THE YPRES TIMES
37
sporting and chivalrous manner, almost their first act being to give me soup. The
senior officer went through the contents of my haversack, and, singling out an
ordinary English dessert-spoon which he took a fancy to, asked me what I would
take for itcigarettes or cigar, or money. I said I would prefer some bread, but
they said they were short of bread themselves, so I chose a cigar, which was given
me. Later in the evening I was sent back to Peronne (a distance of about five
miles) with one mounted trooper as escort, and there locked in a cell under some
great ruined fortress, where I smoked and enjoyed my cigar and dozed till morning.
At about 8 p.m. the cell door was opened and I was given coffee, after which
I was transferred to another and larger cell, where I found myself in company
with about a dozen other prisoners, all guilty of various offencessuch as
attempting to escape and striking German N.C.Os.
One fellow whom I got into conversation with had been sentenced to fifteen
months in a fortress for hitting a German sergeant.
My confinement here lasted two days only, and I was then taken back to my
old camp that I had escaped from. The camp commandant here was furious,
because he had no knowledge of any missing prisoner and nothing had been
reported to him by the sour-natured German N.C.O. in charge of the sick-bay,
who thereupon received a severe dressing-down in most explosive German. My
sentence was five days' confinement in a dark cell, where I found myself in company
with two other prisonersan American engineer and an English corporal who
were serving a fourteen days' sentence for escaping from one of the other camps
in Peronne. These two fellows had had singularly bad luck, having escaped from
their camp at night by getting over a high brick wall with the aid of a ladder,
progressed through the German artillery and infantry lines, and had been
challenged and recaptured actually in the German front line just as they were about
to cross No Man's Land. They reckoned that if they had known the name of the
German regiment holding that particular part of the line, and had been able to
reply to the challenge, they would have been unmolested and made good their
escape.
My short sentence expired, I was released in the general camp once more,
where I took part in the usual working parties.
The German sentries kept a special eye on me, for I was now a marked
man," but nothing of importance happened until the end of July, when another
escape was made by two friends of mineone a South African and another an
Englishman.
These two men, to the best of my knowledge, slipped away from a working
party in the town, concealed themselves till dark, then crossed the river by a way
known to them, avoiding the main bridge on account of the sentries there, and
made their way towards the lines, carrying with them in a haversack two loaves of
bread as provisions for the journey. The following day they spent in hiding under
a dump of straw, until darkness enabled them to proceed on to the German support
lines, where they were recaptured. For this escapade they were sentenced to four
teen days in the same cell that I had occupied the previous month, and I had the
pleasure of smuggling in cigarettes to them through the grating when the sentry's
back was turned.
The following month brought more excitement and further escapes.
On August 8th the Allies took the offensive on the Western Front, and we
knew by the tremendous gunfire near at hand that a big attack was taking place on
our immediate front. At intervals during the day Allied airmen flew over the
Peronne area and dropped many bombs, although none came near enough to our
camp to be dangerous. In the evening of that day we learnt that our own side
had advanced to a point not more than ten miles from where we were stationed,
and hopes ran high that there would be a break-through and that we should be
