Show X cl E arr ile E ilk E W DY ex gunner and chief petty officer urs US navy R member of the foreign legion of france me DEPEW captain gun turret french battleship cassard Q V winner of the croix de guerre copyright 1918 and britton co through arrangement with the goorge george natthew adams adama CHAPTER XVI 11 continued 16 As we went ashore tile the bombardment began and we were not only under fire of spit if you could call it that but also of rocks and bottles and sticks and most anything that could be thrown alt all this time lest you yon forget we hud had no slices shoes and no clothing only what had once been our underwear it is all right to bo be a coney island snowbird and poso pose around in your bathing suit in the drifts because you are in good condition and last but not least because you do not have to do it figure out the other side of it for yourself they marched us luto into a field where there was nothing much but guns and ammunition and snow and set us up jn in something like skirmish formation we stood there for some time and then we saw a lot of huns with the new long rifles coming toward us yelling selling just as they did in battle and we thought sure we were being used for practice targets it Is a good thing they halted and stopped yelling when they did or we would have started for them to fight it out for we were not the kind that likes to be butchered with hands in the air and wo would have been glad for a chance to get a few of them before they got tm 00 but they did halt and then surrounded us and drilled us away through swamps and woods and shallow water or slush the women followed too and there were plenty of bricks and spit left women as well ns as men are the same the world over they say I 1 wonder you can just picture the women of say hickland Hoc kland me lie following a crowd of german prisoners that way cant youa you not I 1 but of course the women of rockland are pretty crude no kultar at all and gott never commissioned president wilson to take the lid off the strafe pot for him they drilled us along the docks and it looked as though the whole german niiva was tied up at we saw many of the ships we had heard about among them being the famous vulcan the mother ship for submarines there were many sailors loafing along the docks and they gave the women a hand with their days they were no better with a brick but they had more ammunition wham it came to spitting one of them tripped a young boy by the name of belly and as you would never doubt kelly KS elly picked up a rock and crashed the sailor with it he was then bayoneted twice in the left leg we besan began singing then our popular favorite tack pack up your troubles etc and when they heard beard us how the swine stored I 1 then they drilled us past the ger soldiers quarters the men were ailt t rifle practice and I 1 guess all of us thought how handy bandy we would be as targets but when we got near them they quit practicing and crowded around us yelling baus aus Zu finally we got to the top of the r bill and were halted near the barracks while an officer read the martial law of germany to us at least we thought maybe that was it finally they let us into the barracks and the first thing we siw saw was a great pile of hay that looked good zo to us and we made a rush and dived anto lt il but the huns told us to take the alie hay and throw it in the middle of the road they had to use force be anre fo re we would do it finally we gave in however and started to carry it out some of the young boys w were ere crying and I 1 do not blamo them enuch uch but one of the boys tried to hide gome of 0 the hay boy behind a bos and was caught doing it aud two sentries clouted him from one end of tho the bar tacks racks to the other his nose was broken and his face mashed to a jelly but there was nothing we could do so W we e just wandered up and down the barracks about as we did between N decks on the trying to keep warm while this marathon ma was on wo heard beard a whistle blown very loudly and when we looked out we saw a wagon piled up with old tin cans then we were told to form single file walk valk out to the wagon and each get a can for himself each man had to take the first can he laid his hands on and mally of us got rusty ones with holes in them so that about half an hour bour later when we received barley coffee and all we had to drink it from was the cans lots of the men bad to drink theirs almost in one gulbor gulp or lose half balf of it the barracks were very dirty and ameller horribly and the men were still apt even halt half clothed we all looked filthy and smelled that way and where the coal dust had bad rubbed off we were very pale and all of us starved looking look ing ab 4 bout out eleven that morning oie gle whistle blew again and we came v i out jut and were given an aluminum dish apiece then wo we J aboon and a beef and ad clr che cheered erect up and saw cabbage for ourselves an hour later c they drilled us through the snow to tho the kublic when wo we got thero we stood in line until at least half past twell and then the germans shout cd Nic lichts lits zu zil essell but wo vc lid did not know what that meant so we just hung around thero and waited then they started shouting Zu zu ruck I 1 and drove us back to the barracks later we heard the words lichts zu essell so often that wo thought probably they meant no eats we had our reasons for thinking so too those words and buruck zu ruck and araus 1 raus were practically all wo did hear except of course various kinds of it was awful to see the men when we got back to the barracks some of tile the boys from the georgic Georg lc not much over twelve years old were almost crazy but even the older men were crying many of them it was nothing not liing but torture all the time they opened all the windows and doors in the barracks and then we could not heat the room with our bodies when we started to move around to keep warm they fired a few shots at us I 1 do not know whether they hit anyone or not we lind had got so that we did not pay any attention to things like that but it stopped us and we had to stand still the huns thought we would take the rifles from the sentries and use them too I 1 never saw a bunch of people in my life I 1 do not mean people I 1 ish I 1 could publish what I 1 really moan mean we had bad stoves in the barracks but no coal or wood to burn there were many boxes piled up there but they belonged to the germans we would have burned them if we could but the germans made us carry them across the road they weighed about pounds apiece and we were so weak that it was all two men could do to budge them and wo we had to carry them they would not let us roll them we were so cold and hungry that even that exercise did not warm us about the whistle blew again and the nuns s picked out a few men and took them down the road we could not figure out why but they came back about three all of them with bread in their arms they were chewing away on it when they had a chance whenever the sentries were not looking they would bite at it like a fish going after a worm each man carried five loaves when they got in the barracks the sentries made them put the bread down own on the floor and then with their bayonets the he sentries cut each loaf once down the center lengthwise find and four times across which meant ten men to a loaf about the size of an 4 n k f 1 they tied me face to the pence fence ordinary ten cent loaf in this country now they gave each of us a piece e a little larger than a safety match box bos the bread was hard and dark and I 1 really think they made it from trees it had just exactly the same smell that the dirt around trees has we filed past the sentries single file to get our ration of this mud and there was no chance of getting in line twice for we bad to keep on filing until wo we were out in tho the and stand there in the snow to eat it we could could not go back in the barracks until every man had been served our meals were like this A can of barley coffee in the morning cabbage soup so c called at noon a tenth of a loaf of bread at 3 p m that was our menu day in and day out aut tho the keisers kaisers kai lial sers birthday Lincol ns may day or any other time this cabbage soup was a great idea we called it shadow soup because the boys claimed they made it by hanging banging a cabbage over a barrel of water and letting tho the shadow fall on the water we pretended too that if you found any cabbage in it you could take your ush back for a second helping but I 1 nevet saw anybody get more than one di dishful all it was was just spoiled water wo tried to go to sleep that night but there were so many sentries around us ua and those of us ua who were acro not sick cie wounded that I 1 do not think ft a milli man of us really slept after a while I 1 asked a sentry if I 1 could go outside for a minute but for some reason ho he would not let me I 1 had different ideas about it so I 1 stood around near the door and when he turned his back out I 1 wont went and around the corner of tho the barracks but one of the sentries thero there saw me and blew his whistle and a guard of eight came up from somewhere and grabbed me I 1 tried to explain but it was no use because every almo I 1 said a word it meant another swat over the car so finally I 1 gave it up then they drilled mo me across the road to the officers quarters there were three officers there and each of them asked me questions about all kinds of things but never once mentioned my running out of the barracks then they gave the sentries some commands and four of the sentries took me out and over to tho the barbed wire fence there they tied me face to the fence arms over my head and hands and feet lashed to the wire and with a rope around my waist too I 1 thought then that my hunch had como come true and that I 1 would be crucified like murray and brown they posted a sentry there in addition to the regular guards and every time he walked past me he would kick me or spit on me or do both one time he kicked me so hard that a prong of 0 the barbed wire gashed me over the left eye the only one I 1 can see with and when the blood ran into my eye it blinded me I 1 thought both eyes were gone then and I 1 hoped they would shoot me it seemed to me that I 1 had got my share by this time without losing the other eye and if it was gone I 1 wanted to go too I 1 could not put up my hand to feel where the prong had jabbed me and it kept on bleeding and smarting I 1 had on practically no clothing yo you u remember the wounds in my thigh had opened and it was bitter cold and windy so you can picture to yourself how gay and carefree I 1 was when I 1 had been there for an hour and a half they untied me from the wire and I 1 keeled ovir over on my back they kicked mo me until I 1 had to stand up but I 1 fell down again and all the kicking in germany could not have brought me to my feet I 1 was just all in so they blew their whistles and the sentries in the barracks awakened two of the boys who came and carried me in all the time tho the sentries were yelling gott strafe england I 1 and I 1 until you would have thought they were in a battle what their idea was I 1 do not know the boys bad a little water in a can and one of them tore off part of the sleeve of his undershirt so they washed the gash and bandaged it believe me I 1 was glad when I 1 could see again I 1 was so tired and woin out that I 1 went to sleep at once and did not wake up until they were giving us our barley coffee next nest morning CHAPTER german prison camps A few days after I 1 had been lashed to the barbed wire fence some of the german officers came to the barracks and one of them who spoke very good english said all of the neutrals who v h 0 were on unarmed ships step out only n a new bew ew stepped out then he called for all the neutrals and the danes swedes norwegians Norwegia ns brazilians Brazi lians and spaniards stepped out but when I 1 did he said no not no americans americans are not neutral america supplies our enemies with food and ammunition ho he raised his fist and I 1 thought lie ho was going to hit me but instead he gave me a shove that caused me to falland fall and get go t a little cut on the head then the sentries pushed mo me over with the british and the french after that they tools took the norwegia ans swedes and danes to separate barracks and gave them clothes and beds and the same rations as the german soldiers when I 1 saw this I 1 made a kick lind and said I 1 was a neutral too and ought to get tho the same treatment as the scandinavians they took me to the ofil officers cers again kicked me about and swore at me and the only answer I 1 got was that america would suffer for all she had done for the allies then I 1 was sent back to the barracks again the next day at about one they took us from the barracks and drilled us through the swamps the men began to fall one by one some crying or swearing but most of them going along without a word those who went down were smashed in tho the head with rifle butts or belts finally wo we arrived at a little railroad station and had to stand in the snow for over an hour while tho the engine ran up and down tho the tracks hooking booking on cars when wo we finally got in tho the cars we were frozen stiff I 1 could hardly walk and some of 0 the boys bois simply could not move without intense pain they loaded twelve men into each compartment and detailed a guard cuard of six men to each car the windows in the tha cars were all smashed and everything about the cars was dirty finally tile the train stopped at a town named alt damm and there t j i e re was a mob of 0 women and children around as usual ready for us Is with bricks and spit they stoned us through the car windows find and laughed and jeered at us but by this timo time wo we were so used to it that we did not mind much only every now and then somo some fellow would get all he could stand and either talk back or make I a pass at somebody then he would get his either cither a bayonet through the arm or leg or a crash on the head with a gun butt after an eighteen hour ride without food or drink we arrived at neu ne U strelitz tz it was as we pulled in As wo we went 0 tile the grade to tho tha town we could see sea lights about a mile away and wo figured that that was the camp the rain stopped and wo we remained in the cars for some time then after a while we knew our new guards were coming long before we could see them wo we could hear the racket they made somehow a german cannot do anything shipshape and neatly but always has to havo have a lot of noise and running around and general confusion four footed swine a are re more orderly I 1 in a their habits than the huns when they came up we were roust ed cd from tho the cars and drilled up the road to the camp when we got near the german barracks we were halted and counted again and made to stand there for at least an hour after they had finished counting us shivering like leaves at last they placed us in barracks and those who could went to sleep there were about dorty barracks in tho the limey group at neustrelitz Neu strelitz and two largo zeppelin sheds the barracks were just about like those at Swine munde at least they were no better along the sides of the rooms were long shelves or benches and every three feet were boards set in grooves the shelves were what wo had to sleep on and the boards in the grooves divided them up so that only a certain number of men could use each bench the following morning we nearly dropped dead when the huns pulled in a large waon wagon full of clothing we thought we never would have anything to wear but our underclothes they issued to each man a pair of trousers thin model a thin coat about like the seersucker coats somo some people wear in the summer an overcoat about as warm as if it had been made of cigarette papers a skull cap and a |