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Show HERALD-BEPUBLICA- mM,:. 1 I" .y - SALT LAKE N, I " l.l 3 JL f , MHaBSMMWBMMMMMM i " a 17 4 'r"s 's ' ORIVATE SIDNEY J AGGERS V.I V-v-7- , . " - 4.. . ' ? ' It 4.1 Ift)d rtrate ylxy JKKer I bit companion. After thirteen months of torture at the hands of the Germans, Sydney II. .Takers of the Queen's Koyal West Surreys, with three comrades who were taken prisoners at the battle of Ypres, managed to escape from his prison camp ami cross into a neutral country and from there to reach England. How r miitriHnfl 4t... ".'-- n whole nation and freed themselves is one nf the outstand ing iuui ing romances of the war, declares the Weekly Dispatch, which gives the personal narrative of Private Jaggers of his experiences. His story follows: LOXDOX, Jan. Queens Royal West Surreys re of tlie of his escape thirteen months later; declares it torture the way in which h while wounded, they were forced to carry the packs of their guards, were hooted at and derided as "English swine," while a remonstrance brought on better, the food was vile and insufficient while practically no shelter against , V 'A fc?a '1 n 15. i f - hh 5s. $ ft N P i ft y v th outbre ak itrX vy the Junior I nlt-- l r..rv IVptrmher 1 a waiter at dub. ll'lnR In Uie of the war I Srice Kngland on I wj- - called tin anil th. Qun'n Iloyal !th my rrrim-ntome of th fSercft, took part In lft . V,et Surrryjr. flrM flirhtln that markl the fir. battle of Ypre--at Lanmarek. th-- at ;hluvrlt. In mynn--particular though . n were 200 Mrorg. i ord-r- s to outnumbm.1 five or t to one. were un.ler a holJ on nt all cot. The enemy was pouring heavy fullirt! into u- - and at the ratme tlms conducting an nrelorlnic movement. We expected reinforcement, equaHy the whole of the nrltl.h line w but wer we and come up heavtly rnscaj-e,-! they dM not left to do the betu we could. We foujrht rame!y to the hitler -- nd until few of u were left onwounded. wer I myelf received two wound. The German .and tha position of our comin on In thick m ttny band wm hopelev. were eventually overpowered, but even after firlnsr th German kept their we had more of our pun trained on u and Mid In One of our officers who wM captured fellow to order hU pleaded with the German commander was happenmen to ceav flHr.ic. rnyJnjr that what remon-rtranc- e Hi murder. and ing wa. rnre mMwre had pood effect; the Germans were ordered the to ceiu firinr. and tve were driven out ofTheir trench and made to po In front of our captor?. them as a first Intention was to drive u In front ofmore of our screen behind which they could attack officer German fellows, but an Knirllsh-speakltold us to faland maneuver stopped this dastardly low him. hos"W -- ere Ud across a field to a temporary were left; th pital, where our dangerously wounded the Gerren of us were told to continue marching;,himself by man officer hereabouts distinguishing .houtln? In our ears: 'We have given you enough, very I you English swine,!' PenwnaUr one of murder sick from havln? just witnessed the up his of our officers who had refu.ed- to plve Into the fall aord. preferring to die rather than hands of the German. a "We were rested for a little while behind over which 'was comlnp our own shrapnel. bed Not" one of our chaps was hit, but our German We were all suffer-Ir- jrunrd cauht It pretty badly. of the Gerfrom o'Jt wounds, but in the eyes mans we were quite well enouph to march, and they to give us even o much as a bandage. Theyk refu-e- d they seUed our tok us on to a road, wherecontained, mostly the and whatever they to us. and with photographs of those near and dear evident relish tore them up. Then they peremptorand as the ily ordered us to carry their pack, our weather was cold they helped themselves to overcoats and left us to freeze. trrnch at GheluvHl w cft4 ma-rht- ne ns - pay-too- -- IVEHT now and then a frenzy seemed to seUe them for they stashed at us with their whips and spat Into our officers faces, continually addresswere not ing us as Knjjlish rwine." When thoy their fists in using their whips they were shaking our faces, at the same. time exultantly slnpinp. The carryday has come. We were marchedweinto Lille, behind lapsed ing their packs, and If at times because of our wounds, they prodded us with their in a square in the bayonets. Finally we sat down town outside the railway station. "The news of our arrival reached some of the noldlers who were In the estamlneU. and at feeing us they rushed out and slmaled thflr Joy us and saluting us as by aiming vigorous kicks at of them English swine and Kitchener's dog.' One as If you've had cm up to me and said. 'It looks in were the we square an Kng-lls- h enough of it. While Sympathetic aeroplane came soaring over. us bread, but our capFrench women tried to give tors took It away from us and knocked the women over with their rifles. We sat in the square for about an hour, insulted all the time and contlnually being spat upon. To have protested meant being shot straight away. Then they said. 'English dogs. gtt tip and march." "At the station we were put into cattle trucks strewn with dung. I hatl never forget the day; It was October 31. 1914. the saddest day I ever hope to experience. We traveled night and day until the u morning of the third day. The Idea of gU!ng food never entered the heads of cur captors., Kvery G-rm- an time the trucks rocked with the sudden application of tho brakes those of u who were wounded suffered like catexcruciating pain. We were shut In exactly of the counts-througtle, so that we could see nothing which we were passing, and all the ventilation we got came through clinks In the board. station we were told to get out and At every sport for the parade on the platform, to make Into the habit fell German population, who quickly us as Kng- copied from our captors of addressing h lish swine There v rra tlrK'.wviin rf 119 nnt n great number, but the Germans made the most of s. and from their glee one might have thought that we represented the whole of the British army. "In honor of the brilliant feat of arms which our capture was supposed to represent, some produced joy bunting. On the third morning we were paraded In a b!g tin hut at the side of the railway track. Up till then our demands for, food and water had been met with shouts of derision. The German guards enjoyed our sufferings and, further to amue themselves, dressed themselves in our caps and putties and thus attired exhibited themselves to their compatriots at the different stations, prompting them to great laughter. Xo doubt the sight of the German soldl'rs In khaki hats and putties mut have seemed very droll to the civilians of the Fatherland. In this tin hut some members of the German lied Cross gave us a little sup which was quite good. We were so famished, however, that we would have eaten anything. We were told to get into the trucks again and for another day traveled without food. "Xot until midnight of tho fourth day did we reach our destination. Wo werp paraded in a railway station In Mecklenburg and marched away In rours to a prison camp, carrying the packs of the German We were thoroughly searched and everything in tho najure of an Implement taken av.ay from u, even to the extent of a tiny pair of nail scissors. One of us happened to have a revolver that had been overlooked and this was dropped surreptitiously into the heap. There would have been trouble If the Germans had found out who had owned It, but happily they could not trace the particular culprit. tta-tlo- - 1 V , & l f - t, ? ' ns Jcivv ! f 1" '' J' S.":J' vZ ' 4 sift3 ' '' 't ! f - ' rd. was a pitch black night and the darkness added to the strangeness of our surroundings. We had a thin cotton blanket, a spoon, and a tin bowl Issued out to us and were helped to some miserable ta5tin? porridge, compared with which skilly would have tasted delicious. Tents were allotted to us as sleeping quarters and we were given straw heaps on which to lie. The following morning we had our first experience of the food which the Germans think suitable for their British prisoners. We were given six ounces of black bread and half a pint of porridge, minus any sweetening. This was our we were ordered to fall in and in a breakfast. Then big tent all particulars concerning ourselves were taken down to be sent, as we afterwards learned, though with what truth I cannot say, to the British ((TT J- government. "We occupied ourselves, first of all, by cleaning up the tents and then with more regular work such as building up the camp. The treatment we received at the hands of our captors was too terrible for words. Without the slightest provocation they would hit us with their rifles and stick bayonets Into us. always addressing us as "Kngllsh swine. For no reason whatever n big German brute ran his bayonet Into the lg of ono of our sergeants who hap- pneti to ne passing, while another of our fellows had his teeth knocked out with' the butt end of a rifle The tents in which we slept were no protec-again- st Hon the weather, and the rain and the snow came in with ease. We had to do without ny table and eat our food fitting on our straw heaps. We were fed threo time a day, mostly with ttuff that the fellows called chickweed. but really it was Impossible to tell what It was. My own opinion was that it consisted of boiled barley - husks "Dinner was served at 1 p. m. swedes and water. Sometimes, for variety's sake, we were given boiled rabbago or horso beans boiled with potatoes. For tea more chickweed. There was always a foot of mud in our camp, wo our discomfort can be Imagined. The camp consisted of 1200 prisoners, made up of Itussians, Belgians. Frenchmen, Algerians, Turcos. and our sixty-seve- n selves. Compared with was us their treatment ideal. Being British we were out for marked every form of suffering. specially "The only conversation we had with our guards was when they announced to u they had won another big victory, that London was on fire, and that the English fleet wns at the bottom of the sea. all of which tales, of course, we never believed. Tho chickweed wa-- s ladled out to u from big receptacles which looked like sanitary bins. The portions were hopelessly inadequate, and at times we were tempted to trick them Into giving us two lots, but if we were caught it meant a severe walloping with the rifle. At each bin were posted two Belgian prisoners who had the duty of ladling the stuff out. Our ense of humor helped us to tolerate our awful conditions. We were always making up little gags about the food as we sat on the straw eating, or rather, drinking, out of tho tin basins. '.V.V .'.'A'.' it was time for us to get to work a (TTTIIEN VY German corporal would shout 'Loose,' and escorted then, by armed guards, we would perform the work set for us to do, such as digging and carrying. It was heavy kind of work, even if we had been well fed, but on an empty stomach it was a double strain. We were compelled to wait in the rain and snow, for our meals, and It was quite a common thing to be so drenched to the skin that the water simply poured off from our clothes. We went to bed about 5.30 p. m., first shaking our bit of straw together to make it more comfortable. It was so cold that we dare not remove more than our boots; nevertheless, so tired were we that we would soon fall asleep and dream of England again. What would I not have given in those days to see smoky old London for a few hours and the faces of my own people! The temperature fell to below zero, and though we washed our faces and hands we never had a bath until February, that Is to say, for nearly four months we did not remove our clothes. "Every fifth day we were supposed to receive a d loaf of black bread, but in reality It only weighed two pounds. Underfed and as we were It was not to be wondered at that the death rate In the camp rose to a high figure. A continual thinning process went on. We could see the chaps wasting away and dying from sheer starvation. . Outside the barbed wire entanglements .there was a graveyard, where they buried the victims of kultur in rough black wooden boxes. In most cases we knew no more than that somebody had died; who he was we could not even guess, excepting he happened to be one of our own number. "We never saw a clergyman all the time, although the other prisoners were allowed to receive ministers of their own church, but if one of our fellows died the duty of reading the burial service over him was left to a noncommissioned ofTicer. "1 think some protests must have been made by the American ambassador about the way we were being treated, for nt the end of January we were transferred to good huts, but by that time there were 300 colllns in the graveyard beyond the wire entanglements. Tho black bread was very hard to masticate and we gnawed at It rather than chewed It It was wonderful under the circumstances how cheerful we kept. We used to sing ''Ours is a happy If it had not been for our natural little home. we would have gone stark, raving mad. humor good Sometimes we found our bread stolen and could only put it down to some ravenous fellow-prisonunable to resist the cravings for a square meal. four-poun- ill-treat- ed r er i i TT1 ROM time to time German women came to look at us through the barbed wire. I see some of the German papers have been complaining about their giving us chocolates. Well, all the time I was In Germany I never came across any such instance of mistaken kindness. They regarded us as and pointing their uma sort of free poppy-shobrellas at us would say sneeringly, 'Ah, you Englishmen!" "Some of our chaps were now In a pitiable condition. Their clothes worn out, they walked around like Turkish sheikhs with nothing on but their blankets. Our captors then thought it time to issue us out some clothes. I remember once laughing at the amazing picture presented by a cheerful Irishman from Sligo whose clothes were in absolute tatters. Whenever we saw him wo used to sing out, 'Oh, you beautiful doll!' He looked exactly like a human polllwog. "Two of our medical officers who had been captured joined the camp and tried to get thnigs im w proved for us, but their efforts met with little success. We continued to pass our time huddled on straw heaps, and it became simply a question of the survival of the fittest. It was terrible to see one's mates slowly going under for want of food. Later we were taken to another camp at Schleswig; here we met a German officer who was a really good fellow. Our people at home were now sending us postal orders and he would change them for us, though often it meant a considerable financial loss to him. Unfortunately he was too good to last; he only remained with us for about a fortnight. The sole remarJc I remember him making about the war was to express his sorrow that our two countries should be fighting each other. The food at this second camp was awful, much worse than at the first camp. We were scarcely given anything solid whatever. For breakfast we had of a pint of coffee and four ounces of black bread; for dinner a bowl of swede water; and for tea a bowl of thickish liquor that was exactly like the paste used by the bill posters. "Our guards, who rarely spoke except to curse us, tendered us the information that the peace conference about which they were alwaj-- talking was fixed for April 13. As our boots had fallen off we were "walking about barefooted, and it was not until many months later that wooden clogs were served out to us. In July we made a third move and then in August a fourth move. It was from this last camp that I was destined to have the good fortune to make my escape. Hereabouts I composed a poem of four verses, of which the first two lines ran: The life here, at is simply sublime; You sit in your cot and you starve all the time. three-quarte- rs s "Our guards informed us that the Zeppelins had again destroyed England, but as according to them it had been destroyed a score of times before we were inclined to be a little incredulous. For months I had been meditating escape. My rank was that of private, but as soon as I found out that I must be a corporal to be given any duties outside the barbed wire entanglements 1the only means of escape I decided at the first opportunity to promote myself. Accordingly when I was moved to another camp I managed to decorate myself with the necessary stripes, and not being challenged I became henceforth Corporal Jaggers. Our friends were sending us civilian clothing and food, and I suppose 25 per cent of the contents reached us. We were under orders to have our clothes made distinctive by broad yellow stripes and by letters K. G. (Krieggefangen-e- r (prisoner "of war) on the left arm. All our clothe3 were supposed to be stamped in this fashion, but four of us managed to hide some away under our straw beds and only a portion of our garments in consequence came to be branded. to the generosity of our friends In England things liad been improving. Parcels were arriving with greater regularity, and thus the effects of starvation were averted. I must say the people of England stood by us splendidly. The Queen's Royal West Surreys did magnificently for us, headed by Mrs. Ellas Morgan, the colonel's wife, and I have since learned that they have been spending on food parcels as much as 90 a month. All letters were censored before they came to us, even the familiar crosses for kisses being blotted out. as our guards were fearful they might be secret signs conveying news through. "A plan of escape was settled between four of us, and as a preliminary to our plan we wore underneath our prison clothing the unstamped civilian rp HANKS clothing which we. had kept hidden. I was employed at the guard cookhouse outside the barbed wire. In order that I should be allowed easily to pass I wore a distinctive badge with the name of the camp on it. I started work there at G.30 in the morning peeling potatoes, lighting fires, and cleaning up, and fin ished at 8 o'clock in the afternoon, when I returned to my tent. Every day a corporal mate used to boj with me to get me fit, a set of gloves having been sent out to us from England. This boxing exercise, along with skipping exercise, put me into condition, and the food I was getting from England helped me to recover my strength. For two months I ke,pt hard at it until I felt fit as a fiddle. "We fixed on the night November 15 for our escape, but as it happened it was scarcely an ideal night for our plan, for the moon came out and mado everything very light. A misty night would have been much more to our purpose. I went out to tho cookhouse, taking a second man with me. He got through because he was wearing my badge. I chanced this. As they knew me I did not expect to be challenged to show my badge, and in my surmise, as It turned out. I was right. "This badge,, I should explain, consisted of a white band. A third comrade had the Job of lighting the acetylene lamps outside the barbed wire, which were used to light up the encampment. He lent his badge to our fourth man, a sergeant; so while I was able to taike a mate out he was able to take a mate, out, the four of us representing tho parties to the projected escape. . "The three of us made as if to go into the cookhouse, but instead of going into it wo ran by and round the back. Meanwhile our mate, whose business It was to light the lamps, had gone up to tho guard and made out that he could not get them to light. We had arranged this excuse, so that we should have a chance of getting across the field. When he thought that we had had sufficient time ho lit the lamps and himself made as if to go into the camp, but instead rushed away and joined us in some bushes at the side of the road. It would then be about 7 p. m. "Under the cover of the bushes we threw away our prison clothes with the telltale markings them and were left standing in civilian clothes free from any suspicious markings. I was wearing an old reefer coat, five shirts, and a sweater. The reefer coat being big, it counteracted any suggestion of bulkiness. It was necessary for our plan that we should keep away from the roads and so until the coast was clear we lay in these bushes. From the first we had narrow squeaks. Some people came by in a cart not more than a yard or two away from us, but they did not see us and as soon as they had gone we began our effort for freedom. "We were lucky enough to have with us a sergeant with experience of Indian frontier work. Whilo in the Himalayas he had taught himself to find his way about by means of the stars and we relied upon him for our direction. We knew Ave would not be missed until the following morning when the roll call was made. There were nearly 400 men in the camp and only the roll call would reveal that four were missing. We' had lain for about an hour in the bushes and our track now ran across some, marshes. We had come prepared with tubes containing meat essence and malted food and on this for some time - V we subsisted. the marshes we had to walk very for gingerly, they were covered with thin sheetings of ice. Needless to say, we never met an body and made quite good progress. Whenever we (( "CROSSING 1 |