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[Page 4]
[Transcriber's notes:
Captain Donald Percival Wells (13th Battalion, AIF) was badly wounded in the foot and leg, and was captured by the Germans when his unit surrendered on 11 April 1917.
After his capture and initial treatment in dressing stations in Belgium, he was moved to a prisoner of war hospital in Hameln (Hanover), then on to hospital in Karlsruhe on 1 May (page 8) and then to the Officers POW Camp in the same city on 13 July (page 26) where he remained until he was moved to the Officers POW Camp at Freiburg on 24 July (page 35).
The manuscript begins with a 3-page covering letter from Captain Wells, describing the content of the diary and how he kept the diary safe from discovery by the Germans – at one time getting the camp boot maker to conceal large parts of it within the sole of his boot. As a result of this, some parts of the diary show nail holes and what looks like water damage.
Throughout the diary, Captain Wells describes his life as a POW, including detailed information about his feelings, the letters he received from home, the accommodation, food, medical treatment and the running of the camp in general, the entertainments and activities by and for the prisoners, and escapes (both successful and unsuccessful) by other inmates. He gives quite detailed information about the POWs' diet and describes how they supplemented their German rations with food parcels, even contriving sweet and savoury pies and puddings, and their outrage, at one stage, at the price of wine in the camp canteen (page 53).
He also writes in detail about the general social life in the camp – "guest nights", invitations to tea, bridge tournaments, German lessons, lectures, debates, supervised walks outside the confines of the camp – and mentions quite a few other prisoners by name, including Lieutenant William Ambrose Cull, whose letters home are also in the State Library's WW1 collection (pages 29, 83, 96, 99, 101, 102, 103, 106).
Wells also writes about the 1917 peace proposals and conferences, speeches by Lloyd George and Asquith, the effect on the allies of the 1917 Russian Revolution and Italian and Turkish defeats, as well as the progress of the war on the Western Front.
On 8 December 1917, along with 20 or so others, Wells was moved from Freiburg to Heidelberg (page 98) and on 26 December 1917 he left Heidelberg, crossing out of Germany into Switzerland on 27 December (page 104).
Wells describes the warm welcome they received in Switzerland and the diary ends with New Year's Eve celebrations in Montreux.]
The attached diary covering the period April 11th 1917 to December 31st 1917, is the original diary kept by me daily, while a prisoner of war in Germany.
It is purely a personal diary having a detailed record of all my doings whilst in captivity.
In addition, the organisations of the various camps, all attempts to escape, (including a detailed account of two escapes), Important extracts from German newspapers, are contained in this diary, and on reading the diary one can obtain a general and true account of the life of a prisoner of war in Germany.
The paper on which the diary is written, was purchased at the various camp canteens.
Although strict instructions