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    [Illustration: "WITH HIS BUNDLE SAFELY ON HIS HEAD HE TOOK TO THE
    WATER" (_page 205_).]




  13 DAYS

  THE CHRONICLE OF AN ESCAPE
  FROM A GERMAN PRISON

  BY

  CAPTAIN J.A.L. CAUNTER

  1ST BN. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT

  ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

  [Illustration]

  LONDON
  G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
  1918




CONTENTS


                                                             PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                                                vii


  PART I

  CHAPTER

     I. CREFELD                                                 1

    II. THE MOVE TO SCHWARMSTEDT                               45

   III. SCHWARMSTEDT CAMP                                      65


  PART II

    IV. MY ESCAPE FROM THE CAMP                                87

     V. CROSSING THE FIRST TWO RIVERS                         108

    VI. I MEET FOX AND BLANK                                  125

   VII. THE CROSSING OF THE WESER                             134

  VIII. THE RAILWAY TRACK                                     155

    IX. CROSSING THE RIVER HUNTE, AND THE TOWN OF "DOGS"      164

     X. EXIT BLANK. SHEDS                                     175

    XI. TWO DAYS OF THE EMS                                   184

   XII. THE CROSSING OF THE RIVER                             198

  XIII. ACROSS THE FRONTIER                                   209

   XIV. CONCLUSION                                            222




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                      FACING PAGE

  "With his bundle safely on his head he took to
    the water"                                            _Title_

  Fancy Portrait of "The Crab"                                 16

  Section of a German Camp                                     96

  "At last the two Women got up"                              112

  "Face to face with a Flapper on her way to bathe"           128

  "Every dark corner seemed to contain a dog"                 160

  "Fox led them over the worst pieces of boggy
  ground he could find"                                       192

  "The German Relief passed within 200 yards of my
    hiding place"                                             208




INTRODUCTION


On placing before the public this account of my escape from Germany
and some episodes from my life in two prison camps, I feel that I must
make clear that it was only due to the fact that I had two definite
supplementary objects to attain, that I succeeded in making myself
launch out in the following pages.

The first of these objects is to add my quota to the information
before the public relating to the treatment and existence of those
who, in prisons in Germany, have suffered and are suffering for their
country.

My second object is to try to throw a little light on the marvellous
spirit of the prisoners as a whole.

Think what it means to be shut up for years under such conditions.

Let me quote the prisoner poet, Lieut. Harvey, who, in
_Gloucestershire Friends_, vividly describes what prison means in the
following lines:

    Laugh, oh laugh loud, all ye who long ago
    Adventure found in gallant company!
    Safe in stagnation; laugh, laugh bitterly,
    While on this filthiest backwater of time's flow,
    Drift we and rot till something set us free!

It is always a fight against this sort of thing that the prisoner of
war is waging. Some apparently find such a fight difficult, but the
majority do somehow keep a hold on themselves and retain their energy
and hopefulness.

"Barbed-wire" disease is now officially recognised, and internment in
neutral countries of those who have done the longest spells in prison
is the outcome of this.

It will readily be conceded that those who keep cheerful throughout
their cruel trials display wonderful moral courage. But what about
another class of prisoner? The prisoner who tries to escape--is
caught--does three months cells--is released--tries to escape
again--meets the same fate--and does another stretch of perhaps six
months this time--but only goes on trying.

There are some who have spent two and a half years out of three in
Germany in cells for attempts to escape. There are many who have made
six or seven attempts. I, who only had one determined attempt and
succeeded, am able to say it: "These men are of the salt of the
earth."

I have heard some chicken-hearted persons who say that nobody ought to
try to escape because it might make it worse for those left behind.
There is only one answer to that sort of person.

However, it is not a fact that others get punished for the escape of
individuals, although it was true on two occasions in 1914; so the
question hardly arises.

Very few people in this country seem to realise that the German, being
a bully, has the characteristics of a bully. If a strong attitude is
taken with him he immediately gives way. Collectively and individually
they cannot understand any argument but Force, whether it takes the
form of a reprisal or a great attack at the front.


GERMANY

Since my return to England I have often been asked what do the Germans
think of the war now and are they hard up for food, etc.

The Germans I talked to were thoroughly fed-up with the war and only
wanted peace. This does not mean that they will break out into
Revolution. That to my mind cannot come about until the military
defeat of Germany is a fact. The Kaiser, not too popular nowadays,
would immediately regain his former position in the minds of his
subjects could he but secure a peace even partially favourable to the
German people. The rulers of Germany know that defeat, or anything
like it, would be fatal for them; that is why they will stick at
nothing and spare no spilling of blood until they have either won or
lost irretrievably. What would a patched-up peace mean? It would mean
that Germany would begin building submarines by the hundred for use
against us within ten years' time. It would mean just an armistice for
a few years and then a renewal of the conflict without Russia and
probably many of our other exhausted allies.

The Germans with whom I spoke knew this and looked at the future with
open eyes.

I wonder if it is realised how much the British are hated by the
Germans? Their hate of us is "Kolossal," to use their own expressive
word. Somebody in Germany said that should the Germans ever get into
England they would make "Belgium appear like a Garden of Eden in
comparison with what England would look like after they had done with
her."

It is a German boast that the war has never touched the sacred soil of
the Fatherland. The few occasions on which our aeroplanes bombed
German towns during my stay there, gave me an excellent opportunity of
judging how sensitive they are to this particular form of punishment.
The bombing of Karlsruhe and Freiburg caused a scream throughout the
west of Germany. I heard the echo of it in the canteen at Crefeld.

When I suggested that London had also been bombed and innocent lives
lost, they simply said that that was different. Thus in their minds
there are two kinds of law, one for England, the other for Germany. I
was very pleased to notice how much less was the effect of air-raids
on our civilian population than on the Germans. There is no doubt
whatever that the fear of air bombardments is much stronger in Germany
than over here.

There is only one way of touching the German mind and that is by the
employment of FORCE, Brute Force. It is what he believes in as the
medicine for his enemies, simply because he judges others by himself,
and knows that he respects that and that only, and therefore applies it
whenever possible to others.

It is a pity that our public does not know more of the German
mentality. It is a knowledge of this factor that should assist one in
having a correct view of things and in understanding German
aspirations and methods.

A word about food and supplies generally.

The Germans are extremely hard-up for food. In the Spring of 1917,
meat was practically unobtainable. The bread was disgusting and
scarce.

Potatoes had to be procured by standing in queues for hours. (This as
a matter of fact has been the rule for the last year and a half.)

Mangel-wurzels, swedes, black peas, and turnips form the greater part
of the food.

The town of Crefeld in February, 1917, was like a place of the dead,
absolutely deserted except at the hour when the workers went home. The
shops have practically nothing to sell in their windows. To get a
shirt or a towel or any such article, a permit had to be got from the
town authorities. Boots were a difficult problem. All the children
wore wooden shoes. Leather could not be got for love or money nearly
two years ago.

It is extraordinary how the German people put up with their hardships.

People ignorant of the true state of affairs in Germany have sometimes
asked me if the Germans are shorter of food and other things than we
are. I always have to laugh as the question is so ridiculous to me.
There is absolutely no comparison between the two countries.

I often see articles in the papers on the conditions that obtain in
Germany, written by persons who know, and I hear people doubt the
veracity of them. I can truthfully say that I have not yet seen the
article or item of news from Germany which I, from my point of
vantage, did not absolutely believe. It is a pity that people will not
believe what men who have been in Germany have to say on the
subject.




PART I




CHAPTER I

CREFELD


I was taken prisoner at Gheluveld, 31st October, 1914, and arrived at
Crefeld prison-camp on the evening of 2nd November with ten other
officers brought in from various parts of the Ypres front.

It was the same old story every time that one heard, on asking what
had happened in any particular sector of the battlefield.

The impression we got from the sum total of these descriptions led us
to think that a German break-through to Ypres and beyond was a
certainty during the evening of the 31st.

We had been taken through the German reserves while being transported
to the rear, and had seen the thousands of fresh men they had got
massed behind their fighting armies. Menin, Wervicq, and other places
were packed with troops. Every farm and cottage held its full
complement of armed Boches. On the railway, trains passed westwards
every few minutes crammed with troops, destined for the Ypres battle.

It was not surprising that we prisoners, who knew the exact strength
of the British army, and also the fact that all units were having hard
fighting, and that nothing was left in reserve, should feel depressed
and wonder if it was possible that the Germans would fail to use their
great opportunity.

I have often been asked how our prisoners are treated in Germany. The
only correct answer to this is that the treatment varies according to
the time and place, and the type of German who comes into contact with
them.

In 1914 it was generally the same throughout Germany. In those days
the treatment was exceedingly bad. Every prisoner taken then has seen
or experienced some brutality or insulting behaviour on the part of
Germans.

For my part, I, on first becoming a prisoner, was spat at and called
all the choice names their musical language can provide. I saw a
British soldier, with a shrapnel wound in the back, made to carry a
heavy German pack which bumped up and down on the open wound. This
fact was remarked upon by a German private soldier, who, more humane
than the rest, protested against this treatment. But the
Unter-Offizier would not alter his order and the wounded man had to
carry his burden for seven miles or more.

When asked for water at Aix-la-Chappelle railway station, by prisoners
who had hardly had a drop to drink for two days, and scarcely a scrap
of food to eat, I heard the Red Cross "Ladies"! reply--"For an
"Englaender"? Nein!"

At Cologne station I saw the brute beasts of German officials haul
three or four of the most miserable British private soldiers they
could find, out of the cattle trucks and place them on the platform to
be baited by the populace, comprised largely of women. There were
German officers on the platform, so there was no excuse; it could have
been stopped instantly by them.

There were many other incidents too numerous to mention, but similar
and worse stories will be told by the thousand after the war. The
treatment of prisoners has steadily improved since those days. No
longer do the Germans openly insult and knock prisoners about to the
same extent, except in out of the way places and when they have a
particularly cowed and defenceless lot to deal with.

I have heard from officers taken prisoners in 1916, that they were
reasonably treated when captured. It is much changed now according to
general report.

While waiting at Cologne station for our train for Crefeld, we were
locked in a cell under the stairs of the station. Although expecting
to receive food here and being told that it was with that object that
we had been put in this place, nothing of this kind materialised.
However, we had the great honour of being visited by a German general
and a young female of high rank, who could speak a little English.

This she aired, and asked us several silly questions. She was much
taken with S----'s height, comparing him to some Karl or other. It was
a kind of private show of the wild beasts at the Zoo in which we acted
the parts of the animals.

On arrival at Crefeld station a hostile crowd was ready to receive us,
and we were hurried as quickly as possible into the trains waiting
there, in order to get us away from the attentions of the populace. As
it was, two of the eleven officers in my party were hit with sticks,
the wielders of which had pushed their way through the escort of
German soldiers accompanying us.

We were not sorry to reach the barracks and get away from these
demonstrations of the unpopularity of England in this town. Crefeld, a
great centre of the silk industry, had suffered heavily by the entry
of England into the war.

Once inside the camp we had time to spare for anything we wished to
do, which naturally meant food first, sleep next, and after some time
a wash and shave.

The barracks of the Crefeld Hussars, now wired in and used as a prison
camp, are large and strongly built. The prisoners occupied three large
buildings and a fourth smaller one provided mess rooms and canteen,
etc.

There was a gravel parade square in the middle of the ground between
the buildings; this we used as a place for exercise. This square was a
hundred and forty yards long by about eighty yards wide. It made an
excellent association football ground when cleared of big stones, and
in the summer, by dint of hard labour, we turned it into a number of
tennis courts.

Until he got command of Belgium, Von Bissing--the brute responsible
for the death of Nurse Cavell--was the general in charge of the
particular army command which included Crefeld in its jurisdiction.

On the walls of the prison camp an order signed by Bissing was posted,
which informed all the prisoners that they were the inferiors of all
Germans, whatever rank they might hold.

The order also warned us against trying to "evade our fate by
escaping." It continued, "The guards are earnest men, knowing their
duty." This caused the nickname "earnest men" to be given to them.

I wish Bissing could have known how we laughed at his special order.
The Boche has no sense of humour or he could never have put a thing
like that on the walls for Englishmen to laugh at and ridicule
generally.

For the first year or so, only seven officers were allotted to the
smaller rooms and fourteen to the larger ones. But these numbers were
eventually increased, first to eight and sixteen respectively, and
then to nine and eighteen.

At first we had a cupboard each, but later four had to do duty for
seven officers. The beds were iron with wooden planks supporting a
hard mattress, sometimes filled with straw or wood shavings, which was
changed on one or two occasions.

During the first few months we had only small oil lamps for lighting
purposes, at a scale of one per seven officers. It was impossible for
everyone to read at the same time. We used to sit over the fire for
warmth and the three nearest to the lamp could manage to see
sufficiently in the evenings to read the few Tauchnitz editions we had
been able to purchase through a tradesman, who was allowed into the
barracks twice a week.

As nearly all great-coats and waterproofs had been taken away from
prisoners at the time of their capture, we felt the effects of the
cold pretty considerably. Roll-calls took place at 8 a.m. and 9.30
p.m., generally out of doors. We often went on these roll-calls in the
early days with our blankets over our shoulders. A welcome supply of
soldiers' great-coats was sent through the American Embassy about
Christmas time. During the first winter there were about 250 Russians,
200 French, 120 English and a few Belgian officers in the camp.

That first winter was by far the worst of the three I spent there. We
had not got to understand the true nature of the German official
reports, and for some time they depressed us.

Parcels began coming in December, but the Germans made us pay duty on
them for a time, and as we had very little money in those days, they
were not so welcome as they became at a later date, when the duty was
removed.

As time went by, conditions in