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[Page 19]
angry when we stood and laughed at them.
On night towards the end of November 1917, we were about to settle down the night, when the German Corporal told us to fall in, counted us and then gave the order to be ready to march off at 3 a.m. to Denain, a village beyond St. Amand. Two wagons were given for the sick, and only those who could not walk were allowed to ride, and the very thought of getting out of this hole for a better place kept us up.
Denain was a sort of collecting station, and here we met some hundreds of Englishmen who had come in from other works.
The order was given that in the evening we should board the train for Germany, but this was cancelled for about a week. In the meanwhile we were taken to St. Amand for another bath, and the guard had great trouble in getting us back, as men fell out every few minutes, either fainting or too weak to walk.
Just before leaving Denain some of us received a Red Cross Parcel, which did more harm than good, and the poor fellows without one were to be pitied.
In December 1917, we were taken to Friedrichsfeld in Germany, and on our way had very little food, a small bit of bread and two soups in three days. One night when entering a station the train ran into a dead end in the line, causing a lot of damage to some of the cars, and I noticed men being carried away on stretchers and as some were killed. On arrival at Friedrichsfeld we were kept outside the camp while being searched, and any man possessing boots had to