The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-04-18
YANKEE FIGHTS
PROPAGANDA IN
PRISON CAMP
P'ucky Sergeant Defies Motors
Gus Won Tauscher.
TELLS OF LIFE AT RASTAT1
Halyburton Finds Pro-Germans in
Charge Of Everything Within the
Prise Confines-Prisoners Organize
and ce German Commander to
Place Sergeant HaIyburton in Charge
of camp-Beat Them at Own Game.


The true facts on the life American
prisoners were forced to lead in Ger
many are told by Sergt. Edgar NJ.
Halyburton, Company F. Sixteenth in
fantry,, who arrived at Vichy, France.
recently. Sergeant Halyburton wars a
prisoner of war in Germany for IL
months. He was the Commander" of
the American prisoners at Rastatt and
is qualified to describe conditions as
they actually existed,
t1 passed seven months at Tuchel,"
said Sergeant Halyburton. ut was a
strafe camp and a hell-hole in every
sense of the word. We were hitched
Ito q wagon like horses and forced to
draw wood IA kilometers all day long.
Dirty German guards were constantly
insulting us at the point Of bayonets.
We wore wooden shoes and for socks
we used winding Of fabric and paper.
Scantily clothed and half-starved, we
pulled our wagon through snow last
winter that was above our knees.
/; Saved by Red Cross.
.eThere were Is Americans in Tuch-
el. had written postcards to the Red
Cross from each town we had been IN
previously, but they could never have
been sent, for no answer was received
until four months after we reached
Tuehel. It was then (March II, 1879
that the first Red Cross parcels ar
rived. These parcels saved our lives.
IL we had been forced to continue two
months longer, On the prison food and
under the harsh treatment, I am GER
tain most of us would have died Of
starvation"
Sergeant Halyhurton and his COM
rades were transferred TO Rastatt on
August IA, 1918. There were approx
nately. $50 American prisoners in the
camp at that date. At the close of hos
,tilities there were 2,400.
...Rastatt was propaganda camp" :"
said Sergeant Halyburton. "Pro-Ger-
mans were in charge Of everything
within the, prison confines when we ar
rived. The noncoms, clerks. and billet
chiefs were all working hand in hand
with. the propagandist leaders, the prin-
cipal of whom was none other than
Captain Won Tauscher, the German
American that was implicated in the
plot to blow up a bridge in Detroit,
Mich. y
Captain Won Tauscher was caught
with suitcase of dynamite, He was
tried, but the jury failed to ind 'in-
tent" and released him. He was later
ordered out of the United States.)
| Pro-German Papers in Camp. -
aCaptain von Tauscher made several
attempts to introduce the Continental
Times and the American in Europe
into Rastatt, but we told him point
blank we would stand for no German
propagandist paper in the place"
When Sergeant Halyburton and his
comrades first reached Rastatt they or
ganized and demanded that the SER
geant be given command over all the
American prisoners. They were so per-
sistent that the Prussian general gave
his consent. Sergeant Halyburton i'm
mediately ousted the pro-Germans and
replaced them with true American SOL
diers.
eve perfected crude but efficient or
ganization,," said Sergeant Halyburton.
"When the armistice was signed we
had hand-picked intelligence staff Of
$50 men working in the camp, all
Yankees we knew to be absolutely free
from Prussianism. We beat the Hun
propagandists at their own game. 1t
was the duty of these men to preach
into the ears Of every prisoner the true
facts on prison life in Germany and to
teach every young Hun soldier that he
met, that it would be essentially bet
tel for him to surrender to the Amer
leans when he got into action. The
Tanks impressed them with vivid stor-
les of kind treatment and wonderful
food for every prisoner taken by our
forces. We met many young Germans
end I firmly believe our propaganda
bore fruit among them"
Fought With Propagandists.
! 1--WE worked night and day to defeat
the pr6pagandists at Rastatt," said the
sergeant, "and nullify their work. II
the army officials conduct an inquiry, 1
am positive they will obtain a great
deal of surprising information on Ras'
TAFT and the careers of some of the
khaki.clad men that sojourned there"
Sergeant Halyburton interfered SO
much with the propaganda work at
Rastatt that he was sent to Heubers
(Baden) and confined in a "strafe"
>icamp. Private Charles A. Geoghegan
lCompany 3, Eleventh engineers, who
Iacted as his "adjutant," was sent with
him. They were forced to do hard
manual labor, insulted continuously
i,,1 er;van incrfficiant food tO SllbSiSf