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[Page 80]
We made good progress that night despite the heavy rain and darkness. This is where our little compass came in again. We took a direct course to where we knew the old raod from Tarsus to Gelebek ran. I had had previous experiences on this track during "my last escape". Just after daylight we reached the first of the hills and the rain had stopped and it looked like clearing up for good. About 9 a.m. sun came out so we took our clothing off and hung it on bushes to dry. That sun was glorious but what we needed now was food, we were ravenous. Then we started off towards where we knew the track was. We reached this about 1 p.m. We then had about 15 miles to do to Gelebek. We started off along the road passing a few Turks who took very little notice of us. We eventually reached Gelebek about 6 p.m. Cullen who had been working under the English Doctor at the Hospital went direct to the Hospital and reported to Captain Clifford who said that he had not yet been reported as being away. Samson and my self who were working for the German Military had been missed the day after we had gone. Of course we were taken before the German Commandant who wanted to know where we had been and why. I told him straight that I was tired of working under such conditions and that we had gone away in the hopes of a shift. All he said was. "It is impossible for you to get away, and turned us over to the Turkish Commandant for punishment for we were Turkish prisoners of war, although we were working under the Germans. We were immediately put into prison and were not told for any definite time. I will now give a brief description of that terrible Black Hole of Gelebek (not Calcutta). It was a room about 20 x 15 feet, not more. It was filled with bales of cotton woool. There was not a breath of ventilation, except what came through the cracks in the door. It was quite dark. This is the room we were put into the first day we were by ourselves, then two Turks were put in and a day or two after 7 Kurds were put in. There were now 11 of us in this awful place swarming with lice and fleas and the smell was terrible. We were allowed a little under half a pound of bread per day, and unless we had a bottle to hold water, we would have to go without a drink for 8 or 9 hours. We were allowed out for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night. It did not matter what happened we could not get out at any other time. The room was sweltering hot and that combined with the awful smell from these filthy Kurds was unbearable. At night time we used to strip off to the waist to enable us better to keep off attacks from the vermin. It was only from utter exhaustion that we were able to get to sleep at all which would most times be early morning. Can anybody realise the horrors of this place? Sometimes I think it was only a horrible dream but when I think it over, I know it actually happened. We had endured this for 14 days when one morning during our five minutes outside I saw one of our chaps in the distance. I took a