Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1919 — TELLS HORRORS OF HUN PRISONS [ARTICLE]

TELLS HORRORS OF HUN PRISONS

— 1 \'7r' r ~\~ r . j Operations Without Anesthetics One Method of Torturing British Officers. FED ON ERSATZ RATIONS Captain Gilliland Declare* Many Men Were Driven Mad by Confinement —Wounded Given No Medical Attention for Month*. New York. —Capt. Horace G. Gilliland. British officer and author, now In this country, tells a thrilling story of the cold-blooded treatment accorded him while a prisoner in Germany from October, 1914. until April, 1017, when he escaped. An officer iu the Loyal North Lancashire regiment of the British regular army, Captain Gilliland, landed in France on August 12, 1014, with the .first division of the British expeditionary force. He served with that •division until October when, at the first Ypres battle, in the La Bnssee ■engagement, he was - prisoner. 'His company bad been ordered; 370 strong, to hold a corner in front of La Bassee while the hard-pressed English withdrew before a numerically overpowering German force. They held for 22 hours, and, when the tmn In gray finally stormed, over the trenches held by the khaki-clad troops, there was piily Captain Gilliland and three enlisted men All four were desperately wounded. "We were ordered to the rear.” said Captain Gilliland, "and commenced crawling along as none of us could walk. Our captors were enraged at the resistance we had made against ♦hem and refused us Bed Cross aid. One of the men, unable to crawl fast enough on account of his wounds, was bayoneted by a German soldier a few feet in front of me. Before we got to La Bassee I had become separated from the other two men and I have never heard of them si nee. — Given No Medical Aid. **l was suffering from a bullet wonnd in the ankle and a serious shrapnel wound in the chest which had driven splinters of my ribs into my lungs. ~ln spite of my condition; I did not receive medical aid of any sort; In fact, it was a year and eight months before the Germans even examined my wounds. "From October until December 1 I was in prison in Lille, nnd then I was transported with a batch of other prisoners. British officers and men and French, both regular and colonials, to Munden. in Hanover. That trip, the men that went on it will never forget. "At Munden, which was not the worst prison camp I saw. I was placed In a room. 30 feet by 30. in company with 16 Russian officers, the idea being. you see, that British officers should not have even the small comfort of talking to their countrymen. "We were not allowed to read or to smoke, and man after man went mad. You cannot conceive of the hate that rises in your heart when you »re locked in like that, hate not only for your captors, but also for the men confined with you. I have seen men In my room go stark raving mad bejcause the walls of the room persisted ,tn being square. You can hardly realise that here, can you? “I kept trying to escape but was too weak with wounds,and scurvy. They ■gave me no medical attention, and the food was awful. , “Finally I got a letter home In a secret code that my mother sent to the foreign office and finally It reached the American embassy in Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted at pnee. His visit to Munden in April. ,1915. resulted In'our being transferred to Bishofswerda in Sasitiy, a fairly decent prison. Used No Anesthetic. "I was transferred half a dozen times after that until April, 1916, found me again at Bishofswerda. There the Swiss Red Cfoss commission saw me and ordered the Germans to give me medical attention. At this time I weighed about 103 pounds, where I had formerly weighed 195. "I was sent to a hospital in Dresden where a surgeon operated; taking

the hone splinters from my limgs. That. I think, was about the crudest experience I went through as a prisoner. Although there were plenty of anesthetics in that hospital .they re* fitted me any sort of relief. I was tied hand and foot on an operating tahle and for two hours and twenty minutes I lay there while that surgeon worked over me. I had a went*! breakdown when it was all over, but I don’t think you will wonder at that. I will say one tiling—the surgeon knew his business.” Captain Gilliland described how he was sent back to Bishofswerda to recuperate, where things were fairly easy for a few weeks until Roumauia declared war. “I finally escaped from a train with three other men,” Captain Gilliland said. "We leaped from the right-hand side of the car and the guards were unable to shoot at us on that account. We had previously cut the signal cord and they could not get the train stopped. We walked" 140 miles Th five days without food, and finally sneaked across the Dutch border. In getting j across the border German sentries killed two of my comrades and wounded the other.”