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[Page 12]
of Prisoners, and had obtained all the information possible, we were taken through fumigating rooms and given a bath.. The orderlies of course were all prisoners, principally French, and made the water as warm as possible, and even managed to get a little soap for the first few to go through. Soap is one of Germany's scarce commodities, all the fat and grease having been converted to food stuffs, largely for Margarine. We afterwards learnt that for a small piece of soap a German, if he thought no one else would get to hear of it, would grant one almost any favour in his power
CHAPTER IV
An Introduction to War Prisoners
Fumigation and baths over, we were allotted our huts. These were built principally of wood, and contained double decked stretchers, consisting of a wooden frame covered with cocoanut matting for sleeping purposes, each frame containing space for two men, and accommodating 120 men of all Nationalities to a hut.
By this time our most serious thought was of our dinner, and what it would prove to be. Previous to entering the huts, we were paraded by the quartermaster and issued with a bowl, spoon and two blankets, these latter could be used as pocket handkerchiefs without any trouble at all, and the spoons were dirtier & more rusty than our entrenching tools we had lost.
Dinner was brought to us by two of the boys who undertook orderly duty and so avoid working for "Fritz". It was an awful thing to realise one was powerless to "carry on", and in addition came the heart breaking order that you must work for the enemy against whom one would naturally rather fight, and if any of the boys could get a chance of working for brothers in distress, of course they would jump at the chance, and so relieve their conscience by the fact that they at least were not doing anything to benefit "the Hun".
Our dinner consisted of water and a few pieces of mangelwurzel, mainly water, but anything was welcome that promised to satisfy hunger, and we drank it. For tea we received another dish of the same condiments, or a drink of tea or so-called cocoa. That was our first day's rations, and it made us wonder and speculate as to how long we would exist on such rations: but in the same compound as we were there were quite a number of French Prisoners who were already receiving parcels from home, and they would share with us some of their German rations. I have often stood and watched Portugese Prisoners eating their watery soup in the hope that they would not eat it all, and was glad enough to eat anything of any description that they did not require themselves, a sure sign when a man is in dire straights for something to eat.
The British Prisoners also would send us as much of their Hun rations as they could possibly spare, but amongst 500 it was not a great deal, and one would often "fall in" in the queue to see the last drop given out just before he got there. Of course under these