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diff --git a/old/52308-0.txt b/old/52308-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 821ad5f..0000000 --- a/old/52308-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6091 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tunnellers of Holzminden, by -Hugh George Edmund Durnford - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Tunnellers of Holzminden - (with a side-issue) - -Author: Hugh George Edmund Durnford - -Release Date: June 11, 2016 [EBook #52308] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TUNNELLERS OF HOLZMINDEN *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - THE TUNNELLERS OF HOLZMINDEN - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS - C. F. CLAY, MANAGER - LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. - BOMBAY ⎫ - CALCUTTA ⎬ MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. - MADRAS ⎭ - TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. - TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - - - -[Illustration: - - The track of the Holzminden Tunnel after being dug up. -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE TUNNELLERS - OF - HOLZMINDEN - (WITH A SIDE-ISSUE) - - BY - H. G. DURNFORD, M.C., M.A. - FELLOW OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE - - CAMBRIDGE - AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS - 1920 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TO - - MY WIFE - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFACE - - -Almost exactly two years ago, as I write these lines, the famous -Holzminden Tunnel became history. Even then, when the sordid camp was -still lending (and seemed likely to lend _in perpetuum_) its grey colour -to every aspect of life, when sense of proportion was practically -dormant and racial animosity intensified to the highest pitch, it was -impossible to overlook the peculiar dramatic proprieties of the event. -Some day, it was felt, this story might be fittingly told. - -And in the retrospect the feeling remains unaltered. The harsh angles -have softened: the tumult and the shouting have died away to the remoter -cells of memory: Captain Niemeyer (of the Reserve) has departed—God -knows where! His imperial master is dragging out an unhappy old age in -exile. The British protagonists and walkers-on in the 9-months struggle -have scattered to the ends of the Empire on their lawful occasions. Once -in a blue moon perhaps they think of it and rub their eyes. The details -are already vague. The whole of their prison existence seems absurdly -far away. - -But it is in the hope that they will care to follow with not uncritical -interest the following plain unvarnished account of the Tunnel episode -that I, a mere looker-on, have sorted out the threads and fitted the -jumble together. If any think this an impertinence, may I plead that an -ordinary stage hand may see more of the workings of a nine months run -than the star performers? To them at any rate, protagonists, walkers- -and lookers-on in the event, and their friends and relations I would -address myself particularly. Through them alone can I hope to interest -the British public in this simple tale of a strategically unimportant -but highly successful side-show, in Germany, in the dog days of 1918. - -I am indebted to one friend in particular for assistance in the true -description of the actual Tunnel. He prefers to remain anonymous. Many -others of my ex-fellow-prisoners have helped me in various ways. The -design which is reproduced on the cover was drawn by Lieutenant Lockhead -while in captivity at Stralsund and was intended to serve as a Christmas -card; I am indebted to him for the loan of the block. To Messrs -Blackwood I am obliged for permission to reprint the personal -experiences contained in the final chapter. - - H. G. DURNFORD. - - KING’S COLLEGE, - CAMBRIDGE. - _24th July 1920._ - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - PROLOGUE 1 - I. A CAMP IN BEING 14 - II. NIEMEYER—AND PINPRICKS 32 - III. INTRODUCING THE MAIN MOTIF 49 - IV. ESCAPES 60 - V. ACCOMPLICES 71 - VI. IN THE TUNNEL 89 - VII. REPRISALS 101 - VIII. THE LAST LAP 118 - IX. THE ESCAPE AND THE SEQUEL 131 - X. CLOSING INCIDENTS 148 - XI. MAKING GOOD 164 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS - - - The track of the Holzminden Tunnel after being dug up _Frontispiece_ - - A street in Ypres ⎫ - The Cloth Hall in 1917 ⎬ _to face p._ 2 - The Menin Gate of Ypres⎭ - - The Battery in action N. of the Menin Road⎫ - The Menin Road ⎬ ” 5 - At the waggon-lines ⎭ - - View from Kaserne B, showing skating rink made in January - 1918 _to face p._ 30 - - Karl Niemeyer ” 36 - - General plan of Holzminden Camp _p._ 53 - - Kaserne B _to face p._ 54 - - Scene of the Walter-Medlicott attempt⎫ - A dining-room at Holzminden ⎭ ” 61 - - Section and ground-plan of staircase, chamber, and tunnel - entrance _p._ 73 - - Course of the tunnel ” 93 - - At the tunnel mouth _to face p._ 100 - - Section of attic roof _p._ 112 - - Orderlies digging out the tunnel between Kaserne B and the - outer wall _to face p._ 142 - - Group of recaptured officers in a room at Holzminden ” 162 - - Facsimile of the original permit-card copied by Lockhead - _to face p._ 169 - - Facsimile of the forged railway passport _between pp._ 174-5 - - Map of N.W. Germany and frontiers _p._ 189 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PROLOGUE - -“B/—th will detail the liaison officer for the Group for to-morrow the -5th.” - -The Brigade orderly splashed in bearing the unwelcome message. I had -just turned in. The never-to-be-forgotten fatal three days’ downpour -which had set in on the 31st July 1917 and had upset so many -calculations had just stopped and we had enjoyed an afternoon and -evening of bright sunshine and cloudless skies. The water in the -dug-out, which had risen steadily in spite of temporary responses to our -efforts with an old trench pump and a chain of buckets, was now -gradually beginning to abate and the stretcher on which I slept was once -more high and dry. Also I was due to go down to waggon-lines in two -days’ time, and life generally was taking on a less sombre hue. - -It could afford to. Our six weeks in action in the Salient had been -lived in an atmosphere of almost unrelieved gloom, an atmosphere—so we -had come to believe—inalienable from the place itself. - -One had come to realise what men had meant who in earlier days on the -Somme—when all was said to be quiet at Ypres—had trekked south into the -Valley of the Shadow of Death and remarked that “it was better than the -Salient.” Now we had seen for ourselves. It had not merely been the -shelling and the fact that there was not a really safe spot, except in -the very ramparts of the Eastern wall themselves, between Belgian -Battery Corner and the front line. It had not merely been that the -German gunners conveyed the impression that they were _aiming_ at _you_, -that they knew exactly where you were, and that they were doing it—had -been doing it all along—more as a pleasure than as an allotted task. It -had not been the fact that no fatigue or waggon-line party could set -great hopes on returning scatheless from a job of work; nor that here -hostile aeroplane observation seemed more acute than in other parts; nor -again that rarely a night passed but one saw or heard of some shambles -on a main traffic road. It was none of these things. The spirit of Ypres -was abroad, impregnating those new to her. From the very morning when, -accompanying a harassed, jumpy acting C.R.A. on his round of battery -inspections, I had first seen her, I had felt the spell upon me. It was -like grey skies and a wind in the east, the quintessence of sombreness. -The intervals of quiet could not be called peace; they served only to -intensify the solitude. The history of the place seemed to cast its -stamp on those who sojourned in it. - -[Illustration: - - A street in Ypres. -] - -[Illustration: - - The Cloth Hall in 1917. -] - -[Illustration: - - The Menin Gate of Ypres. -] - -We had come into action at the beginning of July. Our instructions had -been to get “in” and camouflaged and registered and then wait for “the -day,” and that waiting had been sorely trying to the patience. It had -been far worse than sitting on the Messines Ridge in June. We had been -told we should be “silent,” but we had fired steadily nevertheless, and -this meant, of course, more ammunition and added risk of casualties -amongst horses and men. It had meant having the men out of cover to -shift the shells from their depôts to the gun-pits; and such things were -considerations when we were losing men at the rate of about two a day -and the stock of capable gunners and N.C.O.’s, depleted at Messines, was -beginning to run dangerously low. “D” Battery on our immediate right had -had an even worse time. Poor old “D.” They were always getting the rough -of it since Courcelette, and this time they had got it very rough -indeed. They had had no cellar to put their gun-crews in and we had been -unable to spare them a share in ours, so they had left emergency crews -at the guns and worked them by nucleus shifts, the remainder sleeping a -long way behind. - -The preparations had dragged their slow course along, and we had gone on -with our daily routine, never knowing what the next minute was not going -to produce, unloading and storing the ammunition, and heaving a sigh of -relief when the last pack-horse had discharged his daily load and that -anxiety at least was off our shoulders for the day; checking the sights -and aiming-posts, strengthening so far as we could the pits, watching -and shepherding the men; gassed one night and on duty all the next and -then gassed again the third—the deadly mustard fellow had just made his -costly début; counting the leaden hours, congratulating ourselves each -time that—our duty over—we made the dug-out door afresh; and ever and -anon looking hopefully through the tattered screen which still served to -shield our part of the Menin Road from hostile observation to where -Passchendaele Church stood prominent and quite intact on the opposite -slope. - -In five weeks the Corps Artillery alone had lost (I believe the figure -is correct) 568 officers, killed, wounded, or gassed, and other ranks -also had lost in proportion. We ourselves had lost one officer (gassed -almost as soon as we had got in), five out of our six N.C.O.’s, and -twelve gunners or bombardiers. “D” had had a young officer just out from -England killed with a sergeant immediately behind our own guns, and a -direct hit on one of their dug-outs had deprived them of three more -sergeants and two gunners at one fell swoop. The toll had mounted up -steadily, and though the C.-in-C. had issued a special appreciation of -the bearing of the artillery in these difficult circumstances, we had -day by day been feeling more the heavy strain. - -Then had come the last days of July. All the conceivable practice -barrages had been fired and the Huns made wise to the uttermost. - -Then again—amidst rumours that the French were two days late—the storm -clouds had gathered from the unfavourable quarter, and finally on the -31st July the great unwieldy barrage had unwound its complicated length -in drizzling rain on the Hun lines. The infantry had gone over and -reached the “black line” up to scheduled time: but on the “black line” -they had lost co-ordination; when the barrage advanced again they had -been late to follow up; the barrage had rolled on unheeding; our men, -floundering in its wake on hopeless ground and now in a steady downpour, -had had to come back and consolidate on the “black line,” while the -batteries awaited in vain the longed-for order to advance. - - * * * * * - -Well, what was one job more or less after all? One might as well be hung -for a sheep as a lamb, and I should go down to waggon-lines with all the -clearer conscience on the 6th, and sleep.... How I would sleep! I would -get down there for lunch if I could, have a quiet ride in the afternoon -into “Pop,” and come back to waggon-lines for an early dinner and bed. -How glorious to wake up once more, and to hear the birds twittering -outside! It seemed ages ago since one had done so last, and it was in -reality just eight days. My waggon-line billet was in a small -farm-house. Madame and her man had been, for those parts, friendly -enough. I remembered having tried to convey to Madame that next time I -visited her, Ypres would be free. She had not understood, and perhaps it -had been just as well. - -[Illustration: - - The Battery in action N. of the Menin Road. -] - -[Illustration: - - The Menin Road. -] - -[Illustration: - - At the waggon-lines. -] - -Yes, a late breakfast, after a sluice-down in the open air, a leisurely -toilet, and a stroll round the horses; and then perhaps a real joy-ride, -an all-day affair towards Nieppe Forest.... - -I rang up the battery and gave my orders for signallers and an orderly -on the morrow. There was only one other subaltern available for the job, -and as the Major was out at the time I deputed myself. It is the -unwritten rule. - -I read through the standing orders for the Group liaison officers, -finished my chapter of _Sonia_—I was to read the next in a very -different setting—and went to sleep. - -The Menin Road was a populous concern in those days and the varied -traffic comforted our gregarious souls as we walked down at a round pace -next morning after breakfast to pay our respects _en route_ to Infantry -Brigade and the senior Artillery Liaison Officer of the Group in the big -labyrinth of dug-outs at the bottom of the hill. Hell Fire Corner, -though still occasionally shelled “on spec,” was no longer the shunned, -depressing cross-roads that it used to be. Now it even boasted a -military policeman to control the traffic. Ambulance cars and heavy -lorries passed and met us. The road was thick with infantry and -fatigue-parties of various kinds going up and coming out. - -The shattered boughs and fallen branches, which had blocked the unused -road before, had now been side-tracked; only dead mules and horses here -and there had created fresh obstructions. Fritz was putting most of his -metal this morning on to the front line and the ridge where we were due -at noon; but even back here he had guns enough to send over his one a -minute, searching—now that he might no longer observe—for some of his -old favourite spots. So we did not loiter. - -At Infantry Brigade they were making their toilet. The senior Liaison -Officer told me that battalion had shifted its headquarters during the -night: “too hot to stay where it was.” He gave me what he understood -were the map co-ordinates of their new abode, and I took my departure. - -We crossed the old No Man’s Land, passed the working-parties at their -thankless tasks of road-making in the churned morass, and picked our way -warily round the crater lips across the old German front line system -till we struck the railway. It did not seem to be getting shelled, and -would at least afford better going than if we plunged through the -crater-field direct towards the front line. My intention was to nurse -the railway for a mile or so, and then, leaving it, to strike across up -the ridge in order to hit off “The Rectory,” where Battalion H.Q. were -reported to be. - -I had not been forward myself since the show. It was worse even than I -expected. The ground was just beginning to harden in the hot sunshine, -but every hole was filled with water and one had to plan out one’s -course with long detours, jumping precariously from island to island. -The rusted wire, half buried in the loose earth, tore one’s puttees. The -whole place stank. There were very few dead about; the Hun communiqué -had probably not lied in saying that their outposts had been lightly -held. But the railway embankment gave possible lodgment for the feet and -we kept along it as I planned, with six paces between each man and one -eye on the 4·2’s falling just to our right in the valley. The effect on -that ground was only local and we had no fears of splinters. - -At last, panting and thirsty, we reached the crest which our infantry -were holding. We could see no movement. Over the bleak expanse of -shell-holes there was no human being to be seen; one had got to cast -one’s eye right back to where the working-parties were. - -A line of ruined houses and pill-boxes ran along the ridge. One of them -was “The Rectory.” I went into it; there was a concreted cellar facing -Boche-wards, but nobody inside it. I hailed a Red Cross man who was -wandering about forlornly. He hadn’t seen anyone, didn’t know anything. - -It was rather annoying. I looked up my book of the rules and tried a -cast back to the original map reference for Battalion Headquarters. It -must be a ruined pill-box which they were shelling. I waited till there -was a pause and then looked inside. No, not a sign of anyone. - -Confound Brigade! That part of the programme must wait, that’s all. I -had to establish connection by visual with our Brigade signallers at -Hell Fire Corner and must plant my lamp. - -We went down into one of the pill-boxes on the ridge and deposited the -gear. The dug-out was a foot or more deep in water, but must have been a -comfortable, secure home. Two wounded infantrymen were lying on the -bunks on one side of the dug-out. They told me they had been there since -the first day, untended save by chance arrivals. I tried to cheer them -up and we offered them our water-bottles. - -We stuck the lamp up just behind the pill-box on the top of a bank and -flashed it full in the direction of Hell Fire Corner. There was no -answer. “Nothing’s going right to-day,” I thought, and the shells were -pitching just to our right and inviting retirement to the safe—if -damp—recess beneath us. - -But I was overdue and had not found sign or trace of the infantry. The -place might be deserted for all the world, save for our little party. I -had one more cast round in various ruined pill-boxes on our side of the -slope, and then made up my mind to go forward—east—a little. My Major -had told me yesterday that our fellows were digging in in front of the -ridge. Perhaps the infantry Colonel was with them. - -It did not seem very likely, on the forward side of a ridge sloping -towards Hunland, but unusual things were done in those days of -disorganisation and I had not seen a single infantryman since we left -the working-parties behind us early in the morning. Our infantry, if -they were not a myth, must be east of me, not west. - -I left my signallers still flashing vainly and took my orderly with me -to the forward slope of the ridge. We stalked down a hedge about 50 -yards, then turned due right along another. There was another “pill-box” -just half right of us. - -“That might be them, sir,” said my orderly. - -We swung sharp right and walked up to it. I saw an unusual helmet. “One -of our Tommies decking himself out,” I thought. Then another helmet of -the same sort, and the truth flashed on me just as it was too late and -we were within a few paces of them, with the pill-box between us and -home, covered by a couple of German rifles. - -A dozen very vivid thoughts raced through my mind. “Somebody’s made the -most awful howler.” “I can’t get back.” “Where in thunder were our -infantry, then?” “This is the end.” “I haven’t even got a revolver on -me.” “Prisoner!—what will they say?” “What the devil _will_ they say?” - -I gave the lad an order and we held up our hands. I will not labour the -apology. The back verandah of the pill-box—so it looked—was bristling -with amazed and animated Huns. Cut off from retreat, unarmed and utterly -flabbergasted, what would you? I stammered out a few words in bad French -to their officer and then asked leave to sit down. I was exhausted and -quite overwhelmed. So this was the result of my fourteen months of -cumulative experience. What a culmination! To walk over No Man’s Land on -a bye-day in broad daylight into a German nest! Such a thing had never -come into our ken that I could remember. And if it had, I should have -been the first to pass uncharitable comment. What hideous irony! I -looked at the boy I had led unwittingly into captivity. What sort of an -officer did _he_ think I was now? He would bless me before it was all -over, if all one heard, had read of, was true. Suddenly one began to see -the prisoner-of-war question in a new light. What was it like really? -And all the time I racked and racked my brains to think whose fault it -was, where the mistake had lain. I knew the range on the map to “The -Rectory,” which I had just left, and the range of our S.O.S. barrage. -Three hundred yards to play with. I had come barely a hundred. Perhaps -they hadn’t known of this pill-box. To know, O Lord, if only to know—and -I couldn’t[1]. - - -[Footnote 1: I did learn later, at Stralsund Camp in Germany, where I -met the Colonel I was then trying to find. He told me his H.Q. on that -day had been 100 yards _north_ of “The Rectory,” which they had found -too hot to stay in.] - - -That day seemed an eternity. In the evening I heard the shells from my -own battery come whizzing over. I was to have observed them, five rounds -of battery fire on the German front line at 5 p.m. Since the push this -had been the only method, except by visual; no wires had lived a day up -till then. - -My tie alone proclaimed me as an officer. I had left my tunic and all my -impedimenta, with—fortunately—my notebooks and important papers, in the -pill-box on the ridge. - -The orderly in his rough way was comforting. I felt sorry for the boy. -It wasn’t his fault anyway. - -One had an early insight into the German character. This lot were -Mecklenburgers and good stuff by the look of them, but desperately dull -and earnest. All day long they sat in that pill-box—three officers and -about twenty men—and jabbered. There wasn’t a laugh, there wasn’t even -the semblance of a smile. They smoked cigars most of the time; when food -was brought, they gobbled it down like famished wolves and then turned -to jabbering and smoking once more. Occasionally a British plane caused -a diversion; they rushed to the verandah and craned their necks at it -amidst a babel of maledictions, it would have been funny—if one had been -in the heart for it—to see the way these fellows took their war. They -were perfectly safe, and knew it, until such time as we should attack -again. The pill-box must have been sunk a yard or more beneath the -ground, and had five feet or more of concrete on every side. Only the -back-blast from a shell pitching in their back verandah—short of a -direct hit from a heavy gun—could have done much harm. They were -wonderfully well camouflaged. - -They gave me something to drink but could not spare any food, and I -smoked a cigar or two. When it got dark they sent us down under an -escort. We had hardly started when a “strafe” began, so we sat in -another pill-box and listened to our own shells falling all round and -hitting the place more than once. - -Then the bombardment died away and we went on our way—across the swampy -Hanebeek, past batteries and groups of infantry in open trenches or yet -other pill-boxes; into Company Headquarters, a crowded cellar in a farm, -where a brief examination of our guides by a pot-bellied, earnest Hun -officer took place; and then away again, on over more open, firmer -country, up a long slope by a narrow bridle-path, with our shells still -falling at intervals round about and fresh corpses of men and horses -showing where our guns had found occasional value from searching tracks -whose use had been established. The warning _Draht_, _Draht_ (“ware -wire”) of our surly N.C.O. guide became rarer, we emerged at length on -to a regular road, and after an hour or so’s walking we were taken into -the roomy and laboriously built and fortified quarters of the Regimental -Staff. There more depositions were taken by the bullet-headed Brigade -Major, a forbidding-looking, efficient little blackguard, I thought, and -a good specimen of their military machine. Cigars were provided for our -guides and we were marched out again once more, items of passing -interest, no doubt, but as human beings inconsiderable. We would be -going towards Moorslede. I was dead tired and faint with hunger, but the -cool night air blew fresh upon my forehead. We passed ammunition limbers -by the score—great, clumsy things they seemed after our neat Q.F. -variety—and now and again a company of infantry coming up to the line at -the rapid, business-like half run, half walk, which struck one so -strangely after our own infantry’s measured pace. They seemed to be in -high spirits, and had a cheery word for our guides. From what I saw, the -German Flanders army went up cheerfully enough in those days to take its -hammering. - -And then at last, in the grey dawn and after many questionings of -passers-by by our somewhat uncertain guides, Moorslede, and a brief halt -in a Headquarters of sorts; then on again on the last stage, beyond -shell-fire now and knowing—as every German had enviously said to us who -could speak English at all—that “the war was _over for us_.” It was -their stock phrase, and I believed them with a deep-down feeling -somewhere—in spite of all the bitterness—that it was so, and that I -should at least, given reasonable luck, see home and friends once more. - -Into Roulers we fare in a grinding, shaking motor-bus and take our first -impression of black rye bread and _ersatz_ coffee. - -And here we may be left—in a Belgian occupied town, in a stifling, -ill-ventilated room, amidst a motley crew of unwashed, sleepy, but not -unfriendly Germans; worn with the fatigue and strain of the last long -fifteen hours, and at first—for my part—probing vainly for an -explanation of it all; and then, as the tyranny of the stomach grows -more ensconced, settling down to the long, absorbing vigil of waiting on -the next full meal. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - A CAMP IN BEING - - -A broad, level, methodically cultivated plain; a horizon of wooded -slopes with, every few degrees or so, the suggestion of winding valleys -and watercourses; to the northward, the river Weser, Nature’s barrier -beyond the wire, flowing between us and freedom, and visible from our -upper windows in an occasional gleam of silver against the shadows of -the steep further bank; to the west the town, red-roofed and picturesque -with adjoining allotments; on the edge of the allotments a large square -walled enclosure containing two very recent architectural abominations, -eyesores in the general prospect—to wit, _Kaserne_ A and B of the -_Offizier Gefangenen Lager_[2] Holzminden, that highly advertised -Brunswickian retreat which, on a day in September 1917, flung open its -hospitable gates to its first English guests, an advance instalment of -about thirty from Karlsruhe. Such—in a paragraph—was Holzminden Camp and -its environment. - - -[Footnote 2: Officer prisoners-of-war camp.] - - -The new Camp had been freely boomed; the _Lager_ “Poldhu” had got hold -of it and done wonders with it—that mysterious _Lager_ “Poldhu” of -Germany in war time, which spoke not through wires or wireless and -seemingly lacked all means of transmission, but which percolated, none -the less, from _Lager_ to _Lager_ in some mysterious way, so that what -should by rights have remained a close secret in the _Kommandantur_[3] -at X in Baden was known all over the Camp at Y in Silesia within a week -or so. Thus it was noised abroad in a dozen camps that four had got out -from Freiburg and were still at large, that a tunnel scheme had been -discovered at the last moment at Magdeburg, and that poor old C— had got -“jug” again for hitting a sentry in the parcel office at Ströhen. - - -[Footnote 3: Kommandantur means in a prison camp that part set apart for -the German personnel, and includes the Commandant’s office.] - - -Holzminden—so ran the “Poldhu”—was to be the real thing, a prisoner’s -Mecca—fine, brand-new buildings, spacious grounds, good scenery, good -air. The report was discussed and swallowed or pooh-poohed according to -temperament. The Schwarmstedt crowd took the news of their impending -departure thither with a pronounced sniff. They were—had been for -several months—in the Xth Army Corps Area. Holzminden also was in the -Xth Army Corps. There could no good thing come out of the Xth Army -Corps. Schwarmstedt was in fact sufficiently sceptical of the Xth Army -Corps to have remained gladly in its flea-ridden huts, had it not been -that the prospect of a winter on the bog-wastes in those flimsy -buildings seemed almost intolerable. That fate was reserved in the -actual event for Italians, with the usual leavening of neglected -Russians. - -Accordingly, an advance party of the ‘nineteen-fourteeners’ and -‘-fifteeners’ of Schwarmstedt packed up their household gods and -suffered themselves to be transported to Holzminden. They were told -authoritatively that this was going to be merely a stopping-place on the -way to Holland and exchange; so they threw chests-full of tins at the -starving Russians who were remaining behind, left their heavy luggage to -follow after them, and arrived only with the clothes they stood up in -and a suit-case of tins to last them till they reached the border. The -border took most of them three months to reach; the suit-cases were -empty in under a week. It was galling, after having been led to believe -that they would be dining at the Hague in a few days, to find that they -were to remain prisoners for an indefinite period in a camp in which the -feeding arrangements were, to put it mildly, as yet incompletely -organised. But they had acted unwisely. Three and a half years of doubt -and uncertainty should have taught them better than to travel -empty-handed so far from their refilling point, or to rely on exchange -until they were actually at the border. - -Fortunately, however, they were only the advance guard; the main party -from Schwarmstedt had yet to come, and when the nakedness of the land -and the bleakness of the immediate exchange prospect was really -discovered, the wires were set in motion and injunctions passed to the -remainder to save what could yet be saved. Anything edible had long -since disappeared down the throats of the Russians and would, in any -case, have been difficult to reclaim from our unfortunate Allies. But -other things of less immediate value were salved; and the main party -from Schwarmstedt pulled out in their turn from the bog camp, resigned -at least to a temporary stay in their new abode, and properly equipped -with the more essential things. It was a regal transport. There were 200 -of them, not to mention their hand-luggage, which assumed vast -proportions, since everything that was left behind as heavy luggage -stood an even chance of being lost in transit, even if transport -exigencies in the Fatherland permitted of it ever being put on board a -train. - -What an arrival that was—the main body from Schwarmstedt! We raw -‘seventeeners,’ fresh up in our ordnance boots and Tommies’ tunics from -the sorting camps of Heidelberg and Karlsruhe in mild Baden, could -hardly credit it. We had what we wore, plus, perhaps, an odd shirt which -the Belgian ladies in Courtrai might have given us. Here was an -eye-opener—Schwarmstedt Camp come to Holzminden under a camouflage of -suit-cases! We leaned out of the windows of “A” Barrack as they -staggered in at the main gate, and the Schwarmstedt advance party hailed -their friends as the stream rolled on through the inner gate into the -camp grounds, and bawled out amidst the general babel disparaging -comment on the new camp and its personnel. - -Irish Mick in our room was in great form. “Bury your notes,” he sang -out, “bury your notes. They sthrip ye mother naked.” Every one in three -of the incoming cortège had not less on him than 50 marks in German -currency notes. (_Strengstens verboten_, of course, and a search on -arrival was the accepted thing.) So, taking Mick at his word, they sat -them down on the dusty _Spielplatz_, made unobtrusive graves with pocket -knives, and dedicated their money to the land. Perhaps they were seen. -Perhaps the scratches were in some cases too obvious. At all events the -Germans became wise; and one of their N.C.O.’s going round betimes next -morning before the party had been able to see to their investments -unearthed no less than 2000 marks! The Schwarmstedt party lost the first -round. - -We have digressed somewhat: but those first few days at Holzminden were -days of digressions, of alarums and excursions, of administration too -chaotic even for a serious strafe. The best organisation in the world -will not get 500 more or less passive resisters satisfactorily -transplanted from one place to another without considerable difficulty, -and the German arrangements at Holzminden were ludicrously insufficient -for their task. The buildings were there, and that was about all. The -crockery had not arrived; there were three large boilers in the German -cook-house to cater for the bodily wants of 500 English officers and 100 -Germans; there were two or three wretched cooking-stoves for our private -use; there were about half a dozen British orderlies—the rest, we were -told, were on their way; the bathroom had not even been begun; the -parcel room was not yet open, nor was the canteen; the German staff were -incomplete, new to the ropes, and totally inefficient. The Commandant -was a kindly old dodderer of about seventy who left everything in the -hands of the Camp Officer; and the Camp Officer, as we were to know -before very long and as a good many knew quite well already, was the -most plausible villain and the biggest liar in Germany. Hauptmann Karl -Niemeyer will figure perforce largely in these pages. Let him be -introduced to the reader as he introduced himself to us on our arrival -in the camp. It was one of his stock ‘turns.’ - -Twenty-five of us had arrived at midnight from Heidelberg, dead tired -and hungry, and had been greeted in fluent Yank beneath the flaring -electric lamp at the door of the Kommandantur by someone whom at first -sight and sound we took to be rather a genial and sympathetic person. He -told us that he was glad to see us, that he was always glad to see any -Englishman, that he had been great friends with the English himself -before the war, and that he hoped to be so again. But that in the -meanwhile war was war. That we had better, y’know, write straight away -to our friends for our thickest clothes, y’know. It was very cold here -in winter, y’know—(he did not then add that there was also very little -fuel and that wood was going to cost us 18 marks a pailful). He -concluded his speech of welcome on a note of old-world hospitality which -made us think of bedroom candles and a comforting ‘night-cap’:— - -“So now, yentlemen, I expect you will be glad to go to your bedrooms. I -will wish you good-night. You will be searched in the morning.” - -We crawled upstairs full of hope and were sorted out into three of the -upper rooms reserved for newcomers. There was nothing to eat and no -night lingerie to slip into; and we were locked in because we had not -been searched. - -In the morning we appeared again, empty and unshaven, for the search. -Our kind mentor of the night before must have pierced our secret, for -almost his first enquiry was whether we had breakfasted. A menial was -then despatched to bid the cook provide breakfast for the _Herren_ with -all despatch, and we solaced our impatience with unreasoned thoughts of -a sizzling rasher, or at least some _wurst_. Breakfast, when it came, -was one cup each of _ersatz_ coffee, and lukewarm at that. But the -genial Karl pretended not to understand our disgust. - -It must be admitted that he did not confine his innocent pranks to the -newly captured. All was fish that came to his net. The only difference -was that he got so little change out of those who knew the ropes. They, -for instance, might have guessed what “breakfast” (German 1917 version) -meant. Also they knew their rights and how far he—and they—could go, -pretty well to the last centimetre. So, be it added, did he. It was one -thing for the whole camp to laugh at him on _appel_ (roll-call). -Laughing and shouting on _appel_—Homeric ripples of merriment or short -sharp barks from the entire assembly—were recognised as means of -entering effective protest when the Germans began to exceed their -prerogatives. But it would be quite another thing to tell Niemeyer to -his face to shut up. One officer did this and was promptly marched off -to the cells. These two had waged bitter war since Ströhen days and the -Englishman had renewed the offensive by openly refusing to shake -Niemeyer’s hand on arrival at Holzminden. It was natural that the latter -should get back on him as soon as the opportunity arrived. Holding, as -he did, all the scoring cards, Niemeyer never went out of his way to -avoid trouble. On the contrary, he welcomed it. His power to deal with -the situation to his own satisfaction only failed when, as sometimes -happened, his temper passed completely beyond his control. - -Under him, and in charge of Kaserne A, was one Gröner, a saturnine, -sallow, heavy-moustachioed fellow, reputed a schoolmaster in civil life, -and from all appearances a worthy exponent of Kultur. By the -Schwarmstedt lot he was known and loathed, and his stomach bulged -temptingly as he stalked on to our _appel_. - -And there was Ulrich, who arrived shortly after the opening of the camp -and assumed command of B Kaserne and its two hundred and fifty -inhabitants. Ulrich had stopped something very recently in the -Passchendaele fighting and was generally understood to be “swinging the -lead.” At all events no brisker or jauntier figure was to be seen most -days of the week. But if a General hove in sight, or there was a rumour -of further drastic combings-out in the home service cadres, Ulrich -forthwith assumed a halt and woe-begone gait. His chest caved in, his -left leg lagged behind his right, and he appeared supremely miserable -and C3. These seizures were chronic, but were noticed to be of brief -duration. For the rest, Ulrich was polite, but a doubtful character. To -a privileged few he was communicative and expressed his doubts as to the -orthodoxy of the conduct of prison camps in the Xth Army Corps. But his -billet depended on his keeping in with the authorities; he was a -border-line case for the front, and he had a wife and numerous children. -What would you, or he? - -Let us take the opportunity to introduce the rest of the minor -characters. There was a _Feldwebel-Leutnant_ called Welman who -rejoiced—justly enough—in the sobriquet of the “Jew Boy.” He had never -been to the front, was reported to be permanently unfit and to get fifty -per cent. of the profits of the canteen. At all events he was the -officer in charge of the Quartermaster’s Department in this Camp, and -was credited accordingly with a snug war billet. He was not -discourteous, but if unduly harassed by his own superiors, or by a long -row of sneeringly critical English, he became excited, and his voice -used to sound as if it came out of the bridge of his Semitic nose. He -spoke vile Berlinese and was generally regarded as a harmless enough -little soul with a capacity for business. - -There was “Square-eyes,” an old farmer Feldwebel who had been promised -his discharge months since and loathed his present job. He never made an -enemy among the English in the camp and used to speak broken English, -beaming through enormous horn spectacles. Unfortunately his reign did -not last long. Either his discharge came, or he was regarded by the -authorities as too mild for his job. At all events he left us -comparatively early. - -And there were other gentlemen Feldwebels who construed their duties too -humanely for the taste of the authorities and were removed; and one or -two who gained full approbation, and remained to add to the gaiety of -things. - -What a fate to have the charge of officers in a prison camp! Theirs was -not an enviable lot. If they were too severe, they forfeited all moral -control over us. If they were too complaisant, they risked losing their -jobs. There was no more difficult fence on which to sit and preserve -balance. A few—the more democratic—were doubtless intrigued by the idea -of exercising control on the sacred officer class; on most it weighed as -an irreconcileable anomaly. - -One little fellow, Mandelbrot, curiously combined respect and authority -in his behaviour to us. He was an incorrigible disciplinarian and never -allowed any liberties. But if he had to address a British officer, -whatever the officer’s rank, he would click his heels together and stand -to attention. - -The first ten days at Holzminden were chaos itself. Even Niemeyer was -unable to exert himself as actively inimical in the complete -disorganisation. He was too busily engaged in strafing his own staff. -Moreover, he was as yet only Camp Officer. The doddering old Commandant -still reigned and Niemeyer’s time was largely spent in interposing his -unwelcome oar into conversations between the Commandant and an aggrieved -senior British officer. - -The English, moreover, were at sixes and sevens amongst themselves. It -was frankly a struggle for food. Schwarmstedt, as stated, had brought -very few tins. We from Baden had none. The German commissariat was of -course execrable. There was no “common box” or relief store of tins and -food for new-comers such as had been instituted in the prosperous days -of Crefeld and Gütersloh, when the odd captives straggled in from the -battle of the Somme and found plenty awaiting them. Parcels had in many -cases been already countermanded on the strength of the Holland rumour, -in others they were in process of being diverted from Schwarmstedt, and -this would probably be a matter of weeks. For the first time since 1914 -the old campaigners were casting about for their next meal. It was a new -experience. The German canteen, of course, had nothing edible for sale. -There was barely fuel enough for our few stoves; the baths were not yet -open; the beds were hard and rocky. - -It needed but a brief acquaintanceship with the Xth Corps to be able to -put one’s finger on the _fons et origo mali_, which went much deeper -than the doddering Commandant and his graceless Lieutenant. Everything -that was unpleasant in our new surroundings had been hatched, we might -be sure, at H.Q. from the brain of von Hänisch, the fox, _General -Kommandierende_ of the Corps. Now von Hänisch, besides being by nature -fox-like, had got a bad hammering from the English on the Somme, and had -lost many men, and his field command into the bargain; and now, with a -third or so of the British officer prisoners-of-war in Germany under his -amiable tutelage, he was not the man to waste any time in getting back -on the country which had been the means of breaking him. - -The camp was not ten days old before von Renard took a preliminary prowl -round his prize covert to appraise the value of his new hunting grounds; -the magic word went forth “_Inspection_.” The taps were turned on; the -available brooms were brought forth; the British orderlies—what there -were of them—were set on to every conceivable form of fatigue; the -German staff worked overtime, and general electricity pervaded the -place. And amidst the general preparations the senior British officer -girded up his loins for a battle royal and noted down with his faithful -adjutant a long list of complaints.... - -It is the next day, some time after morning _appel_, which the General -has attended and which has passed without incident. The senior British -officer, the better to forward his many just claims, has ordered a -punctiliously correct parade. - -From Room 69 on the second floor of Kaserne A we may get a good view of -the interview which, one way or the other, is destined to fashion our -existence for the immediate future. The General having made a tour of -the Camp is about to pass through the gate into the precincts of the -Kommandantur. Our senior officer will apply for an interview. The -General will doubtless unbend so far as to go through the form of one. - -He is surrounded by his staff, as well as by the old Camp Commandant, -with his insufferable Camp Officer, the Paymaster, and the other -officers attached to the camp. They are grouped respectfully behind -their Chief, very splendid in their best uniforms, and stiff as pokers. -Every now and again he turns and addresses a question to one of them, -and then the poker back grows even stiffer, and the gloved hand goes up -to the peaked cap in salute and stays there till the General is pleased -to turn away again. How we used to loathe this German habit. One -conceived a frantic longing to tear their hands forcibly away and fasten -them down. It seemed so thoroughly Prussian, this habit of talking to -their superiors as if they were shading their eyes from the sun! How -infinitely better our own brisk method seemed than this long-drawn -apotheosis! - -The interview is graciously accorded and takes place on the bleak patch -of grass graced by the euphemistic title of _Spielplatz_ and already -worn bare by the trampling to and fro of 500 pairs of feet. Here, -against the back wall of the squalid cook-house, across one of the -dining room tables (symbol of conference!), ringed in by smug -supercilious Huns, and with the eyes of his own countrymen riveted on -him from the adjoining barrack, our senior officer joins the issue. It -exemplifies the scant attention which has been paid to the spokesman of -the British community that the interview should be held in the open air, -almost as an afterthought, instead of, as it should properly have been -held, in the Kommandantur itself. - -The senior British officer has no enviable task, but he has at least the -armour of experience and knows how far he may go and to what he is -entitled. Years of this sort of thing—ever since First Ypres—have taught -him that only too well. There is nothing novel to him in this interview; -only that the nature of the Hun opposite to him partakes of the -attributes of the fox rather than of the pig, and that he has if -possible a stiffer job in prospect than ever heretofore, and one which -he would gladly delegate. - -It is no sinecure being senior officer in a bad German prison camp. “The -stiffest job I ever took on in my life,” a veteran of both the Boer and -the European war was heard to say once. “I have never known a position -where one weak link in one’s own argument, one single individual who is -beyond control, will so completely crack one’s line of defence.” - -But of that anon. For the present we will follow Major Wyndham at his -uphill task, as the interview begins. He trusts to his own moderate -German rather than to an interpreter and speaks direct to the Fox, who -listens with eyes askance and a sneer on his face. - -The first complaint is the building accommodation. It is at present -quite inadequate. There are no public rooms, no library, one solitary -cook-house, and no bathroom. When are these going to be allowed, please? - -The General confers. The extra cook-house and the bathroom will be put -up as soon as possible. As to the public rooms and the library, there is -nothing in the Regulations which prescribes for these. They have been -permitted in other camps, but that was a luxury. - -“But every German officers’ camp in England has at least one public -room. It is well known.” - -“That may be. But England is not Germany. It is war-time, and the -English officers must learn to do without luxuries.” - -“Is it to be understood that this is a ‘strafe’ camp?” - -“It may please the English officers to understand that. It is deserved -_allerdings_. Next please.” The General glances at his watch. - -The next complaint is the size of the exercise ground. It is too small -to admit of games being properly played. There is plenty of room if the -General will permit the barbed wire fence on the southern side to be -moved back 15 yards. It will not encroach on the allotments. And a -corner at the south-east end of the camp might also with advantage be -put inside the wire. - -This is a reasonable proposition. As things are, we can play a -half-sized game of hockey on the available ground. One half-sized game -of hockey will not go far amongst 550. And there is no necessity for the -curtailment. Along the southern side of the ground the inner wire runs -parallel to the outer wall, but full 40 yards away from it; immediately -under the wall are the allotments of the camp staff. There is a space 20 -yards in breadth between the wire and the allotments. Why should we not -have this? One can do a lot with 20 yards on a hundred yards’ stretch in -a prison camp. - -But Foxy-face knows only too well where he can hit us on the raw, and is -obdurate. “Later, perhaps, we will see, but now impossible. Neither can -the gymnasium at the south-eastern end, or any of the ground round it, -be included.” - -Next on the programme comes the conduct of the Camp Officer. Why has -Hauptmann Niemeyer, whose behaviour at Ströhen Camp has been already -reported to and strongly condemned by the _Kriegsministerium_ (War -Office), been again placed in a position of responsibility in so large a -camp? Has the General been made aware of his previous record? - -The senior British officer regrets that he cannot command greater -fluency as he makes this point-blank attack. If he succeeds, Niemeyer -will have to go. If he fails, it will be war to the knife between the -two of them, and he knows it. - -But the General has already prejudged the issue and our Major might just -as well have saved his powder. Niemeyer has been standing with his hand -at the peak of his cap for three minutes gabbling all the time. A clever -man can get quite a lot of self-justification into three minutes. He -will stay. We can trust him for that ... the General beams on his -faithful henchman. - -The Major sees that it is hopeless, but keeps his temper and carries on. -There is one more complaint, and a big one, for it touches honour rather -than comfort. It is on the delicate subject of parole. - -Now it should be explained that in the Great War captivity meant -confinement in the strictest sense of the term, and the roystering days -at Verdun in the Napoleonic Wars were not repeated. In those days -prisoners on parole kept their private apartments, their carriages, and -their mistresses, and racketed, if they wished to—so long as they kept -within a reasonable and elastic law—to their heart’s content. In the -Great War it was the wish, rightly and clearly expressed by Lord Grey, -that officers should use the privileges of parole to take walks outside -the camp only when they could not get sufficient exercise within it to -keep themselves fit. When, therefore, in previous camps the British had -availed themselves of this privilege, they had been in the habit, before -starting on the walk, of handing in a signed card to the Germans on -which it was stated that they undertook not to do two things:—to escape -or in any way to facilitate future escape, or to damage German property. -The arrangement had proved perfectly satisfactory. - -But at Holzminden, when the cards were produced for us to sign, there -was a whole charter of other things that we must or might not do when we -went out for walks. We were required, for instance, to sign to the -effect that we would unhesitatingly obey the orders of the German -officer or N.C.O. accompanying us; this hit at the whole basis of the -parole idea. We were asked to append our names underneath a clause which -stated that we _knew_ that the breaking of our parole was punishable -with the death penalty; this merely insulted our intelligence. We were -determined that we would either take walks on parole on the terms of -heretofore or not take them at all. This spirit of dogged conservatism -when there was so clearly everything to lose and nothing much to gain -might seem petty and unreasonable, were it not remembered, firstly, that -any attempt to interfere with our parole was in honour bound to be -furiously contested, and secondly, that if in the course of business you -conceded the German an inch, he was pretty certain shortly to make -overtures for a mile. - -Such, at any rate, is the opinion of the senior British officer, as he -now bluntly demands the _status quo ante_ in the matter of parole. - -The General laughs and turns to his escort. Who are these British after -all who should set themselves up on so high a pedestal? It is known that -their parole was broken at Schwarmstedt, in the spirit, if not actually -in the letter. The Major asks for corroborative detail. It is given and -denied roundly. - -The high and mighty _Stellvertreter Kommandierende General_ does not -lightly brook flat contradiction in his own domain, and begins to lose -his temper. In other words, he begins to shout. The word “Baralong,” -spat out so that all can hear, floats up to our upper window. He is -presumably making some general allegation against the lost British sense -of honour. Neither is our Major quite so cool as he was; “Lusitania” -counters “Baralong.” - -There is no further any attempt at concealment and the Fox bares his -teeth in a snarl. - -“If every Englishman in this command,” he storms, “got his deserts he -would be shot.” And he stalks away with his staff in a white heat of -passion. - -The senior British officer sends for his Adjutant and an order goes -round the camp that all parole cards will be torn up and no walks will -take place until an apology is forthcoming. - -[Illustration: - - View from Kaserne B, showing skating rink made in January 1918. -] - -The apology took months to come. It took weeks only to report the full -circumstances of the case to the British Legation in Holland, thence to -the Dutch Minister in Berlin, and finally to the Kriegsministerium -itself. And in the meanwhile 500 odd British officers took their sole -exercise in the slushy compound, pounding round and round the eternal -triangle, forbidden to play games, and longing for the frost which would -at least enable them to build a slide. - -And on the evening after the General’s departure a groan went up from -the entire _appel_ as the Interpreter announced the fact that the aged -Commandant had taken his expected departure and that Hauptmann Niemeyer -reigned in his stead. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - NIEMEYER—AND PINPRICKS - - -What has been told may serve as a prologue. The curtain at Holzminden -did not really go up till Niemeyer came into his own. He became on his -accession even more truculent than hitherto. War was openly declared -between himself and the senior British officer. The cells rapidly filled -up with officers whom he had incarcerated for an innocuous stare, a -failure to salute at 30 paces distance, or more than likely for no -reason at all. We became accustomed to the sight and sound of this -gentle knight outside our Kaserne in the morning about a quarter to -eight, storming up and down in a black gust of bilious passion, harrying -everybody—Germans, British, officers, orderlies—anyone, in short, who -crossed his path. “I give you three days right away,” “I guess you know -I am the Commandant,” and similar phrases floated up to us as we lay in -bed half asleep and warned us that we might expect a visit at any -moment. Sometimes, in the beginning, he came into our rooms in person -and made facetiously offensive remarks to our unresponsive forms. But -later his sense of dignity deprived us of the pleasure of his company at -these early hours, and he preferred to prowl about outside in general -supervision, while sentries and N.C.O.’s, acting to orders, and sheepish -or blatant according to their natures, banged upon our doors, and with a -raucous _Aufstehen_ (“get up”) contrived as a rule to bring back -reality. - -We were supposed to be up by 8 o’clock. If we were not, there was always -the risk that one of the sentries might interpret his duties too -literally and pull us out. This insult was of quite frequent occurrence, -and it resulted, as may be supposed, in friction of the most serious -kind. Someone would probably shout down at Niemeyer in the enclosure -“Take your — sentries away,” and Niemeyer would at once storm his way up -to have a personal investigation on the spot. The hate at that -unseasonable time in the morning could be very direct, and usually -resulted in the Commandant bagging a brace or so more for “jug.” - -It need not be added that these visits aroused intense resentment. It -was so obvious that they were only intended to annoy. The pretext was -that we were so habitually late on the 9 o’clock _appel_. The answer to -that was that in a crowd of 500 odd a great many would be late at any -_appel_, be it fixed for 9 or 10, or even 12. Let those who were late -take their chance of punishment. Another argument advanced by Niemeyer -was that according to the regulations every room had to be swept and -garnished by 10 a.m. Our reply was that they always were. Our own -orderlies were responsible for that job, and they performed it when they -were not called away from their own task on a German fatigue. And in -their unavoidable absence we cleaned up our rooms and made our beds -ourselves. - -This little game was in fact no more than one of a series of pinpricks; -taken by itself we could have made light of it. But the snowball of -pinpricks gathered weight as the camp got under weigh and Niemeyer grew -more and more secure in his position. - -Niemeyer succeeded in impregnating the entire camp with an atmosphere of -acute discontent and jumpiness, and no one knew this better than -himself. It was, as a matter of fact, a remarkably fine achievement for -one man, for Holzminden might have been from the start a happy camp. The -air was good, the view was good, the buildings were waterproof, the -water supply was good. Only the Commandant was vile. - -The man who controlled the welfare of approximately one-quarter of the -English officers at this time prisoners-of-war in Germany had for 17 -years besmirched by his presence the province of Milwaukee, U.S.A. His -twin brother, Heinrich, of Clausthal Camp in the same command, boasted a -similar record—what they had done during the 17 years nobody exactly -knew. The brethren were practically doubles, and rivalled each other in -the calculated arrogance, animosity, and deceit which, for the best part -of a year, busied a thousand souls in devising suitable post-bellum -punishments for the estimable pair. If a comparison had to be made, it -might be said by those in a position to know that Harry was the worse on -occasions, but that Charlie had it for sheer, dogged, day-in day-out -nastiness. In any case there was not much in it. - -It was a concatenation of unfortunate circumstances that two watch-dogs -of such a breed and temper happened to be lying idle in the Hanover -kennels when the word went forth for a general British strafe in the Xth -Army Corps. It was always understood that the pair had weathered a -search on the high seas by a British destroyer when crossing over from -America to the service of their beloved Fatherland. As to Charles, it -was reported that he had been given some form of a command on the Somme, -but had lost it again within a brief period. He was certainly fond of -referring in no uncertain way to his dreadful experiences in that -battle—which was, if anything, a pretty sure indication that he had -never been near it. - -The reason for the high favour in which the Niemeyers were held at -Hanover was always something of an enigma. It was supposed by some that -they could trace their patronage to even Higher Quarters than the Army -Corps Commander. The appointments of Camp Commandants, we were once told -by a friendly Dutchman from the Berlin Legation, were in the giving of -the Emperor. He alone could make and unmake. There was no reason to -suppose this particular Dutchman was lying to us, and he had come -straight from the Hague, where Lord Newton was at the time endeavouring -to thrash out an acceptable exchange agreement with the German -representatives. Certain it is that, despite the strongest -representations ever since the departure of the first party for exchange -to Holland—from British officers to the British General commanding in -that country, from the General to the War Office, from the War Office -back again to the British Legation in Holland, from the Legation to the -Dutch Government, and from the Dutch Government to Berlin—the pair stuck -like leeches, and retired, by the back door, only at such an advanced -period in the war that it had become evident that not even the patronage -of the All Highest was likely to avail them much any longer. If true, it -is an index of the system. - -But most of us were sceptical of this explanation. It appeared more -reasonable to suppose that the Niemeyers were helping Hänisch in butter -from our parcels and getting carte blanche as a _quid pro quo_. There is -no doubt at all that Charles used to steal, although he took good care -to cover his tracks[4]. - - -[Footnote 4: When the parcel room at Holzminden was cleared out after -the armistice, a trap-door was found in the floor, thus allowing access -from under the guard-room. Niemeyer expressed the greatest -astonishment.] - - -In appearance they were typically Hunnish, but of the commercial rather -than the military brand. Bullet heads with close-cropped grey hair; -florid complexion; grey moustachios with the usual Kaiser twirl; heavy -jowl and thick neck. Charles Niemeyer used to wear his cap at a rakish -angle on the back of his head. He was never seen out of his Prussian -military greatcoat except during a severe heat wave, or without his -spurs. Like most of his countrymen he carried a swelling paunch, which -protruded as he walked or stood even more prominently than its -circumference warranted. Sometimes he carried a stick, but more usually -he thrust both hands deep into his greatcoat pockets, from which they -were only occasionally withdrawn to return a salute. He smoked large -numbers of cigars. All these outward characteristics gave him a most -plebeian appearance singularly at variance with that of the usual dapper -and punctilious regimental officer. - -[Illustration: - - Karl Niemeyer. -] - -His voice was the most astounding thing about him. It was really a most -delicately modulated instrument capable of the softest and most -sycophantic coo or the most guttural bellow, as occasion demanded. -Niemeyer used to speak his native tongue extremely fast, babbling along -without any of the harsh scraping dissonances that one usually -associated with it, and quite unintelligibly to the ordinary English -ear. His English was simply bar-tender Yank, extremely fluent within -certain stock limits and every now and then including a ludicrous error; -also, when he wished it, suitably foul. He sometimes made absurd -mistakes. Thus he would say “I will have you arrested right now—in five -minutes,” or (his best) “You think I do not understand the English, but -I do. I know dam all about you.” - -“Right away,” “cost price,” the enclitic “Yes-no” at the end of a -sentence, and other absurdities abounded in his speech. “Cost price” was -a particular favourite. You could get “cost price” jug for any period: -or you could be “told something straight, yes cost price, I guess.” He -cherished the idea that “cost price” represented what was plain and -unequivocal, an index to the straight-dealing methods of alien saloon -managers in far Milwaukee. Sometimes, when a grievance involved the use -of technical English beyond his range, he would blind at us in German, -which we infinitely preferred, as it gave the comedians an opportunity -for looking uncomprehendingly asinine and shouting in chorus _nichts -verstehen_ (“don’t understand”), which infuriated him. - -With Niemeyer first impressions were not actually unpleasing, as he had -clear blue eyes and a voice which, as I have said, when under control -was not unmusical. New arrivals at the camp, unless they had been -forewarned or had had previous dealings with him, were inclined to size -him up as a friendly, if over-familiar, old bounder. - -He used to walk about with a retriever puppy, which was a source of -considerable annoyance to its owner, as it was invariably on better -terms with the prisoners-of-war, who used sometimes to feed it, than -with himself. The only occasions on which he was ever seen to stoop was -when bending down to coax the puppy to follow its rightful master. - -He treated his dependants as beings of another world—“like dogs” would -be too mild a term, for Niemeyer was quite restrained in his dealings -with the puppy. He was never seen to return his men’s salutes; he only -returned ours as the result of frequent protests. His conduct towards -the British orderlies was just the same, except that his vituperation -had to be done in English and with therefore more limited scope. To the -British officers, except in his moods of Berserker fury, he would be -either coldly polite or else offensively hail-fellow-well-met, as the -mood took him. If he had any hobbies we did not hear of them. He neither -walked nor rode nor indulged in any sport. Once in a blue moon he went -for a drive. He was a bachelor, and was understood to loathe the sight -of women. Whether he drank or drugged or gambled his many spare hours -away at Holzminden is not known. We did not certainly identify him with -literary tasks. The knowledge of his power was his main solace, and -there is no doubt that he often stirred up trouble in the camp for the -sake of trouble. To some such motive only could be ascribed his -relentlessly literal interpretation of the Corps regulations. Under a -reasonable régime these would never have been pressed. Even so, things -at Holzminden would have gone smoothly enough if he had been a -gentleman. It was the fact that even this modest provision had not been -made on their account that goaded the British to an intense intolerance -of the man and all his works; and he, in his turn, looked for moral -support to the authority which, with full knowledge, had placed him -where he was. Such was Captain of the Reserve Karl Niemeyer. - -He adopted the policy of alleviating our numerous discomforts only by -slow degrees or on the principle of two steps backward for each one -forward. A long string of complaints was presented to him on the average -about twice a week. The bath-house was at length completed, and the camp -watch-dog was promptly lodged in it. When remonstrated with, Niemeyer -explained that there was at present no room for the dog’s accommodation -in the Kommandantur. So we continued bath-less for another month—those -of us, at least, who could not face an icy plunge in the horse-troughs -on the _Spielplatz_. When at length the bath-house was vacated and -purged, it was found that only two of the showers were effective. - -Somebody broke one of the electric lamps in the compound: all games were -promptly stopped. This left us literally with no outlet for exercise -except the monotonous “pound” in shorts and jersey round the camp -enclosure, or a furtive game of fives at the end of one of the long -corridors, for which it was not always easy to “book a court”! - -The distribution of parcels was kept in the hands of the German -personnel, and as a result hopeless chaos and congestion reigned. In all -previous camps the British had efficiently organised the distribution of -their own parcels, no light task in the days when supplies from home -were unrationed and one recipient might claim as many as twenty parcels -in a week. When the consignments diverted from other camps began to -reach Holzminden, the German parcel room was packed from floor to -ceiling with the accumulations. The most that Niemeyer would at first -allow in the nature of English control in the parcel room was the -services of two orderlies. The presence of a British officer in the -parcel room, even on parole and for the express purpose of supervising -and facilitating delivery, was only permitted when all other attempts to -cope with the situation had failed. - -It was the same with the tin rooms, and here a word of explanation is -required. When a prisoner-of-war in Germany drew his parcel from home he -might not, strictly speaking, merely walk off with it under his arm. -This practice was winked at in many easy camps, but at Holzminden it was -rigidly taboo. The regulations stipulated that every article should be -strictly censored before issue. It was not enough to shake a tin to -ascertain its non-contraband nature. It had to be opened by a German and -its contents taken delivery of in a plate or bowl. And if the contents -were solid, such as, for instance, a tinned ham, then that ham had to be -cut, bisected, quartered, or “Crippened” into just so many fragments as -would leave no room for doubt that a compass or a map or a file did not -remain concealed. A ham or tongue, of course, was thus ruined. The -German employees in the tin room loathed this desecration almost as much -as we did; it gave them additional work and seemed to them to be an act -of unreasoning vandalism. Poor devils! Some of them were honest, -although undoubtedly some stole. But it must have been refined torture -for them daily to sniff Elysium and lack its joy, daily to mutilate -_delicatessen_ such as they had not tasted for months and months, daily -to handle forbidden delights. But they had to do it, for they never knew -when the Commandant would not spring a surprise visit on them. I have -seen him take out a penknife on such occasions and hack practically into -mincemeat a tongue which had been left comparatively whole, full of zest -for the service of the Fatherland and threatening dire things to his -staff if ever such an object was let off so lightly again. - -But even the destruction of our food would have been tolerable if we -could have got at it with reasonable ease; unfortunately the inadequacy -of the arrangements extended to the cellars where the tin rooms were -located. At the beginning of things there was one tin room for the -requirements of the whole camp. The tins were brought down from the -parcel room in wheelbarrows and piled on racks in the tin room; there -was no British supervision; there were no lockers or partitions, and the -German staff could not read or understand English. It was hardly to be -wondered at, therefore, that before a week was out the room was in -complete confusion, accentuated each day as the intake exceeded the -offtake. - -To get your tins opened you had to take your turn in a queue. To be the -first man in this queue it was necessary, as a rule, to put in an -appearance about half-past seven in the morning. The last applicant was -usually served just before evening roll-call. All day the queue crawled. -It was a case of queue-crawling or missing a day, English tins or German -rations, and the inner man won. The head of the queue was at the tin -room door. The rest of it coiled along the damp passage which traversed -the cellar floor, it sat and read on the steps of the staircase that led -down to the passage, often it overflowed right into and out of the -doorway of the Kaserne. It was a mournful dispirited queue in those -days. The Germans took five or ten minutes to serve each man and it was -even odds that your tins wouldn’t be there. And if you were very unlucky -you might have an accident with your tray on the return journey, upset -your plates, and have to begin all over again. - -So much for tins; but even so, the toil was not complete. Supposing that -you had emerged, weary but victorious, from the cellars, you had still -only the cold and raw material for your meal; the urgent corollary was -to get this cooked, and to do so it was necessary to fight for a place -on the stoves. Holzminden at that time boasted three cooking stoves with -surface space for thirty pots (including kettles) and a purely wood fuel -supply. It was hardly to be wondered at—so great was the demand, and so -slow the fire—that a great many did not get on the stoves more than once -in the day. It is true that new and better stoves were being built -opposite to B Kaserne, but they were not yet ready. For the moment it -was a case of opportunism, watchfulness, forcefulness if necessary, and -devil take the hindmost. - -Sometimes the old German cook would take part of the overflow on to his -own capacious stoves in the German cook-house and so ease the -congestion. But he was in deadly terror all the time that he would be -seen helping us from the Kommandantur, and he expected a substantial -consideration (in kind) for the risk he took on our behalf. Such -consideration it was not in the power of some of us to bestow. - -We from the sorting camps were feeling the pinch about now, and were -living, most of us, and apart from the German ration, on precarious -charity. At Karlsruhe we had blown ourselves out on tomatoes and bread: -at Heidelberg we had added relish to the bread, with an occasional pot -of honey from their well-stocked canteen. But in the canteen at -Holzminden there was nothing to eat beyond a very nauseous paste. Some -of us were lucky and fell in with a well-stocked mess; the rest of us -waited blankly for our relief parcels, eking out with a tin here and a -tin there, frying bread in dripping, lucky if we could see a meal ahead. -For the first time in our lives we knew hunger; not so fiercely as our -successors in 1918 were to know it, but more fiercely perhaps than the -veterans of 1914 and 1915, who, whatever their other tortures, had at -least come as prisoners into a country where food was to be had for the -purchasing. - -Finally there was the question of fuel. It was October now, and the days -in Brunswick were no longer balmy. Each of our rooms—scheduled to hold -twelve—possessed a stove, but there was nothing to put in the stove. We -saw woods on the horizon to three sides of us. The regulations, we -understood, permitted us the daily ration of a German soldier in the -field. But no wood was forthcoming, except what was brought for the -consumption of our three cooking stoves. A dangerous minority -endeavoured, as usual, to destroy the comfort of the community by -stealing this cooking supply. The practice was sternly stopped. Then -recourse was had to the stools in the dining rooms. These blazed well -for a night or two, but were naturally not replaced, and we had all the -fewer stools to sit upon. Finally those who preferred a blaze to a -night’s rest sacrificed their bed boards. It was reckless jettison, but -excusable. The Camp Commandant had broken faith with us over the fuel -question if possible more flagrantly than over others, and the camp was -justly incensed. One day a representative of the Dutch Legation in -Berlin had been down to visit us. On the morning of his arrival the -Commandant, scenting the trouble which might be expected on this as on -other issues, had caused it to be proclaimed at morning _appel_ that -from that day fuel would be issued free (loud cheers!). We might have -known. We never got a faggot free. The representative carried out his -colourless inspection, and that evening we were as cold as before. The -end of this particular campaign was that ultimately, and under the -extreme pressure of the increasing cold, we paid for wood at the rate of -40 marks a cubic metre. The only people who got fuel free were those -under detention in the cells. - -Every now and again a waggon-load of briquettes used to come in under -escort for discharge in the coal cellars of Kaserne B. On these -occasions we used to help unloading the waggon—but not into the coal -cellars. A crowd of officers with British warms and trench coats with -capacious pockets suddenly appeared from nowhere, swarmed round the -waggon and its disconcerted sentinel, and contrived to get a bit of -their own back. - -For rank exploitation, however, the food supply was _facile princeps_. -We might forgive the Germans for the food they offered us; we could not -forgive them either for the way they served it or for the price they -made us pay for it. - -In one of the cellars aforementioned our year’s potato supply was -stored. This came in in October. Three English orderlies were on -permanent fatigue in this cellar, peeling the daily potato ration for -the camp. When the peeling was complete the potatoes were thrown into -one of the two large coppers in the German cook-house (the other -contained hot water) and were boiled up in relentless conjunction with -the other ingredients billed for that particular day. It did not matter -what they were; everything went into the hotch-potch, and, so long as it -eventually boiled and was ladled out into big pails for despatch to the -dining rooms, all was well. On Sundays there was an occasional lump of -horse-flesh floating in the stew and some green vegetable which might -fairly be classified as “a not too French French bean”; on one Sunday, -as a variation, the skull of a cow complete except for skin and ears was -found floating in the pot. On other days plain _sauerkraut_, or its -equivalent nastiness. Occasionally there was some barley grain which, -with many of us, did duty as porridge for our next morning’s breakfast. - -Such was our bill of fare for the mid-day meal. Our breakfast was -_ersatz_ coffee: our supper was an attenuated version of our lunch. And -for this we were mulcted monthly to the tune of 60 marks a head. No -doubt this charge would have been exceeded, if it had been possible; but -an agreement between the British and German Governments had fixed the -sum of 60 marks as the limit which a subaltern prisoner-of-war might -receive as pay whilst in captivity, and the Germans could not therefore -legally charge any more. As it was, there was nothing left on which a -subaltern might come and go for ordinary out-of-pocket expenses in the -canteen or in camp subscriptions; and to meet these requirements he had -to draw a cheque on his bankers which was discounted with a neutral -agent by the Germans at a ruinous rate of exchange for himself and with -a very comfortable margin of profit for everybody else concerned. - -No one, of course, who could live on his own supply of tins thought of -looking at the German food. It was too impossibly served. Messes would -sometimes depute one of their members to make a dive into the soup tub -and rescue some of the better looking potatoes wherewith to supplement -the evening stew. - -The poor quality of the diet was accepted as directly attributable to -the beleaguered state of Germany. We knew that the sentries and the -staff personnel were getting the same, and that probably the people in -the town were faring little better. What we did resent was that we were -not allowed to take over our ration in bulk and exercise control as to -the manner of its cooking, and also that we were not allowed a rebate -for what we did not require. - -There was only one visible means of retaliation—scrupulously “drawing” -the whole of the weekly ration of Boche bread and as scrupulously -wasting it or burning it. That never failed to create a commotion, and -it was made, before very long, a punishable offence. - -Almost weekly the messing question figured prominently on the agenda for -the senior officer’s conference with the Commandant. Weekly the same -privileges were demanded—control of the raw supply, supervision in the -kitchen, an equivalent return in money for what we did not require. -Weekly the Commandant returned evasive and unsatisfactory replies, and -shifted the onus of responsibility on to convenient and distant Hanover. -To the end we were not quite sure that he might not, in this one -instance, be really telling the truth. The messing system in the Hanover -command might really conceivably be directed from a centralised control; -but if so, how to reconcile our system with that at Clausthal in the -same command, where rebate was allowed as a matter of course? - -Later on, damning evidence was collected to prove that we were not -getting more than two-thirds of our scheduled weight. As a sop we -received the unheard-of concession of getting our potatoes in their -jackets on two days in the week. - -There is little doubt, in the retrospect, that our messing at Holzminden -probably afforded the easiest field for exploitation, so little interest -was taken, during most of the period, in the garbage which was offered -us, and so regular and secure was the payment, a credit from our own -unsuspecting Government debited automatically against us in our account -before we had even the opportunity to turn it into _Lager Geld_, as the -paper currency of the camp used to be called. It was hardly to be -wondered at that the Supply branch of the German army should have been -so venal; the opportunities for profiteering must have been unlimited. - -Sometimes a Quartermaster-General used to come round on inspection and -sniff the mess in the coppers and admire the stoves. With him in close -attendance one probably saw the people who were really getting at us, -the _Verwaltung Leute_ (“Q” people) of the place. They were seedy, -suspicious-looking folk, thin enough in spite of their obvious battening -at our expense. The General himself was a fairly poor specimen of his -class. He drove up to the camp from the station even in the finest -weather in a closed carriage and behind one feeble nag. He was obviously -zealously misinformed about everything, and our quarrel lay not with -him, any more than we should have visited the sins of an over-astute -quartermaster on the shoulders of some old dug-out at Corps H.Q. - -Later on, in 1918, we heard how things had been done at Rastatt in -Baden, where hundreds of British officers lay all day on their beds too -weak to move for weeks on end. There too, where the stuff that we -spurned would have been a banquet, the fault could be brought home to -the criminal maladministration, venality, and neglect of the ghouls on -the lower rungs of the _verwaltung_ staff. We have seen the diaries— - -“Thursday half ration, complained but no explanation. Friday a General -came over to inspect. We were given a double ration for dinner. Saturday -half ration again”: and so on. - -But in their case it was deliberate cruelty as well as exploitation. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - INTRODUCING THE MAIN MOTIF - - -Such, in brief, were some of the major pinpricks in this winter of our -discontent. Needless to say that from the beginning heads had been put -together to discover a means of escape. The camp did not, at first -sight, appear an easy one to get out of, but before we had been there a -month seventeen had been out. A hole was made in the passage of Kaserne -A at the end next to the Kommandantur and through this parties in twos -and threes, and even in sixes and sevens, had crept, walked down the -stairs of the Kommandantur and, in the guise of German sentries under an -N.C.O., made their exit through the main gate. When the first party got -away—three of them—their names were answered for them on _appel_ for the -next day and a half, giving them two full days’ start. This was the more -creditable performance as one of them was a field officer, and as such -paraded on _appel_ with the few other officers of his rank in the camp -in front of the vulgar herd, easy to be seen and equally easy to be -missed. - -Unfortunately Niemeyer’s luck was in. All were caught before they -reached the Ems and were brought back to the camp. The passage was -discovered, the hole was filled up, a system of permit cards initiated, -and the most promising escape channel in the camp was abandoned as being -no longer practicable. Niemeyer was immensely relieved when the last of -his errant lambs was brought back for incarceration. He had had his -lesson and profited by it. Henceforth the English should be allowed no -rope. - -So the wire was heightened and a No Man’s Land was created round the -enclosure between the line of sentries and the Platz, wherein it was -death to walk. Censoring redoubled in vigilance. British control in the -parcel room seemed more distant an event than ever, and Niemeyer became -more blatantly cocksure than before. - -“You see, yentlemen,” he would say, “you cannot get out now. I should -not try; it will be bad for your health.” - -And in reply, and having nothing very much better to do, a select little -band assumed the habits and characteristics of moles and started on the -long task which was to result in convincing Niemeyer that he had made a -mistake, and that where there is a will there is also somehow and -somewhere a way. - -The history of the Holzminden Tunnel is the history of a great -adventure. It was over 60 yards in length, and it took nine months to -complete. It was dug, except for one brief period, in the hours of -daylight between morning and evening _appel_, and its workers, in order -to reach and return from the scene of their labours, ran daily risks of -being identified by the German sentries. Much of it was dug through -layers of stones; all of it was dug with appliances that a miner would -have scorned. During all its long travail it was never actually -suspected—and this though the Camp Commandant prided himself as the -“cutest” gaoler in the Fatherland. Lastly, it was above all expectations -successful, and in a way which satisfied to the full the dramatic -proprieties. - -An attempt has been made in this story to show its readers something of -Holzminden Camp as it was, not because it bristled with barbarities, as -some previous accounts of it might have led credulous people to believe, -but because it did most effectively supply a suitable background to the -tunnel episode; a background of grey, monotonous imprisonment, of minor -indignities considerable only in their cumulative effect, of permanent -tension, of seeming unendingness, and a queer depression beyond the -ordinary. All who were there will testify to that. Holzminden, even in -its lighter moments, was a gloomier camp than many where the actual -conditions were infinitely worse. - -The secrets of the tunnel are not the author’s at first hand; he did not -personally experience its dank embrace; he did not “labour and pray” in -its recesses with a sense of intimate proprietorship. In fact, except -for some organising assistance on the actual night of the escape, he had -nothing actively to do with it. The control of the enterprise rested in -the hands of a select few who were known as the “working-party” and on -whom devolved the whole responsibility of doing the job and seeing that -it was done in secret. It was impossible for those whose business it was -to keep in close personal touch with the whole community to remain long -in ignorance of the identity of the various members of this party. But -what they were doing, how or exactly where they were doing it, when they -would finish doing it—on these points one was not, and did not expect to -be, enlightened. When the working-party discussed plans, they did so -behind closed doors and in an undertone. The results of their -deliberations were communicated to those whom it concerned and to those -alone. Once the shifts had been arranged there was no need for a member -of the party to do more than be in his appointed place at the appointed -time and carry out his appointed task. In the intervals the less he -talked the better. It was only when the scheme was nearing its maturity -and when it became desirable to let a favoured few into the secret that -tongues began ever so circumspectly to wag. - -When the essay became an event, and the tunnel the one topic of -conversation through the camp—and, be it said, through Hanover as -well—it was possible to join the odd ends together and follow the whole -enterprise through in the retrospect from its modest beginning to its -glorious conclusion. This is all that this account pretends to do. - - * * * * * - -At this juncture it may be well to describe the premises. - -[Illustration: - - General plan of Holzminden Camp - - (Scale approx. 1 inch = 50 yards) -] - -The two Kasernes were identical in structure, but the fact that the near -end of Kaserne A was sacred to the Kommandantur and the far end of -Kaserne B was set apart for orderlies gave rise to some more or less -improvised alterations in the internal structure. Here it should be -mentioned that “near end” means nearest to the main gate. As you walked -in through the main gate the Kommandantur lay immediately on your left, -the sentries off duty sniggered at you from the guard-room on your -right, and the officers’ enclosure through another (inner) gate directly -faced you. The portion of Kaserne A set apart for the English was that -part which was beyond the inner gate. The windows of the nearest room to -the gate on the ground floor were whitewashed in order that we might not -read—and thereby be in a position to copy—the permit cards which it was -necessary for every German, military or civilian, to show the sentry on -duty before being permitted to pass in or out of the prisoners’ -enclosure. This regulation was a safeguard introduced after the original -escapes, and it used to afford some amusement. On one occasion a sentry, -having been duly cautioned as to his orders, let Niemeyer himself -through without asking him for his card. The result was an -intensification of the air in the neighbourhood for a good five minutes, -and loud sounds of merriment from the British quarter. Next day the -fellow, on his metal, stopped Niemeyer—in a hurry. The sentry said very -little, Niemeyer said a very great deal; the consequence was that the -sentry got seven days for his pains, and the world—meaning the British -quarter—again cooed with merriment. But that is by the way. - -Going straight on down the main cobble-stoned thoroughfare of the camp, -you reach Kaserne B, about 70 yards apart from Kaserne A. - -[Illustration: - - Kaserne B. -] - -Kaserne B was a 50-yard long, ugly, four-storied affair, with an -entrance doorway and a flight of stairs at each end of it. From each -entrance doorway a few steps _downward_ brought you through another door -to the basement corridor—(the distinction between these doors should be -kept clear in mind). On the outer side of this basement corridor, i.e. -looking towards the uncommunicative outer wire of the camp, were the -punishment cells; on the inner side were the various cellars—the tin -cellar, the bread cellar, the store cellar, the potato cellar, and other -cellars necessary for the economic administration of the camp. Half way -down the basement corridor, and shutting off the British from any -possibility of prying into the cellars at its far end, was a partition -consisting of two doors usually locked. - -The near entrance door was the officers’ entrance, the far door the -orderlies’ entrance. Going through a swing door _opposite_ the officers’ -entrance on the ground floor, you found yourself in a long corridor -which traversed the entire length of the building and connected about a -dozen large rooms wherein the inhabitants of the ground floor lived, -slept, and made shift generally. The rooms averaged about twelve -occupants apiece and looked out on to the inner (enclosure) side. The -lower part of their windows had to be kept permanently shut, even in the -daytime, a source of never-failing contention and resentment. - -The first floor was the counterpart of the ground floor, except that the -windows might be opened and the general appearance was correspondingly -brighter. At the end of each of these floors were the “small” rooms -which opened off in little passages or saps at either end of the main -corridor. These small rooms constituted the wings of the main building, -which was constructed after the pattern and in the proportions of an E -minus its central appendage. The sketch shows this clearly enough. - -These rooms were keenly competed for. They held three to four occupants -each and the actual amount of cubic space per occupant was less in them, -if anything, than in the larger ones. But the moral effect of only -having to reckon with the individual proclivities of two, as against -eleven, other of your fellow-men, was reckoned as an inestimable -advantage; and no sooner was the rumour abroad of one of those -periodical “general posts” occasioned by the departure of a party for -exchange to Holland or elsewhere than the House Adjutant’s[5] room was -besieged by a crowd of applicants and their backers, the insistence of -whose claims was, as a rule, in exactly inverse proportion to their -merit. Thus A, who is being strongly run for the shortly-to-be-vacant -billet in Number 35, is a second lieutenant with eight months’ -experience of captivity, and B, whose inclusion in Number 37 opposite -seems no less essential to its existing occupants, is a Flying Corps -captain aged 21, not yet through his first six months of -_gefangenschaft_. C and D, however, who have commanded companies on the -Somme, remain unchampioned and unambitious in their large rooms amidst a -welter of disorder, discomfort, and possibly discord, and have to be -prodded into admitting that they wouldn’t mind if they _did_ get a -little peace now and again. It is the way of the world. - - -[Footnote 5: At Holzminden the senior British officer worked through a -personal adjutant, known as the Camp Adjutant, who handed on orders to -officers in charge of each Kaserne, known as House Adjutants.] - - -On the second floor there was the difference that two large dining rooms -were interspaced between the living rooms. Dining room, it should be -added, was a term purely of courtesy. It is true that in these rooms the -large majority of officers in the Kaserne stored their cooking utensils, -prepared their food for cooking, and gulped it down as quickly as might -be when cooked. But this feature of the rooms was not stressed, and they -were used in turn, and during the greater part of the day, as theatres, -lecture rooms, concert rooms, reading rooms, and churches; on Saturday -nights, or whenever a “show” was on, officers were requested to have -finished their dinner by six. Dinner over, the cups and plates were -dumped in a convenient corner, the tables were pushed up together to one -end of the room to form a solid platform, and in an incredibly short -space of time the drop scene and the wings were hoisted triumphantly. -Then, after two hours’ rapt forgetfulness of the surroundings, down came -the final curtain, out trooped the audience, and back the tables were -pushed into their respective sites. The drill was clockwork. There was -nothing that we would less willingly have foregone than our “shows,” and -the scene-shifters would have done so least of all. - -But we must leave the dining rooms and mount the stone staircase once -again to the attic floor. This consisted of a few small rooms at the -near (Kommandantur) end, and the orderlies’ quarters, with a stout -wooden partition, strengthened with sheet iron, in between. The small -rooms were remarkable only for their extreme cold and the fact that one -of them played a highly important part in the subsequent proceedings. -The orderlies occupied the farther end of the attic floor. We had the -opportunity of inspecting their quarters when we went up at certain -fixed times to the baggage room, which was at that end of the passage, -to remove, under the surveillance of a German Feldwebel, such articles -as we might require from our heavy luggage. To do so we of course used -the further (orderlies’) staircase. This was supposed to be the only -occasion on which the officers might enter the building by the further -doorway. To check irregularities in this respect a sentry was always -placed at a spot outside the outer wire and exactly opposite the -doorway. - -It should be added that—as the barrack was originally built—the far ends -of the ground, first, and second floor corridors were exact replicas of -the near ends, and gave directly on to the orderlies’ staircase through -swing doors. These doors had at the outset been securely boarded up. -Early in the history of the camp a trap-door had been made by some -officers through the boards on the dining room floor, but it had been -discovered by the Germans, who were now on their guard for any -repetition of the attempt; so that it was now a physical impossibility -to reach the orderlies’ quarters or their staircase by any other means -than walking in at the further doorway. Similarly, orderlies could not -reach their own quarters except through their own door. - -From the near door of Kaserne A (the Kommandantur door) to the far -(orderlies’) door of Kaserne B was a distance of some 150 or 160 yards -and constituted the base of the segment formed by the conformation of -the buildings and enclosure. The arc of the segment was represented by -the barbed wire fence with its neutral zone which ran from just opposite -the orderlies’ door (E)—where it joined the outer wall—round the -semi-circular _Spielplatz_ till it merged in the parcel room and guard -room opposite the Kommandantur. The space thus enclosed between the base -of the segment and the arc represented the gross amount of outdoor elbow -room for the inmates of the camp, and measured about 410 yards round. -The net available space was much less. One German and two English -cook-houses, a twenty-yard square potato patch, a wood shed, -cobble-stones, horse troughs, parallel bars, and a cinder path running -inside the wire, were factors which considerably reduced our field of -sport. - -Just behind the length of the two Kasernes ran the outer barrier, barbed -wire superimposed on iron palings five or six inches apart, with -sentries on the inside and later on the outside beat as well. The whole -of the ground directly between the two Kasernes, and again between them -and the outer barrier, was No Man’s Land and forbidden to the British. - -If you looked from the whitewashed window at the end of the ground floor -corridor in Kaserne B, you saw an eight-foot wall between you and -freedom. This wall ran at right angles from the far end of the wired -palings and was wired on top. There was a sentry permanently posted at -the angle on the inner side, and early in the year the defence was -further strengthened by posting an additional sentry outside. This fact -had an important bearing on the history of the tunnel. - -The wall had a postern gate (D) just opposite the orderlies’ entrance. -This, of course, was always kept locked. It was in any case impossible -to get at without either jumping from the end window of the corridor and -braving No Man’s Land, or cutting the wire near its point of junction -with the end of the building by the orderlies’ door. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - ESCAPES - - -Such, in brief, were the precautions of the Xth Army Corps for our safe -custody: bolted ground floor windows; wire in abundance; an encircling -belt of No Man’s Land searched to its uttermost inch by strong electric -lamps; an absence of any ground that could by a stretch of imagination -be termed “dead”; police dogs and night patrols; and withal a very -formidable cordon of sentries both within and, subsequently, without the -camp. It was not an easy nut to crack by the overland route. - -After the original mode of exit—through the Kommandantur in “A” House -and out through the main gate—had become known, and therefore obsolete, -more direct methods were practised, with, in many cases, great bravery -and ingenuity, but in all a regrettable absence of success. Three of -these escapades are perhaps deserving of especial mention. - -[Illustration: - - Scene of the Walter-Medlicott attempt. -] - -[Illustration: - - A dining-room at Holzminden. -] - -The first[6] of these will always be regarded by those who saw it or -knew of it as the bravest and at the same time the coolest exploit of -their prison experience. Both the officers who performed it were -subsequently killed—in an attempt, it was said, to break away from their -guards after recapture following an escape from Bad Kolberg. -Unfortunately the English version of that story will never be known, and -the sworn evidence of the sentries—that the British officers, after -being delivered over to their escort, and in spite of the most stringent -warnings, broke away and were mortally wounded in doing so—remains, even -if it be true, cold comfort to their friends. It was the custom that an -attempt to escape, if resulting in capture, involved automatic transfer -to another camp, and of both Medlicott and Walter, the heroes of this -exploit, it can be safely said that neither of them ever stayed anywhere -in Germany long enough to worry about making themselves comfortable. -Truly a proud record. - - -[Footnote 6: To Lieutenant Fitzgerald of the Australian Flying Corps and -his companion—if either of them should read this—my apologies. They were -the first men out from Kaserne B at Holzminden, cutting the wire -opposite the orderlies’ entrance in broad daylight and getting as far as -Munster in mid-winter before recapture. But unfortunately I do not know -any further details of their escapade.] - - -On a Sunday afternoon in March the usual sort of things were happening. -There was the usual small knot of people round the stoves in the Kaserne -B cook-house. There were the usual few taking their afternoon -constitutional up and down on the cobbles or round and round on the -cinder. There was the usual bored sentry moving up and down on his -particular beat in No Man’s Land in the stretch between the two -Kasernes. Except to the favoured few in the secret, there was the usual -complete absence of life or interest in the sombre enclosure. - -From the shadow of the cook-house two officers, wearing civilian -disguise and carrying bulging rucksacks, walked steadily over the -cobbled track, through the plain wire fence, across No Man’s Land, and -up to the wired railings which formed the northern boundary of the camp, -and which can be seen in the left of the photograph. Those who were -there to see them gave one gasp of amazement, and then directed an -agonized look in the direction of the sentry. He was nearing the lee of -Kaserne A, still on the outward portion of his beat, and was not due to -turn for another fifteen seconds or so. They pushed their packs through -the interstices of the palings on to the road, Walter shinned up the -palings, cut the strands of barbed wire, threw back the cutters to -accomplices waiting in the enclosure, and dropped into the road. -Medlicott followed. Then they assumed their packs and pulled out their -civilian hats. As the sentry turned on his beat, two unassuming -pedestrians were to be seen walking up the road which ran parallel to -the camp towards the railway crossing and the south-east. Fortune so far -had favoured this amazing and wonderfully calculated audacity—a scheme -worked out literally in terms of seconds. The sentry at the far corner -of Kaserne B had also clearly suspected nothing: doubtless his beat had -been as carefully observed and timed as that of the other, and the -conclusion arrived at that for a given number of seconds the whole -length of that particular side of the camp would probably not be under -German observation. - -Neither would it have been, but for a coincidence against which no -calculations or precautions could have been proof. The German cell -attendant—a decent little man in his way, but very much _de trop_ on -such an occasion as this—happened to be looking out of one of the -Kaserne B cell windows which gave upon the road, and recognised both -Walter and Medlicott, who had only just completed the sentence of -confinement incurred for their last escape. He rushed upstairs and gave -the alarm. The fugitives, who were by then only a few yards clear of the -camp, realised that something unforeseen had marred their plan and that -they must run for it. In broad daylight, and with a hue and cry in their -rear, they stood but the slenderest chance of making cover in the woods, -to reach which they had first to cross the railway. It being Sunday -afternoon, there was more than the usual traffic on the road and round -the adjoining fields, and—to cut off their one avenue of escape the more -completely—the custodian of the level crossing had received a prompt -warning from the Kommandantur by telephone as to what he might expect; -and he now stood in the path of the fugitives with a loaded gun. - -So the game was up, and the brave pair were brought back amidst -sympathetic cheers from the windows of Kaserne B; the cell attendant got -three months’ leave on the nail; and Niemeyer, glowing with patriotic -fervour and pride at his still unblemished record, allowed one of his -sentries to shoot without the veriest shadow of justification at one of -the crowded end-corridor windows of Kaserne B. Fortunately no one was -hurt either by the bullet or the broken glass. But for the second time -in the history of the camp a court of enquiry sat to examine into a -charge of manslaughter attempted without any provocation. The findings -of this court were ultimately themselves found by the Germans during a -search and promptly confiscated. - -Another attempt to escape partook of the serio-comic. There had been -introduced one day into Kaserne B a length of timber, intended by the -authorities to serve as a framework for messing cupboards in one of the -dining rooms. This timber was, however, promptly earmarked for a purpose -more directly in the interests of the allied cause. A certain beardless -professor of astronomy, who had lectured to us the previous Sunday on -the wonders of the moon and stars, conceived the idea of projecting -himself on this length of timber from one of the corridor windows of the -first floor on to the wire of the palisade, and thence to the road -beyond. The timber was calculated—and proved—to be just long enough to -rest on the wire. His idea was to get himself pushed out on the plank on -a sufficiently dark night, and, when the wire was reached, jump for it. -Three miles of the Cresta run could not equal this little journey for -condensed excitement. - -But unfortunately, though it was a dark night and the stage was well set -for the adventure, the accomplices pushed too hard, and the extemporised -chute—with the professor—went flying into space on the wrong side of the -wire, to the intense alarm of the nearest sentry. Next morning the -dining room was locked, on the ground that it had been put to improper -use. Thereupon several hungry men who wanted to get at their day’s -food-supply battered in the door with stools. Niemeyer retaliated by -locking the whole of the Barrack up within the Kaserne for twenty-four -hours. This was a good example of the collective punishments which used -so often to be applied in prison camps under the rules of the Hague -Convention, embodied, unfortunately, in our own Manual of Military Law. -They were futile, served no effective or precautionary end, and -succeeded merely in rousing even in the more stolid the most bitter -feelings of personal antagonism. It need not be added that such -intervals were infinitely more to Niemeyer’s taste than were the humdrum -periods of chronic dislike and discontent fostered under his genial -charge. - -In this particular instance the siege was lifted after twenty-four -hours. A draft letter to the _Kriegsministerium_, asking in plain German -whether, as the result of one officer attempting to escape, the -remaining officers were to be denied access to their food, was presented -to the Commandant. Niemeyer saw that he had gone far enough, arranged to -parley, and eventually capitulated; an active boycott of the canteen in -A Kaserne may also possibly have hastened his resolution. - -To the end we never discovered the degree of pecuniary interest which -Niemeyer exercised in the profits of the canteen—probably fairly -considerable; he at all events never let a chance slip of attesting -before all and sundry that he was out of pocket on it. - -There was one other very clever attempt made about this time—the only -occasion besides the Walter-Medlicott affair on which the wire was -successfully cut and negotiated in broad daylight. This again was the -result of minute observation and carefully timed and cool action, and -the cause of its failure could have been as little foreseen. - -The performers in this attempt were Captain Strover (Indian Army), -Lieutenant Bousfield (Royal Engineers), and Lieutenant Nichol (R.F.C.). -They chose what was perhaps the weakest spot in the cordon of -sentries—just behind the parcel room. The back of the parcel room—itself -strictly out of bounds except during receiving hours—abutted closely on -to the outer wire, which consisted of wire netting at the bottom and -barbed strands on top to a height of eight feet. Once through this, and -provided you had not been observed, it was only necessary to walk airily -through the married quarters, out of an open gate, and into the suburbs -of Holzminden town. - -The three managed to secrete themselves in the parcel room till about -mid-day, when the German personnel betook itself to the most important -task of the twenty-four hours. Then, with extreme skill and presence of -mind, an aperture in the wire netting was made to admit of the passage -of their persons and packs, and was closed behind them in such a way as -to leave no trace, except upon minute observation, that the wire had -been tampered with at all. The solitary sentry on that particular beat -saw nothing, and they walked unchallenged into Holzminden, intending to -cross the Weser at the town bridge and make north-west for Holland. But -at a street corner they came face to face with one of the tin room -attendants of the camp, who knew Strover by sight. He allowed them to -pass unchallenged, but a little later obviously thought better of it; -and from that moment they were aware that their footsteps were being -dogged. They hurried on as fast as was possible, but the game was up. In -an incredibly short time, so it seemed, the whole of Holzminden was -following them, as the children of Hamelin, further down the Weser, once -followed the Pied Piper; and after one half-hearted attempt to disarm -suspicion by a mild _was ist los?_ (“what’s up?”)—the most appropriate -German remark under the circumstances—they chucked their hand in and -acknowledged defeat. - -It was a striking tribute to the skilful nature of this escape that the -hole in the wire was not discovered, in spite of the most elaborate -search, till several hours later. - -Many other attempts were made, but they were still-born in disaster -before the wire was reached: they were made usually at night, and we -would be awakened out of our beauty sleep by shouts and tramplings, -alarums and excursions, a mild barrage of rifle shots, the flash of a -torchlight on to our beds by a harassed Feldwebel conducting an -emergency _appel_, and general vituperation after the manner of the best -disciplined army in the world. - -One bright spirit conceived the idea of parachuting himself on a windy -night with an improvised umbrella from the top floor; but either the -wind never reached the required velocity, or else his courage—very -excusably—ebbed before the sticking point. - -Two others tried to be conveyed out of the camp gates in the muck cart -which cleared the camp refuse once in every week. The British orderlies -on this fatigue were let into the secret, and as soon as the two -officers had crept unperceived by the German sentry into the well of the -cart, they were engaged to shovel on to and over them the whole of the -unsavoury contents of the refuse bin. It was a sporting venture. To sit -possibly for hours at the bottom of a heap of decayed food, lees of tea, -used tins, and discarded dish-cloths, on the off-chance of being able to -get away when the cart was finally unloaded at the town refuse heaps—the -ordinary man blenched at the very proposition. Nevertheless it was only -bad generalship which prevented them at least from getting clear of the -camp. One officer successfully negotiated his part of the programme and -was well hidden away in the cart which was clearing the A Kaserne bin. -His partner, however, was noticed by the sentry and the alarm was given; -with the result that after much prodding and mild comedy each -unfortunate was finally unearthed from his malodorous retreat and the -pair were marched off to the cells, taking the bathroom en route as a -necessary preliminary. - -The star of Niemeyer was in the ascendant. Every fruitless attempt -increased his arrogance and intensified his bar-tender style of -buffoonery. The devil himself when the alarm was on, he could afford to -jest and be merry at our expense as soon as the damage had been put -right and the tally of his charges agreed once again with the official -register. - -“Yentlemen,” he would say, strutting up to a group of us as we were -discussing the Strover episode, “you have taught me a lesson. I shall -not forget it. You need not trouble any more. Good morning.” - -Or some officer of field rank, but just out from five weeks’ cells for -his last attempt, would be lolling listlessly about, gazing blankly on -the horizon and freedom. To him Niemeyer suddenly appearing would -proffer unsought advice: - -“It is no good, Colonel, you cannot do it: I see to it, you know!” - -And pass on, before the other had time to reply. - -Or he would stroll up to a knot of officers and discuss bootshops in -Bond Street, and express his regret that he should in all probability -never visit London again ... he had been very fond of London. What a -pity it all was. But then he was only a poor captain and had to carry -out his orders; if only the British would give their “honour word” not -to escape he would order the wire to be removed immediately. - -The best man to deal with him in these moods was one “Broncho.” Broncho, -indeed, never failed to tell the Commandant exactly what he thought of -him, and was a privileged person to that extent. - -“It’s no good talking like that, Commandant,” he would say. “This camp’s -a disgrace even to the Xth Army Corps, and you know it.” - -And Niemeyer would strut away, hugely pleased. - -But these moods were few and far between, and made him the unreliable -blackguard that he was. For weeks at a time we would be denied the -privilege of seeing his bulky figure in the inevitable blue greatcoat, -swaggering along, hands in pockets, cigar in mouth, and cap well on the -back of his head; during these periods he sat tight in the recesses of -the Kommandantur and put out the tentacles of his power through his -various minions. He was reputed to have bouts of drink and drugging and -to hold wild orgies in his comfortable apartments. Rumour credited him -with having been seen vomiting on to the courtyard from an upper window, -supported on either side by Welman and Ulrich. Certain it is that his -eight o’clock outbursts above related were confined almost entirely to -these periods of segregation and suggested forcibly the morning after -the night before. - -He had, moreover, succeeded in ridding himself of successive leaders of -the opposition. Wyndham, who as senior officer had fought him tooth and -nail, week in, week out, ever since the Hänisch interview, had been at -length transferred to Freiburg, and was recuperating in the milder Baden -atmosphere. The breezy Bingham, who succeeded Wyndham in office, fought -him at the rate of about three pitched battles a week for a month, and -was then transported at two hours’ notice to distant Schweidnitz in -Silesia. Bingham, who belonged to a Service which does not mince its -words, endeavoured to force the issue on the canteen question, and -accused Niemeyer openly of countenancing—if not of fixing—unfairly high -prices. The Commandant, almost speechless, challenged him to produce -concrete evidence within twenty-four hours, or be court-martialled. -Bingham the same day was prepared with chapter and verse, evidence sworn -threefold, and damning price lists from other camps. Niemeyer then -characteristically refused an interview, and Bingham went the next day. -It happened to be one of the days on which B House were locked into -their barrack in expiation of some microscopic or imaginary offence; and -they gave vent to their feelings by cheering their late senior officer, -as he left the camp, loud enough and long enough for the citizens of -Holzminden to suspect either that Niemeyer had been assassinated or that -we had won the war. - -That was the end of Bingham. His successor was of a less militant stamp -and things were allowed to drift on in their existing unsatisfactory -state. There was one brighter spot. Von Hänisch was induced to make a -grudging semi-official recantation about the parole business and we went -out for walks again. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - ACCOMPLICES - - -But to return to our moles and their burrowings. - -Attention had, from the start of the tunnelling scheme, been directed to -the subterranean parts of Kaserne B. Kaserne A had, for the purposes of -a tunnel, been ruled out for various reasons. For one thing, the -personnel of the working-party as originally constituted belonged almost -exclusively to Kaserne B. For another, Kaserne B was in itself the -building more favourably placed geographically for such an attempt. -Kaserne A was for half its length Kommandantur; its “business end” was -out of reach for the English. - -Accordingly, the basement corridor of Kaserne B was studied in all its -aspects. It will be remembered that this floor contained the detention -cells and the various cellars, that it was entered at each end of the -building through a door at the bottom of a short flight of steps, and -that half way down the corridor itself were two doors usually locked. It -will be clear, perhaps, that the business end of the building from the -escape point of view was bound to be the far end, and that the best base -of operations would be somewhere underground in the vicinity of the -orderlies’ entrance. Owing to the near presence of the detention cells -and the consequent risk of meeting the gaoler at awkward moments it -would be useless to enter the corridor at the officers’ end. It would be -necessary to make acquaintance with the underworld by going in the first -instance through the orderlies’ entrance. Thence some part of the -basement floor might be penetrated, either through the door at the -bottom of the steps, or by some other means—to be explained shortly. The -door I have mentioned was used only by the Germans and was kept locked. -It might be possible to tamper with this lock, but it would have to be -done from the outside, at the foot of the staircase. - -These points have been laboured, but it is highly essential for it to be -understood at the start that the only possible entry to the potential -base of operations—except by breaking down the barricade or by burrowing -at some point through the reinforced concrete of the actual masonry of -the building (a process which would greatly imperil discovery)—lay, in -the first instance, through the orderlies’ entrance. - -I have explained that there was a short flight of steps leading down to -the basement floor. This was on the right as you passed the threshold of -the entrance door. On the left was the first flight of the staircase -leading up to the baggage rooms and orderlies’ quarters. To the left of -the steps down, and completely blocking up the underneath part of the -first flight up, was a palisade of stout upright planks, each about six -inches across, a further Boche precaution against undue communication -with the cellars. - -[Illustration: - - A. Section, B. Ground-plan of staircase, chamber, and tunnel entrance. -] - -Just as a dummy key to open the basement corridor door had been -completed, somebody had a brain-wave which enabled the whole idea of -using the cellar passage at all to be dispensed with. It was conjectured -(correctly, as it turned out) that behind these planks there must be -some sort of square cellar or chamber not actually in use by the -Germans. Two sides of it would be bounded directly by the eastern and -southern walls of the Kaserne, the western side by the last cellar in -the basement corridor (the potato cellar) and the northern side by the -inside wall of the corridor itself. If this supposition was correct, and -if the place could be got at, it would be an ideal spot both as a base -of operations for the tunnel and a receptacle for the excavated earth. -It was decided therefore, by loosening one or more of the planks and -hingeing them so that they could be moved as required in and out of -position, to arrange a makeshift but effective trap-door for the daily -needs of the working-party. - -The ceremony at the laying of the foundation stone—one should say, -perhaps, removing the foundation plank—was not largely attended. For one -thing, there were at that time only about four people in the know at -all; for another, a German sentry was standing on guard immediately -outside the door. Two officers in orderlies’ clothes were responsible -for the whole operation. They removed _the whole of the partition_, -loosened the two necessary planks and replaced it. - -The structure of planks fitted very closely against the side and top, -except for one place at the top of the plank nearest to the corner post -of the partition next to the cellar floor and immediately under the -concrete of the staircase, where there was a small aperture looking like -a misfit of the boards. Just under this aperture—and on the inside, of -course, of the partition—the bolt was fixed. A small hand could just -reach the bolt comfortably from the outside and slide it in and out of -the corner post. Had the aperture been ever so little smaller, no male -hand could have got in at all, and, in the absence of female society, -the conspirators would have had either to give up this entrance -altogether or increase the size of the aperture, which would have been -most dangerous. - -By using this door as a means of entrance to and exit from the chamber -which, as will be explained later, proved to exist behind the planks, -the original party of conspirators succeeded in beginning a tunnel. They -dug through the southern foundation wall of the building, turned east at -right angles and succeeded by about Christmas in reaching a point beyond -the outer wall[7]. A square chamber was made at the far end of the -tunnel, then about 15 yards long, to receive the earth of the roof on -the occasion of the escape, and all was ready for a move when Niemeyer -suddenly put a sentry _outside_ the outer wall, almost on top of the -proposed site of exit. - - -[Footnote 7: Point _Q_ in plan on p. 53.] - - -Just at this time the exchange of P.O.W. to Holland began to operate. To -some of the original conspirators, disheartened—and no wonder—at the -apparent complete frustration of all their plans, the chance of going to -Holland seemed too good to be given up for the now very distant hope of -escape, and so it came about that the “ownership” of the tunnel changed -hands almost completely, only three of the original conspirators -remaining in the firm. - -As all doors were locked just before dusk, the available time was -necessarily limited to daylight, between nine o’clock roll-call in the -morning and evening roll-call about an hour before dark. The actual -working hours were considerably shorter. In the first place, the coast -was never sufficiently clear in the morning for the tunnel to be -approached until about 11.30 a.m., and in the second place, a -considerable margin had to be allowed, when coming off duty, for any -possible delay in getting a clear exit and so running the risk of being -discovered absent from _appel_. In addition to this, the time spent in -changing clothes had to be taken into account. Consequently the actual -working hours were not, as a rule, longer—in winter—than from 12 noon to -4 p.m. This arrangement, however acceptable to a trades union official, -was not good for tunnelling. As will be understood, the utmost care had -to be exercised in approaching the orderlies’ entrance in order to gain -access to the tunnel, and the ordinary daily programme was carried out -on something like the following lines. - -We will assume that it is about 11 a.m. - -The party of three on duty for the day assemble in a little room on the -ground floor and near the officers’ entrance. They then take off their -uniforms and slip on the black trousers with yellow stripes, the black -coats with yellow armlets, and the black caps with yellow bands, which -form the distinctive dress of all “other ranks” prisoners-of-war in -Germany. Probably greatcoats are put on as well, for it would be highly -inconvenient if a German came in just at this moment and wanted to know -the why and wherefore of this change of attire. Meanwhile, one or more -fellow-conspirators are standing outside the officers’ entrance, -watching for the “all clear” signal from one of the faithful orderlies -standing in their own doorway, who, in their turn, are waiting for some -Germans working down in the cellars to clear out for their mid-day meal. -Possibly there is a hitch on this particular morning; the stolid German -is working later than usual in the cellars at that end of the building. -Possibly the German may knock off work before his accustomed time and -the signal may be given earlier than usual. But quick or slow, the -signal comes in due course—one of the orderlies comes out and scratches -his head, the sign that all is clear at his end. The officer on picket -duty at the officers’ entrance casts one quick look round to see that no -Boches are approaching from the direction of the Kommandantur, and then -goes to the room in which the party are waiting and tells them to move. -Then he returns to his post to continue his watch until the party are -safely on their way and he gets a further signal from orderlies’ doorway -that they have actually entered the tunnel. - -The three in the little room shed their overcoats, don their orderlies’ -caps, and sally forth trying to look as much like the British Tommy off -duty as is possible under the circumstances. This is the “umpteenth” -time for them, and much practising has made them reasonably good actors -in the part. Often, however, an additional embarrassment is provided in -the shape of a parcel of timber for strutting the roof of the tunnel or -a bundle of tin tubes to lengthen the air pipe. - -Arrived at the orderlies’ door, they enter and stand just inside it, out -of sight of the sentry whose position—outside the wire just -opposite—gives him a good view of the door as he stands still, facing -the camp. But it is unusual for the sentry to stand there long, and as -soon as he begins to march away, the orderly who is standing in the -doorway with one eye on his every movement gives the word, and the party -slips quickly down the steps leading to the cellar, where one of the -orderlies slides the plank and lets them in. The aperture is less than a -foot wide, but they squeeze in somehow. The door is shut and bolted -again in a second, and the orderlies, after making sure that all is -ship-shape outside the partition, go off and leave the party to their -work, where we shall follow them in a little while. - -Such was the game of bluff which took place daily on that little stretch -between the doors of Kaserne B for nine long months. Had any of the -party been ever recognised and identified, the game would have been up; -any ground for suspicion on the part of the Germans must have led either -to the tunnel being discovered or at least the door being kept so -closely under surveillance that another plan of getting underground -would have had to be devised. But such a contretemps did not occur until -three-quarters of the work had been done, seven and a half months from -the beginning of it! And even then the mischief was not fatal to the -success of the scheme. - -Luck indeed, but perhaps not quite so much a matter of mere luck as -might appear at first sight. In the first place, there was the -irrefutable law of mathematical probabilities. There were two platoons -of Landstürmers detailed for the guard of the camp, and these relieved -each other every 24 hours. Each platoon was divided into three relays of -about ten men each, who did two hours on and four hours off. The -allocation of “beats” varied for each individual sentry every time he -went on duty. It might quite likely be a fortnight before the same man -occupied the same station opposite the orderlies’ door. Add to this the -fact that there were 550 British officers and over 100 orderlies in the -camp; that the personnel of both the _Wachshaft_ and the prisoners was -continually changing; and that the thoughts of any sentry at this period -were more likely to be occupied with memories of meals in the past, with -dreams of meals in the future, with the rottenness of the war in general -and of Niemeyer in particular, than with the comings and goings and -physiognomies of any British prisoners-of-war; and the conclusion is -arrived at that the risk of detection on this account alone was, when -all was said and done, comparatively slight. - -Yet risk there undoubtedly was from chance recognition, if not by a -sentry, by one of the motley crowd which comprised the German personnel -of the camp. We have seen that the attendant at the detention cells -could remember faces. His comings and goings to and from the cellar -floor were extremely irregular and difficult to anticipate; at any -moment he might bob up from the cells and plump face to face into the -three going to or returning from their shift. The German interpreters -were another difficulty. They might come into the enclosure from the -Kommandantur at any time, and not infrequently their business led them -into the orderlies’ quarters. So might the corporal in charge of the -officers’ baggage room. If such a thing occurred, and was at all likely -to synchronise with the passage from door to door of Kaserne B of three -officers dressed for no apparent reason in orderlies’ clothes, it was -the task of the picket on duty to intercept the intruders, dally with -them, pilot them on any pretext into securer waters until time had been -given to pass the danger signal either to the changing room or to the -orderly waiting innocently at the foot of the orderlies’ staircase. -Sometimes the “all clear” was delayed for hours on this account and a -half-day’s shift was lost to the cause. - -Those not in the know—the vast majority of the camp—used sometimes to -wonder why it was that at certain times of the day there were always one -or two members of a particular set loafing aimlessly by the officers’ -entrance of B Kaserne. Some critical people were even heard to remark -that they were wasting their time! - -Generally speaking, the immunity from scares was wonderful. Wonderful, -too, was the dog-like fidelity of the Germans, officers and men alike, -to their sacred dinner-hour. It was indeed only on the most exceptional -occasions that a German ever came within the enclosure during this -period. It is actually on record that no German officer, except on -special occasions such as inspection days, search days, or “strafe” -days, _ever_ did. Even Niemeyer, most active of belligerents in the -early hours, was a party to the universal mid-day torpor. About three in -the afternoon he would wake up and sally forth for a little potter round -the premises; sometimes he came in at the postern gate by the orderlies’ -entrance, for which, of course, he had a private key. Therein lay danger -always. - -The fact is that Niemeyer, although no fool, had left the possibility of -a tunnel out of his scheme of defence; or rather he must, after mature -consideration, have discarded any such undertaking as physically -impossible. He had been round and round the camp, viewed it inside and -outside in all its aspects, seen every means of entry to the cellar -floor blocked, boarded up, or else permanently watched, and had come to -the conclusion that below the surface at any rate he was absolutely -secure against attack. - -He did not realise, as undoubtedly he should have done—being, as he -said, a man of the world and priding himself on his intimate knowledge -of the British—that, given time and sufficient freedom from observation, -holes could be made without battering rams and tunnels without the -proper tools; that he was himself too unpopular with his own people to -depend upon clockwork execution of his orders; and that most of his own -cowed staff and every German civilian who knew much about Holzminden -camp were only too willing—for quite a moderate consideration, in the -shape of soap, dripping, or chocolate—to contribute indirectly to doing -him a bad turn. And here, before we follow our conspirators behind the -planks under the staircase, it will be well to describe these various -agents, the bureaux to which they repaired with their information, the -caches and repositories for the contraband articles which they brought -into the camp, and some of the hundred and one devices wherewith dust -was thrown in the eyes of authority. - -There was a youthful Prussian known as the Letter Boy, and so called -because his principal task was the sorting out and distribution of -letters. He had a little broken English and a fair amount of French, and -he used either language to lament publicly the fact that his nationality -was what it was. This young man also acted as the confidential clerk of -Niemeyer and was often used by him instead of the official interpreters -to take messages and issue orders to individual officers in the camp. -Hating Niemeyer as he did only one degree less than Prussia, and being -ready to go to any lengths of treachery—which did not involve -detection—in return for favours received, he was, as may be imagined, a -useful informant. Every morning he would repair to a room on the attic -floor of Kaserne A, which was inhabited by five hardened and inveterate -escapers, and which was regarded as the distributing centre of escape -materials to the entire camp. Here, over a cup of coffee and some -biscuits, he would save the latest news from the Kommandantur, e.g. -“there was going to be a search, he had seen the telegram ordering it. A -new list for Holland had come in from Hanover. Ulrich had had high words -with the Commandant on account of the alleged appropriation by Niemeyer -of his (Ulrich’s) Christmas wine ration. For the last week a Fortnum & -Mason’s parcel had found its way every day into Niemeyer’s kitchen,”—and -so on. And he usually turned out to be right. He was a useful lad; he -was asked every kind of leading question and he asked none back. If he -was commissioned to buy anything and it was small enough to go into his -pocket, he bought and brought it, regularly and punctually. He must have -guessed enough of what was going on to be in a position to wreck the -entire scheme if he had wanted to. But he remained to the end -punctiliously loyal to his disloyalty, and smiled quite complacently at -the fullness of the final success. - -Then there was the electric-light boy, a sturdy young Frisian who, for -some occult reason, had contrived to confine his active service in the -war to six “cushy” months on the South Russian front. Theoretically he -was Prussian, Pan-German, and all that was horrible; actually he was -friendly and useful, though not, of course, to be trusted to the same -lengths as the Letter Boy. He spoke good German and not the villainous -dialect which made direct negotiation so difficult with most of the -German-speaking personnel of the camp. He was good for any number of -pocket electric torches, and an occasional bottle of _Kriegs Cognac_. - -Another “string” was the sanitary man—the only civilian who was allowed -into the camp without a sentry to watch his movements. This gentleman -kept a wife and family on the adjoining premises and was always ready, -in return for services rendered, to enrich his scanty larder with a -store of English tins. He was difficult of access, as his duties did not -as a rule take him into the buildings, and he was in a terrible funk of -being found out; most of his business was transacted in innocent -conversation with the orderlies over the state of the refuse bin, or in -consultation over a choked-up drain. Ultimately his larder was found too -convincingly full of English tinned foods and he disappeared from our -midst; but he had contributed his quota. - -There was a girl typist in the Kommandantur whom no one ever saw but who -conducted a passionate love intrigue with an Australian Flying Corps -officer through the agency of letters attached to a weight and collected -by an accomplice sentry. Letters outward from the camp were dropped in -this way from the window, picked up by the sentry, and so reached their -destination in the Kommandantur. The inward mail used to be thrown up by -the sentry and caught at the window. Whenever news of general interest -was included in the love passages, an excerpt was made and handed to the -senior British officer. As the girl worked in the Commandant’s office, -there was often valuable material in these missives, and she also acted -as a check on the information supplied by the Letter Boy. As to the -satisfaction got out of the purely personal side of the affair, opinions -might vary. An interchange of photographs was considered too risky, and -it is believed that neither party to the adventure ever knew what the -other really looked like at close quarters! - -The orderly-barber had a similar affair, but was found out and banished -to a men’s camp, forfeiting thereby a comfortable monthly income from -cutting officers’ hair, and leaving an awkward gap both in the tonsorial -staff, of which he was the only really efficient member, and the -orchestra, in which he had for many months been the recognised authority -on wind instruments. - -An obliging canteen attendant, a patriotic Alsatian amongst the parcel -room staff, and half a dozen frankly neutral sentries completed the list -of what might be called, from our point of view, the German effectives. - -The N.C.O.’s—to do them justice—were beyond suspicion. The majority of -them would have been infinitely rather on the Western front than in -their present uncongenial position. We never attempted to meddle with -them, and indeed there was no need. - -The interpreters, although in every way friendly and obliging, were too -closely occupied with the multitudinous tasks of their daily routine to -invite overtures. There were only three of them in the camp; and what -with acting as intermediaries in disputes, visiting the cells, -distributing letters, and dancing attendance in and out of season on -their German superiors, they were the most hard-worked people in the -camp and had hardly a minute to call their own. - -Adders was a spotty-faced Dusseldorfian with a perpetual smile and a -woman’s gait, and was regarded generally with perhaps unmerited -distrust. - -Grau had been interned early in the war at Ahmednagar in India, and -would do anything for anybody who came from India and whom he hoped -might be instrumental in restoring him one day to his beloved Nilgiris. -“I do not care for Germany,” he would say; “I do not care for England. -My heart is in India.” Poor Grau! He stands very little chance of -getting back there. He must pay for the misdeeds of his countrymen. - -And Wolff was a little cock-sparrow of a Frankfurter Jew, with an accent -acquired on the other side of the Atlantic. - -They used to come to the theatrical shows and sit enraptured through the -most scurrilous and thinly veiled allusions to Niemeyer and other -ornaments of the Xth Army Corps. The fact that they were there solely as -censors rather added zest to the humour of it. Sometimes, even, they -lost dignity. Wolff in particular was not proof against the attractions -of the chemical compound which in those days used to pass for Rhine -wine; and after one entertainment at which the bottle passed somewhat -freely he became violently intoxicated, and was found next morning -asleep in an orchard on the other side of the town, having temporarily -thrown off the bonds of barrack discipline and made a regular night of -it. - -The hardened criminals of Room 83 on the attic floor covered equally -satisfactorily the traces of their contraband consignments and the -tracks of the consigners. To the outward eye there was not a more -innocent-looking room in the whole of the two buildings. But -hiding-places lurked everywhere. The floor in this as in nearly every -other room was, fortunately, straightforward planking laid without bolts -or intersections. Once one plank had been loosened and removed, there -was a space about five to six inches deep between the planking and the -foundation of the floor wherein to store treasure. When one plank had -been removed the remainder could be slid up and down at leisure and the -whole of the space filled up, if necessary. This practice was universal, -and before the end there was hardly a room without its cache, not one of -which, in spite of two or three most conscientious and Berlin-inspired -searches, was ever discovered. - -In this room also there were sliding panels in the walls, false -partitions in the cupboards, false bottoms in the drawers. Almost -everything that ought to have been solid was hollow. - -Here maps were photographed without cameras and developed without -solutions; German uniforms were made for use if a suitable opportunity -arose; an air pump was constructed out of bits of wood and the leather -of an R.F.C. flying-coat; air pipes were made out of old tins; a device -was thought out to fuse the electric wires outside; dummy keys were -fashioned. It was the temple of the Goddess of Flight. - -Room 24, the little room on the ground floor in B House where the -working shifts changed into their orderlies’ clothes, was almost as -complete a mask. The clothes themselves were kept unlocked at the bottom -of several British uniforms in a wooden box. If a search came they would -have to take their chance of being found; it was impossible to “cache” -them afresh under the boards every time that they were returned from -actual use. - -In this room it was usual to find at least four or five seated in -conclave, in a space officially allotted to two. “Tim” was the owner of -the room and had come to be regarded as the doyen and authority amongst -escapers in the camp. Tim had had a curious war. He had carried -despatches for a fortnight in August and early September of 1914 and had -then been taken prisoner at a cross-roads by an ex-Rhodes Scholar of New -College. Since then he had spent his time either preparing to escape or -being confined for doing so. He had probably been out of more camps, -done more solitary confinement, and had on the whole harder luck, than -any other prisoner-of-war in Germany. He spoke correct German with a -strong Irish accent. The very perfection and thoroughness of his schemes -seemed somehow to have militated against their success. In all his time -in Germany he had not been actually at large for more than half an hour. -He had always been caught—perfectly disguised and by the purest -mischance—at the gate or just outside it. He had gone with the first -exchange party for Holland, but at Aachen he had announced his intention -of coming back to Germany, and had brought back a full report of the -proceedings at Aachen and the lie of the land generally—for the benefit -of future parties. It was generally understood that an attempt to escape -while on the journey to Holland was permissible when in, or on the -German side of Aachen, but not when once the party had left Aachen for -the frontier. This was Tim all over. When he was not working for his own -hand, he was helping others. He disdained such vulgar expedients as -tunnels and was now hard at work on his most elaborate scheme of all. He -intended to walk out of the main gate through the Kommandantur in a -German private’s uniform, accompanied by a young curly-haired and -dimpled flying officer disguised as his sweetheart. The plot was by now -almost mature, and the curls were already growing in a most beautiful -and highly suspicious cluster low on the nape of the young man’s neck. - -Room 24 also harboured such of the official documents of the senior -British officer and his adjutant as it was unwise to have lying about in -the event of a search. One of these was a most damning, authoritative, -and complete narrative of the misdeeds of Niemeyer during the first -three months of the camp’s existence. It was called the Black Book, and -was biding its time to be thrust as red-hot evidence into the hands of -some superior inspecting official from the _Kriegsministerium_. -Unfortunately that opportunity never arrived, and the book did not -attain publicity till it was produced in Copenhagen after the Armistice. -It then made interesting reading. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - IN THE TUNNEL - - -We left the trio next for duty in process of disappearing behind the -planks, and about to start on their three-hour shift at the face of the -tunnel. Let us keep company with them awhile at their difficult and -absorbing task. - -Tunnelling had at least one great advantage over other methods of -escape, that the interest attaching to the actual preparation was able -to over-ride, to some extent, the suspense and anxiety as to ultimate -success. There was no opportunity to mope. The immediate business was to -defeat not only the Boche but Nature too, with all the odds on the -latter’s side. - -The bolting of the wooden partition behind the last of the trio shuts -out the day and adds the proper molish touch to the scene. However, what -at first appears pitch dark becomes gradually less so, and presently the -party can see enough to change their more or less clean orderlies’ -clothes for the filthy, sodden, mud-stained rags which they wear for -work in the tunnel. There are other minor discomforts besides the -darkness and the damp. There is an indescribable musty smell produced by -a mélange of damp clay and earth, mice, old clothes, and much-breathed -air, a smell which you have to go down into the bowels of the earth to -get. - -The working clothes are soon on, the clean orderlies’ clothes stowed -carefully away, and a move is made to the tunnel mouth. - -Look at the plan on p. 73 and glean a rough idea of the shape of the -chamber and the siting of the tunnel mouth. The ground area is roughly -four yards by five. The height varies, for, on the near (Kommandantur) -side, the roof consists of the concrete foundation to the first flight -of the orderlies’ staircase, while on the far side—that next to the -Eastern wall of the building—are the cellar steps. The ground level, -which is also the roof level at the southern end, is about five feet -above the chamber floor. - -Into the available recesses formed by this irregular enclosure all the -tunnel earth must be stowed away. The hollow under the cellar steps is -already full, and so will be the opposite hollow under the orderlies’ -staircase before the end is reached, for a 60-yard passage through the -earth must be displaced somewhere, and it will be a near thing and will -require the most careful and economical storage if the displacements can -be kept within the narrow cubic space which is all that can be earmarked -for them. A passage from the partition door to the tunnel mouth must be -preserved at all costs. - -The tunnel mouth has been hacked through the main southern wall of the -building just where it joins the cellar floor. It issues about three -feet below the ground level—immediately underneath the orderlies’ -entrance—and then bears sharp left in the direction of the outer wall. - -Now the outer wall is but ten yards away at this point, and had the -original scheme of the tunnel gone as it had been planned, all would -have been over long before this particular May day, and the conspirators -would have made their bid for freedom. There was nothing very Herculean -involved in getting the tunnel to the other side of the wall and popping -up on a dark night, with the friendly wall acting as a screen from the -view of the nearest sentry. - -But unfortunately, as has been explained, Niemeyer had taken -precautionary measures just before the party were ready to move, and had -put a sentry at the outside corner of the building, effectually covering -the spot. Unless this sentry was removed it would be necessary, in order -to have a reasonable prospect of success, to continue the tunnel until a -point was reached where it would be possible to emerge under cover. - -These bald words cannot attempt to convey the bitter disappointment -caused by Niemeyer’s manœuvre or the seriousness of the altered -prospect. - -But the Tunnellers of Holzminden set their teeth and prepared -themselves, if necessary, to go on digging for a year rather than run -the risk that any of the party should be spotted by a sentry as he -emerged. It was known how many a previous tunnel scheme had been -shattered miserably on this rock, simply through lack of the necessary -patience to go on with the job. At Schwarmstedt, not so many months -before, this had happened. The tunnel came out quite close to the -wire. One officer got out and got away, but in so doing was observed -by a sentry. His successor had no sooner put his head above ground -than he was shot dead in the most cold-blooded and treacherous -manner—legitimately murdered, if one may venture on the paradox. - -There was a road immediately beyond the outside wall, and the ground -beyond the road was planted with low-growing crops and vegetables over a -belt of about 40 yards in breadth. The whole of this belt was searched -by the glare from the strong electric lamps at the corner of the wall. -Day and night there was now a sentry outside the wall. If Niemeyer had -posted machine guns at intervals of 50 yards round the camp, he could -hardly have felt more immune from attack, more absolutely secure from -any attempt to spring him by the tunnel method. - -It was early days—in April—to offer any decided opinion as to what the -vegetables were likely to be. If they turned out to be crops which were -not high enough to offer adequate cover to the escapers, there would be -no choice—as the sketch will show—but to tunnel grimly on till the -rye-field was reached, several yards further away. But the rye would be -cut in early August at latest, and meanwhile the tunnel had advanced -barely ten yards beyond the outside wall, and at best a two-foot -progress crowned during this period the effort of each laborious day. -This meant about 40 yards still to tunnel and three months to go in a -losing race, probably, unless progress could be accelerated; and this, -as the work took the party further and further from their base, was -hardly to be expected. - -[Illustration: - - (Scale = roughly 40 yds = inch.) - - Course of the tunnel - - (see also frontispiece). -] - -So it is with the depressed feeling of having to work against time as -well as nature that our friends assemble behind the partition on this -particular morning. They are standing, or rather stooping, at the -entrance, and the first thing to do is to light up. Fortunately someone -has remembered to bring the matches to-day, so Number 1 lights a couple -of precious candles (we were dependent entirely on England for these -commodities) and crawls in. He sticks one candle in the pump chamber, -which is just round the first corner and about six feet from the -entrance, and proceeds on his way with the other. His progress is -necessarily slow, very slow, as the tunnel is so small that he is -compelled to _wriggle_ along on his elbows and toes. There is no help -for this. The hole must be as small as possible, because of the extreme -economy to be exercised in the disposition of the displaced earth. - -Number 2 enters the pump chamber and starts working the pump. This -instrument consists of a home-made vertical bellows, manufactured from -wood and from the leather of a flying coat, and is operated by Number 2 -with his left hand as he sits facing it and looking along the tunnel -towards the face. The pump is screwed to wooden uprights which are -securely embedded top and bottom in the clay soil, and the air is forced -into a pipe composed of tin tubes made out of biscuit boxes. Little did -the glorious company of biscuit makers suspect that in sending us our -means of sustenance they were also contributing to an important escape. -This pipe is sunk in the floor of the tunnel and is kept always close to -the face by the addition of more and yet more tubes. - -Number 3, whose duty it will be to pack the earth when it is hauled out, -stays outside the tunnel mouth and sees that the rope attached to the -basin is running clear, and then hands the basin to Number 2, who puts -it in front of him ready to be pulled to the face by Number 1 with that -half of the rope which extends from the pump chamber to the face. We -shall see what the basin was for if we accompany Number 1 on his journey -to the tunnel face. - -For the first few yards he goes down a slight slope, then again for a -few yards up an incline to the place where it was originally intended to -make the exit—just beyond the boundary wall. Here he can hear the -thud-thud of the sentry’s footsteps above his head. Then he goes down -again pretty steeply for three or four yards and flattens out, the -tunnel swinging slightly, first to the right and then to the left. All -this time he has been going through fairly soft stuff—a sort of sandy -yellow clay, which has been easy enough to dig—but now he comes to the -stony part. Working in this stretch has been terribly difficult. A -dense, seemingly interminable stratum of large stones has been -encountered. The stones are smooth and flat, tightly pressed together in -a horizontal position and cemented with the stickiest of clay. Number -1’s progress becomes positively painful: he barks his shoulders on the -stones which project from the walls, his toes and elbows suffer from the -stones beneath him, occasionally he bumps his head on the uneven roof, -and all the time he must keep the candle alight, and swear only in an -undertone. Soon he begins to ascend again—steeply this time—and comes to -the face, but not before he has had yet one more unpleasant experience. -Out of the gloom in front of him appears suddenly a pair of wicked -little eyes, horribly bright and menacing. He clenches his teeth and -digs his chin into the soil beneath him. The large rat, whose solitude -he has disturbed, crawls over him and leaves him sweating with fright -and almost faint with the eerie sensation of it. - -But the tunnel must go on, so Number 1 sticks the candle on some -convenient stone at his side, takes the cold chisel and gets to work. In -five minutes or less he has loosened a bathful of stones and he drops -the chisel, takes hold of his end of the rope and hauls. The -difficulties of hauling on a rope while lying in a tube about eighteen -inches in diameter lined with knobbly stones can be imagined but cannot -be adequately described. Soon he hears the rattling of the basin on the -stones behind him, and it arrives at his feet. Next comes the -contortionist’s trick of getting it past his body in the confined space, -then the filling, and finally the almost superhuman juggling feat of -getting the full basin back past his body again. A couple of jerks at -the rope leading to the pump chamber, and he feels it tauten. The basin -begins to move away, and Number 1 turns on to his side again and gets to -work, taking care that he has the _end_ of the rope attached to some -part of his person but that the rest of it is free. - -If he is a fairly quick worker, he will have another load of stones -ready by the time the basin has been pulled back and emptied. He will -then haul it up again and repeat the whole exhausting process. No wonder -that the tunnel party did not as a band shine as games enthusiasts -amongst their fellow-prisoners. They had their bellyful of exercise down -below. - -Sometimes the monotony of the proceedings is varied by a torrent of -subdued cursing from the pump chamber, while the full basin is on its -way back. To the experienced this only signifies that the rope has -broken, as it frequently does on account of the damp and the incessant -friction against the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnel. A breakage -entails a journey on the part of Number 2 to effect repairs while Number -3 pumps. - -The working time is divided into three equal parts, and at the end of -the first part Number 3, who is time-keeper as well as packer, informs -Number 2. A low hail informs Number 1 that his digging is over for the -day, and he retraces his steps—or more accurately wriggles back feet -foremost, for there is no room to turn round. He then becomes Number 3, -Number 2 becomes Number 1 and goes to the face, whilst Number 3 becomes -Number 2 and pumps. - -So the work goes on till 3.45 p.m. Then it ceases; all three come out of -the tunnel and change back into their orderlies’ clothes to await the -signal to come out. At the orderlies’ entrance to the building stand two -of the orderlies waiting for a favourable opportunity to let them out, -and, just as during the morning manœuvre, there are two or three -officers loafing about for no apparent reason at the other end of the -building. On some days there are no Boche about at this time and -immediate exit is possible, but to-day they happen to be carrying -potatoes down to the adjoining cellar, and pass to and fro close to the -hiding-place, quite plainly visible through the cracks in the boards. -They could not see anything, naturally, even if they thought of looking, -as they are in the light and the chamber is practically in the dark. - -At last they go. “Come out now,” sings out one of the orderlies, looking -skywards and as if singing a snatch of a music-hall song from sheer -light-heartedness. The trio unbolt the plank door and, slipping quickly -to the top of the steps, stand just inside the orderlies’ door, -precisely as they had stood in the morning with the day’s work in front -of them; and an orderly waiting for a moment at the bottom of the steps -fastens the secret door. The orderly standing at the entrance looks down -the enclosure to make sure that no Germans are about, and then says -“Right.” Off they go again. If the sun is shining, the light is very -dazzling after the darkness. - -At the last moment, perhaps, and when home is so nearly reached, a -German Feldwebel appears from nowhere in particular and heads for the -same door. Out from the cookhouse, which stands just opposite the -officers’ door, walks one of the aimless, lounging, loafing officers -above mentioned, and delays the Feldwebel with some question, no matter -how trivial. So home is safely made again, and the party become officers -once more and put off their orderlies’ clothes. Then follows _appel_, -and the joy of a good wash in hot water and something to eat. - -The hours have not been long, but the foul atmosphere has caused -considerable fatigue, perhaps a bad headache. And in case anyone should -still think, after reading this, that the work was light, he should be -invited to wriggle 50 yards on elbows and toes _in the open_, and if he -is unduly sceptical, in public. He will lose dignity, but he will gain -an appreciation of the difficulties of the performance in a very -confined space. - - * * * * * - -There are a few other points in regard to the construction of the tunnel -which may not be without interest. - -When and where necessary, the roof was revetted. The revetting was done -with bed boards. The foundations of all beds in the camp were boards -placed cross-wise across an iron frame and supporting a mattress made of -paper, straw and shavings, and uneven as the Somme battlefield. Many of -these boards had been commandeered as firewood during the early stages -of the camp, when there had been, as related, a regrettable hitch in the -arrangements for our warming. Many more now found their way underground -by driblets into the orderlies’ quarters and thence into the recess -behind the planks, or were carried direct by the working-party. People -clamoured querulously for the missing boards which they had saved from -the burning, and of which they had now been robbed. No one except the -very few in the secret and an orderly or so had the ghost of a notion -what had really happened to them. The Boche when appealed to of course -shrugged their shoulders and quoted the equivalent German proverb about -eating your cake. What would you? Very nearly all is fair in escapes. - -The only tools used in the digging of the tunnel were a trowel or -“mumptee” (an instrument with a spike at one end and an excavating blade -at the other) and the cold chisel. The chisel was useful for levering -apart the smooth heavy stones which presented so much difficulty. It -seems probable that these stones had once formed the bed of some river -and had been worn smooth and packed by the action of the water. Attempts -were made to dodge this difficult stratum of stones which retarded -progress so seriously, but in the absence of proper instruments it was -impossible to gauge the level with any degree of accuracy. A descent of -four feet bringing no better results, it was decided to come back to the -previous level of about eight or nine feet below the surface. - -The chamber was just—and only just—sufficient for the earth. When the -last sackful[8] had been piled the chamber was practically full of earth -from floor to ceiling and in every crevice. - - -[Footnote 8: See the photograph opposite. The sacks were mostly -mattresses stolen from beds and quite unaccounted for also!] - - -Orientation was not an easy matter. It was necessary of course only to -bear in a general easterly direction as straight as possible. There were -rough compasses galore in the camp, but it was very difficult to dig the -tunnel straight and the compasses were too small to check errors -accurately. - -Towards the end the tunnel had become too twisted and hilly to permit -any longer of the rope and basin method being used, and it was necessary -to fill sacks and drag them back from the face. This method was even -more wearisome and exasperating than the other. To wriggle back by -oneself was bad enough: to wriggle back, and every yard or so pull a -heavy sack after one, was infinitely more so. Nevertheless, all this -practice had its advantages: it braced the muscles of the working-party -for the great night when each one of them would have to worm his way -through the tunnel, pushing a loaded pack in front of him. - -[Illustration: - - At the tunnel mouth. -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - REPRISALS - - -The days wore on, lengthening to the advantage of the cause and -permitting of longer shifts. The working-party added to its numbers, -allotting a few more privileged places without difficulty; for by now -the thing was beginning to be known and discreetly talked about, and -founders’ shares were at a premium. A few who might have been able to -obtain them, but whose turn had come for exchange, were unable to resist -the temptation and departed for Holland. The working-party and some -others, on being asked their intentions, politely intimated that they -preferred to remain in Germany. Had Niemeyer only taken more intelligent -stock of the particular quarter from which so many unexpected refusals -emanated, it is possible that he might have drawn valuable conclusions. - -But Niemeyer, astute German though he was, disregarded these and other -even more valuable hints which were to be offered him before the scheme -was ripe for launching, and which could have told him easily enough in -which quarter the wind blew. As an instance of one, there arose in early -June a sudden and curious demand on the part of certain individuals for -transfer from A to B Kaserne. Three officers, comfortably situated in a -small room in the former house (the same room, by the way, as that in -which the Letter Boy used to spend so much of his time), overlooking the -picturesque suburbs of Holzminden, and blessed with apparently every -comfort that a prisoner-of-war could require, asked unashamedly if they -might become one of a motley, closely packed crew in one of the big -rooms on the ground floor of B Kaserne. Many of the reasons given for -the desire to change were ingenious, but if submitted to anybody with a -less cast-iron mould of thought than the German camp officers it is -unlikely that they would have convinced. However, change they were -allowed to, and change they did; and the working-party of twelve were -now all lodged in B Kaserne. - -This was a very necessary move for the following reason: when—if -ever—the tunnel was used in earnest, it would be used after dark and -lock-up. Consequently those who intended to use it would have all to be -in B Kaserne at the time. For any less important occasion it might have -been feasible for the A house members of the scheme to arrange to change -places for the night with accomplices in B house, the A house officers -answering to the B house officers’ names and _vice versâ_. This used to -be done sometimes for occasions such as a birthday party or a theatrical -show, when the presence of some member of the other house was essential -to the success of the evening’s programme. But more often than not it -was spotted, and either condoned or reported according to the nature and -temper of the Feldwebel taking the _appel_. On a large scale and for an -event of the nature of the tunnel, for the success of which complete -absence of any suspicion on the part of the Germans was an absolute -_sine qua non_, such a risk was not possible, and, indeed, could not be -allowed. It was intended that, whatever happened, and whatever the -hardship that might occur in individual cases, the night of the escape -should not find a single officer in B Kaserne who was not domiciled -there with the permission of the Germans. This intention was happily -carried into effect. - -Meanwhile, the owners of the founders’ shares, knowing, as they did, -pretty well the conditions under which the scheme was to be submitted to -the public, took time by the forelock and changed houses before the -rush. - -It was indeed an undertaking in which the home policy was fraught with -almost as many dangers as the foreign, and required the most patient and -tactful handling. Fortunately there was only one of the allied nations -in the camp, and this fact of itself quartered the risk. Inter-allied -jealousy, or merely Latin or Slavonic exuberance, had many a time ere -this during the war wrecked a promising and well-laid plan. But even in -a camp where all were English and the loyalty to the cause of the whole -community never for an instant came in question, there were yet grave -risks of discovery through some intemperate speech or action of the -newly captured or the not overwise. - -It was just after the arrival of one hundred newly captured officers -from the big March offensive of 1918 that the cat was most nearly let -out of the bag. A “show” was on, and the audience were sitting in packed -rows and eager expectancy in front of the curtain, waiting for the -intellectual fare of the evening to be set forth on the dining room -tables. A canteen “boycott” was in full force at the time, and the -company, in the absence of the bottle that cheers, was comparatively -quiet. The Germans used to make so much money out of the English over -the wine—and wretched wine at that—that the senior British officer had -every now and again to clap on a drastic boycott on the canteen and -forbid officers to buy anything there at all. Sometimes this policy was -two-edged and as much in the interests of peace and quiet in the camp as -to the detriment of German profiteers. At all events you could always -tell whether a boycott was on or not by the amount of noise which -attended the fortnightly shows, and it so happened that on the -particular occasion with which we are concerned you _could_ hear your -next-door neighbour speak. - -Suddenly a padre—one of the new arrivals—leant over to make a remark to -an officer sitting near him, and in bell-like tone uttered the dreadful -question: - -“_Are you in the tunnel?_” - -A shiver ran through the whole of the adjoining rows. Two of the German -interpreters were seated within two yards. - -On another occasion an ingenuous youth was found leaning out of one of -the first floor corridor windows and carrying on an animated -conversation about escapes, past and future, with one of the occupants -of the cells. They were apparently analysing the causes of failure of a -recent attempt and discussing the prospects of success of another -imminent one. Any English-speaking German who happened to be in the -building at the time—it was midsummer, and all the windows were -open—could not fail to have been suitably impressed with this dialogue. - -A newly captured officer with a bump of observation startled those near -him one day by singing out to a friend to know whether he too had -recognised “these officers walking about in orderlies’ clothes.” - -The senior British officer did, of course, from time to time issue -stringent orders about the paramount importance of secrecy, and -sometimes personally harangued the occupants of each building. But the -difficulty was to cater for the odd handful—what we used to call “the -elusive half per cent”—who either succeeded in absenting themselves from -such harangues or, if present, failed to understand their purport, and -of whom it might fairly be said that they were so stupid and perverse as -to be a real danger to their own side, on whichever side of the line. A -bump of carelessness, a bump of cussedness, a faulty sense of -discipline, and a penchant towards selfish individualism—when two or -three endowed with these qualities were gathered together, the lot of -those responsible for their actions was not a pleasant one. The senior -officer was powerless, if any chose disloyally or unintentionally not to -support him; he exercised the authority vested in his person by virtue -of King’s Regulations, and there it ended. A court of enquiry and a -threat of post-bellum action against the offender was the limit of his -power. Nor was it easy to enjoin general secrecy on a subject which was -never put publicly into words. Hole, not tunnel, was the word used, if a -word had to be used—and then only in an undertone, or behind closed -doors. - -But in spite of these potential sources of leakage, nothing occurred to -mar the progress of the tunnel until the middle of May, when it had been -in full swing for five and a half months and reached to somewhere about -the middle of the vegetables. Then a bomb-shell fell. It was announced -one day on _appel_ that in consequence of measures of reprisals which -had been taken against German officers in a certain camp in England, -counter-reprisals would be put into force in the Xth Army Corps until -further notice. There would be no less than four _appels_ a day, at 9 -a.m., 11.30 a.m., 3.30 p.m. and 6 p.m.; music, theatricals, games, and -walks were to be stopped; and no newspapers were to be permitted into -the camp. The Commandant regretted, but orders were orders, and so on in -the usual vein. - -It struck us as deliciously ironical that counter-reprisals on ourselves -should be the first outward and visible sign that anything had come of -the agitation which had, we knew, been raised on our behalf by -influential officers amongst the earlier Holland parties. It ultimately -transpired that strong representations had been made to the German War -Office as to the maladministration in the Xth Army Corps and -particularly in the camps governed by the Twin Brethren, Heinrich and -Karl Niemeyer; when it became clear that no attention was being paid to -these representations, steps were taken to collect in one camp in -England all the German officers who belonged to Hanoverian regiments and -to deal with them as a measure of reprisals on appropriate lines. The -measure signally failed, after the manner of reprisals. In the first -place, it was impossible to find any Englishman at all like the -Niemeyers, and therefore the conditions ruling with us could not be even -approximately reproduced at home; in the second place, a German -government that was as yet impenitent and still sanguine of ultimate -success decided that their best course lay in prompt counter-reprisals. -One of the features of this “strafe” was that we were invited to send -full accounts of it home in our letters, provided only that we also -mentioned the alleged reason. An extra letter was offered us in which to -do so[9]. This was a clumsy and typical German device to endeavour to -alienate popular feeling at home. Needless to say, it was seen through, -and not a single letter mentioned the subject at all. - - -[Footnote 9: Normally we were allowed to write two letters in each month -(six sides to a letter) and four post-cards.] - - -Any alternative to reprisals as a means for one belligerent power to -stop the malpractices of another was not, so far as I am aware, -discovered during the war. But it was a poor arrangement at the best. - -The added _appels_ had a serious effect upon the output of excavated -earth, for the working hours were now considerably reduced, and there -were long faces amongst the initiate. Those in authority began to have -serious qualms as to whether—even if all went well from now on—the -tunnel would have advanced near enough to the rye crop before it was -ripe for the sickle. Such local papers as we were now compelled to -smuggle into the camp spoke of an early harvest. Added to this, the -entire camp, having now no games to play and nothing particular to -occupy itself with, began to take notice of things to which they had -been blind hitherto; and an embarrassing number of enquiries—most -secretly and impressively conducted, but embarrassing withal—began to be -made as to the progress of the unmentionable thing. Certain people all -at once discovered that they could in future only support existence if -buoyed up by the hope of escape, and began to ingratiate themselves -accordingly in the proper quarter. There arose a strong and inconvenient -demand for places in what came to be known as the “waiting list,” which -did not in the least help the progress of what they were waiting for. - -During these days of counter-reprisal, which lasted about a month, the -event occurred which might so easily have put the lid on the whole -scheme, but which did, in fact, probably prove to be its salvation. An -officer returning from his shift to the officers’ entrance was -recognised by a sentry. The sentry reported the episode but could not -give the officer’s name. Niemeyer quickly appeared on the scene, -attended by the camp officers, and conducted a cross-examination and -thorough investigation on the spot; and the British were kept standing -on _appel_—those of them concerned in an agony of apprehension—until the -conclusion of the enquiry. - -So well, however, was the entrance to the tunnel concealed, and so -inconclusive was the evidence supplied by the sentry, that Niemeyer -failed badly to take advantage of the one real clue ever presented to -him in the history of the tunnel. He knew the English too well to think -for a moment of parading the whole camp before the miserable sentry on -the chance of an identification; such an attempt would have meant a -crowded hour or so of sheer delight for the British and of baffled -exasperation for himself. He ultimately came to the conclusion that if -there was anything in the sentry’s statement there was probably some -embryo stunt afoot (in this he was not far wrong); and contented himself -with the precaution of placing an additional sentry at the orderlies’ -door. The conspirators breathed again. All was not yet lost. - -When nothing further at all suspicious was reported, the mood of the -versatile Niemeyer again reacted, and the informing sentry was given -eight days in cells for making a false report. This act, besides being -typically unjust, was also one of questionable policy, since it -naturally tended to make other sentries uncommunicative of anything -suspicious that they might see or hear. Punishment in cells with them -was an infinitely more serious affair than it was with us. They had only -their own miserable ration and were cut off even from the slender -assistance of the home parcels on which most, if not all of them, relied -to keep their bodies and souls together. - -The immediate upshot, so far as the tunnel and the additional sentry -were concerned, was that so long as the sentry remained posted over the -orderlies’ entrance the tunnel could not possibly be got at by the -previous method. A new entrance to the chamber had to be made, and this -was set about at once. A hole was begun through the wall of the last of -the big living rooms on the ground floor which adjoined directly on to -the chamber. This hole would give entry to the chamber somewhere -underneath the staircase flight. It should be explained here that the -only reason which had prevented this hole being attempted at a much -earlier stage in the proceedings was the obvious and almost certain risk -of any such hole being discovered in a search and thereby ruining the -whole scheme. Only the present desperate state of affairs justified the -risk being taken at all. - -The inhabitants of Room 34 (the big room in question) had, of course, to -be let into the secret, if secret it could any longer be called. One -member of the patrol now sat in a deck-chair at the end of the corridor -just opposite the door of the room, whence he could command the whole -length of the passage and dart in at once to warn the workers inside if -any German hove in sight. A different officer every hour sitting at this -particular spot in the corridor, reading a book and apparently perfectly -resigned to the discomfort of the site and the disturbance to his -reading caused by the perpetual traffic—if the Germans who did -occasionally come along had stopped for a moment to think.... - -But the fact is that the reprisals were militating for us as well as -against us. The German personnel were not enjoying the counter-reprisals -any more than we were; counting 250 officers five times a day, even in -the most superficial manner, was a task that was obviously trying the -patience of both the Feldwebels and the Lager officers very severely, -and it is not surprising that during this period they left us well alone -when they were given the opportunity. On the argument that both sides -had a grievance, personal relations between the British and Germans -(with the exception, of course, of Niemeyer) improved by leaps and -bounds; and the supervision was more cursory and the letter of the law -more loosely interpreted than at any previous time in the camp’s -history. - -The then senior British officer, Colonel Rathborne, D.S.O., was himself -deeply interested in the success of the scheme, and had, in fact, been -offered a place immediately after the original working-party. It was his -obvious policy to foster as much as possible the existing state of good -relationship and to avoid serious collision with the authorities. -Consequently the reprisals were left to work out their own sweet course; -Niemeyer was ignored; when a hammer disappeared from the tool-bag of a -civilian carpenter working in the camp and the Feldwebel-Lieutenant -Welman demanded its instant restoration on pain of a general search, the -hammer was immediately produced. A German tin room attendant had his cap -whisked off his head by some adventurous and unidentified spirit. The -threats of a general search were repeated, and the cap as promptly -restored. The Jewboy and the Germans generally were welcome to draw any -conclusions they wished as to our impaired morale. Their conclusions -were of secondary importance. But a general search at such a time would -have been a disaster of the first magnitude, and Room 34 could hardly -have got through with its secret unnoticed. - -However, the attempt to make an entry into the chamber from Room 34 -proved abortive, owing to the difficulty of digging through the solid -concrete of the wall with the available tools. So after desperate -efforts for about a week the deck-chair habit ceased as suddenly as it -had begun, and the working-party turned their attention to the attic, -which was now the one remaining available avenue of approach. - -Leading to the attic floor from the officers’ staircase were two swing -doors. As the attic floor had now been placed altogether out of bounds -for officers, these doors were padlocked and secured by a chain which -passed through the two large loop-handles of the doors. The doors were -forced by unscrewing one of these handles, which were fastened by six -screws through their bed-plates. The screws had to be replaced every -time the conspirators went in or out. Entry was then possible into one -of the now disused officers’ small rooms. A hole was knocked through the -wall of this room into a space between the wall of the attic, the roof, -and the eaves, thus: - -[Illustration] - -This space communicated with the orderlies’ quarters by means of a small -door which had been built into the house to permit of access to the -eaves. The hole in the vacant room was camouflaged with a bit of board, -cut to size and covered with glue on which was sprinkled mortar and -distemper to tone with the wall of the room. - -The use of this room as the means of access to the orderlies’ quarters, -and so _viâ_ the staircase and the same old secret door to the tunnel, -made up in full for the previous week’s delay and immensely accelerated -the rate of progress. It was no longer necessary to work by means of -carefully timed and well-reconnoitred reliefs; the work could now go on -all day and all night, with interruptions only to admit of attendance on -_appels_. When the reprisal restrictions were removed, things would go -on even more swimmingly; as it was—and in spite of continued trouble -with the stones—the tunnel was already estimated to be nosing its way to -within measurable distance of the coveted rye. - -When the Commandant’s suspicion at length subsided and the extra sentry -was removed from the orderlies’ entrance, the decision had to be made -whether to revert to the old method of getting to the tunnel or to stay -with the quicker method and risk a search. It goes almost without saying -that the latter counsel prevailed. It was now mid-June, and with any -luck it was hoped that the tunnel would have been taken far enough by -the first week in July. If they went back to the old method, it might -not be ready before August. At the worst the Letter Boy, or some other -agent, might be safely relied upon to give 24 hours’ notice of a search, -during which time much might be done still further to conceal the traces -of the attempted hole in Room 34—though this had already been fairly -effectually done—and the actual hole in the attic. But it was unlikely, -since these attic rooms were now out of bounds and the swing doors -apparently securely padlocked, that a search would extend so far. - -It might be asked why had not this decision been taken before, and why -in the early stages the cumbrous method of approaching the tunnel in -orderlies’ clothes under the very nose of a sentry had been preferred. -The answer to this very reasonable question is that three weeks is not -eight months. At this juncture it was reasonable odds against a search -being held before the tunnel was completed. In November it was all the -odds on. Actually, since operations had been begun, there had been two -searches, both of them—as regards the ground floor at any rate—extremely -thorough. No hole in a wall could have hoped to escape the sleuth hounds -specially sent down from Berlin for these occasions. They may have got -the worst of it in some of the personal encounters—indeed, they very -rarely did discover any _articles_ of a contraband nature; the British -officers who owned any as a rule took care not to be collared in -possession, and very often the war was carried into the enemies’ country -and the civilian detectives found, on leaving a room, that they had -somehow managed to mislay an umbrella, or a hat, or some other object of -civilian attire useful for escapes—all of which, it need hardly be said, -provided scope for a most exhilarating exchange of amenities, and -sometimes for grave allegations against the moral proclivities of the -British prisoners. But with bricks and mortar our black-coated friends -were on surer ground, and they would not have needed very high -qualifications to have spotted a gaping hole in a wall camouflaged -behind a bed. So our Tunnellers had had to go outside to get to their -work, and the plank door had been decided upon. - -Searches, though they meant confinement to the buildings for the best -part of the day and made cooking a decent meal at the stoves impossible, -were nevertheless welcomed by all except those who had much to lose and -no time to hide it in as a pleasant variation to the monotonous round. -For one thing, they introduced for a brief space a foreign element into -the camp. Quaint little spectacled civilians from Berlin, full of zeal -for their duties for an hour or so, but tiring rapidly as the same -ritual was gone through in room after room of polite but mildly amused -prisoners, could be induced, with a little persuasion, to talk of food -conditions in the capital, their opinion on the war, and other -interesting subjects. The full dress uniform of a police officer -provided a pleasing variation to the eternal field grey; or some Captain -from Hanover, in charge of the company specially detailed for the -search, interested simply because his face was new to us. - -For any material result, both the searches held at Holzminden were an -absolute farce. Of one of them we had full warning. An enormous quantity -of books were temporarily confiscated for examination and removed to the -parcel room. One or two maps which had been carelessly left uncovered -were duly netted; but anything of real importance, such as civilian -hats, clothes, compasses, and the overwhelming majority of the maps, -were securely hidden before the search ever began, and all that happened -was that every officer in the camp was invited to undress and then to -dress again. These ordeals were great fun. When it got to the final -stages and the victim was in his undergarments, he was invited to give -his parole that he had nothing actually concealed about his person. With -some of us delicacy conquered. Others were less fastidious and requested -the German to continue his ungrateful task to the bitter end. Long -before the attic floor—in both houses the richest in contraband -stores—was reached, the searching-parties had tired of the beauty of the -human form and proceedings had become entirely formal. - -One officer prominent in this story was taken by surprise at one of -these searches with a whole escape kit under his bed. But he had also at -the foot of his bed a large black wooden box which had a double bottom. -Luckily, when the sleuths entered his room, the first thing that caught -their eye was the big black box. They turned everything out of it and -tapped the bottom. After a frenzied argument, lasting quite half an -hour, between a detective from Berlin who said there was a double -bottom, and the double bottom expert, who, being called over to examine -it, said there was not, the former triumphantly put his foot through the -false bottom. It hid one or two books (prayer books, etc.) and some -private papers of no particular interest. These articles were carried -off in triumph, and every Hun present shook the detective’s hand as if -he had scored a goal for Blackburn Rovers. They were so pleased that -they _forgot to look under the bed_. - -It should be added that on these occasions the camp personnel could be -relied upon to do their utmost in helping to baffle the search. Thus, -for instance, a sentry could—for a cake of soap, or a stick of -chocolate—be easily induced to act as temporary banker for a large -number of German notes of the realm. Feldwebels could be persuaded to -give permission for an officer to visit the latrine under guard, well -knowing that he had only gone to put something out on short deposit in a -reliable quarter. In some cases the Feldwebel was even known to take the -risk of the market himself. It was a curious phenomenon, in fact, that -on such gala days the camp personnel became infinitely more indulgent -than on ordinary working days. It was as if they were disposed to make -common cause with us against Niemeyer and his imported mercenaries. In -doing so the camp sentries did not forget to help themselves unasked -whenever they had an opportunity. Whilst we were shut up in our rooms, -they had ample access to the dining rooms; and it was an amusing climax -to the day’s sport to see the whole of the guard marched off to the -parcel room after the search to be themselves searched in their turn, -their pockets simply bulging with stolen tins or eatables, and in many -cases the delinquents making frantic efforts to eat a two days’ supply -in two minutes and incur the penalty of indigestion rather than that of -nine days’ cells for being found in possession of stolen goods. The -whole business was rather Gilbertian. I do not think it could have -happened in England, even if there had been a famine there. - -Niemeyer must have realised the futility of these field-days, for there -were no searches held between a date in March and the time of the tunnel -escape. On one occasion all the preparations for one had been made, and -the information duly passed on through the usual channels to us. But -Niemeyer, in his turn, came to know that we knew, and not only cancelled -the operations but told us frankly that he had done so. We had sometimes -to give the devil his due for a sense of humour. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE LAST LAP - - -After a brief spell of smoother working, both above and below the -surface, things began to go wrong again. - -In the first place, the exasperating stratum of stones recurred and -persisted. The tunnel was now being inclined upwards. From rough -measurements it had been estimated that the face must now be approaching -the desired spot and be nearly abreast with the edge of the rye-field. -But the obstinate stratum added to the difficulty of working uphill, and -reduced the rate of progress almost to the lowest on record; and, work -as they might, it was the last week in June before those directing -decided that the distance had been accomplished and the tunnel might be -inclined to the surface. - -On the last day in June Lieutenant Butler, one of the leading spirits in -the concern, went up to the face on the important duty of breaking the -surface and pinpointing the position. The tunnel had at length been -pushed through the clogging stratum, a total ascent of nine feet had -been made from the lowest point, and it was judged that the end of it -must now be very near the surface. To confirm this, a narrow hole was -bored straight upwards from the face. It was found that there were still -six feet of clay and soil to be negotiated. This was disappointing, but -it was not so disappointing as was the result of verifying the actual -position. Butler very gingery pushed a stick with a piece of white paper -attached to it up through the hole. The watchers from one of the upper -end-corridor windows groaned as they discerned the damning piece of -paper moving slowly to and fro, _still eight or nine yards short of the -rye_. - -The interest and general tension had now become so great that, although -nothing was said, half the camp knew the same evening that something was -wrong and guessed fairly shrewdly what the something was. To carry on -into the rye would take at least three weeks’ hard work, by which time -the rye would probably have been cut and the only cover afforded would -be the darkness of the night. But about three or four yards nearer than -the rye was a row of beans, and it was decided to make a last effort to -reach these and to trust to luck and the darkness to carry the party -across the bare space between the beans and rye. The beans in themselves -would afford no mean screen. - -Meanwhile, “Munshi” Gray, another of the conspirators, the Father of the -Tunnel, and in every way one of the most important personages concerned, -fell due for a fortnight of solitary confinement. He had some time ago -had a violent altercation with the most odious of the parcel room -attendants, and had, in the course of it, absent-mindedly handled a -large knife which was lying on the parcel room counter. The attendant -promptly brought a charge against him for attempted homicide, and—the -word, as well as the body, of even the vilest German being sacrosanct -when brought into collision with those of prisoners-of-war—Gray was in -due course brought up before a court-martial. It says something for his -judges on this occasion that they did not give him more than a -fortnight, which in reality amounted to acquittal. There existed -tribunals which would have given him six months of the best without the -slightest twinge of conscience, or—more melancholy still—without the -thought of having been in the least unjust. This was but an instance of -the perversions of all the accepted canons of fair play which frequently -occurred; fortunately for Gray and the tunnel, it was a mild sample. So -the Munshi languished and knew nothing of what was passing in the -tunnel, except from guarded scraps of Hindostani spoken to him in an -even voice from the window of the camp adjutant’s room, immediately -above his cell. - -Finally, Tim and his young woman made their long deliberated effort and -were caught most unluckily at the main gate, thereby throwing the camp -officials and Niemeyer in particular into a most undesirable mood of -added watchfulness. Everything had gone according to plan up to a -point—the Kommandantur staircase had again been made use of, and a most -seductive little flapper typist had tripped his unassuming way -unchallenged through the gate. Tim himself, dressed in a German -private’s uniform (but otherwise unmistakably Tim), had attempted to -follow suit; but he was unable to avoid his doom in the shape of one too -curious and too intelligent pair of eyes at the guard-room window. Their -owner recognised him as an English officer and promptly gave the alarm. -Result, the usual Tim débacle, and the work of months once again -nullified. The pair were marched off to the cells under escort amidst -sympathetic expressions from every side. Even Ulrich, the German officer -of B Kaserne, was loud in his admiration of the disguises used; ‘he had -of course suspected something was up for months.’ Of course. - -Lieutenant Lincke, the officer who had succeeded the pot-bellied Gröner -in charge of A Kaserne, a pharmacist by trade and the personification of -pompous absurdity, seized the opportunity to show his ignorance of the -English and his unsuitability for his post by intimating that the female -disguise had been culled from the theatrical wardrobe allowed us on -parole. Once again, and in accordance with cherished tradition, war had -to be waged on the parole question, and the artificially good relations -which were being promoted in the interests of the tunnel were -temporarily suspended until Lincke could be induced to retract his -entirely inexcusable inference. - -It must be explained that the whole of the theatrical wardrobe, both for -male and female parts, was kept strictly apart under lock and key and -under the supervision of a particular officer. It had always been a -strict injunction of each successive senior British officer that on no -account was there to be any tampering with these clothes for the -purposes of escape, and that any infringement of this order would be -looked upon as a breaking of parole. This unwritten, but none the less -thoroughly understood, reservation was as clear as it was necessary in -the interests of that large section of the community which relied on the -periodical “shows”—whether as performers or spectators—for their -principal means of relief from the _ennui_ of prison existence. The -disguise of Tim’s accomplice had, as a matter of fact, been smuggled in -from the town at a considerable expenditure in German money and British -kind. - -But Lincke, having been, till within the last year, a German pharmacist -in a small way of business, had about as much idea of British (not to -say German) military honour as he had of field operations. His training -had consisted of three or four months in a Reserve of Officers Training -Battalion, and he came out of it vibrant with the glory of two -things—the German military system, and himself as reflecting a modest -proportion of that glory. He was perfectly genial, self-satisfied, and -common. On _appel_ he insisted on believing that he was dealing with a -company of recruits on parade, and the long, shuffling, indifferent rows -of British officers winced or laughed at his antics, according to the -state of their nerves. He used to begin operations by a salute with the -top half of his person inclined almost at right angles with the ground; -some of the lighter spirits used to go one better and execute a complete -_salaam_, and this, of course, made him querulous. He would recall to -the senior officer on parade the great day when he and his brother -officer-aspirants stood poker stiff at attention under inspection by one -of the very biggest of the German Generals. “Scarcely a _pickelhaube_ -moved.” That was his triumph—scarcely a _pickelhaube_ had moved. And so -why could not now the British officers do likewise, instead of appearing -on parade in dirty uniforms and without caps and saluting so raggedly? -Oh it was too bad. - -He was of course a complete nonentity and disregarded alike by Niemeyer -and the British, as well as by his non-commissioned officers. But even -nonentities exercise awkward powers if placed in positions where they -should not be, and Lincke, for all his mildness, was about as -troublesome to deal with as a Junker of the real Prussian school. His -pharmaceutical soul and his hopeless inability to understand the British -point of view made him in fact a serious thorn in the flesh, as was -evidenced in the wardrobe incident. - -Ultimately he crashed badly. He was in the habit of paying frequent -visits to the tin room, nominally to inspect, actually to satisfy his -craving for the sight of our English delicacies. He was insatiably -inquisitive, as well as greedy, and used to spend hours together down in -the cellars, questioning officers as to the contents and origin of -particular tins. Finally there became reason to suspect him of something -rather more serious than mere curiosity; a trap was set, and he was -marked down by three witnesses in the act of abstracting tins from one -of the shelves and putting them hurriedly in his pocket. - -This gave us a most valuable handle, for even at Holzminden the German -officers had never stolen our tins from our own tin room, or if they -had, had not been such fools as to be caught doing so. In due course, -and at a seasonable moment, the card was played, the written statement -of the witnesses handed in, and an explanation asked for. Niemeyer took -a day or two before he replied—what passed between himself and the -luckless Lincke in the interval we could only guess—and then explained -that it was in the regulations for German officers at any time to take -tins out of the tin room in order personally to examine them for -contraband articles. - -The senior British officer politely noted this explanation and asked -leave to refer the question to the _Kriegsministerium_ for a ruling. -Lincke, meanwhile, was relieved of his post. It was one of the few -occasions (besides the tunnel) upon which we ever succeeded in getting -really up on them. - -The capture of Tim caused gloomy anticipation of a search and with it -the discovery of the attempted hole in Room 34, and thereby, as a -natural corollary, of the tunnel itself. In the second week of July—with -three yards or so further to go before an exit could be made behind the -beans, with the prospect of a search imminent at any moment, and with -the added danger of an early harvest to spur their efforts—the -working-party began to make their final arrangements. A week—possibly -ten days—hence, and the thing would be put to the proof for better or -worse. - -There were thirteen of them: Lieutenants Mardock and Lawrence of the -Royal Naval Air Service, Captain Gray, Lieutenant Butler, Captain -Langren, Lieutenant Wainwright, R.N., Lieutenant Macleod, Captain Bain, -Captain Kennard, Lieutenant Robertson, Lieutenant Clouston, Lieutenant -Morris, Lieutenant Paddison. They voted for priority of station. After -the working-party proper, places were allotted to Lieutenant-Colonel -Rathborne, the senior officer of the camp, Lieutenant Bousfield, whose -share in a previous attempt has been narrated earlier, and Captain Lyon -of the Australians, who was to travel with Bousfield. - -Then came a supplementary working-party of six, who, though not actually -employed in the digging of the tunnel, had contributed valuable -assistance in scouting-out and had made themselves generally useful in -helping to dig the holes inside the actual building. - -It was arranged that the original working-party should have a clear -hour’s start, and that another hour should intervene between the last -man out of the supplementary working-party and “the ruck.” - -“The ruck”—or, in other words, anyone else who wanted to go—had by now -assumed alarming dimensions. There were some sixty names on the official -list handed to me as Camp Adjutant on the day preceding the escape. The -list had been arranged in order of priority of exit, and to prevent -heart-burnings—as well as to promote the maximum of secrecy—it was -arranged that those on the list should only be warned in the first -instance _after_ the evening _appel_ on the night of the actual escape. -Moreover, no one was to be told his place but only that he was to lie in -bed fully dressed until he was actually warned to go, upon which he was -to get up at once and repair to the rendezvous on the attic floor. This -was a very wise precaution. It excluded the possibility of anyone in A -Kaserne getting wind of the intention to flit and then endeavouring to -get into the other barrack for the night and so endangering the success -of the enterprise. It also precluded the risk of excessive human -circulation in the corridors, the only people authorised to move about -in the corridors being myself, Lieutenant Grieve, who was selected as -traffic controller, one or two look-out men, and each escaper as, in his -proper turn, he left his bed to pass to the tunnel. - -The orderlies had been thoroughly warned, and those of them who had -volunteered to help fully understood their duties. One was to receive -officers one by one on the other side of the hole in the attic room and -was to signal the next man to come through when the coast was clear. -Another was to guide officers to the tunnel entrance down the staircase -and through the planks, and two more were to be on duty at the actual -tunnel entrance. Traffic was to be carefully controlled. Not more than -two officers were to be allowed inside the orderlies’ quarters at a -time. If there was a hitch, Lieutenant Grieve, on the far side of the -attic hole, was to be immediately warned. On discovery all the orderlies -were to pretend complete ignorance of the whole business. - -This last goes without saying. Just as the loyal co-operation of the -orderlies was essential to success, so it was imperative that none of -them should be implicated. They had all been offered a starting-place if -they cared to accept one, but none of them did. The long expected, -almost despaired of, head-for-head exchange had at last been arranged at -the Hague, and the agreement was now only awaiting ratification. The -fact that privates had been up till now excluded from the terms of the -exchange had of course been very severely criticised, and it was not -until later realised that the arrangements for a general head-for-head -repatriation had been frustrated entirely from the German side. But the -rule of “women and children first”—as our orderlies, half good -naturedly, half cynically, and with that wonderful instinct for the -epigrammatic which characterises the British soldier, had summarised the -situation—was now obsolete. To have imperilled their chances of exchange -by taking a long risk at this stage of their captivity (nearly all of -them were 1914 prisoners) would have been very unwise, even had they -been as well equipped as the officers as regards disguise, money, -reserves of food, and general experience. Moreover, the penalties for -attempted escape were for private soldiers infinitely more severe than -they were for officers. They would have certainly been sent back to one -of the men’s _Lagers_, and their previous experiences reminded them that -any officers’ _Lager_—even Holzminden—was considerably better than the -former’s best. And there were always the coal and salt mines to be taken -into calculation. So they stayed behind, and their share in the night’s -work amply crowned their long record of ungrudged service and devotion -to the cause. - -During the last few days, when it was generally known that at any moment -the cat might jump and it became a question of concealing “zero” day -from your own side, the tension was positively painful. With the best -will in the world, the injunctions of the senior British officer came to -be overlooked. Even the senior British officer himself was not innocent -in this respect. Small parties clustered at the ends of corridors or -roamed disconsolately round and round the camp, discussing the eternal -question, _When?_ Civilian disguises, maps, and packs were brought out -from their hiding-places and set ready for the road. More risks of -detection were run during this period in a day than had been run before -in a whole month. Maps were studied. An unwise and rather insubordinate -eleventh-hour attempt on the part of one or two of the more desperate -characters in Kaserne A to effect a transfer of rooms to Kaserne B was -fortunately quashed. The senior British officer, who was somewhat -square-rigged in shape, was given a trial run down the tunnel to see if -he could manage it. It took him an hour to get back! - -Walks had been allowed again as a consequence of the “lifting” of the -reprisals, and most of the intending starters availed themselves of this -opportunity to get into good marching trim. Fit as they were in -consequence of the strenuous work down below, they felt the need of -using every available opportunity for a good heel-and-toe movement over -a stretch of unconfined ground. The Holland border was 120 kilometres -away and would not easily be reached by those who had let their walking -muscles lie too long dormant. In addition, it was pleasant to get away -for a space from the strained atmosphere of the enclosure and the -tremendous secret of the camp, and without constraint to think and talk -for a little of other things. In high midsummer the plain in which we -walked was only less lovely than it had been in the spring. As then the -trees, so now the young crops invited us to build up a new calendar in -terms of growing things. We may not have felt the need perhaps, in the -years gone by, to pay due note to the wonderful kaleidoscope. Now the -very circumscription of her lecturing hours made Nature’s lessons the -more highly prized. - -Sometimes, when the weather was warm and the Feldwebel in charge -sufficiently lazy and complacent, we bathed in the Weser—clandestinely, -for river bathing was not allowed by the municipal authorities. Then for -a glorious half-hour the river would be alive with the nude bodies of a -hundred happy men. It was established at these bathes that the river was -easily fordable at one point. In our parole cards there was nothing down -to tell us not to _notice_ things. And the river lay between the camp -and Holland. - -At the last moment another painful incident occurred. It became known -that a certain desperate party in A Kaserne were proposing to anticipate -the tunnel, and the increased restrictions which its discovery would be -bound to create, by some wild-cat scheme of their own. It appeared to be -their intention to fuse the lights all over the building and make a bid -to get over the wire in the darkness and confusion thus created. There -was also going to be employed a “blind” in the shape of a large dummy -figure dropped from a window at the opposite end of the building to that -at which the actual attempt was to be made. The scheme in ordinary -circumstances would have been worth trying and was a courageous one. But -at this juncture of affairs, when the work of nine months was on the -verge of bearing fruit, and when the one thing needed was to lull the -suspicions of the authorities, it was foolish and selfish. To make -matters worse, the participants had received the unofficial support of -the senior officer in the building. - -The senior British officer in the camp, however, took a very different -line. He had the ringleader up and put the argument fairly and forcibly -before him. He sympathised, of course, but—there was a train already in -the tunnel. The line was not quite clear for it yet, but would be -shortly, and it must be let through first. It was very important not to -have a collision at this moment, and the advent of another train might -spell disaster. He must definitely forbid any prior attempt. - -But for the above-mentioned ringleader, the tunnel would have been -essayed a night earlier than it actually was. On the doors of the houses -being locked at nightfall on the 23rd July, it was found that the fellow -was in B Kaserne. He had got wind of it somehow and was determined to be -in at the death. The only course was to cancel the operation for the -night and induce this officer to realise that he had made a mistake and -explain his appearance in the wrong house to the Feldwebel as best he -could. Elaborate measures were also taken to put him off the scent for -the ensuing night. Disciplinary methods were really useless with this -type; besides, the senior officer was too closely occupied in the final -arrangements of his own intricate disguise—he was intending to travel by -train in broad daylight and not as a thief in the night—to feel any -inclination for taking any further steps with this refractory -individual. - -Such difficulties may sound petty, perhaps, and inconsistent with the -spirit of comradeship. But it was not in human nature to risk the fruits -of eight months’ incessant labour to benefit the crowd. Nerves were -badly on edge, and the wonder really is that this particular intruder -was let off as lightly as he was. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE ESCAPE AND THE SEQUEL - - -The reader will excuse if at this point in the story the first person -pronoun figures rather prominently. I was myself at this time the -Adjutant of the camp, and, as such, had been fairly thoroughly coached -how things were to be done. I was very glad to have the opportunity of -contributing, in however modest a degree, to the success of the plot. -The glorious nature of the adventure came home to me at last, and I -experienced some rather severe eleventh-hour twinges of regret that I -had not availed myself more fully of any chances that I might have had -of actually participating. There had been times of late when I had -almost given up the tunnel. There had seemed to be no end to the -difficulties and obstacles in completing it. Added to which, the -ordinary routine duties of Adjutant had kept me too fully occupied to -acquire the proper escaper’s atmosphere and spend long hours over -preparing maps and packs and securing the necessary money and disguise. -Frankly, I had been a little sceptical. - -Later on, in another camp, where there was full latitude to mature one’s -scheme and the Germans interfered hardly at all with one’s daily doings, -I experienced the complete escape fever. But that is another story. - -The actual night of the escape was the 24th July. - -I was warned just before evening _appel_, at 6 o’clock, that if B house -harboured no aliens that night, the escape would take place. I got hold -of Grieve during the evening and we held a long confabulation as to how -the policing had best be done. It was arranged that I should do all the -warning and escort people to the rendezvous in the attic, and that he -should do the actual controlling and keep in communication with the -orderlies. The evening passed away and I don’t think anybody outside the -working-party was aware that anything was actually in the wind. - -The doors in B house were safely locked at 9.0 p.m. without a single -intruder from A house. Several people had been keenly on the watch to -see to this point. We went off quietly to our respective rooms to have -our names called. - -After the Feldwebel and his minions had finally left the building, there -was still another hour or so to wait before the coast was clear for -action. A German sentry used to come round some time after 10 o’clock to -close all the windows in the corridors and incidentally remove anything -that he saw to his liking which might be lying about. Until he had gone -it would be unsafe to have any undue movement, and only the cutting-out -man—i.e. the first officer to go through the tunnel—and the two next on -the list would go down to the chamber before he was well clear. - -During this period of waiting the senior British officer paid me a visit -in his dressing-gown and said good-bye. I wished him good luck. We had -worked together for two months or more and had discussed the tunnel and -his particular plan to escape countless times. He had a very good -disguise and, without wishing to disparage his features, they were—with -the aid of glasses—wonderfully Teutonic. He was, so far as I knew, the -only one who was proposing to travel all the way to the frontier by -train, and with his excellent knowledge of German and forged papers he -looked to have a very good chance. - -I sat in my room until the outside door had slammed behind the German -sentry and I knew the working-party would have already begun making -their way through the tunnel for the last time. Then I began going round -the rooms and warning personally every man on the list. They were to get -their kit ready and get into bed fully dressed and then wait until they -were called. There was to be no movement in the corridors of any sort. -For all the secrecy that had been attempted, they were most of them more -than half expecting the long-deferred call. Probably someone had seen a -member of the working-party in his disguise and had passed on the -information. A few of them wanted to know where they were in the list, -but I told them that they were not to know and had only to obey orders. -Everyone would have to come upstairs in his socks, carrying his boots in -his hand. After I had completed the task of warning everybody I went up -to see Grieve. It was now past half-past eleven. He told me that the -working-party were all well away already and that the thing was going -well. - -The hour’s law for the working-party was strictly adhered to, and at -12.30 the supplementary working-party began to go through. They, too, -were all through by about 1.15. - -At 1.10 or thereabouts I began my duties of assembling those on the -waiting list. Two or three passed through all right, and then the -orderly on the orderlies’ side of the attic hole passed the word back -that there was a hitch. He would let Grieve know when it was all clear -again. - -The next man due to go through had overweighted himself and his pack to -such an extent that the delay proved perhaps a blessing in disguise. If -we had let him go through as he was, he would probably have stuck in the -tunnel, would most certainly not have forded the Weser, and could, in -any case, not have marched for more than three days. We sent him back -with some stern advice to remove a dozen tins or so from his pack, -discard his stick, and take off his hobnailed boots which had made an -infernal clatter in the passage. A few more such performers and the -secret would be out! - -No news came through from the tunnel, so I decided to turn in for an -hour or so, and Grieve arranged for a message to be sent to me if the -coast was clear before that time. - -I took a turn up and down the corridors before I lay down. There were -the sentries outside walking up and down, with their chins sunk on their -breasts and their rifles slung on their backs, wonderfully as usual. It -was odd to think that within a hundred yards our fellows were wriggling -away through the rye. Clearly nothing had been suspected so far. It was -a calm night and fairly dark. - -I lay down knowing that there would be heaps of work to do the next day, -whatever happened, and that I should want my wits about me. But I could -not sleep, and at about 2.30 I went upstairs to see Grieve again. He -reported there was no change in the position. We tried to get an answer -from the orderlies’ quarters, but there was no reply. It was rather -baffling. At 3 o’clock we held a council of war with Captain Sharp, who -was one of those due to go through early in the list, and we -agreed—although it was against the instructions given us, which had been -that the orderlies should alone be responsible for letting anyone -through the attic hole—that Sharp should go through to reconnoitre. He -did so, and came back in about a quarter of an hour’s time to report -that no one was about, and that the tunnel was empty[10]. - - -[Footnote 10: It was never found out exactly what caused the check and I -do not think it ever will be.] - - -It was rather a nasty moment. We had a sudden new suspicion of -insecurity and a feeling that valuable time might have been lost. It now -wanted about two hours to dawn, and so far we reckoned that only 24 were -out of the camp. It did not look very promising for most of the waiting -list. - -In the absence of the orderlies—we hardly felt justified in giving them -further orders—we sent through the next five officers on the waiting -list, headed by Sharp, allowing five minutes between each. They did not -return, so we concluded that the tunnel was still clear and that they -had got away, thus bringing the total number to 29. About half a dozen -more had followed at regular intervals, and it was getting on for -half-past four, when the last—Captain Gardiner of the A.I.F.—came back -to report that the tunnel was blocked and passage impossible. According -to his report the tunnel was reverberating with groans, curses, and -expressions of encouragement. Someone apparently was stuck in front and -was urging those behind him to get back in order to let him out. Those -behind, on the other hand, like the Tuscans in the famous Lay, were -crying “Forward” in no uncertain tones, and urging him to get out and on -with it. It had clearly become a hopeless impasse. It seemed best, -therefore, at this juncture to call a halt and clear the course before -daylight, so as to defer the chance of discovery till the last possible -moment. Recommendations were therefore passed along to evacuate the -tunnel. - -But here arose another difficulty. Those now labouring in the tunnel -were not used to its ways. It was hard enough to wriggle along in a -forward direction, but withdrawal, with a heavy pack in tow, was an even -more strenuous proposition. It will be remembered that the -working-party, with muscles attuned by long practice, had experienced -the utmost difficulty in pulling out the sacks of earth when the rope -method broke down. And to get the packs out was an absolute necessity, -for otherwise there would be a complete block both before and behind, -which would result in the foremost unfortunates being entombed until the -tunnel was discovered and they were dug out. - -The situation called for desperate measures, and fortunately the right -man was at hand. A New Zealand officer called Garland, who was high up -on the waiting list, came up to the rendezvous to prospect. He happened -to be about as strong physically as any other two officers in the camp, -and possessed the biceps of a Hercules. He at once volunteered to go -down and try to pull out the rear-most man. - -After about half an hour he succeeded in doing so, and the two -collaborators in this severe physical exercise crawled back through the -attic hole completely exhausted and dripping with sweat. - -There still remained four men stuck in the tunnel, it was already -getting light, and in an hour and a half—at 6 a.m.—a German N.C.O. was -due to open the outside door and call the orderlies. It was essential, -therefore, to get everyone back into the building before that time. If -the alarm of the escape was not raised before 9 o’clock _appel_, the 29 -fugitives now at large would have all the better opportunity of making -cover some distance away from the camp before they lay up for their -first day out. - -An hour past a look-out from an upper window at the end of one of the -corridors had reported that two figures had been seen in the dim half -light of the dawn making off through the rye-field. It was guessed that -these would probably be the last pair out before the accident had -happened in the tunnel which had barred further passage. If this couple -could gain the Duke of Brunswick’s hunting woods—some three miles -distant—before the hue and cry was out, they could lie up snugly and -safely, and their predecessors would be in all the better plight. - -The work of extracting the remaining four went on slowly and -laboriously, and by a quarter to six two more mudstained objects had -been salved and had been sent back, cursing bitterly, to their rooms to -get rid of their mud and cover their traces. It appeared that the tunnel -had caved in about five-sixths of the way up—at the bottom of the slope -up to the final exit. Stones loosened in the traffic had found their way -to this—the lowest point in the whole tunnel, and were blocking further -progress. A landslip on the most modest scale would be quite enough to -block up the tiny hole. - -There was now nothing left to do. The two officers still in the tunnel -with the volunteers assisting them to get out would have to be left to -take their chance. Everybody else went back to their rooms and to bed, -hugging themselves in anticipation of the 9 o’clock _appel_, and the -fireworks which would inevitably ensue when the Feldwebel of B house -reported with a rueful countenance that according to his reckoning there -“failed” (_fehlen_) no less than twenty-nine _Herren_. - -This hope was, however, frustrated, and the bubble burst two hours too -soon. The two last men in the tunnel were eventually retrieved, and -emerged from the plank entrance with their rescuers to find the door at -the orderlies’ entrance open. The under-officer had duly called the -orderlies some twenty minutes previously and had gone away suspecting -nothing. Their obvious course was to obey instructions and go back to -their house by the same way as they had come. But for some reason they -failed to do so and ran out very foolishly into the cookhouse in the -enclosure, where they met Niemeyer out for an inopportune early morning -stroll. Their salvage party meanwhile had gone back by the proper way. - -In ten minutes the whole of the camp staff had appeared on the scene. -The two officers, of course, refused to say anything or to explain their -muddy condition. Even then Niemeyer failed to tumble to what had -actually occurred. But a few minutes later an excited farmer appeared at -the postern gate and led the whole party to where, amid the trampled rye -in which a dozen different tracks were visible from the camp windows, a -gaping hole brought recognition and late wisdom to Milwaukee Bill. - -“_So, ein Tunnel._” - -Tunnel. The same dangerous word, common to either language, which had -been whispered for so long by the one side, now ran like electricity -through the ranks of the other. - -The next question from Niemeyer’s point of view was, how many? The fat -Feldwebel went off and counted an expectant house. He found everybody -unusually wide awake and good humoured for that hour of the morning. The -fat Feldwebel was himself thoroughly amused by the eventful happenings -since his last appearance in the house, and he merely chortled -good-humouredly as name after name elicited no response. He returned to -the rye-field to report to Niemeyer an absentee list of 26. In his -excitement he had forgotten to count the “Munshi’s” room, from which all -three occupants had flitted. - -Then came the real moment. Niemeyer’s jaw dropped, his moustachios for a -brief instant lost their twirl, his solid stomach swelled less -impressively against his overcoat. Just for a moment he became grey and -looked very old. But only for a moment. The sound of laughter in the -upper corridor windows floated down to him and roused action and the -devil in him forthwith. As an initial measure he put all the windows at -that end of the building out of bounds and told his sentries to fire at -once if a face appeared. Then he had the outer doors of both houses -locked. Then he placed a sentry over the tunnel head and stalked away to -the Kommandantur to ring up the Company Captain in Holzminden, inform -the police, report events to Corps Headquarters at Hanover, and issue -emergency orders “for the safety of the camp.” - -These were posted up in both houses and caused considerable amusement. -Briefly, they permitted the officers remaining in the camp to eat, -sleep, and breathe, but that was about all. “No one,” so ran the order, -“when inside the building was to move from his own room. Conversation -with other officers in the corridors or by the notice boards was -forbidden. Officers were not allowed to stand about at the doors of the -buildings. No officer belonging to one house might enter the other. -Officers were not to walk about in groups of more than two.” And so on. - -Of course we had amply expected all this. Indeed, there was ground for -congratulation that things had panned out up to the present without -murder being done. Stringent orders had been issued that, in the event -of the escape only being discovered at the 9 o’clock _appel_, there was -to be no laughter or demonstration calculated to aggravate. Months -before, the more serious-minded had discussed the prospects of someone -being shot in the Commandant’s first wild ebullition of fury and baffled -rage at the defeat of all his precautions. It was one advantage of the -premature discovery of the escape that what shooting was ordered was -confined to the windows. - -Twenty-nine. The magic number flitted from mouth to mouth and was -shouted across from B house to A, who cheered heartily on hearing the -figure. It was indeed a good number and constituted an easy record for -Germany, if not for all time. _Neun und zwanzig._ Long ere now it had -permeated to the town, and the road outside the camp was strangely -peopled with unusual figures of both sexes and all ages, anxious to view -the scene of the occurrence, and most of them no doubt vastly pleased at -the discomfiture of the notorious bully, Hauptmann Niemeyer. Always the -camp had been the diversion of a Sunday evening stroll for the burghers -of Holzminden; now we played daily to crowded houses, until the -Commandant, in his exasperation, put the confines of the camp out of -bounds to civilians. Those who had been stuck in the hours of the dawn -exchanged experiences and friendly recrimination. Personal -disappointment was merged in the general triumph. For triumph it was. -Twenty-nine loose in Germany. Twenty-nine. He would have been a bold man -who would have breathed that number in Niemeyer’s hearing. - -The sentries grinned as they echoed it. Kasten, the fat old Feldwebel, -laughed as he notched it on the next (mid-day) _appel_. And Niemeyer -tried to digest it. - -He was not very successful. We were let out of the barracks after -mid-day. No attempt was naturally made to fall in with the newly posted -camp regulations, and serious collisions with Niemeyer, as soon as he -came abroad, were inevitable. There was at the bottom of everybody’s -mind a feeling that the time had at last come to be rid of him, that now -the star of the Great Twin Brethren might at last wane and the wrath -from Hanover or Berlin descend on the discredited favourite for being -unable either to keep his gaol-birds at home or to keep order in his own -house. But bloodshed was to be avoided. It was a difficult policy, to -annoy by pinpricks, to goad an already maddened creature, but to keep, -as a community, within the law. But it was the right policy, and one -which commended itself to the new senior British officer, Colonel Stokes -Roberts, who succeeded to the position vacated by Colonel Rathborne, now -well on his way to freedom. - -Accordingly the red rag was discreetly held out, and Niemeyer retained -just enough self-control not to draw and flourish a revolver. All the -available cells were filled within the first few hours with candidates -for three days’ arrest. Their crimes were imaginary and were not stated. -They might have failed to salute at 40 paces, they might have laughed, -they might merely have happened to be standing somewhere in Niemeyer’s -path. It did not matter. They had certainly all broken the latest camp -regulations. - -All the orderlies were taken off duty and set to dig up the tunnel. The -tin rooms and parcel rooms were closed until further notice. I myself, -whose complicity with the plot was highly suspected, was removed from my -own room and bundled unceremoniously into one of the large rooms on the -top floor of A house. The windows of the cells were barricaded up and -made quite dark by day and the lights in them were kept on all night. -Every German in the camp personnel was put on to sentry duty and -sentries paraded the passages three times in the night. The use of the -bath room attendant for this purpose precluded baths. In a word we were -“strafed,” and the camp knew once more the open warfare which had -prevailed for the first unforgettable month of its existence. - -[Illustration: - - Orderlies digging out the tunnel between Kaserne B and the outer wall. -] - -The inconveniences of such a state of affairs were lightly borne, and -even relished, by the large majority. The Tunnellers had scored too -heavily for us to mind doing scapegoat for them. It was a pleasant -thought that all twenty-nine were still abroad, and that there was a -reasonable certainty of a fair proportion of them getting over and -putting a stop to Niemeyer’s run of atrocious good luck in the matter of -escapes. Apart from the hue and cry which had already been raised -through the North German press, the fugitives had everything in their -favour. They had had months to deliberate on their route and travelling -tactics; their packs had been stocked at leisure so as to combine the -maximum of nutrition with the minimum of weight; their civilian -disguises were adequate for their purpose. Most of them were going to -trust to their legs to carry them over the border and would be only -night birds of passage, lying up during the day. But Colonel Rathborne -possessed a knowledge of German and a superb civilian suit, over which -he had put pyjamas in going through the tunnel, and which would be able -to set casual interference blandly at defiance. He was walking due south -to Göttingen and was there going to entrain for Aachen _viâ_ Cassel and -Frankfurt. If all went well with him and his forged passport passed -muster, he would be over the frontier in under three days. And later, -when six days had gone by and he had not returned, the camp knew that -the spell had been broken and that an Englishman was over from -Holzminden. But we said nothing to the Germans. - -However, before six days had passed a good number of the twenty-nine had -already been rounded up and brought back to camp. As they were kept in -the strictest isolation, it was only possible to hear their stories by -bribing the cell attendants to bring written messages from them. If -bribes failed, the message was concealed somehow in their trays of food. -Every officer in detention cell had to have a friend to feed him—i.e. -cook his food and see that it was delivered to him; otherwise he existed -in semi-starvation on the German ration. It was the usual thing, -preparatory to an attempt to escape, to arrange for your feeding -arrangements in “jug”; and the penalty of recapture was shared to the -full by the luckless partner, who thus had double work. - -Sharp and Luscombe were the first pair back, as they had been the last -pair away. They had had two days and a night out and had been caught -passing through a village at night about 15 miles down the Weser. Sharp -reported that at his search on being brought back to the camp, Niemeyer -had vented his spleen on him by picking a valuable gold watch to pieces -with his pocket knife, and by giving instructions for his civilian -clothes (which included a brand new coat from England) to be ripped to -ribbons. Every day brought in some fresh recapture, and, the cell -accommodation being completely inadequate to cope with the numerous -criminals, the town gaol was drawn upon to afford relief. - -It was a sad blow to the camp when some of the foremost spirits in the -adventure—Mardock, Lawrence, Butler, and Langren—were brought back after -being out about ten days. Butler had stolen a bicycle and was caught on -it while passing through a village. The others had been taken in the -vicinity of the Ems. All these separate captures used to be described at -length and with appropriate embellishments in the Hanoverian press. Thus -in one organ it was stated that the refugees were all wearing British -uniform; another had it that British naval uniform was the mode, with -the buttons altered; yet another explained that the prisoners had -escaped in civilian disguise procured from British friends outside the -camp. To be sure, we had British friends outside the camp—what -prisoner-of-war did not? But one could imagine the burghers of Hanover -reading this sort of stuff and commenting on the lax policy of the -Government towards enemy aliens! - -A detective from Berlin had arrived shortly after the escape and -displayed the usual aptitude of his species in examining the tunnel. -Several hours elapsed before he found the door in the partition. This -was all in Niemeyer’s favour, since a mere Commandant, a layman in the -science of crime, could not reasonably have been expected to guess the -secret which had temporarily baffled the expert. Such acuteness would -have been unseemly and unprofessional. The detective took a large number -of photographs[11] and made a large number of notes, and the two parted -on the best of terms. When Niemeyer had bowed the important visitor off -the premises, he turned his attention once more to the safe keeping of -the British officers still remaining under his wing. - - -[Footnote 11: Three of these are reproduced in this book.] - - -For several days he achieved a crescendo of fury and malevolence and -maintained all the outward characteristics of a mad bull. Unfortunately -he had not in any way fallen from grace. A staff officer from Hanover -specially sent down to examine the affair was, to our disappointment, an -apparently appreciative witness of his behaviour. We had calculated that -von Hänisch would by now have discovered a flaw in his chosen -instrument, and that the attitude of the chief might be seen to be -reflected in his subordinates. But we were out of our reckoning. The -captain from Hanover used even to accompany Niemeyer in his periodical -incursions into the camp precincts and stand stolidly by while the -latter blackguarded every Englishman within reach or hearing. - -Possibly Niemeyer had got ideas from reading Don Quixote on his dull -evenings. One of his favourite amusements during this period was to make -fierce onslaughts with his stick on the washing hanging out to dry on -the wire fence between the two main buildings. He would lunge at some -unoffending under-garment, spit it, brandish it violently in the air, -and then trample on it. It was against the regulations for washing to be -hung on the wire, and the Commandant sacrificed his personal dignity to -see that these regulations were unflinchingly obeyed. - -His behaviour towards the orderlies was a delightful contrast. Usually -domineering and foul-mouthed towards them beyond the ordinary, he was -now honey-tongued good fellowship itself. The orderlies were all -employed digging up the tunnel; and Niemeyer used to stand by them for -hours at a time, asking the men questions about their homes in England, -their wives and children, and generally trying to put himself on the -best possible terms with them. - -Niemeyer was looking desperately hard for a scapegoat. It is to be -remembered that no one had been caught actually _in_ the tunnel, and -every officer recaptured stoutly refused to say how he had got out. -There was no tangible evidence of any conspiracy. Consequently unless an -admission of complicity was wrung from one of the orderlies, the charge -of doing damage to German property, levelled against a number of -unconvicted and unconvictable persons, would lose weight, however -circumstantial the evidence; and it was punishment to the hilt which the -Commandant, in his wounded pride, yearned after. But his clumsy -overtures took in nobody. The men knew that he was trying his hardest to -pump them and gave nothing away. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - CLOSING INCIDENTS - - -Niemeyer had often, in more peaceful days, jocularly remarked that the -conduct of the British officers was making him an old man before his -time. Such of us as in these days were brought face to face with him -began to get a comfortable feeling that this indeed was the case. He was -reported to be 62; and by this time he was looking every day of it. - -The actual _casus belli_ on which the senior British officer decided to -force the issue was the treatment, on the day after the escape, of an -R.F.C. officer called Phelan. This officer had on his way down to the -cells been brutally kicked by a sentry under the approving eye of a -particularly odious Feldwebel of the best Prussian pattern surnamed -Klausen, and known familiarly as “Dog Face.” The act had been witnessed -by at least six British officers and the evidence duly taken down. The -senior British officer therefore gave the Phelan incident pride of place -in a summary sent to Niemeyer of various individual and collective -injustices visited on the members of the camp since the discovery of the -tunnel, and added a curt ultimatum that unless these grievances were -promptly redressed he would be unable to be responsible for the further -conduct of the British officers. - -This was an extreme step and had never, even in this turbulent camp, -been employed before. For the senior British officer to disclaim -authority over his own brother-officers implied, legally speaking, that -he regarded the conditions of imprisonment as too monstrous to be -covered by the accepted rules of the Hague Convention, and that in fact -he looked upon the Commandant not as his sentinel in an honourable -captivity under the rules of war, but as his gaoler in a common gaol, -where international conventions did not apply. Once this attitude was -taken up, the ordinary courtesies of military etiquette would have to be -abandoned, salutes not offered, passive resistance everywhere adopted. -Uniformity of conduct would be an absolute essential, and elaborate -precautions were taken to warn the camp by word of mouth—paper would -have been too dangerous—exactly what procedure was to be followed if the -order went forth that diplomatic relations had been broken off with the -Huns. - -The Adjutant’s position in those stormy days was an onerous one. It was -the essence of the whole British policy that the senior officer’s orders -should be carried out to the letter. Due allowance had also to be made -for the incalculable perversity of the “half per cent” to whom reference -has already been made. Both of these duties fell to the Adjutant of the -camp working through the Adjutants of the houses. Written instructions -were impossible on account of the risk. It was necessary to warn -personally every one of the 500 odd officers in the camp and to explain -when, and if necessary why, action was to be taken in accordance with -“scheme of resistance A or B.” - -No reply was received to the ultimatum, and it was decided therefore to -put into execution a general scheme of passive resistance. On the -morning after the expiry of the ultimatum the entire camp shuffled late -and listlessly on to 9 o’clock _appel_, wearing, for the most part, -cardigan jackets instead of tunics, and innocent of all headgear. When -the German officers appeared, no one saluted or paid the slightest -attention to them. Ulrich hesitated, grasped the situation, and went -straight back to the Kommandantur to report. He returned with a message -from the Commandant to the senior British officer that if he could -arrange for an orderly _appel_ in an hour’s time he (the Commandant) -would be glad to discuss matters and examine the list of grievances -submitted. - -So far, so good. The word was circulated for a perfect _appel_ at 10 -a.m. But at 10 o’clock, after the conclusion of an _appel_ which, for -correctness of dress and demeanour, would have satisfied the soul even -of the late lamented Lincke, Niemeyer strode on to the middle of the -parade ground and disillusioned us: - -“Well, yentlemen,” he bawled out, “You have broken the camp regulations, -so you must be punished. There will be no sport for three days.” - -The camp was too flabbergasted even to boo or groan. We had trusted him -and paid the obvious penalty. The whole incident was typically Prussian. - -Colonel Stokes Roberts did the only possible thing under the -circumstances and countered with an order for another passive resistance -_appel_ at 5 o’clock. Once again tunics and caps were discarded and the -long rows of ragamuffins stood listlessly awaiting the pleasure of their -gaolers to come and count them. There was likely to be trouble this -time, for the authorities would be forewarned, and it was noticed that -the guard were standing paraded in front of the Kommandantur. It was -just a question of how far our friend would dare to go. The action of -the British was seen from the Kommandantur and the German officers did -not even come on _appel_. An interpreter was sent out to order all -officers to go back to their houses. As we trailed off the parade ground -Niemeyer appeared at the head of about a dozen sentries with bayonets -fixed and roared to us to get into our houses “right away.” As there was -only one door in each house this was an impossible feat, and the -disreputable crowd merely grinned at the sheepish sentries and the -Commandant fulminating from one barrack to another. The British acted -creditably up to their allotted part of brainless, dejected criminals, -and there was no demonstration or provocative action as we gradually -melted away into our respective barracks. - -One officer, however, who had on board rather more than was good for -him, did his best to promote bloodshed. He dropped a large faggot from -an upper window in B Kaserne which missed Niemeyer by inches. Beside -himself with rage, the Commandant ordered the nearest sentry to fire, -indicating the only officer then within sight, a lame flying officer, as -the target. The man, who was really not to be blamed, fired up the -staircase up which the officer was making all haste to retreat, missed -him by a few inches, and splintered a window. Then the doors were closed -and we breathed again. - -The counter-charge of mutiny was brought by Niemeyer, when in company -with the Hanover staff captain he interviewed Colonel Stokes Roberts -that evening. The camp had publicly mutinied, and the mutiny would have -to be made the subject of a special report. The senior British officer -desired nothing better. A special report, he suggested, might eventually -result in bringing facts to light. He begged the Commandant’s permission -to forward two letters to the Dutch Legation at Berlin and to the -_Kriegsministerium_, which contained point-blank accusations of -misconduct against the Commandant. By German law Niemeyer was bound to -forward these letters, however much he disliked their matter. It did -not, however, at all follow that he would do so, and accordingly, to -prevent any possibility of miscarriage, duplicate letters were smuggled -out of the camp into the safe keeping of the love-sick typist with -injunctions to deliver the goods. The letter to the _Kriegsministerium_ -asked urgently for an inspection of the camp by a responsible superior -officer. - -So far the campaign had proceeded satisfactorily; the case sooner or -later would be put against Niemeyer without delicacy or reserve before -the supreme German military authority. Then the whole history of the -camp could be bluntly narrated, the damning Black Book hauled up from -its hiding-place in Room 24 of B house and presented for inspection and -comment. The cards were in our hands now, if we had the opportunity of -playing them. Only the tribunal must be reasonably impartial and -Niemeyer must not be suffered to interpret. Too many a good chance had -gone begging ere this in the camp’s history, simply because the -Commandant, in conducting an interview, had systematically interpreted -black as white and adroitly diverted the discussion from the subject of -himself. It had been an unfortunate coincidence that whenever a -representative from the _Kriegsministerium_ in Berlin had visited the -camp either he had been unable to speak English or the senior British -officer of the time had been unable to speak German. The Commandant, -with his fluent knowledge of English, had invariably provided the -convenient bridge and the interview had accordingly failed miserably in -its object. - -Until the visit from the _Kriegsministerium_, conditions remained much -as before, except that we gave orderly _appels_. Our policy was to lie -low and await whatever Daniel the _Kriegsministerium_ should deign to -send us. Niemeyer seemed determined to make what hay he could while the -sun shone. His way of doing so took the form of gross personal -discourtesy to the senior British officer. On the day after the letters -to the Dutch Legation and German War Office had been handed in, he -stalked on to _appel_, went up to Colonel Stokes Roberts, and asked him -in a menacing tone if he took full responsibility for all that had been -written in them. On an answer being given in the affirmative, he became -violently abusive and ordered the Colonel to produce another speaker in -his stead, as he would have no more to do with him. He then proceeded -publicly to insult Colonel Stokes Roberts in a manner absolutely -unprecedented. Colonel Roberts, after the first salute, had been -standing, as was customary, at ease in the orthodox manner. Niemeyer -suddenly bellowed to him to stand at attention. “I guess you’ll speak to -me at attention. Put your heels closer—CLOSER.” It was the very last -straw and made cheeks flame and ears tingle in the agony of furious -humiliation. - -Niemeyer persisted in his demand for another “speaker” to represent the -camp, only giving away his lamentable ignorance of our military customs -in even formulating the request. As a joke, the names of some of his -most avowed and outspoken enemies were submitted for his approval. -Prominent on this list was the name of Lieutenant Beyfus, a barrister of -repute, a prisoner of three years’ standing, and, on frequent occasions, -an able exponent to Niemeyer on the rights of the individual in -captivity. Niemeyer, whose sense of humour failed him in these days, -furiously repudiated such a preposterous nomination. - -“No, no,” he fumed; “I will not have ze Beyfus; get me another.” - -We were paying for the tunnel; but every day that passed now without -someone being brought back increased our hopes that it had not been dug -in vain. Colonel Rathborne was by now certainly over. “Munshi” Gray, -Bousfield, three others of the working-party, and four not of the -working-party were still abroad; and it was a fortnight since the night -of the escape. Further, the opening of the big allied offensive on -August 8th put new heart into us. The first day’s advance showed a great -slice on our well-conned maps that looked indeed like the moving warfare -for which we had, in our own far-off day, so often made preparation in -vain. Also we heard on reliable authority that a Bavarian regiment -moving from the Bulgarian to the Western Front had mutinied at some -place quite near; and such of the more Left of the German papers as we -were permitted to read were full of their proposed campaign for the -autumn session of the Reichstag. It was a more healthy atmosphere -altogether than in the terrible days of March only four and a half -months ago. - -Any suspected officers in either Kaserne received short shrift in these -days, and were bundled unceremoniously from their rooms into safer -quarters on the ground floor of A Kaserne, where the lower windows were -never open and the flies and staleness of the atmosphere were -correspondingly oppressive. Billets in this way were found for any -officers who had been known to have escaped before and who were referred -to feelingly by Niemeyer as “the yentlemen.” These particular rooms used -to be visited two or three times in a night by a Feldwebel with an -electric torch, which he used to flash on the occupant of each bed in -turn, thereby effectually waking everybody up. Here lay the -afore-mentioned and eloquent Beyfus, whose recent arrival had prevented -his obtaining a place in the tunnel scheme, but whose record made him a -marked man with the authorities. Here I myself lay, after yet another -enforced migration from the attic floor in A house, and in accordance—so -lied the official intimation—with orders from Hanover. And here also lay -Leefe Robinson, V.C., whose gallant spirit Niemeyer, with subtle -cruelty, had endeavoured for months past to break. That Robinson’s -untimely death on his return from captivity was assisted indirectly by -the treatment which he received at the hands of Niemeyer no one will -deny who was in a position to witness that treatment. - -The handling to which Leefe Robinson was subjected was so outrageous -that it was communicated to the home authorities in a concealed report -(in the hollow of a tennis racket handle) _viâ_ an exchange party. -Robinson had come from Freiburg in Baden, where he had made an attempt -with several others to escape. “The English Richthofen”—as Niemeyer, -with coarse urbanity, called him to his face—was at once singled out as -the victim of a malevolent scheme of repression. He was placed in the -most uncomfortable room in the camp, whereas his rank entitled him to -the privileges of a small room; he was caused to answer to a special -_appel_ two or three times in a day; and he was forbidden under any -pretext to enter Kaserne B. On the occasion of a visit from some -Inspecting General, and on the pretext of all the rooms having to be -cleaned up and ready for inspection by 9 o’clock _appel_, Robinson’s -room was entered by a Feldwebel and sentries at 7.45 a.m., and Robinson -himself was forcibly pulled out of bed and the table next to the bed -upset on the floor. Two hours later Niemeyer was introducing “the -English Richthofen” to the august visitor with a profusion of oleaginous -compliments, and four hours later Robinson was in the cells for having -disobeyed camp orders. Truly most damnable and cowardly persecution. - -Notwithstanding all this, the Chamber of Horrors (as the room devoted to -the criminals used popularly to be known) was the scene of many a -humorous incident. Restricted space caused the bed of the eloquent -Beyfus to be very near the door. On the flooring just inside the door -lay the mat upon which Beyfus used to stand to undress. Whenever the -Germans came into the room Beyfus always contrived that the door should -impinge upon some part of his person and seized the occasion to call -every German within hail—the Commandant, of course, for choice—to -witness the unprovoked attack upon his blushing modesty. Great effect -was added when the harangue was delivered in the passage and only in -shirt and slippers. - -The Spanish “flu,” which descended in those days in an all embracing -form on the camp, brought some compensating humour. In the first place, -Niemeyer got it at once and was reported, quite incorrectly, to be -dying. The wish, both amongst Germans and British, was doubtless father -to this rumour. Then all the orderlies got it at the same time and the -officers swept and garnished for themselves. And finally, when the -disease had filtered through from the orderlies and taken fair hold of -the officers, every room in both barracks was filled with the groans of -those who thought they were about to die. As a matter of fact not more -than a dozen were at all seriously ill, and these recovered quite -rapidly. - -The long expected visit from the _Kriegsministerium_ representative -synchronised with the tail end of the outbreak and came at precisely the -wrong moment. - -In the first place, I was sick. It should have been my business to warn -the senior British officer of the visit, and arrange for an English -officer to interpret his remarks at the interview. Unfortunately, and -through nobody’s fault, nothing of this sort was done. Colonel Stokes -Roberts was sent for at a moment’s notice and had his hand forced. -Niemeyer once again acted as interpreter, the blinkers were kept on -throughout, and the visitor went away satisfied that the complaints made -by the British had been grossly exaggerated, that Niemeyer, in spite of -his reputation, was, after all, a very pleasant fellow, and that there -was nothing to report on unfavourably in the conduct of the camp. - -Thus the rebellion at Holzminden petered unsatisfactorily out; it had -been no one’s fault that the chance had come and gone untaken. But it -was evident that it would not come again, and that the last final effort -to remove Niemeyer had been as fruitless as the first. On the other -side, the charge of general mutiny was not pressed, and legal -proceedings were reserved only for those implicated in the tunnel. -Gradually the sombre camp resumed its normal working. A new Adjutant -succeeded to office, and I, together with other suspected criminals, was -transported to a camp of more fancied security. Under the new Adjutant -some form of co-operation in the general interests with the German -authorities became once more possible. - -His predecessor, bundled out of the camp with two other officers at two -hours’ notice, had the pleasure, before leaving, of firing one Parthian -shot at the Commandant. The evening before, an unsigned postcard had -been received from the Hague. It ran simply—“Cheeroh old bean,” and was -addressed to Colonel Rathborne’s late mess-mate. We communicated the -substance of this postcard to Niemeyer, and it was some consolation, -before we shook the dust of Holzminden off our feet for ever, to see the -confession of defeat written plainly in his face. Once again—and for the -first time since the original discovery of the escape—speech fairly -failed him. - - * * * * * - -Events, however, were moving too rapidly now for it to be a matter of -great consequence to Niemeyer even that he should have let a full-blown -Lieutenant-Colonel slip through his fingers. His own hour was near to -striking. As the British advance in September continued without respite -and the inevitable end came ever nearer, so this disreputable old man -changed his tactics accordingly. He very rarely came within the -precincts of the camp; but he saw the Adjutant almost daily, and at -every interview some concession or other long striven for was now -readily given. He even began to prepare the ground for a _volte-face_ in -his Prussian creed and politics. The picture of the Kaiser vanished from -the wall of his sanctum. He became the strangest and most undignified -contrast to the swaggering bully who had ruled this roost so long. And -finally when, on the conclusion of hostilities, the _Arbeiter und -Soldaten Rat_ took over the military direction of affairs in the town, -he was suffered to disappear unmolested and cover his tracks as best he -might. It is not known what has happened to him; by some he is stated to -be in arrest at Hanover, by others to have removed himself and his -ill-gotten gains to a neutral country. It is quite probable that we -shall never hear of him again, for he had no murders to his charge and -may not be included by the Supreme Council in the punishable class[12]. -But it is certain that he will never again walk up Bond Street or show -his face in Milwaukee. He must rest on his laurels and be content with -his European reputation. - - -[Footnote 12: Both the Niemeyers were on the Black List.] - - - * * * * * - -To give some idea of the actual difficulties of the final exit and -escape, it may be well to include the following graphic account from the -first man through: - -“The kits of the first (working) party were got down in the daytime. I -had been chosen to cut out, and as soon as the ten o’clock roll-call was -over in the rooms, L., C., and I (we were going to ‘travel’ together) -went off through the swing doors, the hole into the eaves, the -orderlies’ quarters, and so into the tunnel. - -“I left my room at about 10.15 p.m., and in ten minutes I was worming my -way along the hole for the last time, noting all the old familiar ups -and downs and bends, bumping my head against the same old stones, and -feeling the weight of responsibility rather much. I am not ashamed to -say that I did a bit of praying on the way along. When I got to the end, -into the small pit which we had dug to drop the earth of the roof into, -I put my kit on one side and got to work with a large bread knife. It -was of course pitch dark. I was kneeling in the pit, digging vertically -up. The earth fell into my hair, eyes, and ears, and down my neck. I -didn’t notice it much then, but found afterwards that my shirt and vest -were completely brown. By about 11 p.m. I had a hole through to the air -about 6 inches in diameter. It was raining, but the arc lamps made it -look very light outside. I found, to my delight, that we had estimated -right and that I had come up just beyond a row of beans which would thus -hide my exit, with any luck, from the sentry. By 11.40 the way was open, -and I pushed my kit through and crawled out. The sentry nearest us had a -cough, which enabled me to locate him, but as he was in the shadow of -the wall and not in the light of the electric lamps I could not see him. -This made it a bit more uncomfortable, as I didn’t know but that he was -staring straight at me. I crawled to the edge of the rye-field and -looked at my watch. It was 11.45 p.m. Just at that moment the rain -stopped, a bright full moon shone out and an absolute stillness reigned. -The rye was very ripe and crackled badly, and so, after a whispered -consultation with L., I decided to crawl in a southerly direction down -the edge of the rye-field, keeping under cover of the gardens. - -“If there had only been the three of us to escape we could have barged -straight through the rye, but we had to think of the hordes behind us, -and could not afford to take risks. - -“We reached the end of the cover afforded by the gardens and were -debating what to do, when luckily the rain started again, and we crawled -through the rye, the noise of the rain pattering on the rye being -sufficient to drown that made by our progress. - -“When through the rye, we stopped to put on our rücksacks, and then made -for the river Weser which we had to cross. Close to the river bank we -found four or five large hurdles. Piling these one on top of the other, -we made a raft, on which we ferried across first our kits and then our -clothes. The water was warm, but the wind cold. We dressed and started -again. It was by this time about 2 a.m. C. thought he heard a shot, and -we were afraid that the Boche had spotted someone getting out. - -“As we rounded the spur of a hill, and the lights of the _Lager_, which -looked so pretty from outside, were shut from our view, we said good-bye -to Holzminden _Kriegsgefangenenlager_—a good-bye which unhappily turned -out for us three to be only ‘au revoir.’” - - * * * * * - -In all ten escaped. Rathborne, as stated, was over in three days, and -was able to report in person on the state of affairs in one camp in the -Xth Army Corps in which he had held a responsible position. Gray, Bain, -Kennard, Bennett, and Bousfield among the working-party, Purves, Tullis, -Campbell Martin, and Leggatt amongst the others, followed in the course -of a fortnight. Most of them had had some near shaves and were “all in” -on arrival. Bousfield—an old Cambridge 3-miler—had on one occasion to -out-distance his pursuers by running for it. - -Those who had been recaptured were kept in cells until early in -September without trial, although repeated protests were made to the -Commandant and higher authority. They were then released to await -court-martial. The accused being many and rolling-stock being valuable, -the Court came to Holzminden to judge them. On the morning of the trial -a lawyer came to represent the prisoners, and a representative of the -Netherlands minister at Berlin also came to act in their interests. All -the prisoners were tried together and were sentenced to six months’ -imprisonment on a combined charge of mutiny and damage to property, the -punishment to be carried out in a fortress. As it happened, and although -the trial took place so early as 27th September, this sentence was never -carried out. Whether this was due to the military situation or to some -other cause is not known. The signing of the Armistice removed finally -all possibility of the imprisonment ever being carried into effect. - -[Illustration: - - Group of recaptured officers in a room at Holzminden. -] - -It was unfortunate that while the Holzminden tunnel was under -construction another tunnel was in progress at Clausthal, where the twin -brother Niemeyer was Commandant. It is now known that the tunnel there -would have been completed in about a week from the date on which the -Holzminden escape took place. The “Poldhu” had been busy between the -camps, but, no exact synchronisation being possible, it remained simply -to go full steam ahead in each camp and trust to luck. As was -anticipated, the Holzminden escape led to a very serious search at -Clausthal, and the tunnel was discovered just as it was approaching -completion. The tunnel of Holzminden was, however, so much the bigger -affair that there was a rough justice in this award of Fortune. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - MAKING GOOD - - -The officers’ Lager at Stralsund lay on an island, or rather on a twin -pair of islands, called Greater and Smaller Danholm, separated from the -mainland by a narrow strip of water over which a permanent ferry plies -to and fro. On the further side of these islands and separated from them -again by a wider channel, perhaps two-thirds of the width of the Solent -at its narrowest point, lay the pleasant shores of Rügen. The blue sea -and the wooded slopes of this fair island recalled to the home-sick -prisoner the beauties of her smaller sister of the Wight. - -Hither in the summer of 1918 came 500 odd hungry British officers, the -unwilling guests of his then Imperial Majesty Wilhelm II. They were a -not inconsiderable part of the many taken in the three gigantic German -offensives between March 21st and May 27th. They came in big batches -from the sorting-out camps of Rastatt and Karlsruhe—the former place a -memory that will endure for their lives with those who were there—or in -little driblets from the hospitals whence they had been discharged. - -Hither came also in September 200 officers from Aachen -(Aix-la-Chapelle), the last of their illusions gone. They had been sent -from various camps to that place, the stepping-stone for internment and -happier things. They had stayed there two months. Their parcels, which -should have been forwarded to them, went persistently “west.” In many -cases even their luggage had gone to Holland. They had been taken for -walks and had viewed the promised land. And now, at the eleventh hour, -the congestion of sick at Aachen had necessitated their removal and they -had been side-tracked to the Baltic—to wait and wait, and begin the -dreary round again. They moved our sympathy. They had had two and a half -years of it, and now they had as little to eat as, and not much more to -wear than, the new arrivals. But one of them had a typewriter. - -And hither came also a little party of three from Holzminden Camp in -Brunswick, transferred, as I have previously explained, as suspected -persons to a camp of really reliable security. Major Gilbert, Lieutenant -Ortweiler, and myself had been told one morning that we had an hour and -a half in which to pack. We packed and went. Stralsund was like a rest -cure. - -It is indeed a pleasant spot. A channel, narrow at the entrances, -broadening to ninety yards in the middle, divides the islands. Standing -on the bridge which spans the channel at its narrowest, one looks west -to Stralsund town. Whether with the setting sun behind it or with the -morning sun full on it, it is beautiful. Venice viewed from the sea -could hardly be prettier. The dome of the Marianne Kirche dominates the -town, and the bat-coloured sails of the fishing vessels could be just -seen, with an occasional motor-boat, moving in the blue Sound. In -Greater Danholm the chestnuts are magnificent. There is one avenue of -trees which meet each other overhead as in a cathedral nave. And there -was one little segregated, fenced-off spot which for no particular -reason we called King Henry VIIIth’s Garden—the name seemed to suit. One -could take half an hour walking round the camp. - -But it is not my intention by painting too glowing a picture to alienate -my reader’s sympathy. The place was good, but German. The buildings were -good, but had held Russians. The air was good, but there were smells. We -had been long-time prisoners—veterans, we considered ourselves, in this -horde of “eighteeners.” And it would be cold, very cold in winter. - -We had a fortnight’s holiday, revelling in the unexpected beauty, the -much less uncomfortable beds with their extra sheet, the open-air sea -bath in the mornings, the freedom and scope of movement, the almost -latent wire, the inoffensiveness of the German personnel, the -unobtrusiveness of the Commandant, the beer (liquorice, but still beer -of a sort), the exchange of news with the new prisoners and the picking -up of old threads, the sight of the sea from our landing window, the -games on real grass.... - -And then, in quite a different sense, we began looking round. - -We learned that the authorities were quietly and politely confident that -the place was escape-proof. They expected attempts. Oh! yes. “We know it -is your duty. We should do it ourselves.” And conventionalities of the -sort that are common when German officers of a decent type—and there -were such on this island—find themselves in conversation with -Englishmen. “But it cannot be done—no one has ever escaped from here. -True, it might be easy to cut the wire and get on to the main part of -the island, but we have our dogs. If you swim to the mainland you will -be recognised and brought back. Even if you get across to Rügen you have -to get off it and you would be missed. We have our seaplane to scour the -sea. The ferry is guarded....” and so on. - -Subsequent events appeared to justify this view. Attempts were made, and -failed in quick succession. In each case the objective was the same, -though aimed at by different methods—the open sea and the Danish island -of Bornholm or Danish territory elsewhere. Two officers, yachtsmen born, -cut the wire one night, swam out towards Rügen, boarded an empty fishing -vessel about 200 yards out and got clean away. They stranded off the -north-west corner of Rügen and were recaptured. Three others -commandeered a boat which had been left unpadlocked in the channel, -rowed to the mainland, and separated. Two were recaptured immediately, -the third was at large some days and was eventually arrested some way -down the coast. I did not learn his story. Another party of three -attempted to paddle over to Rügen on a cattle trough. They selected a -stormy night, were upset fifty yards out of the channel, and got back, -unobserved, with difficulty, and, as one of them could not swim, rather -luckily. - -So far as the German precautions went, the net upshot of these attempts -was that stringent orders were issued about leaving boats in the channel -or on the shores of the island unpadlocked. For the rest, the Commandant -was satisfied with his second line of defence, the water, which was -moreover (it was now mid-September) growing daily colder and more -unattractive. - -Such was the position when the Holzminden trio began to put their heads -together. I do not think any of us seriously entertained the idea of an -escape by water. We were all hopeless landsmen, and Gilbert at any rate -could not swim. A “stunt” by sea necessitated a combination of luck, -pluck, opportunism, and, above all, watermanship. Our armament, such as -it was, was of a different kind. We all knew German, Gilbert and I -indifferently, Ortweiler fluently. We had the wherewithal to bribe. We -could lay our hands on a typewriter. We knew the ropes of a land journey -by railway. G. and O. had both been “out,” the latter more than once; -and I had heard these things much discussed. Moreover, Gilbert, being a -Major, had secured a small room which he invited me to share, and -Ortweiler was a member of our mess. In a deep-laid scheme privacy is -almost an essential. Greatest asset of all, the Germans were not -suspicious and they left us alone. - -Our idea, very much in the rough, crystallised as follows: together or -separately—as events might dictate—to bluff the sentry at the main gate, -and at the ferry; to get on to the mainland and there travel by train to -the Holland frontier; and to have our preparations so thoroughly made -that, on paper at least, our plan was bound to be successful. - -Our first idea was to co-opt three or four others and go out as a party -of orderlies with one of us disguised as a German sentry in charge. -Individual officers had on several occasions already been into the town -with a party of orderlies on some “fatigue” or other in order to have a -look round. Our idea was to concoct some imaginary fatigue which would -take us not only into the town but out of it, where we should have an -opportunity of assuming our real disguise and separating on our -respective routes. We got so far as to fashion out our bogus rifle in -the rough, but before very long we discarded the whole idea for various -reasons. The rifle would be too difficult to imitate to pass in broad -daylight. We could not be certain of securing the uniform of our sentry; -all the sentries on duty in the camp were likely to be personally known -to one another. Difficulties of taking our disguise with us, -difficulties of hitting on the right sort of “fatigue” to disarm -suspicion ... the “cons” had it emphatically. - -[Illustration: - - Facsimile of the original permit-card copied by Lockhead. -] - -Moreover, in the interval the looked-for “key” had presented itself. -Gilbert had succeeded in removing a workman’s “permit” from his coat -pocket while he was working in the camp. This “permit” entitled the -civilian in question to visit the camp and its environs between given -dates, name and business being duly stated, and the permit signed by the -Camp Commandant. Printed in German print on a plain white card, it -appeared not impossible of exact imitation. Our hopes were more than -fulfilled. Lieut. Lockhead, one of the party weather-bound en route for -a neutral country, had, we knew, performed yeoman service in this line -when at Holzminden. We showed him the card. Within two days he had -accomplished an exact replica, including the signature, so good as to be -undistinguishable from the original. Our hopes rose. It remained to -complete the remainder of our essential equipment—civilian clothes, -German money, forged passports, maps, and compasses. With the two former -I was entirely unprovided. One passport, forged on an old model, was in -Gilbert’s possession, but we doubted its efficacy in northern Germany. -The two latter articles I was content to leave to the last moment, when -I should have definitely decided on my route. One had the feeling that -it was absurd to spend hours on acquiring articles necessary only for -the last lap, when one might be stopped at the gate—a curiously -illogical reasoning, as these things, or at least one of them, are -indispensable for even a short journey across country ... but there it -was. - -It was at this point that the event occurred which led me definitely to -abandon my Holland scheme and decide for the Danish border. A German -private soldier came into our room one day to do some work. He was in -uniform but was on leave in Stralsund, which was his home, and in the -then prevailing shortage of labour he was lending a hand to his -erstwhile master. - -No “escaper” ever omits a chance—provided he can speak German at all—of -profiting by a conversation with someone from outside the camp. Indeed, -this was so well known to the authorities that in most camps anybody -coming in from outside was escorted by a sentry and not left alone -during the period of his stay in the camp. Stralsund was an exception, -possibly because the English had been there so short a time, possibly -because of the Commandant’s complacent idea as to its security. Be that -as it may, I had this fellow fairly quickly sized up. It turned out his -job was doing sentry on the Denmark border. - -“Is it dull there?” - -“Frightfully.” - -“Do many get over up there?” - -“Oh yes.” - -“What? Prisoners?” - -“A few, but smugglers and deserters mostly. We pretend not to see them.” - -Here was an eye-opener! I threw caution to the winds and found that I -had not mistaken my man. He was a genial rascal, venal and disloyal to -the core. Before he had been in that room half an hour he had committed -himself far too deeply in the eyes of the German law for me to have any -fear that he would turn round and blow the gaff on _us_. He told us -(Gilbert had come in by that time) of a slackly guarded frontier, with -wire so low that you could walk over it; of the exact route from -Stralsund to the last station outside the _Grenz-Gebiet_ (border -territory); of the innocuous passage of an ordinary _Personal-Zug_ (slow -train) without the complications of passport-checking or examination -over the dreaded Kiel Canal. He came in next day with some civilian -collars and ties and an inadequate railway map, and on each day he went -out the heavier by sundry woollen and flannel clothes, cigarettes, soap, -chocolate, and cheese. He gave me in return about 30 marks in German -money. He had promised to do even more, but he made some excuse that his -leave was up and we saw him no more. Probably he funked it. Viewed as a -commercial deal, the balance was in his favour; but he had given us -information that was beyond rubies. Our hopes rose higher, and by this -time Gilbert and I were more or less definitely committed to the Denmark -scheme. - -We had not long to wait for an opportunity of seeing how our passports -should read. I will say no more. Even at this distance of time, -immeasurably magnified by the intervening events, there still may lurk -the long arm in German law, and we need not doubt that there are still -too many souls in Germany attracted by the thought: _Wie soll ich -Detective werden?_ (How shall I become a detective?) to make it -altogether safe for those concerned if I were to be more explicit in -print. Suffice it to say that our tools were of tender years, cheaply -bought, and therefore on both accounts the less deserving of -retribution[13]. I had sold my field service ration boots for 45 marks, -through the agency of Ortweiler. I had therefore collected about 75 -marks, and this was, of course, ample for my requirements. I was all the -time anxiously on the look-out for civilian clothes. I had got a pair of -old blue trousers from Captain Clarke of the Merchant Marine. I had an -old pair of ration “Tommy” boots which on comparison with the home-grown -article might just “do.” I had shirt, collar, and tie. I wanted hat, -coat, and, in view of the lateness of the season, some sort of overcoat. - - -[Footnote 13: This chapter was written over a year ago and times have -changed. We borrowed the passport off a glazier’s boy who used to come -into the camp. And we sold our boots to one of the camp canteen -officials who was distinctly venal.] - - -By great good luck the hat, or, as it happened, cap, materialised. A new -naval suit with cap had arrived for a merchant skipper who had gone to -Aachen for a medical board with the hope of exchange. As soon as we had -heard he had been passed and gone over the border, G. and I promptly -closed for the suit, of which we had secured the refusal, with his -_chargé d’affaires_. Shorn of its buttons the suit made a smart civilian -costume for Gilbert, and shorn of its badge the cap became merely of the -naval type of headgear so common amongst German boys or men of the -working-class. I had always decided I would shape my rôle according to -the clothes which I could find, and I now decided that I should travel -4th class, as some sort of mechanic. For a coat I had to fall back upon -a brand new English coat sent out from home and confiscated by and -restolen from the Germans. I made it as shabby as I could in the short -time at my disposal but even so it was far too smart to pass for my -class of “character” except at night. I therefore decided that if -travelling by day I would wear over my coat a very old dark blue naval -raincoat which had been given me. I was thus equipped. I might possibly -have done better if I had waited, but the completion of my arrangements -had to synchronise, as far as possible, with that of the others. I had -also been able to copy a fairly good map of northern Schleswig, showing -roads and railways, and, by great good luck and at the eleventh hour, I -secured what I believe was the last compass but one in the whole camp. -The shortage of these articles seemed extraordinary, when one reflected -on the abundance of them in most of the old camps of longer standing. To -the donor on this occasion I am eternally indebted, as I could not have -managed very well without it. - -From one of the camp personnel I had elucidated the fact that the -Hamburg train went at 6.40 in the morning. From another source we heard -there was also a train at 6.43 in the evening. - -Gilbert meanwhile had been busy with the typewriter which he had secured -with great forethought from its owner in the Aachen party. The -“_Ausweis_” forms were completed, each according to our own particular -specifications. - -Mine ran as follows: - - _Personal-Ausweis_ ⎫ - _für_ ⎪ - _Karl Stein_ ⎬ on the outside, - _aus_ ⎪ - _Stralsund_ ⎭ - -and on the inside: on the left-hand side, my photograph—(I had been -photographed in this very camp by the Germans and I had been wearing at -the time an old Indian volunteer tunic which in the photograph looked -much like a German tunic. This was pure chance and very lucky). - -On the right side, my particulars: - - Karl Stein. - - _Date of Birth_: 4/6/1880. - _Place of birth_: Stralsund. - _State belonging to_: Prussian. _Height_: 1.60 metres. - _Chin_: Ordinary. _Eyes_: Brown. - _Mouth_: Ordinary. _Hair_: Brown. - _Nose_: Large. _Beard_: Moustache. - _Particular marks_: None. - - _Authentic Signature_: Karl Stein. - (A very lame and halting hand this!) - - “Herewith certified that the owner of the pass has subscribed - his name with his own hand.” - - (_Signed_) Lieutenant of Police, Stralsund. - -The stamps affixed to the passport—two on the photograph, one on the -right-hand side—were an amazingly clever imitation by Lockhead (the -friend who had already helped us with the forging of the permit-cards). -He did these stamps by hand through some purple carbon paper that I -still had with me from an old army message-form book, and to be believed -they should be seen in the original. - - 1314. - - PERSONAL-AUSWEIS - - für - - Karl Stein - aus / Stralsund - -[Illustration] - - Vor- und Zunamen: Karl Stein - - Geburtstag: 4. Juni 1880 - - Geburtsort: Stralsund - - Staatsangehörigkeit: Preussen - - Grösse: 1,60. Mund: gewöhnlich - - Gestalt: untersetzt Augen: braun - - Kinn: gewöhnlich Bart: Schnurrbart - - Nase: groß Haare: braun - - Besondere Kennzeichen:— - - Karl Stein - (Eigenhändige Unterschrift.) - -Es wird hiermit bescheinigt, dass der Passinhaber vorstehende -Unterschrift eigenhändig vollzogen hat. - - STRALSUND, den 1. Mai 1918 - DIE POLIZEI-SEKRETARIAT. - I.A. - - Kozmin - -G. took infinite trouble with the filling up of these passports. He had -acquired a good flowing German hand and he filled the particulars in -himself, with a flourish for the signature of the Police _Leutnant_ at -the bottom. He also filled in the permit-cards. We had each two -passports, one made out as from Stralsund, and the other as from -Schleswig. We should naturally show the Stralsund one in the Schleswig -territory and _vice versâ_. - -We were now ready, or as ready as anyone is until the actual time comes -to go, when there are always a thousand and one things to be thought of. - - * * * * * - -It was arranged amongst ourselves that Ortweiler should have the first -shot, as he stood easily the best chance of effecting escape. -Accordingly, on Monday the 14th October he made his exit. He was well -made up with a false moustache stuck on with some very diluted form of -spirit gum, and fiercely curved at the tips. It was only tow, but it -served its purpose in the dark. Our duty was to patrol the avenue -leading to the main gate between 5 and 6.30 p.m., to mark down what -dangerous Germans had left the camp, and to stop O. if anyone who was -likely to suspect him hove in sight. - -I should mention here that from the barrack selected as dressing room to -the main gate is about 200 yards. From the main gate on to the ferry is -another 350 yards. After dark at this time of year various Germans -living in the town were likely to be leaving the island for the night, -and the ferry was thus constantly on the move. Our object was primarily -to avoid the more dangerous Germans, e.g. an officer or the Interpreter, -who knew us all well by sight. - -All went well. I gave the signal “all clear” at about 6.30 and G. and I -piloted Ortweiler out, slowing down as he passed us 40 yards from the -main gate. We saw him take out his card and hand it to the sentry, who -then let him through the postern. It had worked! We breathed a sigh of -relief. Just as we were going back, we met the Interpreter homeward -bound for the ferry. He was too close behind O. to be exactly safe, so I -engaged him in conversation. He was in a hurry and I could only think of -something rather fatuous to say, but I held him up a minute or two and -that may have caused him to miss Ortweiler’s particular boat[14]. - - -[Footnote 14: I have since heard that they went over the ferry -together.] - - -We “cooked” Ortweiler’s _appel_ at 8 p.m.—this is a familiar device for -concealing escape. The result was that the barrack Feldwebel did not -report his absence till next day at 9 a.m. roll-call. He had thus twelve -hours’ clear start, by which time he was most of the way to Berlin. We -thought him almost a certainty to get over with his fluent knowledge of -German, and he did, in point of fact, escape into Holland, _viâ_ Berlin, -Frankfort, and Crefeld, after a night’s thrilling experience on the -actual border which would be a story in itself. - -G. and I were naturally elated, the more so as from enquiries it -transpired that the authorities had absolutely no suspicion of how O. -had got out. Owing to repeated wire-cutting and escapes into the island, -the guard had been increased and placed outside the wire. No one had -passed the sentries who had not the proper credentials. Of that they -were quite convinced. It was believed that he was still hiding in the -camp. We hugged ourselves. - -Friday of that week, the 18th, the day selected as “_der Tag_,” was an -unforgettable one. Our kit had to be packed and labelled; final -arrangements made about feeding in the event of recapture; compromising -documents of any sort had to be destroyed; at the last moment I realised -that I had no braces, no German cigarettes, and no matches. To crown all -there was a barrack hockey match which we could not very well avoid. - -During the day it so happened that we were twice invaded by Feldwebels. -On the first occasion the door was locked and we had to throw a map into -the corner and then open the door, an action which would in itself have -been of damning suspicion in most camps. On the second, the Feldwebel -found G. cutting sandwiches of German _Kriegs Brot_ (war bread). G. had -to explain that it was a new attempt to make _Kriegs Brot_ palatable, -and invited the Feldwebel to come and see the result at dinner time. -Doubtless he came, but there were no sandwiches and no us. At 4 p.m. we -had our high tea—four Copenhagen eggs each and tea and jam. At 5 p.m. -the roll was called, and immediately after it we started transferring -our disguise under cover of the growing darkness to the barrack from -which we were going to make our final exit. - -It had been arranged after some discussion that Gilbert should leave not -before dark, and not later than 6, and that I should give him ten -minutes clear before leaving. This would give me little time to catch -the 6.42 train to Hamburg if I was at all held up (a forecast which was -verified by events); but there was no help for it. It was necessary that -Gilbert’s disguise should be assisted to the full by darkness. - -We had let a few friends into the secret and these were cruising about -like destroyers up and down the avenue, reporting the departure of -dangerous Germans. Gilbert did not eventually get off much before 6, and -it seemed a long time before the leader of the convoy reported that G. -was safely through the gate. I gave him ten minutes, conscious mainly of -the fact that I had forgotten any German I had ever learnt, and then -stepped forth. - -I was Karl Stein, firm of Karl Stein & Co., Furniture Dealers, -Langestrasse, Stralsund; I had been into the Kommandantur to arrange -about a new contract for officers’ cupboards. I knew the shop because I -had seen it the day before when I went to the town hospital under escort -with a party of officers for massage. I needed no massage, of course, -but had only done this to acquaint myself with the geography of the -town. - -With a blank stare I passed several brother-officers walking up and down -the avenue and reached the gate. My great moment had come, but the -sentry simply looked at my card carefully, said _schön_, and handed it -back. I walked very fast down to the ferry. There was no boat on my side -and I saw I should have to wait some minutes. The sentry at the ferry -examined my card and handed it back. How should I avoid the two Germans -who were already there on the jetty waiting for the boat? I decided to -have a violent fit of coughing. - -I must here mention that my knowledge of German, acquired during -captivity, was not such as would enable me to support a -cross-examination of more than a minute or two. I had, however, -practised the “pure” German accent with assiduity. In point of fact I -hardly spoke a hundred words on the journey, and some of these were not -absolutely necessary. - -At last the ferry boat came over, empty. I got in and sat in the bows. -There was an English orderly working the bow oar—I had seen him the -previous day. I kicked him, and he realised what I was and shielded me -as much as he could from the other occupants of the boat, which was now -gradually filling. It was a long five minutes and I continued my violent -fit of coughing, leaning over the side as if in a paroxysm. There were -two Germans in the bows and one of them touched me on the shoulder and -suggested that I should trim the boat by sitting in the middle. I -complied meekly, feeling really very wretched indeed. - -At the last I thought I was really done for. The German adjutant got -into the boat. He didn’t know me by sight, but I thought it was more -than likely that he would suspect me. Mercifully he began to talk to -some lady typists from the camp who had just preceded him. - -We shoved off eventually, almost full. I continued coughing till we got -across. When the boat discharged I went ashore almost last. I gave them -a wide berth in front, and as soon as I was clear made off at my best -pace for the station. Now I was Karl Stein of Schleswig, carpenter, -ex-army man, and recalled for civilian employment, catching the train -for his native country. I tore up my “permit” and dropped it in the -road—one month off my sentence anyway. - -As I expected, I just missed my train. I had no watch, but the clock on -the Marianne Kirche showed me I should be late. I reached the station -about 6.50; it was rather full of people. I wondered if Gilbert was away -in that train ... and then, vaguely, what the chances were of my being -nabbed before the next went—this, I noted, was at 6.40 the next morning -(Saturday). I think if there had been any outgoing trains that night I -should have taken them, even though they led me east instead of west. -But as it happened there were none. I went into the men’s lavatory in -the station, shut myself in a closet and reflected. I thought at that -time to my horror that I had forgotten my matches, so I denied myself a -smoke—my matches turned up later and I needed what few there were. I -solaced myself with a slab of chocolate. - -The position was not encouraging. Our information about trains was -correct. Our friends would not be able to camouflage our absence, which -would certainly be discovered by 8 p.m., reported by 9 p.m. It was more -than likely that they would telephone to the station. I determined not -to be in the station at all between 9 and 12. If I was arrested next -morning, I was. In the meantime it was good to be free. - -It was a beautiful October night in Stralsund. I braced myself up and -begged a light for a cigarette from a youngster at a street corner, and -then strolled along the streets that led from the station to the Kirche. -I knew these now quite well enough not to get lost. I sat on a bench and -looked across the moonlit water, which near the station runs right in in -a broad and lovely sweep. I lit a pipe from my German cigarette and -smoked comfortably. Should I get off next morning?... - -I was cooling down now, and wandered down past the Marianne Kirche to a -cinema in the Langestrasse. A boy there told me the booking office was -shut. I wandered round and round till one o’clock. I sat for a long time -on my old bench overlooking the water; at another place I entered a -private garden and sheltered for an hour under a wall right on the -water’s edge. It was blowing fairly fresh. - -About one o’clock I returned to the station and entered the waiting -room, full of recumbent figures, mostly soldiers and sailors. I got hold -of two chairs and tried to sleep. There was a sailor on the other side -of the table. - -At 4 o’clock I got up and had a cup of coffee. The waiting room was now -fairly full of people, most of them presumably going by my train. - -I had by now a two days’ growth of beard and my moustache was fairly -long and well down over the corners of my mouth. Moreover, I had had a -fairly sleepless night. - -In my pockets I carried three large sandwiches of German bread with -English potted meat inside, about twenty slabs of Caley’s marching -chocolate, a box of Horlick’s milk tablets, a spare pair of socks, some -rag and vaseline, my pipe and tobacco, English and German cigarettes, my -compass, money, and papers. I had an old German novel in my hands which -I pretended to read with great assiduity. Half an hour before the train -was due to start, I went to the booking office. I was surprised to hear -my own voice. “Fourth to Hamburg, please.” I had no idea what it cost, -so I tendered a 20-mark note. The ticket cost only seven marks! I went -back to the waiting room, and a few minutes later faced the barrier. No -questions, no suspicion. I breathed again and wondered what that -Commandant had done. Wired to Rostock perhaps.... - -My carriage was not over-full at the start—four or five women and two -elderly men. I had no trouble with them. Their conversation began and -maintained itself exclusively about food, but they were cheerful enough. - -Before Rostock the carriage had filled up and I with British politeness -was strap-hanging. An old woman began asking me to shift her _Korb_ -(basket). I could not exactly understand what she wanted and must have -looked rather foolish. However, I did the right thing eventually. - -We changed at Rostock. I was half expecting trouble but nothing -happened. A porter told me the platform for the Hamburg train. I got -this stereotyped question fairly pat. - -To Hamburg the train was overflowing; we were over 40 in a tiny -compartment. I was wedged in against the window, strap-hanging. At one -intermediate station a young soldier got in with a goose hanging out of -his haversack. He immediately became the centre of an admiring throng. -He was a cheerful youth and bandied repartee with all and sundry—I could -not catch his sallies, which were in low German and greeted with roars -of laughter. I suppose he was the son of some farmer and had “wangled” -this goose, which would probably have fetched 150 marks in the market, -to take back to his mess-mates. He got out just before Hamburg. I could -not have asked for a better foil. - -Hamburg! I had never hoped for even so long a run as this. Was there -really a chance?... In any case, I was now well clear of the Stralsund -zone. I began to realise that the heavy week-end traffic was helping me -and that I was indeed no more than a needle in a haystack. I ate a -sandwich and an apple which I had bought at Lubeck. - -We ran into the big station at about 2.40 in the afternoon—it was very -full. It did not take me long to find the “departure” notices, Kiel -3.10. I took my place in the “queue” for the fourth class booking -office. Behind me two women had an altercation as to priority of place -in the “queue.” I was rather afraid they were going to appeal to me. I -had no wish for the rôle of Solomon at that moment. - -I booked direct to Flensburg—about four marks’ worth—and made my way -downstairs to the departure platform, which was indicated clearly -enough. I did not like the odd quarter of an hour which I had to wait -before the train came in. I was not very happy about my dark blue -waterproof. I could not see anything approaching its counterpart. If one -stands still, one can be examined at leisure; if one moves up and down, -one runs the gauntlet of a hundred restless eyes, any one pair of which -may at some previous date have had first hand cognisance of a typical -naval rubber-lined English waterproof.... - -Then I blundered. There was a coffee-stall on the platform. I went up to -it and asked for a cup. I had drunk nothing since 4 o’clock in the -morning. Fortunately neither of the _Frauleins_ in the stall paid any -attention to me. Just then I saw the notice “_for soldiers and sailors -only_” printed up in big letters. I should have known that, but no one -had noticed anything. - -When _would_ that train come in? - -It came at last. I chose the carriage with fewest soldiers in it, and -most women, and made for my strategical position by the window. But it -was impossible to avoid men altogether. I had one strap-hanging next to -me from Hamburg to Kiel. Everybody started chattering at once. How could -I keep out of this all the way to Kiel without suspicion? Of course, -they were talking about food—various ways of dishing up potatoes. - -I looked out of the window, pretending to be interested in the country. -It was impossible even to pretend to read in that crush. A man on the -seat was forcibly expressing his views to two _Frauleins_ on the new -(10th) War Loan. They giggled. - -I often wonder if those Hamburg folk then had any notion that another -fortnight would see the Red Flag floating in their midst. - -At Neumünster we had an invasion. The carriage, full already, became -packed. Four girls of the farmer class—sisters, I judged them—got in at -my window. I lost my place of vantage and was relegated to the middle of -the floor. I felt a pasty-faced youth quite close to me sizing me up.... - -Fortunately the farmer girls riveted all attention for half a dozen -stations. They were in boisterous spirits and screamed with laughter at -their own jokes. They spoke dialect and I could not understand them, but -I grinned feebly in unison. When they got out, I recovered my post by -the window. Bless them, anyway, for a diversion. - -At the next station an elderly man who was sitting on a basket -immediately in front of me said something to me directly. He was not in -any way a formidable character, but he spoke villainous dialect and I -could not make head or tail of his question. He was referring to -something in the station. I said _Ja_ and looked out of the window in a -knowing way. But I could not risk a second question. I felt the -pasty-faced youth’s eyes on me again, and I made a bee-line for the -lavatory. When I emerged I took up a fresh position. - -The train was emptying as we approached Kiel, and for a time I got my -head out of the window and enjoyed the draught. Then a little girl -standing by me asked me to pull up the window again. I had my second -sandwich. - -We ran into Kiel at about 6 o’clock. There was no difficulty. A guard, -in answer to my question, pointed at the Flensburg train. The carriage I -got into was not lit at all and almost empty. What a relief to sit! A -girl came in to check my ticket, and I went to sleep. We went over the -canal in the dark. There were two men in my carriage. I woke up at some -wayside station and asked if it was Flensburg. They laughed and said -Flensburg was two hours away yet. I muttered sleepily that I was a -stranger, and pretended to drop off again. - -I reached Flensburg about 10.30 p.m., and thought of the unforgettable -scene in _The Riddle of the Sands_. I was no less depressed than -Carruthers on that occasion. I was very thirsty, but it was a poky -little station and there was nothing in the shape of a waiting room or -coffee-stall. I lingered on the platform and saw a porter who appeared -to be closing down for the night. I asked him what time the train to -Tondern went next day. He first said 6 o’clock, but then reflected that -the next day was Sunday and there would not be a train till eleven. He -added that the train went from the other station. So there were two -stations in Flensburg! My sentry friend had not told me this. I asked -him where the other station was and he directed me. My German at this -juncture was so abominable that I think he must have been a Dane. - -At the other station, which I found to be the main one, there was a -fairly large crowd in the booking hall. They were waiting for the -in-coming 11 o’clock train from the north. Entry to the platform and -waiting rooms was barred. The train came in, the crowd dissolved, and -the station was shut up for the night. I had got to put in twelve dreary -hours in this place. - -I took risks that night in Flensburg, risks that might have been fatal -further south. I argued that here if anywhere one might expect to find a -scrubby-faced man with a nautical cap and overcoat. I walked for about -an hour past the quays, past the two main hotels, then up towards the -church and down again to the quays. I could find no public -drinking-fountain, which was what I was looking for, but I had learned -the rough geography of the place. - -There was a low barrier leading on to one of the quays. The gate was -locked but I climbed the barrier and sat down on a bench. Behind me was -one of those pavilions such as are seen on an English pier-head; in -front, a steamer moored alongside. Both were quite deserted. Here at -least I could sit and find solitude. - -I took off my boots and attended to one of my toes which I had rubbed -playing hockey the day before—what weeks ago it seemed! I went through -my pockets and—joy!—found my matches. I smoked a luxurious pipe. Then, -still in my socks, I boarded the steamer and searched her for water -without success. She was fitted up for passengers and for a moment I -entertained the idea of stowing myself away on her. - -Just as I had finished putting on my boots again a man—a night-watchman -I suppose he was—came on to the quay from the left. He must have been -attracted by some movement. I confess I thought it was all up. - -“What are you doing here?” - -“Nothing.” - -“But you have no business to be here at all.” - -Silence implied assent. He beckoned me after him. He was not a Prussian, -this man, whatever else he was. Perhaps he was afraid of me. He appeared -to be taking me into some form of building on my right. I pretended to -be coming along after him, but I swerved to the right, scrambled over -the barrier and ran for 200 yards down the street. Fortunately there was -no one about. I was not followed. I was thankful I had got my boots on -in time. - -I passed the first hotel and saw a woman with a man carrying her bag go -in and ask for a room. She got one. I followed in after her and asked -for a bed. The proprietor said he was full up and shut the door in my -face. Could a two days’ growth of beard make such a difference in a man? -I was rather hurt. - -But worse was to follow. I entered another hotel and saw some German -sailors being given the keys of their bedrooms by a Fraulein. I asked -her for some coffee. “No.” “Water?” “No.” “Nothing to drink?” “No, -nothing.” - -I came to my senses and fled.... - -I went up towards the church, which stands on the top of a steep hill. -There are some gardens sloping down the hill. I found an old sort of -summer-house in one of these and went to sleep. It was about 1 a.m., and -none too warm. - -I was up at dawn and started again on my weary pilgrimage of the streets -of Flensburg. How I hated that place! I half thought of altering my plan -and doing the rest of the journey on foot. It was about 70 kilometres to -the frontier. - -I passed three military policemen in half an hour and wondered -resentfully what they were doing in such large quantities on a _Sunday_ -morning. - -At about eight I got to the station, and ate my last sandwich. Assuming -that the porter had been right the previous night, I had got to put in -three hours more dreary waiting. There were no overhead notices, but I -noticed a useful-looking collection of time-tables stuck up on big -boards in a little alcove just out of the booking hall. If I could get -behind the rearmost of these I could put in much of my time unobserved. -People might come and people might go, but they would never dream that I -had been there all the time. - -I examined the time-tables. I could make nothing of the Sunday trains, -but I found the name Ober-Jersthal. That had been the station given by -our informant at Stralsund as the last station outside the -_Grenz-Gebiet_. In the maps we had seen in the camp we had never been -able to verify this place. Ober-Jersthal must be on the main line -running up the east Schleswig coast. So far so good, but at what time -would this train go? It could not be the same train as the Tondern -train, for Tondern is west Schleswig. - -I wandered on to the platform. The bookstall was open and I bought a -paper and also a Pocket Railway Guide. The Guide had a good map. I saw -from this that the Tondern and Ober-Jersthal lines branched off at -Tingleff—possibly the two trains went in one as far as Tingleff. I had -not long to wait for corroboration. At the cloak-room I heard a man ask -the attendant what time the train went for a station which I knew to be -north of Ober-Jersthal on the same line. The answer was 11.3. There -could be no doubt of it now. I booked for Ober-Jersthal. - -[Illustration: - - SKETCH MAP - - OF - - N.W. GERMANY AND FRONTIERS - - Shaded area = Neutral country - - X = Point where the author crossed the frontier -] - -I had still an hour to wait. It passed somehow. I went into the waiting -room and got my first drink for 29 hours, a glass of beer; it was washy -stuff but went down wonderfully well. There were a lot of _Matrosen_ -(sailors) in the waiting room. Some of them stared at me and I began to -have the Hamburg platform haunted sensation over again. I pretended to -read my paper fiercely for half an hour and then went on to the -platform. I began to regret that I had not had a shave that morning. - -The train came in punctually. There was no incident till Tingleff, about -20 kilos northward. There I saw the passport officials waiting on the -platform. I had almost forgotten about this part of the business.... - -I took a sudden resolution and left the train. I reckoned that I had not -more than 40 miles to walk from this point, and by alighting here I -might dodge the passport men altogether. But I was undeceived. An -official was waiting at the entrance to the sub-way. He looked an -easy-going fellow and was engaged in conversation with someone. He took -my passport, glanced at it, and handed it back without a word. He did -not even look to compare my face with the photograph. The great moment -which Gilbert and I had rehearsed countless times had come and gone. - -I hurried through the sub-way, and saw another passport official talking -to the ticket collector. I handed in my Ober-Jersthal ticket. The man -looked up in some surprise, but I was ready for him: - -“I have shortened my journey.” - -“_Ach! So._” - -He asked no more questions. If he had, I doubt if I could have answered -them. I was conscious only of one great wish, to be rid of the railway -for good. I struck due north out of the station and found myself in a -_cul-de-sac_. I was so overjoyed to be quit of the rail that I plunged -into the fields. I had not gone very far before I had reason to repent. -There was water everywhere, and I made very heavy weather of it. My -objective was Lügumkloster, about 20 miles north-west from Tingleff, and -I reckoned that it could not be very long before I struck the main road. -After about two hours—it was now two o’clock in the afternoon—I found -the road. There were very few people about, and those I met gave me good -day civilly enough. If questioned at this point, I was going to have -been a South German staying with relatives in Flensburg and out for a -cross-country ramble—an improbable enough story. - -My hopes had risen and it all seemed reasonably plain sailing now. The -people were not suspicious. I had my map with a few important names ... -my compass ... I might even do it in the next night. - -I wondered exactly where old Gilbert was at this moment. It never even -occurred to me that he had been caught, but such, as afterwards -transpired, must have been the case[15]. - - -[Footnote 15: Gilbert had been caught actually on the border the night -before, under the impression that he was already in Denmark. He was -thought at first to be a smuggler!] - - -Passing through one village I met some French prisoners. I gave them -good day and told them who I was. They invited me to come into their -room in the farm where they were working. They were able to tell me what -village I was in, Dollderup, and this was a great assistance. I thanked -them in execrable French, gave them one of my remaining cigarettes, and -told them what news I could—they had heard nothing for months. I don’t -think anything on the whole journey was more difficult than framing -those few simple French sentences. - -The signposts made the journey easy after that. At 3 p.m. I had 18 -kilometres to go to Lügumkloster. I turned off the road, lay down in -some young fir trees, took off my boots, ate some chocolate, and had -half an hour or more’s sleep. - -I started again towards dusk. I was feeling very fit now and full of -hope. If only I didn’t muck it on the frontier.... - -The signposts did their duty nobly. There was a keen wind from the north -and the road was good. I had been out just two complete days. - -In one village a soldier with a rifle came out of a house just as I -passed it. He replied to my “_Guten Abend_” courteously. - -I reached Lügumkloster, I suppose, about half-past nine or ten. It is a -big rambling village, and I made a bad mistake here on leaving it. I -meant to take the Arrip-Arnum road, which runs roughly north-east. I -took a road running north-east, but after about an hour’s walking I -found it was leading me gradually more east than north—I had not noticed -that the wind had shifted from north to east. I decided to leave the -road and make due north on the compass, trusting to pick up the right -road later on. Then began a trying time. The ground was terribly wet and -intersected with continual wired ditches. I tore my clothes rather badly -here and I don’t think my trousers at the end of my journey would have -stood another rip. However, I kept due north, tacking as little as -possible to avoid the ditches, and eventually reached the road. It was, -I supposed, about 2 a.m. I estimated I was still quite ten miles from -the frontier. There was a strong wind, and I had not enough matches to -spare to look more than once or twice at my map. Added to this, the -signposts, previously so well-behaved, became infuriating. They only -mentioned names which I had never heard of, or at least had not -committed to memory. - -_Slog! Slog! Slog!_ I was getting tired. A man passed me with a cart. -What on earth did _he_ think he was doing at that time of night? - -There was lots of water about and I did not go thirsty. My cap made an -effective cup. - -A light railway running parallel to the road—this was the _Klein Bahn_ -(light railway) the fellow had told us of. - -_Slog! Slog! Sl—._ What on earth was that? A sentry box on the roadside, -and in the box a sentry yawning and stretching himself. On each side of -the road a belt of barbed wire running east and west. - -I took these things in vaguely, disconnectedly. Had I miscalculated and -was I over the border after all? He hadn’t even challenged.... - -A mile later I crawled into a little hollow by the roadside to rest and -get warm. I was getting strangely light-headed. I remember addressing -myself as a separate entity. I pulled myself together and sat down to -think. “I must go back and have another look at that wire. It can only -be a protective belt for military purposes.” - -I went back. The wire was there sure enough. So was the sentry box, but -I didn’t go up to it. The wire was like the rear defence lines one had -seen in France. - -I retraced my steps. I still had the idea of picking myself up from the -hollow where I had left myself. - -I continued my way, praying for the night to end. With the dawn, I felt -I should be able to think clearly again. - -“Arnum 4 kilometres.” The signposts were German enough, anyway. - -Arnum, I had made out from my map, lay about three or four kilometres -away from the point of the salient where I meant to cross the border. It -was nearly dawn and I saw that I could not get over that night. - -It was getting light as I reached the village. I left the road and -struck west across the fields, up on to some high ground. - -Somewhere in front there was Denmark. - -I chose a hiding place in some young firs and heather. I was sheltered -from the wind and was fairly comfortable. - -One more whole day! What an age it seemed! I got out my railway map and -looked at my position. I could not be more than five or six kilometres -from the frontier. Somewhere in the valley to the north-west stretched -the line of sentries. I decided to sally forth while it was still light -in the late afternoon, take my bearings, and go over at dark. - -As I lay there I heard footsteps. A boy came by singing and passed -within two yards of me. He didn’t see me. Just as well perhaps.... - -I took off my boots, rubbed my feet down, and had some chocolate. - -About noon it started raining and went on for about three hours. I got -wet through, but welcomed the rain on the whole as it would get darker -sooner. - -I was now thinking quite connectedly, and, it being impossible to sleep, -I went over in my mind again and again what I meant to do, and what I -knew already about the frontier. - -I suppose it was about 5 when I started out. I reckoned there would be -about one more hour’s daylight. I steered due north-west across fields -and marsh land for about three kilometres. Suddenly, to my right—about -400 yards off—the sentries’ boxes came full in view. There was no -mistaking them, about 200 yards between most of them, and quite 300 -yards between the two opposite me. - -I plumped down in the heather where I was standing, and watched them. I -saw a sentry leave his box and walk about 20 yards up and down. I could -see nothing that looked like wire. Only marsh and heather in between.... - -Looking from where I was into Denmark, there was a farmhouse immediately -between the two sentry boxes. I could take my course on that—it would be -silhouetted long after dark. - -I waited till it was quite dark, and then started off, taking no -risks—crawling. I came to a ditch with wire on each side of it. This was -the only wire I saw. When I judged I was well through the line, I got up -and walked to the farmhouse. A tall figure answered my knock. I began in -my best German.... - -He shook his head to indicate that he didn’t understand. I could have -kissed him. - -At last we hammered it out. - -“_Engelsk Offizier. Fangen. Gut._” - -He beckoned me in with beaming face. - -I had made good in just 72 hours. Beginners’ luck! - - - CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. B. PEACE, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s note: - -Page 33, ‘A.M.’ changed to ‘a.m.,’ “and garnished by 10 a.m.” - -Page 76, ‘door-way’ changed to ‘doorway,’ “in their own doorway” - -Page 77, second ‘the’ struck, “actually entered the tunnel.” - -Page 92, ‘ryefield’ changed to ‘rye-field,’ “the rye-field was reached” - -Page 111, ‘Lieutenant’ changed to ‘Leutnant,’ “the Feldwebel-Leutnant -Welman demanded” - -Page 116, ‘he’ changed to ‘be,’ “It should be added that” - -Page 137, ‘rye field’ changed to ‘rye-field,’ “through the rye-field” - -Page 139, ‘rye field’ changed to ‘rye-field,’ “the rye-field to report” - -Page 170, closing double quote inserted after ‘Prisoners?,’ “What? -Prisoners?”” - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tunnellers of Holzminden, by -Hugh George Edmund Durnford - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TUNNELLERS OF HOLZMINDEN *** - -***** This file should be named 52308-0.txt or 52308-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/0/52308/ - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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