The Coconino sun., 1919-04-18
HORRORS OF GERMAN
 PRISON CAMP TOLD BY
 RALPH FLEETWOOD
Former Flagstaff Boy Says American Farmers Would Not Feed Hogs
 Food Given Captives by Huns

American farmers wouldn't feed hogs," according to Ralph E. Ellin- wood, veteran of the German wal who has returned to Bisbee, after an absence of two years.
 ''It consisted of black bread about two inches in diameter and alleged soup made out of COW beets and cab bage. Oh, it was lovely menu' He was speaking of the ration bread issued to prisoners in German prison camps.
 eve owe our health and our lives to the American Red Cross Work. CTS" he continued. Each month they would send us 90 pounds of food per man. We didn't have any trouble in getting the food that was sent to us, but over in the prison camp al Cassel, Germany, the men didn't fare as well and there were many reports of food sent them being stolen by the German guards.
 "In the Chemin-des-Dames sectol where I was taken prisoner, 1900 British Tommies were captured and they were put to work behind the German lines building roads and work ing on dumps. The poor fellows were so undernourished that six months later only 1S7 of them still lived, and they were moved into one of the prison camps in the interior of Germany.
 "Seventy-five of them died in the first ten days. They were in a pitt ful plight. American doctors who ex- amined them said that none of the remainder would live more than two years longer, due to undernourishment and hard labor A sad looking lot, those Tommies."
 Sailed in June, 1917
 Mir. Ellinwood sailed for France in June, 1917, and served four months on an ammunition truck. On October he joined the American army ambu- lance corps and was attached to the French army which was operating on the Rheims front Later on his com pany moved up to the Soissons line and it was during an engagement on May 2S, 1918, that the Chemin-des- Danes line was shattered by the Huns and he was taken prisoner. On Jan uary 1, 1919, he was released from the Hun prison camp and entered the American lines after spending eight months in the prison.
 When questioned concerning the Y. NJ. C. A. and the part it played with the American expeditionary forces, MT. Ellinwood said he believed they did what they had contracted for with the expeditionary forces.
 Y NJ q Did COod Work
 "They did lot of good work" he added, "in simply having huts where men could congregate and have recre- ation and write letters and have their entertainments. The organization dearest to the heart of the doughboy is the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. They performed extraordinary work"
 According to MT. Ellinwood the German people accepted the terms of the armistice without any concern. They were calm he said and seemed to have adopted themseles to the in itable fate which they knew was in store for them when the French turned them back at the Marne and at Mons in 1914, when Von Kluck ham mered his way right to the gats of Paris, only to be turned back by the yalient French and what the Ger mans called "the contemptible little French army" ..
 "There is only one real country he said in conclusion, "and it's right here in my own United States. I'll say Pm glad to get back. You bet. It feels bully"