The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-12
BEAT PRISONERS UNTIL VERY END
Commanders of Hun Camps Cruel-British Soldier
 Tells Story.

Among the mass of official docu- l our soldiers in the prison camps of | the enemy it is to be feared that the point of view of the men themselves is often overlooked, says the Pall Mall Gazette.
 The Justification of the following story Is not, therefore. that 1t mar rates anything very new or throws any particularly fresh light on the problem, but that it Is plain, unvar- nished tale, written, obviously, with considerable difficulty, but without ex- aggeration, by one of the men them selves.
 T was taken prisoner at Berry-au Bac, having just come off patrol from the German line, and got to my post, when the German barrage began at 1 o'clock a. m., May 27, 1918, and 1t lasted well into the morning before the Germans came over. The Hanks gave way, and we were surrounded, the headquarters, the reserves and the supports being captured.
 The Germans came down the river in motorboats and blew the bridge up, so there was no chance of our getting back; all we could do was to surren- der. Then we were marched to u compound about twenty miles off, where we were searched, and had our letters knives and smokes taken from us We stayed at this place for days. All we were given to eat was boiled flour and water, and we had to fight for 1t If we wanted any. It was bitterly cold and we laid out all night. We were then marched an other fifteen miles to a camp. Here we were given black bread, a loaf to each fifteen men, and some water, which I was pleased to get. We slept in some sheds that night, anu when we got up the next morning we were given another piece of bread and some drink supposed to be cof- fee. Then we were marched an- other twenty tniles-we were getting weaker every day-to a village called inZlet, where we stayed for a month, and where we were put into working parties, loading up shells of all sorts 2 Id barbed wire and unloading trains, coaling up railway engines with coal dust and coke. This was at Montcarnet, and we used to get very dirty and had no soap to wash with
 We all had boards, and I can tel you we did not look very nice. we had soup twice a day, made of water. carrots and cabbage, with stinging nettle tea to drink. Sometimes we Lo T CT, and which smelt something aw- ful, so that we could not eat it, and a little piece of bread each day. We had eight marks for that month. Af- | ter that we were taken another twer- ty-ffve mile march, to a camp called 1 Rerson, where we waited two days | for a train to take us into Germany. We had some more soup there. made of fungus and were then put into cattle trucks, forty men in truck, given half a loaf of bread to last us | four days. which we ate in one day. My mates were giving their watches, rings and boots to the Germans for a i piece of bread.
 We got off at a place called Dull men, and marched to a camp, where
 
 1 There we had all the hair shaved off 1 cur heads, and our clothes were put | through a fumigator. which was | wanted very badly, and we had a i hath, still without soap. Then we 1 were put into huts and were inoculat- | ed four times and vaccinated once in l one week.
 | The food was very poor, and we got 1 so weak that We could hardly walk, 1 and at roll call the men used to faint 1 through weakness. We had emer- | gency parcels and biscuits, which the 1 doctor (Who was a captured English man got for us, and these kept us l alive. After this we were taken to another compound, and were picked out for working parties, and, think ] ing I should be all right, I put my self down for farm work We were then marched to the station. and were landed at a coal mine, and l | was dreading the thoughts of going down a mine. We were given pit clothes, clogs, shirts made from win dow curtains, and two rags for socks; we were put into different shifts; had to be up at I o'clock every morning; had our breakfast, which consisted of boiled carrots and cabbage, and that
 was all we had to work on. Next we
 were marched to the bath house tc
 change our clothes and get our pit
 lamps; thence to the pit, which the guards saw us safely down I had tc
 walk about a mile from the bottom
 of the shaft. My work was slipping or what they call tramming coal which was very hard; bending al
 the time and being so weak made ii
 harder still. I was working witt
 Russians, civilian Germans, Belgians
 and French, and we had to work like
 niggers. I had eight hours hard
 work, and then back to the shaft where the guards were waiting fol
 us and were taken to the bath house
 which was hard job without soap.
 We were paid ten marks (not equa,
 to 10 shtlHngs) a fortnight, and that
 soon went, as a little piece of soar
 cost five marks and a few smokes
 five marks. We had dinner at
 o'clock-swedes and cabbage and tea -stinging nettle tea-one loaf be.
 tween seven of us.
 On Saturday we worked 16 hours | in order to get Sunday off, and if WE did anything wrong we were put or loading wagons of coke. The guards
 were cruel, pulling our ears or boards or mustaches or skipping our faces Twas knocked down fiat by one guarC
 and nearly broke my arm, and one
 dare not say anything to them. W, had a pretty good bed, straw mat
 tress and two blankets; also fires which we had to pay for by oul