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Description: | British private served with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1918; POW in France and Belgium, 3-11/1918.
REEL 1: Recollections of period as POW in France and Belgium, 3-11/1918: story of being taken prisoner at Gommecourt, France, 25/Mar/1918; marched to camp in brickworks at Douai; interrogation; marched to camp in iron foundry; billeted in terraced house; description of school used to house German soldiers with self-inflicted wounds; use of church as German hospital; description of work in magazine room repairing weapons and artillery wheels; method of sabotaging weapons by removing parts; story of seeing first German Tommy gun; comparison of sound of German and British machine guns and artillery; opinion of food rations; story of making meal from barley and boiled horseflesh; opinion of sauerkraut; moved to camp in village on Somme; story of visit by German general; proximity to front line; moved to unfinished section of canal near Cambrai; billeted in bottom of lock; description of work on roads; story of Germans repairing broken down tanks; moved to farm on Belgian border; description of work unloading stones from barges to build canal; use of Russian ponies; moved to camp near Valenciennes; description of destroying telephone lines during German retreat; story of pulling wagon; problem of German guards being unable to keep up with POWs; crossed border into Belgium and moved into camp near Mons; description of work unloading light railway lines; problem with back injury; story of walking into village and having meal with Belgian family; story of escaping from camp and evading capture; sheltered in Belgian house and buried uniform in garden; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/1918; story of walking to Canadian officers’ mess; food parcels; personal hygiene and shaving; question of better treatment and food for trusties in camp; opinion of German sense of humour; use of nettles and dandelions to supplement diet; reason for having no dogs in camp; story of eating dead horse; opinion of German jam; description of journey to Calais and return to GB; demobilized in Grantham, 4/1919; further memories of period in Belgian village after escape. l | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Wilkinson, James | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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