Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-02-18


WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN
THE FIELD, Jan. 10.
In perhaps the most ancient town
within the borders of the American
armyg zone, ! was introduced TO-DAY
by the colonel commanding bunch OF
ready-fo or-the-trenChes Sammecs, to SER
gcaDt Charles Breyer, of the French
army. The polu Is but the wreck OF a
man. and thereby hangs this tale, which
he told me as. with Colonel - we
sat over n blazing fire of wood IN
house that had been occupied by the
sergcant's people since 1910. aud punt
in 1879.
In 1915. Sergeant Brcycr. II youth OF
twenty-four, solid and sturdy, was a
master mechanician in the Frcnch
drgible balloon service. Upon october
l OF that year in Champagne. the bal
loon he occupied was observing over
boChe lines. II was brought to earth
by an enemy aircraft gun, and as 1t
dropped, the sergeant landed upon the
ground. the only living member Of the
crew, with five broken ribs and
broken right arm. He lay well within
/ No Mans Land as the balloon had
! drifted ere falling, and during the night
was picked up unconscious by Ger
| man patrol and taken within their lines
as a prisoner Interrogated by the Ger
man commander. he knew nothing and
would say nothing, even with a revolver
held against his temple. He was finally
kicked out of the commanders presence
| and thrown for the night in cellar,
| without any attention being paid to his
| injuries.
| The next morning, with his injuries
/ still unattended to, he was taken with
/ some fifty French prisoners to the rear
/ of Rathel. in front of which he had
/ been picked up. to Nauziers, and two
! days later he was sent with 400 other
| prisoners to Germany, where he was
! interned in prison camp with French
/ and English prisoners Eleven days
after his arrival there he was removed
| TO hospital after inspection by a Ger
man surgeon, and his arm rebrolSen for
the purposes of resetting. 1t was too
! late to make n good job, and conse-
quently his arm viii be a useless MEM
| Der for evermore. His ribs took care
of themselves as best they could.
/ In two months he was returned to the
/ prison camp, where he spent eleven
months IN all. There he developed
! pleurisy. and no wonder: but he was
indifferently treated in the prison in
frmary. That he did not die is because
he came of sturdy stock and that it was
rot written. During his experiences in
the camp he witnessed many inhuman
acts upon the part of his jailers. He
| told me enough of them to fill three
pages Of typewriter paper. l cite but
two.
Upon one instance, because a French
prisoner wished to share his soup with a
fellow countryman, the German sentinel
/ reached through the wire inclosure
| about the camp and stabbed the giver
| in the stomach with a bayonet The
man later died Upon another occasion,
. without any apparent reason. eight
boche barbarians in uniform entered
the stockade and beat to death an Eng
lish prisoner. When they were through
/ with their bloody work the victim was
mass of bleeding death at his feet
AS the sergeant protested he was struck
in the face by the butt end of a rifle.
He carries scar across his cheek as
evidence thereof.
The Sergeant told me that the food
was insufficient In quantity and quality
In the morning something supposed TO
he coffee was given each man. The other
two meals consisted of SOUP a SCUM made
OF little flour and water. 1t had the
advantage of being hot and that was all.
| In this soup at certain intervals there
were supposed to be 100 grams of meat
! weekly win the soup was served 100
grams of black bread daily. so soup
that II could not be eaten without
retchihg. During the last four months
Of his stay In the camp this ration was
reduced 80 per cent The prisoners had
nothing in the nature of bed or cot
They lay on the ground under cover
and that was all. When it rained the
ground oozed wet. and when they were
dry they felt more than otherwise, The
vermin surrounding them.
on December 20, 1916, Sergeant
Breyer was sent TO Switzerland as a
hopelessly i'll prisoner. He was interned
there for eleven months. being re.
patriated December /, 1917. a physca
wreck, suffering from internal trouble
and with a withered right arm.
He told me that in Switzerland ht
saw many interned French and German
prisoners. In the main, the Germans
]