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[Page 7]
I was particularly struck by the physique and soldierly aspect of my captors. That night I was carried into Bapaume, my wound dressed by a Doctor, and taking my turn with the German wounded - despatched in a horse ambulance to some advanced dressing station, resting some four or five hours and then on to still another dressing station, another rest and then I was taken to a field hospital ~ arriving there in the early hours of the morning of the second night of my captivity. At this hospital I received my first warm drink, was offered food, and was put into bed clothed in the night-shirt that is worn in the german hospital, I lay in this particular hospital for a month - going sometimes five days without a wash, eating food that was unpalatable through sheer hunger, lying in a bed that was infested with those wretched "chats", Next I was moved to Cambrai - remaining there a week. On the second night of my arrival we were visited by some of the allied flying men - all the hospital lights were switched off and the orderly left the ward for better shelter. One of the milder invalids by way of a "Jock", whilst pandemonium reigned in the hospital, knowing the whereabouts of the pantry, lost no time in lifting the contents consisting of a couple of loaves and a supply of "marmalade, in which the remainder of the ward (about fifteen or twenty English prisoners) afterwards shared.
I had now been five weeks without a bath and was still wearing the same night-shirt. All dressings here -no matter how serious - were done without anaesthetic, and it used to be particularly cheerful to hear the yells of poor devils going to the small operating theatre at the end of the ward to have their wounds dressed. The german Doctors that I had met so far didn't go out of their way to treat us with any kindness and yet they were not actually cruel. Nursing Sisters were conspicuous by their absence, and the average male orderly - if he had the chance - would take you down for what he could of your scanty ration of bread, I was luck/y enough to have the money (some ninety francs) that was taken from me when I was first taken prisoner returned to me amongst my other personal effects, but even then it was impossible to purchase from the orderlies anything more than a comb and a small piece of soap, these I obtained from an orderly that changed my french money to german marks (paper money) and kept ten marks for his trouble.