the others and we decided that surrender was inevitable, so, being able to speak German, I called to the enemy around us, who assisted us from the wire and made us prisoners. We were not badly treated, although we were given no food till we had been

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1930 | | pagina 3