Quick explanation for this blog entry ... The website where I previously hosted the complete interview transcript with Walter Hitchcock / Great-grandad (as recorded by my parents), is going offline. The transcript is reproduced here for reference.
The next update to this blog will be published shortly and will cover the Battle of Loos, and WH's part in it ...
CQMS Walter Hitchcock
Royal West Surrey, The Queens Royal Regiment, 8th Platoon (B-Company)
"Facts are mere accessories to the truth, and we do not invite to our hearth the guest who can only remind us that on such a day we suffered calamity. Still less welcome is he who would make a Roman holiday of our misfortunes. Exaggeration of what was monstrous is quickly recognised as a sign of egotism, and that contrarious symptom of the same disease which pretends that what is accepted as monstrous was really little more than normal is equally unwelcome."
What follows is an interview between my parents, Pam and Charles Duddridge (recorded as Interviewer 1 (I1) and Interviewer 2 (I2) respectively) and my Great-grandfather, Walter Hitchcock. The interview took place sometime in the early 1970's.
There are more commas than you would normally expect in the text, this is to symbolise where my Great-grandfather paused momentarily whilst speaking.
Question marks are situated where the quality of the tape has deteriorated and the best-guess at what was recorded has been made.
WH: So this records silently does it?
I2: Yes, it doesn't make a noise. It, erm, it's going all the time - it's got its own microphone built into the radio.
I1: When did you go to Shoreham then?
WH: We joined up at the - and I must get this right so I don't have to 'erm' and 'ah' directly - we joined up on September the 25th at Guildford and from Guildford we then went to Shoreham and went into a tented camp and that was the start.
I1: Why did you join up? How did you join up? Did someone suggest that you should join?
WH: Suggestions weren't actually made, but prior to this a Territorial army was in operation and nearly everybody on the Denbies estate was in the Territorial Army. I wasn't, but the war broke out in August and quite honestly I wanted to go. You know I think quite honestly most young fellows thought that it wouldn't be a bad job, but I wanted to go so I just gave my notice in and I don't mind telling you one thing, old Swann was bailiff at the time and I went in the middle of the week. My pay at that moment was a pound a week and damned if he didn't stop me ten bob. But Lord Ashcombe bounced that and when I went to see him he gave me a half sovereign, it was a golden half sovereign. It made it up really but I never forgave old Swann for stopping me half a weeks pay.
I1: And you were actually and Denbies then?
WH: I was working on the estate, I was the gamekeeper.
I1: So you enlisted at Guildford and then went to Shoreham?
WH: Went to Shoreham, that's right, and I trained in Shoreham for a time. The rain, we had so much rain that it washed us out of the town. We went into billets in Worthing, I got a rotten billet, some of these blokes got billets and they used to say "Oh we had bacon and eggs for breakfast and we had this, that and the other", you know, and the old woman that I was billeted with - it was corned beef and bread and butter and skilly, you know, and, er, we got there - she reckoned that her old man was running about after her niece. He was deaf and she used to go, "yah, yah, yah, yah, yah" up in front of his face. I protested, but "that's all right" she said, "that's all right", he doesn't take any notice. However, I asked the Quarter master sergeant, I said "look, I'm not very happy with this, do you reckon you could get me into another billet?". I was green, very green.
I1: How old were you?
WH: Erm, twenty, twenty-one, but of course I'd lived in the middle of a wood all me life, I'd had no association with other people, you know, I was like a little animal, if you like!
I1: (laughing) Surely you weren't?
WH: No! To a very large extent. I had very little association with other people. I was a lance-corporal now. He gave me the name of this billet but he said "There's four of you in that billet and two of them are Irishmen and the landlady says they're coming home drunk every Saturday night. I'd like you to go up there and take charge of them." I thought, (laughing) oh blimey, and I tell you what, they was drunk, and they used to sing a song (sings)
"And the small bird was singing in the branches,I remember that they used to sing it, and the only livening up factor there was they had a very good daughter there. Now while I was there I contracted chicken pox, and both the old woman - well, she wasn't an old woman, a young woman - (laughing) well I was stuck to me bed, so I couldn't chase round me bed, otherwise I don't know where I would have been with them! (more laughter). Well, from there we then went up to Reigate, marched to Reigate...
The ivy and the myrlte were in bloom,
And the sun on the hills it were a-dawning,
And that's where I laid her in the dew."
I1: Marched to Reigate! From Shoreham!
I2: How long did that take, for heavens sake? A couple of days was it?
WH: No, one day, one day. And we went into billets in Reigate and I think we were there, two, three weeks or a month and then - you can understand now, time was getting on. We'd got into 1915 now and then, we went from there, from there back to Shoreham, and from Shoreham we marched to Blackdown. Now that took us two days. The first day we marched from Shoreham to Guildford, and then from Guildford to Blackdown. That would be, I can't recall exactly, it was very hot, the middle of May I should think, May or early June.
And then we completed our training at Blackdown and from there, ultimately, we entrained, to go to France on the (pause and searching for documents) we went out to France in September, between the 15th and the 20th, and we marched, and we marched, and we marched, and the day before we actually went into action, we marched to a place called Bethune - if my memory's right - and we went into a field and the rain was pouring down. The Colonel said (impersonates upper class voice) "We shall be staying here for about four or five hours. You men must get some sleep. We shall be going into action tomorrow morning." and Jimmy Lang, a chap - I've got his photo somewhere - and I, we were both Sergeants at that time, and he put one ground sheet on the ground and we covered ourselves over with the other one and we lay down and tried to get some sleep.
I2: Is this place near Arras?
WH: Not far from Arras, that's right. We then, on the Saturday night, September 25th - it was very positive because I'd got my calendar - we marched into the line, and a lot of people had never seen a dead man. There was got soldiers were hanging on the wire, you know, where they had been killed the day before and hadn't been taken off. This barbed-wire was just in front of us. Well, we got into the trenches and we were told to make ourselves comfortable - I expect we got some food, I don't know - and we got over the top at ten o'clock. At ten o'clock in the morning, (mood brightens momentarily) it was a beautiful, beautiful day, it was a beautiful sunny day, it was September the 25th, 1915, and - erm, this is Loos, and we went over the top, and we went over in a line, as though we were going partridge shooting, and presently you'd see one go down, and we'd previously been told, of course "Under no circumstances must you stop if there's anybody wounded or", erm, "knocked down. Your job is to keep going."
I2: Could you see the German lines?
WH: No, no. Not at this particular place we couldn't.
I2: But they were some distance away?
WH: They were some distance away. Well, we marched, or we got in line, we were advancing on Hulluch, a place called Hulluch, coal mining area, and, erm, (sounds surprised) our Colonel got killed almost as soon as we went over the top. He got killed, I didn't know he had but I knew afterwards he was killed, there were a lot of the Officers got killed and we went on.
The platoon Sergeant was a chap named Len Sole and don't think I'm big headed but I didn't think much of him, to my mind he wasn't any good, I was, you see (laughter). However, we went on, and we kept going, all we knew was that this coal mining area around Hulluch was the place that we were trying to get to. Well, we got into a corn field. The sun was shinning down all round, well it was ten o'clock when we went over and by the time we got there it was half past eleven, twelve o'clock. So, I searched around, we'd got people on the right of us, we'd got people on the left of us, we'd got people in front of us, all from different companies, so I said "Well, we've got to do something.", so some said "Well, let's go back.", I said (concerned) "No! We don't go back. We'll wait here, we'll wait and see what happens." So we lay down in this cornfield until two o'clock, half past two I suppose - time, was, well...
I1: Easy to lose track of time?
WH: Then, up there, and up there, and up there, we saw the Germans come and mount machine guns, and then they opened up, on this cornfield. So that's when I said, "Look, everyone that can get back, go back", and back we went, and, the first battle was at Loos, where we suffered terribly, but I don't go much into that. Well, I and one or two others got into a trench back up the hill. At the top of the hill was an old tree, it was called 'Lone Tree'. Well, I got in this trench and it was full, of wounded, and most of them hadn't got any water, you know, it really took some sticking.
Now, I got back up the top and then I found remnants of our Battalion were there. Amongst them was a Major Fox who was our company commander, so I naturally went and reported to him and he said "Well look, I am glad to see you Sergeant, what we're doing, we're holding a line along here and" he says, "we're very, very weak". Then he said, "I've got six men there, they haven't got an NCO with them." so he said, "I want you to go and take charge of the section." I thought right. Well, I was worn out, so I went and I found them and of course it was two on, two off and two working. I sat down on the side of the trench , and, erm "Sergeant, Sergeant, they're coming up in front!" and I went and looked over the top of the trench and there you could see these blasted Germans, a whole line of them coming up to where we were. I sent one of the chaps off to report to Major Fox and he came down. He said "Have they moved far, Sergeant?" I said, "I don't know." so he said "Well shut your eyes for a minute will you?" and he says "Now have another look" and I had another look, and he says "do you know what they are?" he says, "they're barbed wire posts." There we are, but they weren't, they were alive, they were crawling up there, I mean to say that a lot of it was to do with the state you were in. I was like the other people, I was completely exhausted.
Well, we stopped there that night, and the next day they pulled us out and that was the worst night I've ever had in my life. It was cold, we had nowhere to lie down - I got under a GS wagon and tried to get some sleep - and then they marched us back, and we were reformed and we had reinforcements come in, then we went to a place called Messines.
At Messines we then had our first initiation into trench warfare. The Blackwatch were holding that particular line, we were put in to get a little idea of how to get on in the trenches. From there, we moved back to Ypres, we went all winter of 1915-16 in Ypres.
I1: What did you do at Christmas?
WH: I don't know whether it tells you, I don't know whether you've got a Christmas card in there or not (referring to a box of artefacts in the room).
I2: Here's one - 1916 there's one, nothing about 1915.
There is some rummaging about and questioning where the card could have gone.
I1: You didn't celebrate Christmas at all?
WH: Oh, blimey no! No, no.
I1: You were in Ypres all through the winter?
WH: All through the winter, that's right.
At this point he is obviously reading from something.
"...the first battle was Loos. The whole of the following winter being spent in the Ypres Salient, after serving at Messines with Lord Clemers (?) 2nd Army and still on the Somme, at Vemebre and Passchendaele during the great German attack of March 1918, distinguished itself in a fighting retreat towards Amiens, but after taking part in the final advance was disbanded around St Valenciennes (?) in 1919."
I1: It was 1918 when you were captured wasn't it?
WH: That's right.
I1: And that was near Amiens?
WH: Yes. "The casualties included four hundred and eighty-six (ninety-six?) Roymiants who were known to have been killed, in addition to twenty four thousand wounded, and six thousand missing" - of whom I was one. "The actual reinforcements during the war numbered fifty-thousand" - that was to the 24th division.
I2: Just one division?
WH: Just one division, yes. Then of course, from then on, I was taken prisoner in... there was two rather amusing incidents before I was taken prisoner, or one at any rate...
The one was, I went back off leave on March the 20th, which was the day of the German attack, so I wasn't in the initial attack, I joined the battalion on March 22nd. Now, from the 22nd we were fighting a rear guard action the whole of the time, and we were placed just outside Chaulnes - I can't remember the name of the place now - but we only had one officer, I was the senior chap and we had a very, very small contingent of men. So, however, on this particular night we had no food, we had no rations, so, I had a chap named Quantor who was one of the sort of fellers who would always get something. He said, "Look, Major" he said, "Can we go down the village and see if we can find anything?". I said "You may go down the village, certainly, but don't do anything in the way of looting. If you can find food, get it."
Well they came back with four chickens, some carrots, potatoes and they said "We could have got plenty of milk if we'd had anything to put it in, there were cows down there bellowing about and we couldn't milk 'em". So they set to work and they plucked these chickens, the three or four chaps we had there and we cooked two of them - God knows how they were cooked, I don't know, shove a stick through them and hold them over the fire - at any rate, carrots, potatoes and chicken, so we had quite a good meal. This was the day before I was wounded.
Well, on the day that I was wounded, the Germans - we were on a piece of sloping ground and the Germans were up there - they really opened up on us. Our instructions, my instructions, Major Peers had just been wounded, we were standing on top of the trench when they put some shells over, and I was in the bottom of the trench, quick! He stood there, and he broke his arm, so I said to him "Would you like me to send somebody back to the dressing station?" he said, "No, no. I want you to take a machine gun over to that cross-roads" this was after he was wounded, "if the Germans come down there, they've all got to come down that road." I said, "We haven't got a machine gun, and we haven't got a machine gunner, Sir." so he said, "Well, do the best you can". Nothing was done, I didn't do anything at all, there was nothing I could do.
So then we were told we were to hold this position. I looked to the right and I saw the Battalion there, or the company or whatever it was, was falling back. I looked to the left and I saw they were falling back, I said, "Come on chaps, it's time we retired" or words to that effect, I don't know what I said! We started to retire, some were in the open, I was in a sunken road - there are lots of them in France as you probably know. I was going down there when Germans opened up and it felt just as though somebody had given me a smack across the legs. Of course that was when I was hit. So I struggled along and went down, well then some of the chaps said, "Well, we haven't got a stretcher, Major" I said, that's all right, you just look after yourselves, and they put me in a trench on the side of the road. Well they hadn't been gone long when the Germans came.
I2: They were that close?
WH: They were what was called ground Scouts. The first two that came along, I could see 'em coming - incidentally, I had dropped a bit of my... I had a revolver, I got rid of that, and they had a look, and they - it was raining now - got a couple of waterproof sheets and covered over me, they threw me a haversack which had got some bread in it, and as luck would have it I had a flask in my pocket and they had a third of a pint full of rum - and that was worth a hundred pounds to me. So, I lay in this trench, and night came. Oh, prior to that, there were some South African soldiers and they said could they do anything and I said, "If you could send a message to my wife to say that I'm all right, I'm just merely wounded and I'll be all right." and they did, and she got the letter.
I2: Grandma got it did she?
WH: I wish she'd have kept it, she didn't.
I2: How long was it before...
WH: Oh, it wasn't long, very quick as a matter of fact. Then, I lay in this trench, and whenever I heard anybody I made a lot of noise and then in the middle of the night I could hear somebody marching down the middle of the road and it was a German in charge of about twenty or thirty English prisoners. So he stopped, and he came over and had a look, and he said, "Lift him out", and they lifted me out and they put me on the bank, and he said, "You must keep on squealing. You must keep on squealing." meaning to say I should keep on shouting. Then then just went away and left me, and our artillery opened up on that road and I've never been so frightened in all my life, you know. They were coming close to me and I thought 'Oh blimey, I've got as far as this and now I'm going to get it.' However, I didn't, and the next morning, or when it got light, or sometime later in the day an artillery formation came along and a young officer came over and had a look at me, and he could speak a few words of English, he gave me a drink of his schnapps out of his flask, and he said "Sanatap come", sanatap being the ambulance.
When the sanatap came, the first thing the bloke did was to try and take my rings. I'd got two rings, he took one of them orf, but he didn't get the other one. They picked me up, and took me down to a field dressing station and they dumped me in a room on a place where apples had been stored, you know, a rack, nothing under me, nothing over me.
I2: That wasn't very comfortable.
WH: Oh, my, it was agony. Not being a quiet sort of chap I drew attention to myself in any manner I could find, and eventually a doctor came and said "Was ist los?" and he told a couple of chaps to lift me onto the table, two of them put their hands under my arm and they got hold of my leg and they pulled us over, and I went "Uuurgh!" and then they strapped it up and then I felt more comfortable, in fact I felt comfortable, you know.
Well, afterwards they laid us out in the sun, and it was nice and sunny, so this would be.. about the last day of March, nearly the last day of March. Well, it was a beautiful sunny day and we lay there and somebody had covered me over with a German coat. In the pocket of this coat was a lump of something, well I thought it was food, so I stuck it in my mouth and had a good bite - and it was German soap! I can taste the ruddy stuff now.
Then a German doctor came round, he sort of looked round, he wasn't doing anything, well I made him understand that I was very hungry. "Ah, you English soldiers", he said, "you English soldiers, you waste our bread!" 'cos it was rye (dry?) bread you see, he said "you throw our bread away!" he said, "you will get some bread presently, and don't throw it away!" Well, it was sour, it was as sour as anything, but I ate it.
So, then from there they took us to what would be called an 'advanced dressing station'. The place was packed; there was British soldiers, there was Senegalese, anybody who was fighting the Germans, you know, the place was full of them, and we were on stretchers, and we lay there on stretchers 'till April 19th - that's when we went - but while we were there we got good food, we got plenty of food. The meat was horse flesh, but that didn't matter, it was good. There was plenty of it. And we got as lousy as coots, absolutely alive with lice.
Then on April 19th they then moved us by ambulances to Lazarus St Clements Metz and the ambulances had no rubber tyres, they had no rubber on them, and it was a wheel within a wheel, there was a wheel, and inside was clasp springs. Going over cobble stones you were jogged about, very uncomfortable.
They took us to Metz and we were taken upstairs - it was snowing.
I2: It was April, it was snowing?
WH: It was April 19th, it was snowing. Part of the place was a big hall where it was boarded, the other half it was concrete. Well I was one of the last out of the ambulances and I got dumped on the concrete and there we lay, like so many slaughtered animals - took every strip of clothes off us, we hadn't got a shred of clothes on - and then they used a kind of a pomade which they put over all the important place where lice would like to congregate, anywhere there was any sign of hair, that was dealt with, and then we were given white shirts and put into bed.
Then the next morning they took me down to the operations theatre and to put an extension, or a traction I think they call it, on my leg. They just drove a spike through the heel and tied a bit of string on each side and they put a box in the bed for that foot to go up against and this one had a sandbag, a twenty pound sand bag on a pulley over there - it was uncomfortable.
The bed on which I lay, I had Frenchmen on either side. I heard that there was an English chap in the ward - incidentally we were looked after in this ward, it was a huge great ward, fifty chaps, twenty five on either side, and we were looked after by two 'Sisters of Mercy' - so I again made noises, and I said "If there's an English chap down there, why can't he come up here?" and my noises were suitably translated and I got this chap to come and lie next to me. Mind you, he was badly wounded and he was illiterate, and also his hands were both wounded. He wanted to write, he wanted to be able to write to his girlfriend, so I said "I'll write for you if you like". So I got her name and a few details off him, and I wrote what I thought was a nice letter. He said, "I can't send this, she wouldn't understand this at all, it's no good me sending this." However, that was that.
Well, the first morning, in the Lazarus St. Clements, this hospital, they brought our breakfast round - our breakfast was, we had jam jars to drink out of, and they brought the coffee, and a third of a small Hovis loaf - it wasn't Hovis, it was a rye loaf, a third of a small loaf, which cut into about three, my kind of slices, so I tucked into that and I drank the coffee.
Well, diner time, I can't remember what we had that day but the diners were varied. One day we would get stewed mangolds, mangold wurzells cut into squares like pineapple chunks, another day we would get kartoffel, which was potatoes boiled in their skin, with everything attached to it that there was, another day we would get sauerkraut. That was the combinations, that was the midday meals. So I can't remember what it was we had on this first particular day, but whatever it was, I ate it, I usually eat everything I can get. Well that was all right, but then teatime came and they brought the coffee round, and we had a couple of Russian prisoners there was acting as orderly so I said, by dumb motions and talking, you know, I said "Essen? Food?", "Ah, nix comrade, nix comrade" I had 'essen' this morning, and that was for the day, you see! So I had no tea that day. After than I always cut it into small slices as soon as I got it. I had two for my breakfast and I kept two for my tea, and every second day we would have what they cal 'cartople', which was a kind of a marmalade - jam if you like - a desert spoonful every second day.
This went on, of course, I was kept in bed for quite a long time of course, the problem was to have a good wash and a shave. Before I went back, your Grandmother had given me a 'Gillette' razor. They were quite uncommon at that time, and they were in existence, and she gave me this, but after I was wounded I lost that, I hadn't got a razor. There was a chap, a walking patient in there - a Frenchman I think he was - and he would pull 'em out one at a time with an old razor he had - very painful it was. However, this of course went on and then eventually we started getting Red Cross parcels, which your Grandma organised with the Red Cross this way - they were anxious to send them, I don't know what she had to do, she had to do something towards it - and then we got the Red Cross parcels. Now, once we got the Red Cross parcels we could 'cock-a-snoot' at the Germans because they were so good; they'd be a bit of fat bacon, about quater of a pound I suppose, absolute fat, nothing else but fat, you could eat it like that, without cooking it - 'cos we weren't getting any fat, I mean to say, and then were was Quaker Oats, corned beef, in fact jolly good, a good parcel.
I1: How often did that come?
WH: They were supposed to come once a fortnight but of course they was very very uncertain. In fact one of the camps, they used to tip the lot out to see if there was anything hidden in them - not ours, I never had it happen to mine, but they did to some of the fellers. Well, this went on... April 19th... April... May... June... early July - I was walking then, fairly well, and I can't remember the date, it's a nuisance, but I can't - so then we were told that we were going to move.
Well, by this time I'd got little bits of clothing, I'd also got a variety of little things - it was surprising how you got hold of them and collect them you know - but I'd got nothing to put them in if we were going to move! I saw a chap with a kit bag, I said, "Where did you get your kit bag then?". He said, "It's up to you!". So I had a good look at it, and I thought, 'I can see', it was a wire mattress, and they'd covered it over with a canvass cover. So I took my knife and I turned my bed back when there was nobody about, and I (mumbles as though cutting) sewed it up - Grandma had sent me a 'housewife' by this time - 'housewife' as they called it in the Army - and I sewed it up, and I not only did that I put 'CQMS W Hitchcock 2311', or whatever it was, '2323', 'Eigth Battalion the Queens' bit of sting through it, and I'd got a kit bag! Well, when we came to move I thought, 'Well blimey, somebody's going to notice this'.
We were marched down from the Lazarus, we were marched from there, down to the station, and behind us, there was a German of course, and there was me, and two or three others with leg wounds, right at the rear of the column, and this German said "War will soon be over now." I looked behind, I said, "Well, what makes you think that?", he said, "Marshal Foch's now taken command of all the armies," he says, "and he'll soon finish the war". So I said, "Well how do you speak such good English then?". He said, "Well, before the war my Father had a watchmakers shop in London, and I used to go over there to help him." He says, "Do you know what they're telling us now? That we should pick the stinging nettles and eat them. They say they're good food." Well I'd got a little bit of chocolate, and he was talking about his daughter, so I offered him this bit of chocolate, and the tears rolled down his face. Honestly. He took this, and he thanked me as well as he was able to and he would take this home. I bet he got well received that night, when he did get home, I don't know when he got home.
From there we went to a camp called Darmstadt which was a very good camp. We were comfortable there. It was all Non-commissioned Officers, above the rank of Corporal.
I2: Is that in Germany? You'd gone into Germany from France.
WH: In Germany. Darmstadt. Anyone above the rank of Corporal could not be compelled to work under the Geneva convention. So nobody did any work. So we stopped at Darmstadt for a time, and there in the morning - we were in charboids, wire beds, three tiers - and a German would come in the morning, "Achtung!, Arouse!, Achtung! Arouse!" and if you weren't out then the bayonet came up through there and you got out a little bit quick!
Then from there we went to a camp called Giessen, still in Germany, and we had the same kind of treatment there, very similar.
From Giessen we went to Stralkowo which was up in Poland. It was a terrible place; cold. We used steal wood, as a matter of fact, in the particular camp there were a number of empty beds, and they were on boards, so I thought it would make good firewood. There were three of us at this time, there was a chap named Charlie Williams, and another chap - I've forgotten his name for the moment - we were formed a little party. So we took these bed boards and then we were suddenly told there was going to be a search, a search in the camp - Oh, Perry! That's the other one, Sergeant Major Perry - and these were under my bed. So I said "Look, I'm getting rid of this lot.". "You don't want to bother about that!" said Sergeant Major Perry. I said, "Well you take 'em then, you have 'em. under your bed, they're not going to find them under mine". We got away with that one all right, but they wouldn't let you have a fire, not if they could help it you see. If you had a fire you had a. - well of course there was only one German who was really looking round, you could do it - and that is where we manufactured a wonderful kind of stew. As I've said before, we used to have this 12 ounce tin of bully-beef and in the next camp joining us there were Russians and they used to go and work in the fields. They used to steal the potatoes and we were only divided by a barbed wire fence, you see, so if we'd got a little bit of tobacco, or anything like that, to offer these Russians, we could get some potatoes, so we then had got potatoes, and we'd got corned beef, the Germans used to grow some cabbages along a certain place where we used to go to have a bath, and that was in a semi circular place, so Charlie Williams said, "Look, get in the middle of the ring and when we get to where the cabbages are, nip out." He was nimble - he wasn't wounded in any shape or form - and when we got the a bend like this - we had a German in front of us and one behind us - this one behind us couldn't see what was happening, he was down there and off with a couple of cabbages! So we had cabbages, corned beef and potatoes mixed all up together and it makes a jolly good stew.
Time and time again we did that, I mean to say we didn't do it once, we did it time and time again.
From there - after a period in that camp - they then sent us up to Sprottau, which was another camp, also in Poland, which was another terrible place, and we were at Sprottau when the Armistice was signed, and there we were told we could go if we liked. Well, we were about fifty miles from anywhere, so we didn't 'like'. We stopped there and in that folder, there is a diary - I won't bore you with it now - but there is a long proclamation which the German's put up asking us to do this, and not do that, in other words to behave ourselves and do all the necessary chores which required doing and I made a copy of it - but you couldn't read it now, it's too long.
I2: So how long did you stay there after the Armistice had been signed?
WH: In that particular camp, about three weeks.
The list is found and there is some discussion whether it should be read out - eventually WH begins to read
"To the British: Special from the Council of Soldiers to the British prisoners at Sprottau." "Number Twenty: Formed by the revolution, the council of soldiers at this camp speaks to you and begs you to listen to him. Nearly all the unsteady column supports of the old government in Europe have been knocked down. Princes, and autocracy, have also come to an end in Germany. The big fire started in 1914 by the clash of the interests of the nations is subdued. However, to save the burning ashes and to keep alive all the strengths we had to pass into a new state of life, we are all civilised and thinking men will start their work again. We require your good will to keep order and discipline for the safeguard of all the prisoners in this camp. Their life and their health and order must be maintained and work must be carried out for the sake of hygiene. Small fatigues must be carried on as well as those needed in the bad season and the cold weather. The bake house and water fatigue and all the journeys required to bring coal or firewood must be carried on. Disorder will not accelerate the repatriation of the prisoners by one second. The maintainers of order in every way can only hasten the departure and even prisoners longing for his home will understand what it means. Hurrah for home. Hurrah for Peace. British, we have already addressed the French, but all nations of the camp should hear the same words; we hope that you members of a highly civilised people will hear and understand - we fight for the cause of liberty, for help in our task without work nothing can succeed. Without order, work comes to an end. Everyone must do his best in order to go home soon. Long Live New Germany, Long Live Britain, Long Live all people in the Society of Nations. Sprottau, November 20th, 1918. The Council of Soldiers of the Prisoners of War Camps."
I2: Was order maintained?
WH: Yes. We only had one slight upset, and that was when some of our fellows thought that the French were getting what you might call the cleaner jobs, and the British were doing some of the dirtier jobs. That was strongly objected to, and it nearly came to fighting. I was - I'm talking a lot about myself - but I was always for maintaining order. Even in a Prisoner of War camp and - not only me - but several of us did all we could to keep everybody smart and tidy as well as you were able to, so it really went on quite well.
This is a copy of a telegram of November the 22nd from the Holland Ambassador. "I am instructed by the British Government to request that the prisoners remain quiet and orderly until the arrangements which are being made by the German authorities in conjunction with the Netherlands and the Danish Governments for their repatriation for departure from the various camps are being completed. The arrangements are being accelerated as much as possible but will be greatly facilitated if the above instructions are followed. That was from some body Popard, Ministry of Holland.
I2: And how did you hear of the repatriation?
WH: We were in this camp and we heard one day that there a boat coming in - oh no, from there we went to Danzig.
I2: I see. How far away was that?
WH: Oh, as far as I can remember, I don't think more than a day.
I2: That was a walk, or...?
WH: No, no. We were transported.
I2: You were taken by lorry?
WH: Then at Danzig we heard, Charlie Williams and I heard that there was a boat coming in. We'd never done any work but we were quite prepared to do some work so we got down to the quay and it was all severely wounded prisoners that were taken on that boat. Then there was a lapse of a couple of days then we heard that another boat was coming in, so we went through the same procedure and got down there and they let the gangway of the boat down and there was two British soldiers, Charlie Williams and me, and we were up that gangway and on that boat! It was a Red Cross boat. (laughing) I never loose any opportunities, Pam. We were up on that boat and then they showed us to a cabin; bed, white sheets, oh it was lovely, and of course we had everything we wanted on there. When we got to the Kattegat, I believe that's the right way of pronouncing it, at any rate, then the boat took on a lot of clothing of all sorts; pants, vests, shirts, trousers and we then - see I had an old pair of French trousers at the time - we where then able to change all our clothes and get a clean set of clothes.
I2: Did Grandma know you were coming back then?
WH: No. We came across to Leith, Leith in Scotland, and from Leith I was able to send a telegram to say "Staying here tonight", I can't remember what I said, but we were staying there that night and home the next day. Sure enough, we got on a train and I came home, I got down to Boxhill Station after it got dark, and I'd still got my kit bag, and I came hobbling up, I wasn't very agile as you can understand, and I walked up from Boxhill Station.
I1: Up to where? To the Forts?
WH: To the Forts, to the Forts, and I believe your Grandma and your Auntie Florrie were looking out there somewhere or other and they saw some old man coming along, they thought, it was me, you see. (laughs) Well, there you are. That roughly is the story. There's a lot more I could add to it.
I1: When you were away, how did Grandma keep contact with you? How did she know? Did you write to her?
WH: She used to write to me whilst I was a prisoner.
I1: Well how did she know where you were?
WH: Well, in there you'll see a card. There is some searching.
I1: And you sent those to England did you? And you wrote to Grandma...
WH: Yes that's right. We had one envelope a month, I think, and then we used to have a field service card, just one or two things on it.
At this point there is small talk on the contents of the box for several minutes.
Tape ends.
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