Shot
THE bath-house of Holzminden Kriegsgefangenerilager stood at some distance from the two main barracks of that prisoners' camp. It was a small one-storied out- house wherein, after much waiting on rare days, we were able to stand naked under tepid and improvised shower- baths : one of its sides lay flush with the inner wiring of the neutral zone," between which and a jutting corner' of the building was the only door of entrance; ThiS situation inspired the bright idea of escaping by" secreting oneself in the bath-hmise. . Not so easy, of course. Such places are inspected and. locked after use One must make a key, enter with one's our kit into the bath-house in the dusk which preceded our being, confined within barracks. There we were, the do-Or, 1oeked from within, and knew that we were safe for the_ night, since friends had contrived that our places should somehow be taken at the 10 p.m. roll:call in the barracks.
The time passed slowly. One could not talk, one could not laugh, one could not move about, one could not smoke since the flash of the match might be seen through the windows of the four walls. We lay out of sight on -the wet cement floor and waited. There was in, fact, a little whispering and bumping at one , time, and soon after a guard-patrol came. UP,. Per.ied and flashed, brother-pilgrims unobserved, dressed each in some kind. of mufti and bearing some kind of rucksack • heavily stocked with enough meagre food for the three weeks' trek to the frontier, maps to enable one to reach it, secret information as to how to cross it when one cutters efficient enough to cut a crawl-hole in the outer barrier. And getting -the wire-cutters was not easy.
Prisoners of war felt, in the majority of cases, :a -shame" at being prisoners. Of war ;_ at living; albeit in discomfort and difficulty; while' others were fighting and That is why so many of the " boW and arrow brigade-,", gallant soldiers raptured. very early in the • War, - and without having met the tank, the air:bomber, the Flam-• irienwerfer, the phosphorus-shell; poison.-gas; and other military refinement's of the" nations, were seriously afflicted in the mind after two or three years of - prison, and why 'various ExPeditionary Forces after the Armistice, in Russia and elsewhere,, were so nobly and so inefficiently officered by' ex-prisoners of A very. genuine inferiority complex. One felt that under such conditions a soldier's' One 'remaining duty was "to escape.. (Except, of course, the- people in Blankeiiberg Carrip, which offered comfortable conditions to those who gaVe their standing parole: they were commonly Spoken of as the- " Kaiser's -Own.") 'Prisoners desired to escape: They could not escape without preparation and- equip- ment, and such material as Was available most meticulously -reserved by its fortunate owners. They reserved it more 'to *preserve therewith 'their own- self respect than for any other. reason—so as to be ready if an occasion for escape presented itself.' In - Holiminden" Lager opportunities for escape did not ever offer them- selves ; - they had to be made, 'and there were whose self-respect demanded more ' than the concealing until the Armistice of the proviSional paraphernalia. ' such was Lieutenant Medlicott,- the wizard 'of escapers, who was shot in the back On aboilt his- seventeenth: escape and who did not receive the - posthumous V.C. which he had - so richly earned: We needed putty to take a mould of the keyhole . putty was not forthcoming. Masticated 'black bread was used in- its stead by hands apparently emptoYed in that corner to shelter from the wind a match for lighting a pipe. The shape of the key was then plotted. White metal was necessary for melting down to cast the key remnants of a camp-coinage current in 'days before the Germans had got wise to this possible use -Of it. A sufficiency of such coins was at laSt collected, melted doWn in a shovel, poured into a mould hacked in a log of fuel; and . there was the rough dummy of the key, so short as to have no handle. ..A file . was needed for fashioning it : after prolonged negotiations and entreaties I obtained the loan of one and filed the shaft and head of the key. . Trial at the keyhole was necessary to deter- the due depth of the key-head. The 'key at last Via§ ready. - • .
It worked like Magic, and we. smuggled ourselves and . . .
I opened. the door and peered out. It was cold and so was I. By luck there was a heavy ground mist, like a yellow London fog, allowing only about fifteen yards' Visibility. That was all to the good, but it did not make the neutral zone look any more appetizing. It was a one of ploughed ground some yards deep, with a stout gire wall .about twelve feet high on its outer rim,, and a reat electric light on a pole flaring yellow but bright exactly opposite, some six yards from our door, at which point ended the beats of the two sentries left and right. ..I crawled out and wriggled face downwards to the wire, :where I lay muffled in khaki Balaclava scarf, gloves, and coat, my face on the ground, no flesh of me showing, While the sentry on the right stamped up to where I was and, to Jny Anormous• relief, turned about and went back again, Av last, momentarily quieted but with beating heart, I produced those pathetic .wire-cuttersa plutocrat's second hest. pair, extracted on my age-long beseeching frOm..the handle of..a tennis racquet. It proved almost O i iiisiple,to get them round the wire, which was about three-sixteenths, of an finch .thick when I had done so I gripped with convulsive force ; and nothing happened. The, two parts of it were loosely axledthat the cutting . ekes were far apart and gave no purchase on the wire : also, the thiiig was clumsy and quite blunt. I made a terrific effort, like that of an effeminate dentist on a "X • cuspidated molar, till my fingers grew all hurt and twisted, and fast of all—ping !--the wire broke.
A clear bell4ike sound flt. to. waken. the dead ! I lay petrified; listening ; but apparently no one had heard. I repeated the paieei.i. The sentry on the right thereon marched up and, incredibly, went back again. I wept on' breaking the wire. I do not know how many breaks I had made, probably six or seven out of a necessary Seventy, when I heard the sentry on the left saunter up *way.. I lay doggo, face to the ground, hands under me, 4nAriert khaki mass on the khakyish ground under the glare of the electrie light. Nightmarish slow he came to the light and he stopped. I felt his rifle go up to. his shoulder and aim deliberately at me. I felt it was hardly sr tfiHK, for I was a " sitter," harmless carrion on the flOoi at leas than thrne yards' range, abSolutely unable to get away. He was aiming, there was no question about that.
My whole past life did not flash before me. Nothing flashed before me. I think I was perVaded by an immense and confused pity for those who loved me and would learn in some weeks' time that I was dead (mixed I haVe no 'doUbt with a vague pity for myself, so much undone rind never would be done now) ; but of that "cannot now be certain. That was no new feeling, and it was not the first time I had been killed : on a previous occasion -I had been most officially seen and reported to be indubit- ably and quite seriously killed, and an old lady who. took torches through the windows, -and tried the door, very sniffy. have still a lffigering suspicion that they had a pretty shrewd idea we were there, though I cannot sub- stantiate it; After that I slept, if I remember aright, for i considerable time.
At about- one in the morning we put on our kit and prepared for action. Each of us wished the privilege and nominal honour of going out first to cut the wire, con- sidered a ,somewhat precarious job, but I claimed that it was .all my scheme, and the map and the key my work, 'lind declared that I was therefore entitled to go out first, it being manifest that if the thing succeeded at all the First man through. had every chance of getting away,. while the noise of his scaling the wall or the open hole in the wire might be noticed and so deprive the others of any chance at all. a necktie from my home and carried it to a medium (the famous medium of-the ". Raymond" saga) received the' solemn answer, Yes ; the •boy is dead. I see him standing behind your right shoulder. He bids you be of good cheer and says that he is happy."
Well, I was full of indistinct pities, and rationalizing against all reason that the sentry would turn round and go back. • Prock !
Sudden relief that the suspense was over—heave of my, body to the right under the violent kick of the bullet, which had clearly transpierced my chest—surprise that it didn't hurt so much—a fixed idea, " Lie still ! Or he'll shoot again ! " Dead. Quite dead.
Well, dying.
The whole Kommendantur guard turned out. It seemed to me that there was an awed (and somewhat unexpected) hush on their part in the presence of death. After the necessary aeon had passed for this hush to be duly communicated to that damned sentry so that I could at last feel pretty sure that he wouldn't fire• again, I turned my head over my right shoulder and said : " Kann ich jetzt aufstehen ? "
There was a roar of laughter, in which I joined. And so 'to the guard-room, with kicks and. bayonet prods behind, for long and wearisome search and examination of me and my comrades, who were unearthed later.
All because I used to box and had learnt that one could cover both the face and the " wind " by the fore- arms held parallel in front from the face to the belly ; I had instinctively adopted this attitude as I lay frightened, with the result that my chest was lifted two or three inches clear of the ground and the bullet entered under my left armpit, passed through the sleeve, blew out the whole front of my clothes, and caused a slight wound to my right wrist before burying itself in the ground. That was all.
ARTHUR VIVIAN.
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