American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1919-05-02
Operations Without Anesthetics
One Method of Torturing
British Officers.
FED ON ERSA1z RATIONS
Captain Gilliiand 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 Lam
cashire regiment of the British regu-
lar army, Captain Gilliland, 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, AZ the
first Ypres battle, in the La Bassee
engagement, he was made prisoner.
His company had been ordered $40
strong, to hold a corner in front OF
La Bassee while the hard-pressed Eng
fish withdrew before n numerically
overpowering Germh1 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 enlisted men alive. All -four
were desperately wounded.
1--WE were ordered to the rear" said
Captain Gilliland, IAN 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 aid.
One of the men, unable to crawl fast
enough an account of his wounds, was
b~ayonered by a German soldier a few
feet in front of me. Before we got to
La Bassee l had become separated
from the other two men and / have
never heard of them since.
Given No Medical Aid.
"I was suffering from n 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, it was a year and eight
months before the Germans even ex'
amined my wounds.
"From October until December l ]
was in prison in Lille, and then l was
TRANSPORTED with a batch of other
prisoners, British officers and men anc
French, both regular and %colonials, tt
Munden, in Hanover. That trip, the
men that went on 1t will never forget
"At Munden, which was not the
worst prison camp ! saw, | was PLACED
in a room. 30 feet by 80, in company
with rs 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 t.
smoke, and man after nah went mad
You cannot conceive of the hate tina
rises in your heart when you ar
locked in like that, hate no only 70
your captOrs. but also for the mel
confined with you. ! nave seen me
in my room go stark raving mad be
cause the walls of the persiste'
In being square. You can hardly real
lie that here, can you?
81 kept trying to escape hut was to
weak with wounds and scurvy. The
the food was awful.
FINALLY I got a letter home in
secret code that my mother sent I
the foreign office and finally
reached the American embassy I
Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted
once lis visit to Munden in Apri
1915, resulted in our being trnnsfprre
10 Bishofswerda in Saxony, a fairl
decent prison.
Used No Rnesthetlc.
81 was transferred half a doze
tlmes after that until April, 1871
found me again ut Bishofswerdi
There the Swiss Red Cross cOmmi
sion saw me and ordered the German
to give me medical attention. At tn
time ! weighed about lob pound
where l had formerly weighed 195.
81 was sent to a hospital in Dire
den where a surgeon operated, takir