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[Page 10]
and smoke them to try and satisfy the craving for food.
The French civilians would very often place bread in the road for us to pick up, but they had to be very careful not to let a German officer see them do it, and I have seen German guards, when food was placed in this way, kick it into the gutter to prevent prisoners getting it. One poor Frenchman, noticing one of us without a cap, took the risk of placing a cap in a little boy's hand, directing him to give it to the Englishman without one, and the German guard let the boy do this and then deliberately snatched it from him and threw it into the canal. French people often asked the guard to allow them to give us a few slices of bread and rice; the guard would take this and promise to give it to us when we returned the prison, but it never reached us, as we learned afterwards that he either ate it himself, or sent it on to his frau.
We were one day given orders that anyone trying to take food from the French civilians would be severely punished, and the guards had strict instructions not to let us near the civilian population. When returning to our cells at night after a long day's hard work, and very hungry, we would lie down and wait for our mangley soup to be dished up, and very often the German guard would offer us half a loaf of bread for a watch, and I have seen gold watches and rings go for less than a loaf of bread, anything to satisfy our hunger. We were becoming so weak for the want of food that whenever we got the chance of gathering nettles, we would take them to the prison, make a fire as best we could from sticks gathered from the different jobs, which were concealed under our coats, boil the nettles and mix them with our watery soup, and this food