The Elbert County tribune., 1919-04-18
Operations Without Anesthetics
One Method of Torturing
British Officers.
FED ON ERSATz RATIONs
Captain GilIiland Declares Many Men
Were Driven Mad by Confinement
Wounded Given No. Medical
Attention for Months.

New York.-Capt. Horace c. GILL;
land, British officer and author, now
In this country, tells a thrilling story
of the cold-blooded treatment accord
ed him while 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 Gilllland. landed in
France on August u. 1914, with the
first division of the British expedi-
tionary force. He served with that
division until October when, at the
first Ypres battle, in the La Bassee
engagement. he was made prisoner.
His company had been ordered, $40
strong, to hold corner in front of
La Bassee while the hard-pressed Eng
lish withdrew before a numerically
overpowering German force. They
held for % hours, and, when the men
In gray finally stormed over the
trenches held by the khakl-clad troops,
there was only Captain Gilliland and
three enlisted men alive. All four
were desperately wounded.
eve were ordered to the rear" said
Captain Gilliland, "and commenced
crawling along as none of us could
walk. Our captors were enraged at
the resistance we had made against
them and refused us Red Cross mid.
One of the men, unable to crawl fast
enough an account of his wounds, was
bayoneted by a German soldier n few
feet in front of me. Before we got to
La Bassee l had become separated
from the other two men and 1 have
never heard of them since.
Given No Medical Aid.
'T 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, l
did not receive medical aid of any
sort; In fact, II was n year and eight
months before the Germans even eX-
nmned my wounds.
From October until December l l
was in prison in Lille and then l was
transported with batch of other
prisoners, British officers and men and
French, both regular and colonials, to
Munden, in Hanover. That trip, the
men that went on it will never forget
"At Munden, which was not the
worst prison camp saw, | was placed
in a room, 80 feet by 80. in company
with 16 Russian officers, the idea be-
ing, you see, that. British officers
should not have even the small COM
fort of talking to their countrymen.
1--WE were not allowed to read or to
smoke. and man after man went mad.
You cannot conceive of the hate that
rises in your heart when you are
locked in like that, hate not only for
your naptors. but also for the men
confined with you. | have seen men
IN my room go stark raving mad be-
cause theswalls of the room persisted
In being square. You can hardly real
ize that here. can you?
81 kept trying to escape but was too
weak with wounds and scurvy. They
gave me no medical attention, and
the food was awful.
FINALLY 1 got letter home in n
secret code that my mother sent to
the foreign office and finally it
reached the American embassy in
Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted at
once. His visit to Munden in April,
1915, resulted in our being transferred
to Bishofswerda in Saxony, a fairly
decent prison.
Used No Anesthetic.
81 was transferred half a dozen
times after that until April. 1916.
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 I weighed about 103 pounds,
where 1 had formerly weighed 195.
Il was sent to a hospital in Dres-
den where a surgeon operated, taking