The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-04-25
Operations Without A~nesthetics
One Method of Torturing
British Officers.
FED ON ERSATz RAT|oNS
Captain Gilliland Declares Many Men
Were Driven Mad by Confinement
Wounded Given No Medical
Attention for Months.

New York.-Capt. Horace q. Gill
land, British officer and author, now
in this country, tells a thrilling story
of the cold-blOoded treatment accord
ed him while a prisoner in Germany
from October, 1914, until April, 1917,
when he escaped.
An officer in the Loyal North Ian
cashire regiment of the British regu-
lar army, Captain Gilliland, landed in
France on August Il, 1914, with the
first division of the British eXpedi-
tionary force. He served with that
first Ypres battle, In the La Bassee
engagement, he was made prisoner.
His company had been ordered, 37O
strong, to hold a corner in front OF
La Bassee while the hard-pressed Eng
fish withdrew before q numerically
Overpowering German force. They
held for % hours, and, when the men
In gray finally stormed over the
trenches held by the khaki-clad troops,
there was only Captain Gilliland and
three enIlSteu mtu dlNes All Iooi
were desperately wounded.
"We were ordered to the rear" said
Captain Gilliland, land commenced
crawling along rs non Of us could
walk. Our captors were enraged at
the resistance we had made against
them and refused us Red Cross aid.
One Of the men, unable to crawl fast
enough an account of his wounds, was
bayoneted by a German soldier a few
feet In front of me. Before we got to
La Bassee I had become separated
from the other two men and ! have
lever heard Of them since.
Given No Medical Aid.
81 was suffering from a bullet
wound In the ankle and a serious
%shrapnel wound in the chest which
had driven splinters OF my ribs into
my lungs. In spite of my condition, ]
did not receive medical aid OF any
sort; In fact, 1t was a year and eight
months before the Germans even ex.
amined my wounds.
From October until December /
was in prison in Lille, and then / was
transported with a batch Of Other
prisoners, British officers and men and
French, both regular and ~colonials, tC
Munden, In Hanover. That trip, the
men hat went on 1t will never forget
"At Munden, which was not thu
worst prison camp / saw, / was placed
in a room, 80 feet by 30, In company
with 16 Russian officers, the idea be
ing. you see, that British officer.
should not have even the small com
fort of talking to their co%untrymen
"We were not allowed to read or tt
smoke, and man after man went mad
You cannot conceive of the hate thai
rises in your heart when you are
locked In like that, hate not only fol
your captors, but also for the men
confined with you. ! have cen men
In my room go stark raving mad be-
cause the walls Of the room persisted
In being square. You can hardly real.
lie that here, a you?
81 kept trying to escape but was toe
wtdh with "oubuS III oSul AhCy
gave me no medical attention, and
the food was awful.
FINALLY / got a letter home In q
secret code that my mother sent to
the foreign Office and finally II
reached the American embassy In
Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted al
once. His visit to Munden In April
1915, resulted In u being transferred
TO Bishofswerda In Saxony. a fairly
decent prison.
Used No AnesthetIc.
81 was transferred half a dozer
times after that until April, 1915
found me again at Bishofswerda
There the Swiss Red Cross commits
sion saw me and ordered the Germans
to give me medical attention. At this
time / weighed about 103 pounds
where / had formerly weighed 1915.
~ was sent to a hospital In ORES
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