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[Page 46]
Escape of Lieut. Commander Stoker
It was about this time early in 1916 that 3 Naval officers escaped. One was my O.C. Lieut. Commander Stoker late of AE 2. They left in disguise from Affion-karrhissar & were away 7 days.
They had almost reached the coast when unfortunately they fell in with a Turkish Police Guard.
They were arrested sent back to Constantinople & imprisoned with other Military Officers in Military Prison. Here the conditions were almost unbearably vile Many times they were asked for their Parole & were told they could have liberty & comfort if they gave their word not to try & escape.
They "stuck out" against such inducements for many months & it was only when they were in serious danger of losing their reason through weakness, vermin, poisoning & other refined methods of cruelty that they at last agreed.
From my own experience I can readily understand how weak & starving, emasculated prisoners, confined in a loathsome Turkish prison easily losing their mental balance.
The want of sleep on account of vermin; no exercise; no facilities for washing & purifying himself In fact the wonder is that many more didn't crack up.
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January 15th. Told that we would leave for Angora on 17th and would have to carry all our gear, clothing, pots and essentials; also that our official rations per man per day would be 1 small loaf of coarse bread. The roads were simply awful feet deep in mud, slush and snow. We knew we were in for a hard rough time and had to do about 20 miles per day under our heavy pack and our 1 loaf of bad bread so we killed our few chickens, saved what we couldn't eat and went to bed very depressed. We started at daybreak and by noon the next day many of the week wounded man were in a bad way. The mud clung closer than a brother to our boots and clothing. I must say here that Petty Officer Sims of E 7 and Sergeant Babister of Berkshire Yeomanry gave valuable assistance to the individuals in helping them along and generally cheering them up, both on this trip and the previous one. The public fountain water was frozen hard, and we had to eat snow. There was no timber and no fires. When we finished the 20 miles and arrived at our destination it was quite dark with a howling bitterly cold wind and we were very hungry, cold and set to the skin. Some of us found a shelter from the boisterous weather in cow sheds and stables which would have made the most casual European Sanitary inspector vomit to disgust. However we scraped away as much of the manure and
slimy mud as we could and soon slept from utter weariness in spite of all. There wasn't sufficient room for all of us in this first stopping place. I was amongst a number who were ordered to march another two miles further on to a small village- Tunai. The miseries of that awful night will never be forgotten. Forty (40) of us started off, dead tired, wet and nearly frozen. We were too ill to hurry to try and get warm. Moreover it was pitch dark and we were constantly falling into pools of water and mud. We were forced to "go slow". When we reached the village some were allowed to sleep in a shed. A few myself included, were taken to a small Turkish Mosque and in spite of the grain which covered the floor we immediately fell in to a sleep of exhaustion, too weary to take off our wet clothes and just able to appreciate
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